The global proliferation of urban digital twin models compels a research agenda that investigates the intertwined social, political, and technical dimensions of their development, from design to use in planning and governance.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 digital issues and online access to articles
$119.00 per year
only $9.92 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on SpringerLink
- Instant access to the full article PDF.
USD 39.95
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References
Alva, P., Biljecki, F. & Stouffs, R. Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spatial Inf. Sci. XLVIII-4/W4-2022, 5–12 (2022).
Pan, H., Geertman, S. & Deal, B. Env. Planning B Urban Anal. City Sci. 47, 1317–1325 (2020).
Malleson, N., Franklin, R., Arribas-Bel, D., Cheng, T. & Birkin, M. Env. Planning B Urban Anal. City Sci. 51, 1181–1186 (2024).
Batty, M. Nat. Comp. Sci. 4, 192–199 (2024).
Wang, Z. in Industry 4.0—Impact on Intelligent Logistics and Manufacturing (ed. Bányai, T. & Petrillo, A. & De Felice, F.) https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.80974 (Intechopen, 2020).
Grieves, M. Virtually Perfect: Driving Innovative and Lean Products Through Product Lifecycle Management (Space Coast Press, 2011).
Lotfi-Jam, F. in The Routledge Handbook of Architecture, Urban Space and Politics Vol. I (eds Bobic, N. & Haghigi, F.) 479–495 (Routledge, 2022).
Masoumi, H., Shirowzhan, S., Eskandarpour, P. & Pettit, C. J. Big Earth Data 7, 1–36 (2023).
Charitonidou, M. Int. J. Architec. Comp. 20, 238–253 (2022).
Clemen, T. et al. Proc. 2021 ACM SIGSIM Conf. Principles Adv. Discrete Simul. 45–55 (Assoc. Comp. Machinery, 2021).
White, G., Zink, A., Codecá, L. & Clarke, S. Cities 110, 103064 (2021).
Dembski, F., Wössner, U., Letzgus, M., Ruddat, M. & Yamu, C. Sustainability 12, 2307 (2020).
Nochta, T., Wan, L., Schooling, J. M. & Parlikad, A. K. J. Urban Technol. 28, 263–287 (2021).
Iliadis, A. & Russo, F. Big Data Soc. 3, https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951716674238 (2016).
Foth, M. Smart Sustainable Built Env. 7, 4–19 (2018).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Peer review
Peer review information
Nature Cities thanks Viviana Angely Bastidas Melo and Soheil Sabri for their contribution to the peer review of this work.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ahn, C., Lotfi-Jam, F., Graham, C. et al. Critical urban informatics for urban digital twin models. Nat Cities 2, 114–116 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44284-024-00171-0
Published:
Version of record:
Issue date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44284-024-00171-0