Assessing socio-technical challenges of implementing predictive digital twins for existing housing and cities in the UK

Abstract

The deployment of predictive Digital Twins (DTs) in the UK's residential housing sector offers transformative potential for improving asset management, energy efficiency, and operational resilience. However, their adoption remains limited due to fragmented data systems, low digital literacy, ethical uncertainties, and high implementation costs. While DTs are advancing in commercial construction, their use in residential maintenance remains underexplored.

This study adopts a socio-technical systems approach to evaluate how predictive DTs can be integrated sustainably and ethically within residential housing, aligning with the human-centric principles of Industry 5.0. A two-phase qualitative study was conducted between April 2024 and February 2025, involving semi-structured interviews with 26 professionals across public housing, facilities and asset management, BIM, and construction sectors. Thematic analysis identified key barriers and opportunities across four ST pillars: Organisation (limited digital skills, resistance to innovation), Users (ethical concerns and low engagement), Technology (scalability and infrastructure limitations), and Processes (fragmented, reactive maintenance systems).

These findings informed the development of the STPDT framework, a pragmatic model designed to guide stakeholders from small and medium-sized enterprises to policymakers towards the ethical, inclusive, and collaborative deployment of DTs. By promoting data interoperability and cross-sector collaboration, the framework aims to foster the development of smarter, more resilient housing ecosystems.

This research contributes significantly by focusing on residential buildings, an aspect often overlooked in digital innovation discussions. It highlights the potential of DTs to lower maintenance costs, enhance indoor environmental quality, and improve safety. Additionally, it exposes a digital skills gap and ethical conflicts that, if unaddressed, could exacerbate social inequalities. Overall, this study reframes DT adoption as a human-centred transformation, providing a comprehensive roadmap for policymakers and practitioners to realise housing systems that are not only technologically advanced but also socially responsible and future-ready.

Date of Award	Dec 2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Queen's University Belfast
Supervisor	Tara Brooks (Supervisor) & Faris Elghaish (Supervisor)