Digital Twin of Urban Rivers for Smart Water Management: Concepts, Key Technology Applications and Challenges

With the in-depth advancement of the smart water management concept, the demand for refined, dynamic, and intelligent technologies in urban river regulation has become increasingly urgent. Traditional water management approaches have numerous limitations. Driven by the rapid development of various new technologies such as big data, smart water management models have also undergone profound changes. Digital twin technology enables the digital replication and virtual representation of physical entities, reflecting the mirror mapping relationship between virtual and physical spaces. This paper elaborates on the conceptual connotation and system architecture of digital twins for urban rivers, analyzes their characteristics in terms of digitization, intelligence, and autonomy, and reviews research progress at home and abroad through typical cases. It also introduces the key technical system of digital twins for urban rivers, identifies challenges in technology implementation, and discusses application scenarios and future prospects.