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Urban digital twins (UDTs) have been identified as a potential technology to achieve digital transformative positive urban change through landscape architecture and urban planning. However, how this new technology will influence community resilience and adaptation planning is currently unclear. This article: (1) offers a scoping review of existing studies constructing UDTs, (2) identifies challenges and opportunities of UDT technologies for community adaptation planning, and (3) develops a conceptual framework of UDTs for community infrastructure resilience. This article highlights the need for integrating multi-agent interactions, artificial intelligence, and coupled natural–physical–social systems into a human-centered UDTs framework to improve community infrastructure resilience.
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This content will become publicly available on October 29, 2026
Urban Synthetic Data for Whom? Shifting the Focus from Objects to People
Urban synthetic data has emerged as a transformative tool for planning research, yet its full potential remains constrained by an overwhelming focus on physical spaces and object recognition. Current digital twin analysis prioritizes built environments over human interactions, while privacy concerns in social media-based behavioral studies limit reproducibility. This commentary argues for a paradigm shift—one that integrates human vibrancy into urban synthetic data approaches to foster human-centered digital twins. By addressing key challenges of privacy, reproducibility, and technical feasibility, human-centered synthetic data can redefine urban informatics, bridging the gap between digital representations and lived urban experiences.
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- PAR ID:
- 10689266
- Publisher / Repository:
- SAGE
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Planning Education and Research
- ISSN:
- 0739-456X
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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