Barriers and drivers for the adoption of Digital Twins in resilience planning of buildings

With climate change impacts becoming more frequent and of higher magnitude, resilience planning in major buildings is being recognised as an essential mitigation tool. Digital Twin (DT) technology has recently emerged as an innovative technique for scenario simulation, asset monitoring and predictive maintenance. However, despite its promising potential, DT adoption in the construction sector is still limited in resilience planning of buildings. This study therefore set out to understand the existing barriers for the adoption of DT technology while also identifying potential enablers.

A qualitative approach was used, with semi-structured interviews conducted with twelve professionals from the building construction sector involved in projects with DT. Experts were from various geographical locations that included Mauritius, India, United Kingdom and Slovenia working in either engineering consultancy or real estate management firms. Thematic analysis was then undertaken to extract the much-needed insights on the challenges and drivers for DT adoption by first identifying codes before organizing them into themes which were then validated through member checking by the interviewees to ensure reliability.

Results showed that high upfront costs, absence of regulatory framework, lack of knowledge in DT, absence of data management systems and data security risks were major barriers for DT adoption in the building sector. However, findings revealed that organisations’ sustainability culture, lowering costs of new technologies, stakeholder collaboration, provision of legal frameworks and governmental incentives can serve as critical drivers of adoption.

The research findings offer practical recommendations for policymakers and construction industry stakeholders in order to move towards a greater uptake of DT for more effective resilience planning in buildings. Thus, the increased use of Digital Twin simulations and monitoring can ensure that buildings are better adapted to face disruptive events such as climate-related stresses and hence reduce downtime and lower maintenance costs.