Smart cities with digital twin systems for disaster management

SANTOS, RODRIGO; OCHOA, JUAN; OCHOA, SEBASTIAN; CARLOS CHESÑEVAR

Digital Twin and Blockchain for Sensor Networks in Smart Cities

Elsevier

Año: 2025;

Cities and their infrastructure, encompassing energy supply, water management, transportation, and telecommunications, are evolving into larger, more intricate systems. Simultaneously, the advent of climate change presents novel hurdles for urban populations globally, amplifying the risk of extreme events in densely populated regions. Consequently, enhanced strategies and emergency protocols are imperative for disaster management organizations.In the last years, digital twins have emerged as a powerful metaphor to simulate and evaluate the operation of essential urban services and different aspects of daily life. Digital twins can be also used to design, evaluate and evolve emergency response plans to deal with large urban emergencies, contributing to making our cities smarter and more resilient. This chapter explores the use of digital twin systems to deal with the preparedness and mitigation phases of extreme urban events. We provide an analysis of the different factors involved in characterizing these scenarios in the context of smart cities, identifying strengths, threats, weaknesses and opportunities for the adoption of digital twins.