Towards Scalable and Sustainable Urban Digital Twins: Causal Mapping of Implementation Barriers

Adoption Barriers, Fuzzy DEMATEL, Smart Cities, Sustainable Cities and Communities, Urban Digital Twin

Urban Digital Twins (UDTs) are becoming more recognized as important enablers to facilitate data-driven decision-making in smart city environments. Governments, industry, and research organizations have stood committed and increased funding. However, a complex web of interdependent barriers prevents the large-scale deployment of UDTs. An elaborate literature review on studies published from 2021 to 2025 found twenty-five barriers which were modelled using fuzzy DEMATEL to find their causal interrelationships. The exploratory qualitative-quantitative causal research design was developed using a purposive sample of twelve experts. A two-round elicitation process was adopted to capture expert uncertainty and barrier interdependency. The findings from the fuzzy DEMATEL reveal nine causal barriers and sixteen effect barriers. Analysis shows how reducing barriers from high-leverage cause-groups can reduce downstream effects considerably. This facilitates UDT implementations that are scalable and sustainable.  The findings also provide actionable information for policymakers, urban designers, and system designers.