The Use of “Digital Twin” Technologies to Ensure the City Residents Safety

Abstract

The article discusses contemporary and advanced approaches to introduce the use of "digital twins" in modern cities to help them develop a system of city residents safety. After a brief historical and international analysis of technological development for creating and operating "digital twins" in cities, the authors consider the processes of putting new technologies into practice for future development of cities in the Russian Federation to be a complex. The research is aimed at suggesting solutions to reduce risks based on the analysis of contemporary and future threats to the population of cities through early modeling and forecasting of hazards using the potential of "digital twins" of cities. The methodological basis was a set of general scientific and specific scientific methods: dialectical, historical, comparative legal, analysis and synthesis of legal concepts and phenomena. The information and empirical basis of this research was the factual materials collected by the authors while studying the activities of those structures and organizations that are involved in developing and providing the physical protection of critical facilities in Russian and foreign cities by means of information technologies. Thus, the practical part of the work was based on implementing "digital twins" while exploring the vulnerability analysis and assessing the effectiveness of the safety of fuel and energy complex facilities, nuclear energy, and transport infrastructure of cities, and their impact on the urban population safety. The subject of research is public relations in the field of using digital technologies to ensure urban residents safety. The scientific novelty means, in the authors’ opinion, the conceptual approach to the use of technologies of the "digital twin" of a city to ensure its residents safety. The research results showed the necessity to improve digital city models in order to ensure the availability of medical and social services, provide access for urban space planning and introduce smart technologies into the housing and communal services sector as well as to develop digital mobility, ensure food and energy security, technological control and ensure the safety of the population in the face of increasing urbanization processes.