Digital twinning of civil infrastructures: Current state of model architectures, interoperability solutions, and future prospects

The potential of using Digital Twins within the context of civil infrastructures has prompted a focus on infrastructure digital twins (IDTs). Despite some attempts to provide an overview of IDT knowledge domains, no specific study has focused on the inner structure and components of IDTs. This paper attempts to address this gap by taking a deeper look into IDTs architecture through a combination of qualitative and quantitative analyses of 85 studies between 2012 and 2022. The content analysis combined with network analysis theories enabled us to examine different IDT architectures, twinning technologies, and interoperability solutions. The findings were synthesized to demonstrate the evolution map of IDT structure in four maturity levels. This paper can facilitate the adoption of IDTs in the AEC industry by illustrating a detailed picture of IDT structure to practitioners and researchers as well as insight into how recent technologies can enhance IDTs models in the future.