Digital Twins as Heritage Infrastructure

Digital twin technologies emerge as transformative heritage infrastructures, enabling precise monitoring, intelligent prevention, and dynamic communication for UNESCO World Heritage Sites. By synthesizing multisource sensing, refined modeling, and high-fidelity mapping, these systems create Cultural Heritage Information Models (CHIMs) and Communication Management Information Systems (CMIS), supporting real-time diagnostics, simulations, and predictive analytics. A triadic interactive model—reality space, virtual space, and cognitive space—serves as the conceptual foundation, facilitating AI-assisted virtual restoration, microclimate simulation, and immersive public engagement. Case studies from China, including the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor, demonstrate how digital twins address diverse heritage challenges, from underground archaeology to fragile cave art, reshaping conservation through participatory and sustainable management.

Dang, A., Zhuo, B., Zhang, Z., Weng, Y., & Moser-Samson, A. (2026). Digital Twins as Heritage Infrastructure. Navigating Dialogue and Diplomacy, 231–258. https://doi.org/10.1093/9780197910917.003.0013