Urban Flooding Digital Twin System Framework

Digital twin-based resilience management systems are essential for improving urban flooding resilience, enabling lifecycle-oriented emergency management as a continuous process rather than discrete phases. However, to the best of our knowledge, currently, there lacks a system framework for supporting the development of an urban flooding digital twin (UFDT) platform capable of managing urban flooding events across the entire management lifecycle. This UFDT framework is required to (1) accommodate UFDT model-generation methods/tools for preparing what-if scenarios, (2) support readiness simulations and evaluations, (3) coordinate various collaborative prevention and intervention services from different stakeholders in response to any flooding emergence, and (4) monitor and forecast the flooding risks in the recovery phase. To fill this gap, in this paper, a new UFDT system framework is developed based on a user-centred product design process with the consideration of the above requirements. It has two key components: a UFDT conceptual model, and a generative methodology for its rapid construction/updating/adaptation to varying levels of detail. A framework prototype has been developed for testing the conceptual model at city, regional and street levels and exemplar generative methods/tools to assess the framework’s ability and potential to provide scalable, adaptable, and stakeholder-focused solutions to urban flooding resilience management[Q1].