Digital built environment maturity model: Digital twins advancing smart infrastructure asset management

Abstract

Re-defined environmental, social, and economic outcomes are pushing the infrastructure industry increasingly towards advanced digitalisation. Increasing amount of information on the use, behaviour and performance of infrastructure assets enables better decision making and asset value management. Digitalisation enables more effective utilisation of existing assets, better design, selection, and delivery of new assets. Asset data can contribute to improving the value of an asset in its life-time, a citizens’ quality of life, and economic growth. Asset data is key for smart infrastructure management. Process and technology advancements enable the transformation of physical infrastructure into a smart infrastructure (digitally represented by digital twin) which may store the historical and real-time status of a physical counterpart. This paper targets methods, processes, and technologies which may be used to better capture, organise, analyse and understand the status and behaviour of infrastructure assets. Presented smart asset management maturity model will enable asset owners to introduce new methods of monitoring and decision making that may lead to the innovative smart infrastructure asset management.