The proposed research will be aimed at creating digital twin solutions for disaster resilience of civil infrastructure incorporating predictive modelling of resilience of infrastructure under extreme events and quantifying measures to address corresponding community impact. The project will be undertaken in collaboration with the Security and Resilience innovation hub at RMIT.

The project will:

• Address identified digital twinning research challenges;
• Develop a proof-of-concept digital twin for crisis response and resilience, with relevance to all transport essential services and their interface with other interconnected critical national infrastructure sectors;
• Be delivered in close collaboration with key stakeholders.

The project will select specific hazard type(s) e.g. wildfires, flood, storm damage, earthquakes and two case study areas (one in Europe or the UK and one in Australia). This will be done in consultation with project partners and will create predictive models capturing likelihood of failure of infrastructure in the selected area against intensity of hazards. For each event/intensity, the impact on the community and the environment will be captured based on published work and historical data. The predictions will be captured in a digital twin platform to provide a visual representation of the impact of the disasters which can be used for training of first respondents and the community, enhancing preparedness.

Project outcomes will be a digital twin methodology for disaster resilience which can be replicated in Spain, Australia and the UK for multiple hazard types and intensities.

Research group websites:

• Keeping railway infrastructure resilience on track
• Improving European responses and resilience to devastating weather events and climate extremes
• RMIT’s Disaster Research Network