How Bentley Software is Powering a $13.6M Smart City Revolution

• 7 February 2026
• Construction Focus
• 829 Views

The Al Madinah Region Development Authority (MDA) has been named a winner at the Bentley Year in Infrastructure (YII) awards for its groundbreaking Manarah Urban Data Platform (MUDP).

By integrating cutting-edge Bentley software, the MDA has successfully digitized the historic city, blending 1,400 years of heritage with a data-driven future aligned with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030.

The scale of the project is massive, covering 55 square kilometers of urban space and over 7,000 kilometers of roads. Traditionally, capturing such detailed data would take months, if not years. However, by utilizing Bentley iTwin Capture, the MDA mapped 6.6 square kilometers in just 16 days—a 43% increase in speed over conventional surveying methods.

This rapid data processing allowed the MDA to document 300,000+ building facades, verify 18,500 local businesses, and integrate 475 layers of geospatial data into a single, unified environment.

Besides, Bentley’s ecosystem allows for the seamless “management to visualization” pipeline. iTwin Capture Modeler, for instance, automatically generated high-resolution 3D models from drone and laser scans.

In the meantime, Orbit 3DM & Cesium provides the backbone for publishing this data, allowing more than 20 government departments to access real-time, 3D visualizations via the web.

The benefits of the software extend far beyond simple mapping. The high-fidelity models allowed the city to perform complex flood simulations for extreme weather and plan COVID-19 quarantine zones with surgical precision.

The data-driven insights also led to the planting of 150,000 trees and the preservation of 26 square kilometers of land from urban sprawl. Furthermore, the software fueled a $250 million heritage preservation initiative, ensuring that as the city expands to welcome 30 million annual pilgrims, its historic soul remains intact.

• Bentley Systems
• iTwin Capture