Charleston, SC and Washington DC Fighting Climate Change with Augmented Reality

On September 25, Charleston and Washington DC, along with inCitu, an AR company that helps cities and companies visualize future physical developments, will unveil collaborations to help sell in their city planning agendas. inCitu creates cities’ development projects in AR so that civic leaders, opposition leaders, residents and funders can see various concepts overlaid on existing streets and cityscapes. It’s is proving incredibly useful in transforming city infrastructure (think seawalls, piers, train stations) that might normally get mired in lengthy red tape or never see the light of day.

In beautiful, historic Charleston, there’s a major initiative under way to transform the future infrastructure (e.g. pier, seawall) to protect the City from flooding. It’s been met with lively debate from those citizens who care about how it will appear. Using inCitu’s AR, constituents are able to scan a QR code on their phone to see designs and weigh in. The ‘digital twin’ of the development areas lets residents envision the future and fosters better collaboration about pier development.

“People assume the worst until they have an opportunity to view the beautiful possibilities with their own eyes. The community can take out their phones and see three designs – they care about the aesthetics as well as climate change. This is a tool to bring together diverse groups so citizens have a direct way to be involved in the city conversation. It also proves that Charleston has the ability to be a center of innovation.” said one Charleston civic leader.

“City planning is too slow, obscure, and expensive for the pace of development required in cities today”, says Dana Chermesh-Reshef, Founder & CEO of inCitu. “Facing climate change, severe housing shortage, public health threats, mass urbanization and major geo-political shifts, cities worldwide must adapt fast and effectively, but the obsolete systems prevent equity in the design and decision making process, leading to a lack of trust, collaboration and inclusivity amongst residents and industry professionals”. 

inCitu allows anyone to see and explore how their neighborhood is changing around them, in real scale. They turn massive piles of messy data and archaic systems into beautiful, informative, accurate visualizations of future skylines and buildings, and provide that data to technology companies as well. Obsessed with lowering the friction for city dwellers to access future development information, all of inCitu’s information – from individual buildings, affordable housing, mixed use developments, through parks and bridges and to complete neighborhood rezoning and regional infrastructure – are available via mobile-AR, with no headsets or special devices required.

The company recently unveiled a real under-review Midtown Manhattan development proposal, making it the most visible planning proposal in the history of city planning and the world’s largest Wildlife Crossing is now accessible in AR to all Los Angeles neighbors and visitors throughout its construction.

Also if it’s helpful, HERE is a short video of one of inCitu’s venture capitalist, Oliver Libby, talking about infrastructure-tech being really innovative and exciting.