LOUD has published the research results of " Advancing Intra and Inter-City Urban Digital Twins: An Updated Review " in the flagship journal JPER in the field of urban planning

The Shanghai Key Laboratory of Urban Design and Urban Science ( hereinafter referred to as " LOUD " ) published a paper entitled " Advancing Intra and Inter-City Urban Digital Twins : An Updated Review " in the Journal of Planning Education and Research.

With the acceleration of urbanization, modern cities are facing many challenges such as climate change, traffic congestion, and environmental pollution. Urban digital twin technology has attracted much attention as a systematic tool to deal with complex problems. However, the existing academic literature lacks consensus on its terms and definitions, the application effect has not been fully confirmed, and the lack of coordination in standardization efforts has limited its wide application and development. This paper uses the PRISMA review methodology to systematically review the academic literature in the field of urban digital twins over the past eight years. By collecting data from major academic databases, the information of more than 100 key literatures was screened and sorted out, and the latest progress in this field was comprehensively reviewed. This study defines the urban digital twin as an urban digital model with the necessary fidelity, synchronization, comprehensiveness, and interactivity.This paper also innovatively proposes to divide urban digital twins into domain digital twins, intra-city digital twins, and inter-city digital twins, highlighting the application level dimension that has often been neglected in previous studies. It describes the development process of urban digital twin model from solving a single city problem, to integrating multiple urban systems, and then to realizing inter-city interconnection. The analysis of application fields and use cases shows that the existing research focuses on single fields such as transportation, energy and hydrology, while the cross-domain digital twin within the city still has development potential. In order to solve the problem of vague terminology, we introduce the ' challenge triangle ' classification framework, which divides the challenges faced in the process of realizing urban digital twin into three aspects : science and technology, society and security, and introduces the latest progress and solutions of various challenges.Finally, we review the current research and practice efforts in the standardization of urban digital twins, as well as the potential of Metaverse and emerging technologies such as general artificial intelligence, such as large language models ( LLM ), in promoting the development of this field. This study provides a new perspective for solving the problems of vague concepts and unclear applications in the field of urban digital twins, emphasizes the importance of standardization and the application of emerging technologies, and provides an important reference for scientific urban management practice.

Wu Guangyu, a doctoral student in the author 's laboratory ( Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, New York University ), said that urban digital twin technology has great potential in urban scientific research and urban management. This study proposes to establish a comprehensive urban digital twin database, promote standardization and knowledge sharing, study cross-domain interaction mechanisms, and use systematic methods to classify and quantify research progress. In the follow-up research, he plans to explore the multi-faceted application of urban digital twin technology based on the three research directions of the key laboratory. For example, in the blue-green infrastructure planning, the design and layout of blue-green space are optimized in many fields such as comprehensive park planning and environmental protection, and the experience exchange and cooperation between cities are realized through model standardization.

Professor Chenghe Guan, the author of the article, said that urban digital twin is an important part of promoting urban digital transformation, and it is also the cornerstone of improving urban management efficiency, improving the quality of life of urban residents, and providing a future urban development system. In particular, the multi-dimensional digital system interconnection analysis of domain twins, urban internal twins, and cross-city twins is of great significance. This paper is published in Journal of Planning Education and Research, a flagship journal in the field of urban planning, which reflects the efforts of LOUD to further carry out urban research exchanges on the international cutting-edge academic platform.

Figure : The hierarchical relationship among domain digital twin, intra-city digital twin and cross-city digital twin.

Figure : Three types of challenges, main research directions and mutual influence in the development of urban digital twins

Reference

Wu, T. G., & Guan, C. (2024). Advancing Intra and Inter-City Urban Digital Twins: An Updated Review. Journal of Planning Education and Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/0739456X241260887