Leveraging Digital Twin to achieve healthy built environments: A systematic review

Source abstract

Digital Twin (DTw) technology creates a virtual representation of a physical environment, wherein data exchange between the physical and virtual domains supports performance-based decision-making such as targeting healthier built environments. Despite its growing adoption, how existing academic research operationalizes DTw to achieve healthy built environments has not been systematically synthesized. Adhering to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) framework, this study undertakes a review to examine the deployment of DTw in fostering healthier built environments. It delineates the health-related topics, spatial contexts, and core DTw layers evident in the selected literature. Based on the limitations and trends identified in the current literature, this review outlines several pivotal avenues for future investigation. These include: (1) direct human health data integration; (2) spatial context diversification; (3) advancement toward more reliable and real-time data processing; (4) deeper human-DTw integration; (5) AI-empowered DTw capabilities; and (6) evolution from Digital Models (DMs) or Digital Shadows (DSs) toward true DTws. These directions are expected to advance the development of more comprehensive and human-centric DTw for healthy built environments.