![Sample our Built Environment journals, sign in here to start your access, Latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5926/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Built-Environment.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
Urban traffic attributed to commercial and industrial transportation is observed to largely affect living standards in cities due to external factors like pollution and congestion. To counter this, smart cities deploy technologies such as digital twins (DT)s to achieve sustainability. Research suggests that DTs can be beneficial in optimizing the physical systems they are linked with. The concept has been extensively studied in many technology-driven industries like manufacturing. However, little work has been done with regards to their application in urban logistics. In this paper, we seek to provide a framework by which DTs could be easily adapted to urban logistics applications. To do this, we survey previous research on DT applications in urban logistics as we found that a holistic overview is lacking. Using this knowledge in combination with the identification of key factors in urban logistics, we produce a conceptual model for the general design of an urban logistics DT through a knowledge graph. We provide an illustration on how the conceptual model can be used in solving a relevant problem and showcase the integration of relevant DDO methods. We finish off with a discussion on research opportunities and challenges based on previous research and our practical experience.
Acknowledgments
Abdo Abouelrous is supported by the AI Planner of the Future programme, which is supported by the European Supply Chain Forum (ESCF), The Eindhoven Artificial Intelligence Systems Institute (EAISI), the Logistics Community Brabant (LCB) and the Department of Industrial Engineering and Innovation Sciences (IE&IS).
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.