Civil Infrastructure Digital Twins: Multi-Level Knowledge Map, Research Gaps, and Future Directions

Digital Twins (DTs) have received considerable attention as an emerging technology in recent years, which can offer advantages for improving the performance of infrastructures. However, the inherent complexity of infrastructures alongside the nascent nature of digital twins in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry hinders the adoption of infrastructure digital twins (IDTs). The lack of common understanding among different stakeholders has been noted as one of the most significant roadblocks to implementing IDTs in practice. This study is a quantitative attempt to address this gap by providing different stakeholders with a multi-layer knowledge map by analyzing 139 identified IDTs in three levels of bibliometric and social network analyses. First, knowledge themes are extracted from the most-frequent journals to provide an overview of IDT knowledge. Second, a combination of co-citation analysis and social network theories illustrated six clusters of IDT knowledge and their relationships. Third, the co-occurrence network of keywords revealed where, why, and what enabling technologies have been employed so far. These findings were synthesized into a three-layer knowledge map to not only illustrate the maturity level and evolution potentials of each layer but also serve as a hierarchical strategic plan recommending future direction to decision-makers, researchers, and practitioners.