DIGITAL TWIN FRAMEWORKS FOR ENHANCING CLIMATE-RESILIENT INFRASTRUCTURE DESIGN

Abstract

This study addresses the critical problem that many infrastructure organizations still lack empirical, data-driven evidence on how digital twin frameworks concretely improve climate-resilient infrastructure design and performance. The purpose is to quantify how digital twin integration, data and analytics capability, and organizational resilience capacity jointly influence climate risk assessment effectiveness and climate-resilient infrastructure outcomes in real cloud and enterprise infrastructure cases. Using a quantitative, cross-sectional, case-based survey design, data were collected from 210 professionals working on digital twin enabled infrastructure projects across transport, energy, water, and urban systems. Key variables included digital twin integration (DTI), data and analytics capability (DAC), organizational resilience capacity (RESCAP), climate risk assessment effectiveness (CRAE), and climate-resilient infrastructure performance (CRIP), all measured on five-point Likert scales. The analysis plan combined descriptive statistics, reliability testing, correlation analysis, and multiple regression with sector, organization type, and prior climate event experience as controls. Results show moderately high mean scores for DTI (M = 3.74) and CRIP (M = 3.79), with strong internal consistency (α up to 0.90) and robust positive correlations between DTI, DAC, RESCAP, CRAE, and CRIP (r up to .68, p < .001). The regression model explains 53 percent of the variance in CRIP (adjusted R² = .52), with DTI (β = .34, p < .001), DAC (β = .29, p < .001), and RESCAP (β = .22, p < .001) all significant predictors, indicating that well integrated, cloud-based digital twin frameworks and strong analytics and resilience capabilities materially enhance climate-resilient infrastructure performance in enterprise environments. These findings imply that infrastructure agencies and firms should treat digital twins, data governance, and organizational resilience as an integrated capability stack for climate risk management and design.