IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v16y2024i19p8337-d1485608.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Review of Urban Digital Twins Integration, Challenges, and Future Directions in Smart City Development

Author

Listed:
  • Silvia Mazzetto

    (SALab Sustainable Architecture Lab, Department of Architecture, Prince Sultan University, Riyadh 11586, Saudi Arabia)

Abstract

This review paper explores Urban Digital Twins (UDTs) and their crucial role in developing smarter cities, focusing on making urban areas more sustainable and well-planned. The methodology adopted an extensive literature review across multiple academic databases related to UDTs in smart cities, sustainability, and urban environments, conducted by a bibliometric analysis using VOSviewer to identify key research trends and qualitative analysis through thematic categorization. This paper shows how UDTs can significantly change how cities are managed and planned by examining examples from cities like Singapore and Dubai. This study points out the main hurdles like gathering data, connecting systems, handling vast amounts of information, and making different technologies work together. It also sheds light on what is missing in current research, such as the need for solid rules for using UDTs effectively, better cooperation between various city systems, and a deeper look into how UDTs affect society. To address research gaps, this study highlights the necessity of interdisciplinary collaboration. It also calls for establishing comprehensive models, universal standards, and comparative studies among traditional and UDT methods. Finally, it encourages industry, policymakers, and academics to join forces in realizing sustainable, smart cities.

Suggested Citation

  • Silvia Mazzetto, 2024. "A Review of Urban Digital Twins Integration, Challenges, and Future Directions in Smart City Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(19), pages 1-33, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:19:p:8337-:d:1485608
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/19/8337/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/19/8337/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. M. R. Mahendrini Fernando Ariyachandra & Gayan Wedawatta, 2023. "Digital Twin Smart Cities for Disaster Risk Management: A Review of Evolving Concepts," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-25, August.
    2. Mahmoud Ibrahim & Anton Rassõlkin & Toomas Vaimann & Ants Kallaste, 2022. "Overview on Digital Twin for Autonomous Electrical Vehicles Propulsion Drive System," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(2), pages 1-16, January.
    3. Asfa Jamil & Chirag Padubidri & Savvas Karatsiolis & Indrajit Kalita & Aytac Guley & Andreas Kamilaris, 2024. "GAEA: A Country-Scale Geospatial Environmental Modelling Tool: Towards a Digital Twin for Real Estate," Progress in IS, in: Volker Wohlgemuth & Dieter Kranzlmüller & Maximilian Höb (ed.), Advances and New Trends in Environmental Informatics 2023, pages 177-199, Springer.
    4. Aravindi Samarakkody & Dilanthi Amaratunga & Richard Haigh, 2023. "Technological Innovations for Enhancing Disaster Resilience in Smart Cities: A Comprehensive Urban Scholar’s Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-22, August.
    5. Ebrahim Hamid Hussein Al-Qadami & Zahiraniza Mustaffa & Mohamed E. Al-Atroush, 2022. "Evaluation of the Pavement Geothermal Energy Harvesting Technologies towards Sustainability and Renewable Energy," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-26, February.
    6. Juhyun Lee & Julia Babcock & Thai Son Pham & Thu Hien Bui & Myounggu Kang, 2023. "Smart city as a social transition towards inclusive development through technology: a tale of four smart cities," International Journal of Urban Sciences, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(S1), pages 75-100, January.
    7. Michaela Kollarova & Tomas Granak & Stanislava Strelcova & Jozef Ristvej, 2023. "Conceptual Model of Key Aspects of Security and Privacy Protection in a Smart City in Slovakia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-19, April.
    8. Lazaroiu, George Cristian & Roscia, Mariacristina, 2012. "Definition methodology for the smart cities model," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 326-332.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Umar Farooq & Wasim Abbas & Faryal Chaudhry, 2025. "Multi-Criteria Decision Making and Graph Theory-Based Optimization of the Lahore Metro System: A Metric Dimension, VIKOR, and PROMETHEE Approach," Journal of Mathematics Research, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 17(1), pages 1-51, April.
    2. Vincenzo Barrile & Emanuela Genovese & Clemente Maesano & Sonia Calluso & Maurizio Pasquale Manti, 2025. "Developing an Urban Digital Twin for Environmental and Risk Assessment: A Case Study on Public Lighting and Hydrogeological Risk," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 17(3), pages 1-24, March.
    3. Doo Hong Lee & Brent Chamberlain & Hye Yeon Park, 2025. "Toward a Construct-Based Definition of Urban Green Space: A Literature Review of the Spatial Dimensions of Measurement, Methods, and Exposure," Land, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-37, March.
    4. Elisa Filippi & Antonello Aiello, 2024. "Barriers, Benefits, and Influential Factors of Adopting Earth Observation Satellite Data at Local and Regional Levels: The Case of the Italian LRAs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(1), pages 1-40, December.
    5. Haidar Hosamo & Silvia Mazzetto, 2024. "Data-Driven Ventilation and Energy Optimization in Smart Office Buildings: Insights from a High-Resolution Occupancy and Indoor Climate Dataset," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(1), pages 1-36, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fernando Almeida, 2023. "Prospects of Cybersecurity in Smart Cities," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-21, August.
    2. Pietro Stabile & Federico Ballo & Giorgio Previati & Giampiero Mastinu & Massimiliano Gobbi, 2023. "Eco-Driving Strategy Implementation for Ultra-Efficient Lightweight Electric Vehicles in Realistic Driving Scenarios," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(3), pages 1-19, January.
    3. Na Yeon An & Jung Hyun Yang & Eunyong Song & Sung-Ho Hwang & Hyung-Gi Byun & Sanguk Park, 2024. "Digital Twin-Based Hydrogen Refueling Station (HRS) Safety Model: CNN-Based Decision-Making and 3D Simulation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(21), pages 1-26, October.
    4. Shahid Nawaz Khan & Syed Ali Abbas Kazmi & Abdullah Altamimi & Zafar A. Khan & Mohammed A. Alghassab, 2022. "Smart Distribution Mechanisms—Part I: From the Perspectives of Planning," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-109, December.
    5. Sabina Baraniewicz-Kotasińska, 2022. "The Scandinavian Third Way as a Proposal for Sustainable Smart City Development—A Case Study of Aarhus City," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-24, March.
    6. Joshua Olusegun FAYOMI, 2016. "The place of the virtual workplaces in developing smart urban centres," Smart Cities International Conference (SCIC) Proceedings, Smart-EDU Hub, Faculty of Public Administration, National University of Political Studies & Public Administration, vol. 4, pages 196-205, November.
    7. Johannes Stübinger & Lucas Schneider, 2020. "Understanding Smart City—A Data-Driven Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(20), pages 1-23, October.
    8. Thanh Nguyen, Phong & Anh Nguyen, Thu & Huynh Tat Tran, Thang, 2021. "Barrier Factors Affecting Development of Intelligent Transport System Projects," MPRA Paper 112006, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 09 Dec 2021.
    9. Łukasz Brzeziński & Magdalena Krystyna Wyrwicka, 2022. "Fundamental Directions of the Development of the Smart Cities Concept and Solutions in Poland," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(21), pages 1-52, November.
    10. Oleg Golubchikov & Mary J. Thornbush, 2022. "Smart Cities as Hybrid Spaces of Governance: Beyond the Hard/Soft Dichotomy in Cyber-Urbanization," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-12, August.
    11. Magdalena Grebosz-Krawczyk, 2021. "Place branding (r)evolution: the management of the smart city’s brand," Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 17(1), pages 93-104, March.
    12. Renata Biadacz & Marek Biadacz, 2021. "Implementation of “Smart” Solutions and An Attempt to Measure Them: A Case Study of Czestochowa, Poland," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-28, September.
    13. Nielsen, Brita Fladvad & Baer, Daniela & Lindkvist, Carmel, 2019. "Identifying and supporting exploratory and exploitative models of innovation in municipal urban planning; key challenges from seven Norwegian energy ambitious neighborhood pilots," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 142-153.
    14. Margarida Rodrigues & Mário Franco, 2018. "Measuring the Performance in Creative Cities: Proposal of a Multidimensional Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-21, November.
    15. Izabela Jonek-Kowalska & Radosław Wolniak, 2022. "Sharing Economies’ Initiatives in Municipal Authorities’ Perspective: Research Evidence from Poland in the Context of Smart Cities’ Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-22, February.
    16. Mehtap ÇAKMAK BARSBAY & M. Kemal OKTEM, 2019. "Can we use waste generation as a smart indicator?," Smart Cities International Conference (SCIC) Proceedings, Smart-EDU Hub, Faculty of Public Administration, National University of Political Studies & Public Administration, vol. 7, pages 51-64, November.
    17. Nishimwe, Antoinette Marie Reine & Reiter, Sigrid, 2021. "Building heat consumption and heat demand assessment, characterization, and mapping on a regional scale: A case study of the Walloon building stock in Belgium," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    18. Justyna Patalas-Maliszewska & Hanna Łosyk & Jacek Newelski, 2021. "Modeling the Effectiveness of Intelligent Systems in Public Transport That Uses Low-Carbon Energy: A Case Study," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-13, May.
    19. Vittorio Astarita & Giuseppe Guido & Sina Shaffiee Haghshenas & Sami Shaffiee Haghshenas, 2024. "Risk Reduction in Transportation Systems: The Role of Digital Twins According to a Bibliometric-Based Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(8), pages 1-26, April.
    20. Muhammad Daud & Francesca Maria Ugliotti & Anna Osello, 2024. "Comprehensive Analysis of the Use of Web-GIS for Natural Hazard Management: A Systematic Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(10), pages 1-25, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:19:p:8337-:d:1485608. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.