Staff members of China Gezhouba Group, a subsidiary of Energy China, conduct real-time monitoring of tunnel excavation at the digital twin smart center of a river diversion project in Zijin Township, Xiangyang, Hubei Province, in March 2025. Photo: IC PHOTO

Digital twin cities refer to virtual representations of real-world urban environments, creating digital counterparts of roads, rivers, buildings, energy systems, and other elements. Their significance extends beyond providing a visible map: They serve as experimental platforms and incubators for future industrial development, offering new approaches to urban governance through real-time coordination, forecasting, and simulation.

With the rapid growth of sectors such as intelligent manufacturing, smart transportation, and green energy, digital twins have become an important lever for local development. Yet in some regions, while platform construction is bustling, actual use remains limited, and digital twins often function primarily as showcases for public display. Without practical application, they risk becoming another form of empty formalism. Making digital twins truly useful therefore requires a shift from building systems to actually using them—turning them into effective governance tools and solid pillars of industrial development.

Addressing challenges

Across China, the development of digital twin cities is accelerating, but several issues remain at the implementation level. One challenge is limited application. In some regions, substantial initial investments have produced full-featured platforms and impressive large-scale displays, yet these systems often remain at the demonstration stage, disconnected from actual urban governance. When floods, traffic accidents, or public health emergencies occur, systems designed to support coordination frequently fail to operate as intended, forcing frontline officials to rely on traditional methods.

Another challenge is data silos. Digital twins are inherently data-driven, yet in practice, inter-departmental data barriers persist. Differences in interface standards, coordinate systems, and labeling criteria mean that data can be viewed but not effectively shared or utilized across systems. This fragmentation hinders cross-departmental and cross-regional coordination, significantly undermining the value of digital twin platforms.

Performance evaluation also remains distorted. In many regions, completion rates and the number of system connections continue to serve as primary indicators. As a result, numerous platforms are rarely used and, in some cases, become idle shortly after launch. This emphasis on construction over outcomes has, to some extent, encouraged a tendency to prioritize investment while neglecting operation and maintenance.

Finally, supporting mechanisms remain inadequate. Digital twin systems depend on an integrated ecosystem involving computing power, algorithms, models, and operational management. Some local authorities adopt strict, one-size-fits-all controls over data and models, preferring to suspend usage rather than risk deployment. Consequently, potentially valuable applications remain unused.

Pathways forward

The key to making digital twins truly useful lies in shifting from “showcase projects” to governance tools, and from being merely “visible” to genuinely usable. First, digital twin platforms should be integrated into routine governance and emergency management workflows, establishing institutionalized and normalized application mechanisms. Whether for flood prevention, traffic coordination, elderly care services, or emergency response, clear responsibilities and operational procedures must be defined to ensure that systems function effectively in both daily operations and crisis situations. Embedding digital twin applications into institutional processes is essential to preventing platform idleness and promoting sustained use.

Second, unified data standards and interface protocols must be established. Without mutual recognition and shared use of data, meaningful coordination is impossible. Efforts should promote cross-departmental and cross-regional data sharing, forming a single map, unified standards, and a shared catalog. This constitutes the foundational infrastructure of digital twin cities and provides the basis for overcoming fragmented governance. Cities can also jointly establish digital twin operations centers to centralize data aggregation, model iteration, and scenario expansion, while exploring mechanisms for cross-regional revenue sharing and risk distribution.

Third, evaluation metrics should shift from counting systems built to measuring effectiveness. Performance assessment should be results-oriented, focusing on operational efficiency, user experience, and service quality. Indicators should be more concrete—for example, whether response times are shortened, redundant tasks reduced, or public satisfaction improved. A results-oriented approach can incentivize authorities at all levels and make utility the core criterion for evaluating platform performance.

Finally, security and regulatory mechanisms should be refined to enable precise management rather than one-size-fits-all control. For applications involving critical infrastructure and sensitive data, a “whitelist plus dynamic review” approach can be adopted, while registration procedures for routine applications should be simplified to enable early deployment of innovative scenarios. Tiered and classified regulation can ensure security while unlocking operational potential, allowing platforms to balance usability, effectiveness, and reliability.

Shi Jie is a special research fellow from the Research Center for Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.