Territorial Digital Twins: A key for increasing the community resilience of fragile mountain inner territories?

Abstract

Areas suffering territorial imbalances are at risk, as climate change and inherent social‐spatial vulnerabilities bring uncertainty over their capacity to achieve sustainable development. To enable policy‐makers' vision for them, the paper proposes adopting digitally‐enhanced disaster risk reduction practices which promote civic engagement and evidence‐based decision‐making. The study introduces the concept of Territorial Digital Twins (TDTs) demonstrating the potential benefits of networking distributed information resources and enabling their integration in two paradigmatic Italian inner mountain areas, which are linked to different priorities of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 (SFDRR). This contribution argues the importance of complementing the technical approach with the social perspective in the development of TDTs oriented at increasing the community resilience of territorially imbalanced areas. It then illustrates the usefulness of exploiting TDTs (from photogrammetry, GIS mapping, Space Syntax analysis) to overcome the barriers to the SFDRR, and enable its effective implementation in localities.

An exploratory study of stakeholder views on the sustainable development of mountain tourism

“…These criteria are the first choice for an expert (in the case of criterion C9 there are two) and influence about 80% of the total weight. These criteria refer to two dimensions of sustainability (economic and environmental) and to the concept of resilience, which is a key element for those experiencing mountain realities (Chioni et al, 2024). Indeed, academic experts point to the urgent need to find solutions to the current state of our mountain environment.…”

Understanding the social dimensions of resilience: The role of the Social Sciences in Disaster Risk Reduction, Climate Action, and Sustainable Development

“…Chioni et al's study (2024) in Val di Sole (Trentino Alto Adige region, Italy) and in Central Italy presents the concept of Territorial Digital Twins (TDTs). The authors demonstrate the potential benefits of networking distributed information resources (e.g., photogrammetry, GIS mapping, and Space Syntax analysis) and the use of digitally enhanced participatory workshops to enable future scenario‐making, risk knowledge co‐production processes, in order to build community resilience in mountainous, and disaster‐prone regions.…”

Empowering Climate Resilience: Leveraging Cloud Computing and Big Data for Community Climate Change Impact Service (C3IS)

“…Adapting to the coming natural hazards and impacts of climate change is impossible without developing a community resiliency strategy, because the threat to all humanity is greater than ever [1]. At this stage, the use of advanced technologies and approaches based on big data and the emerging Internet of Things offers significant opportunities to enhance resilience and adaptation to the changing climate landscape [2,3]. Accessing and analysing big geospatial data are crucial for planning scenarios for the application of climate impacts [3].…”

“…At this stage, the use of advanced technologies and approaches based on big data and the emerging Internet of Things offers significant opportunities to enhance resilience and adaptation to the changing climate landscape [2,3]. Accessing and analysing big geospatial data are crucial for planning scenarios for the application of climate impacts [3]. One of the most recent advances is related to developments in cloud computing.…”