Research Article // Leveraging digital twins for community-driven sustainable WEFE nexus management
By Shehadeh et al. This paper demonstrates how integrating digital twin (DT) technology with community-driven data enables sustainable and culturally sensitive management of the Water-Energy-Food-Environment (WEFE) nexus in Irbid Camp, offering a replicable model for resource-constrained urban settings.
Introduction
Sustainability concerns and urbanization require creative solutions to align community needs with environmental management strategies. In this study, advanced digital modeling like a digital twin (DT) model is used to analyze the Water-Energy-Food-Environment (WEFE) nexus in Irbid Camp, a representative urban setting plagued by resource management issues. The research started by developing a dynamic Revit model of typical housing in Irbid Camp to develop a digital platform for sustainable infrastructural changes to be visualized and planned. An extensive survey of 500 residents explored attitudes towards water, energy, food, and environmental management, including aspects of cultural heritage. Important variables that were studied included impacts of demographic conditions, conservation practices awareness, and renewable energy deployment on perception of resource management as well as satisfaction. Advanced statistical methods like correlation analysis, ANOVA, and logistic regression were employed to validate the complex dynamics of the WEFE nexus. The survey indicated the minimal effect of demographics upon resource management attitudes as well as restricted correlation with conservation awareness and satisfaction with management. Notably, the utilization of renewable supply resources in households did not influence overall consumption patterns in any significant manner. In addition, cultural heritage and the environment were of no concern to the community as factors influencing local development policy. These findings informed the subsequent development of a DT model that integrated simulation of rainwater harvesting systems, roof farming, solar panels, and climate resilience measures tailored to the socio-cultural and environmental specifics of the community. The DT model established the potentiality of coexisting between sustainable infrastructure development and cultural heritage conservation with a solution to community-based sustainability challenges. It is a dynamic urban planning and policy simulation tool focusing on the need to balance technological innovations with local community needs and values. The study establishes the need to balance DT technologies with community-provided data in order to develop urban sustainability. The findings of the research call for culturally responsive resource management that promotes community participation as a model for implementation in comparable urban settings across the world. Future research must focus on iterative calibration of the model and continuous community outreach to keep pushing the sustainability practices further and maintain them technologically cutting-edge and culturally sensitive.
Published
June 2025