Digital Twins for Sustainable Cities and Infrastructure
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Urban and Rural Development".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 10 May 2027 | Viewed by 17
Special Issue Editors
Interests: structure and infrastructure resilience modelling; multi-hazard and climate risk assessment at urban scale and for critical infrastructures; sensor-based structural health monitoring for predictive maintenance and rapid response; co-created GIS-based dashboards and decision-support systems; smart energy systems and urban energy integration; digital twin applications for sustainable cities
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: data science; artificial intelligence; machine learning; large-scale data management; mathematical models; energy efficiency and sustainable data center; digital twin technologies; ICT for energy and sustainability, distributed systems and advanced computing infrastructures; high-performance computing (HPC)
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: smart cities; smart communities; data model; interoperability; minimum standard of innovation; energy efficacy; platform for public infrastructures
Interests: digital cultural heritage; integration of 3D models and GIS data; digital twins for cultural heritage preservation; interoperable ICT infrastructures, and FAIR approaches for the documentation, study, and enhancement of cultural heritage
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
This Special Issue explores the transformative role played by digital twin (DT) technologies in the design, operation, and maintenance of sustainable and resilient infrastructure and urban environments. As cities and territories face growing pressures from climate change, rapid urbanisation, and resource constraints, digital twins provide dynamic, data-driven tools for the real-time monitoring, predictive modelling, and simulation of urban and infrastructural processes, thereby supporting better informed, more adaptive, and sustainability-oriented decision-making, while enabling participatory and human-centred approaches.
By bringing together cutting-edge research, this Special Issue aims to bridge the gap between DT-enabling technologies, including IoT, AI, and big data, and actionable sustainability and resilience goals, in order to advance more sustainable, just, and resilient cities, together with the infrastructures that support their essential functions and services.
This collection invites contributions that demonstrate how digital twin technologies can accelerate the transition towards sustainable, resilient, smart, climate-neutral, and human-centric communities, infrastructures, and cities.
Key themes include, among others:
- Urban Digital Twins (UDTs): Advanced methodologies and applications for city-scale planning, smart mobility, energy optimisation, and urban performance assessment, including photovoltaics assessment and decision-support tools for more sustainable urban development, contributing in particular to SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) and SDG 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy).
- Digital Twins for Resilient Infrastructure: The application of DTs to predictive maintenance, lifecycle optimisation, structural health monitoring, and risk-informed management of civil infrastructure, contributing to SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure), SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), and SDG 13 (Climate Action).
- Digital Twins for Smart and Sustainable Energy Systems: Advanced DT applications for the monitoring, simulation, and optimisation of integrated energy systems, including smart grids, distributed renewable generation, energy storage, energy communities, and sector coupling, with the aim of improving efficiency, flexibility, resilience, and decarbonisation pathways. This theme contributes in particular to SDG 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy), SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure), SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), and SDG 13 (Climate Action).
- Digital Twins for Cultural Heritage: Innovative applications supporting the monitoring, conservation, adaptive reuse, and resilience of cultural heritage assets and historic urban environments, contributing primarily to SDG 11.4 on safeguarding the world’s cultural and natural heritage, while also supporting SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure) and SDG 13 (Climate Action).
Dr. Sonia Giovinazzi
Dr. Marta Chinnici
Dr. Laura Blaso
Dr. Marialuisa Mongelli
Guest 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 special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
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. Sustainability 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 2400 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
- digital twin (DT)
- urban digital twin (UDT)
- smart and resilient cities
- digital sustainable and infrastructure
- smart energy system
- IoT (internet of things)
- artificial Intelligence (AI)
- big data analytics
- interoperability
- predictive modelling
- data-driven decision making
- circular economy and lifecycle optimisation
- structural health monitoring
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