In a new paper with my colleague Vasilis Naserentin, Modeling and Simulating Cities with Digital Twins, we present an overview of our lessons learned so far in building digital twins of cities based on mathematical modeling and simulation at the Digital Twin Cities Centre.
We propose the following definition of what constitutes a Digital Twin:
A Digital Twin is a model of a physical system that mirrors the physical system in real time and enables analysis and prediction of the physical system
This highlights the two main use cases of a Digital Twin: Analysis, enabling operation & maintenance and Prediction, enabling planning & development. In addition, a main use case of a Digital Twin is for Communication.
We also highlight three main challenges we have encountered in building Digital Twins of Cities:
- Data ownership across organizations
- Data quality across disciplines
- Data sustainability across time
For more details, read the paper in GIM International.