A user-driven design approach towards developing a citizen-centric digital twin for maintaining urban infrastructure

Purpose – A citizen-centric digital twin (CCDT) is an open platform that allows citizens to interact with the digital twin environment and update the digital twin with infrastructure-related issues in real time. However, there is a dearth of studies on identifying the design requirements of a CCDT by considering citizen engagement capabilities. Hence, the current study explores how a CCDT can be designed to satisfy end-user/citizen requirements. Design/methodology/approach – The study followed a qualitative approach to obtain an in-depth understanding of the design requirements of a CCDT. Twenty interactive semi-structured interviews were carried out with subject matter experts selected using the purposive sampling method. A multiple-analysis framework incorporating content analysis, thematic analysis and comparative analysis was carried out to derive the study findings. Findings – The study proposed a framework to determine the design requirements of a CCDT. The study identified that within the broader scope of digital twin maturity levels and data privacy and security classification frameworks, design requirements for a CCDT can be identified under five key themes. These are enacting human trust on the platform, regulating human behaviour, accessibility and support services, resilience and fault tolerance and feedback management. The study provides a comprehensive understanding of how the design requirements should be utilised against the citizen-centric capabilities of a CCDT under these five key themes. Originality/value – The proposed framework diversifies from the other digital twin-related developments due to the unique features of CCDT. While the existing studies broadly considered design requirements within generic digital twins, this study revealed that a CCDT requires design requirements to ensure collaboration and empowerment of citizens.