Digital Twins for Smart Cities

Editors


E-Mail Website
Collection Editor
Department of Civil Engineering, Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto, ON, Canada
Interests: big geospatial data analytics; data mining and knowledge discovery; human mobility; spatio-temporal dynamics; citizen science; digital twins for smart cities
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Collection Editor
Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK
Interests: facilities management; community resilience; sociotechnical systems dynamics; constructability and dependability analysis; digital twins; decision intelligence; intelligent built environment
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Topical Collection Information

Dear Colleagues,

According to both the United Nations and the World Bank Group, more than half of the global population currently lives in urban areas. Driven by the rapid growth in the rate of urbanization, cities are determined to implement advanced socio-technological changes and economic-social development inside the dynamic natural environment. Therefore, the theory and technology of Smart City are adopted to prioritize the use of advanced technologies and systems to address long-standing challenges in urban development and regeneration. As a new multidisciplinary concept, Digital Twin City or Urban Digital Twin has been introduced to the technical and managerial domains of Smart Cities, and it adopts information and communication technology (ICT) to establish a large-scale multifunctional digital module of a city in order to represent the entire built environment within an urban area over the internet. Through a systematic integration of functional modules and layers about the city, a Digital Twin City can be a useful tool to enhance professional practices on planning, design, construction, operation, maintenance, and governance of cities under the sustainability agenda, in addition to their services to people.

Although there are initiatives on the development and use of Digital Twin City, the theory and practice of urban digital twins are still under development. This topical collection aims to explore not only the theoretical development but also capabilities build on urban digital twins with regard to their contributions to Smart Cities, and welcomes papers to enrich the body of knowledge on digital twins for smart cities.

Prof. Dr. Songnian Li
Dr. Zhen Chen
Collection Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the collection website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Smart Cities is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2000 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • 3D modeling
  • digital twin
  • Industry 5.0
  • Internet of Things (IoT)
  • machine learning
  • sensor
  • smart city
  • unban analytics
  • urban intelligence
  • urban management
  • urban ontology
  • urban policy
  • urban simulation
  • visualization

Published Papers (1 paper)

2024

22 pages, 1960 KiB  
Review
Digital Twin Technology in Built Environment: A Review of Applications, Capabilities and Challenges
by Yalda Mousavi, Zahra Gharineiat, Armin Agha Karimi, Kevin McDougall, Adriana Rossi and Sara Gonizzi Barsanti
Smart Cities 2024, 7(5), 2594-2615; https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities7050101 - 10 Sep 2024
Viewed by 1668
Abstract
Digital Twin (DT) technology is a pivotal innovation within the built environment industry, facilitating digital transformation through advanced data integration and analytics. DTs have demonstrated significant benefits in building design, construction, and asset management, including optimising lifecycle energy use, enhancing operational efficiency, enabling [...] Read more.
Digital Twin (DT) technology is a pivotal innovation within the built environment industry, facilitating digital transformation through advanced data integration and analytics. DTs have demonstrated significant benefits in building design, construction, and asset management, including optimising lifecycle energy use, enhancing operational efficiency, enabling predictive maintenance, and improving user adaptability. By integrating real-time data from IoT sensors with advanced analytics, DTs provide dynamic and actionable insights for better decision-making and resource management. Despite these promising benefits, several challenges impede the widespread adoption of DT technology, such as technological integration, data consistency, organisational adaptation, and cybersecurity concerns. Addressing these challenges requires interdisciplinary collaboration, standardisation of data formats, and the development of universal design and development platforms for DTs. This paper provides a comprehensive review of DT definitions, applications, capabilities, and challenges within the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industries. This paper provides important insights for researchers and professionals, helping them gain a more comprehensive and detailed view of DT. The findings also demonstrate the significant impact that DTs can have on this sector, contributing to advancing DT implementations and promoting sustainable and efficient building management practices. Ultimately, DT technology is set to revolutionise the AEC industries by enabling autonomous, data-driven decision-making and optimising building operations for enhanced productivity and performance. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop