The uptake of urban digital twins in the built environment: a pathway to resilient and sustainable cities

Abstract Urban Digital Twin (UDT) technology is increasingly recognised as a promising tool for designing and developing sustainable, resilient urban environments. Nonetheless, the current literature lacks a comprehensive understanding of UDTs’ current applications in the built environment. Therefore, this study addresses the identified gap by analysing scholarly literature and industry reports connected to UDT implementations. The results of scientometric analysis revealed five key research fields including: (i) UDT for urban monitoring and controlling, (ii) UDT for smart urban planning, (iii) UDT for environmental management, (iv) UDT for decision-making, and (v) UDT for smart and sustainable cities. Further, this study analysed 10 industry reports on UDT technology to identify practical insights and evaluate industry-driven approaches for implementing UDT solutions in urban environments. Despite promising progress, the findings indicate the absence of a clear, structured process to facilitate consistent implementation, scalability, and interoperability in UDT technology. This further highlights the need for globally recognised guidelines and well-defined KPIs to fully realise its potential in urban environments. The study also presents a new classification model developed from analysing the research flow to elaborate on the main outcomes from five clusters towards UDT pathways. The new proposed model reintroduces the structure of UDT literature with a new flow to interpret and correlate the content identified in previous studies. Based on these insights, the study offers recommendations to support the advancement of UDT technology for building resilient, sustainable cities.