Digital Twin ConOps as a Platform for Airport Master Planning

Airport master planning is a prediction of growth in an environmentally, operationally and physically constrained domain, which integrates reliable forecasting data with strategic business objectives in the form of phasing and land use criteria. It provides a holistic view for the short, middle and long-term development plans by mapping limitations and optioneering. This article presents digital twin (DT) concept of operations (ConOps) as a platform for drafting sustainable airport master planning framework. The idea is to have an identical twin that highlights infrastructure scalability issues and assets utilization capacity over a virtual engine, which ranges from augmented to extended reality features (AR/XR). The study assumes existence of geographical information system (GIS) geodatabase that collates data from the DT module. The GIS compares data from different sources viz. topographical surveys, as-built drawings and building information model (BIM) for ensuring consistency. The AR/XR network uses cameras, field devices and sensors for producing coordinates by virtue of industrial internet of things (IIoT) mesh. The federated model generated by DT architecture represents consolidated GIS stream with an overlay of baseline and projected requirements. The outcome is a superimposed layout that favorably validates the study hypothesis by visually displaying limitations, which may become problematic in the near future due to the provisioning of latest aviation tools and/or addition of new facilities etc., across an airport.