Perspective Chapter: Roadmap to a Holistic Highway Digital Twin – A Why, How, and Why Framework

Abstract

The advent and spread of the COVID-19 pandemic shifted the world’s focus toward investing in social structure projects that would improve urbanization and enhance equity. This shift compiled with the emergence of innovative technologies namely Digital Twins, allowed for investigating new approaches for designing and delivering infrastructures, thus paving the road toward smarter infrastructures. Smart infrastructures achieved by connecting the physical aspect of the infrastructure with its digital aspect will allow for optimizing the performance of infrastructure systems by digitally enhancing the asset value and leveraging the value of asset data. Digital Twins can be applied to several civil infrastructure projects including the transportation sector. Also, Digital Twins can be implemented for different spatial scales, on a national level, on the level of the city, and for a network of assets. Few case studies described how to transfer a Digital Twin vision to practice; thus, this chapter presents the journey for a holistic Digital Twin for a highway system formed of a network of assets by discussing the Why, How, and What framework. A holistic highway Digital Twin will allow for cross-asset data analysis, conducting predictive and preventive maintenance, and efficient resource allocation based on data-driven decision-making.

Human-Centric Digital Twins in Industry: A Comprehensive Review of Enabling Technologies and Implementation Strategies

“…Although the concept of DTs originated in the aerospace industry, they can now be used for the digital representation of any complex system [6]. DTs have been employed in many traditional manufacturing areas, including metallurgy, machining, grinding, and hole punching [7].…”

Departments of Transportation Efforts to Digitize Ancillary Transportation Asset Data: A Step Toward Digital Twins

“…Ammar et al, and Ammar and Dadi emphasized that a successful implementation of the Digital Twins concept for transportation assets necessitates the identification of its purpose and its capabilities in leveraging the value of asset data and extracting actionable insights by integrating heterogeneous data captured from different sources, such as BIM, GIS, and asset data collected by intelligent transportation technologies such as sensing and imaging technologies (39,40). Also, Ammar et al discussed the transition of the vision of Digital Twins for highway systems to action (20). They emphasized the importance of improving the digital capacity of transportation organizations and having a full data digitization lifecycle from ''cradle to cradle'' by enhancing digital design and construction, digital operation, and digital data integration with users, understanding the asset data architecture, establishing data management plans, and develop or integrate data with existing management systems.…”

“…Even though the concept of Digital Twins in the infrastructure industry is not clear yet, there is an agreement on its elements, where some see that BIM models or 3D Computer Aided Design (CAD) models are related to the concept, while others believe that BIM and CAD models (not necessarily 3D models) are essential to the development of Digital Twins. However, all practitioners emphasized the importance of the flow of information between the physical and digital assets as a critical element of the Digital Twins definition ( 18 , 20 ). Table 2 presents different organizations’ and practitioners’ definitions of Digital Twins in the infrastructure industry.…”

“…The implementation of Digital Twins in the infrastructure industry was investigated at different spatial scales, such as the United Kingdom’s National Digital Twin (NDT) initiative ( 20 , 35 ). Also, its employment was explored on the city level to help with urban planning, such as Virtual Singapore and BRISE-Vienna ( 31 , 36 , 37 ).…”

“…An inconsistent definition of Digital Twins will lead people to reject the concept and consider it just hype, so, once the level of interest and use diminishes or reaches a plateau, the concept’s full potential will not be adopted ( 19 ). Thus, it is critical to bring more clarity to the definition of Digital Twins and awareness of their benefits to improve their adoption, set clear goals to achieve the digital transition, communicate cultural features, emphasize transparency and accountability, establish cultural risk management programs, and improve the overall working environment to attract labor ( 18 , 20 ).…”