From Physical Assets to Cognitive Infrastructure: The Role of Digital Twins in Enabling Circular Economy and Resilient Design

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-685-2_12How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Digital Twin; Cognitive Infrastructure; Circular Economy; Infrastructure Resilience; Systems Thinking

Abstract

Infrastructure systems are under increasing pressure from climate uncertainty, resource constraints, and the growing burden of ageing assets. Conventional infrastructure management approaches remain predominantly linear, reactive, and asset-centric, limiting their capacity to support long-term sustainability and adaptive performance. In parallel, digital twin technologies and circular economy principles are widely promoted as transformative solutions. However, existing scholarship largely treats these domains in isolation and offers limited theoretical explanation of how they may be coherently integrated within long-life infrastructure systems. This paper addresses this gap by developing a conceptual framework for cognitive infrastructure, defined as infrastructure systems capable of learning, adaptation, and informed lifecycle decision-making through the strategic use of digital twins. Drawing on systems theory, complexity theory, circular economy theory, and resilience engineering, the study explains how digital twin capability can function as an integrating mechanism that aligns circular resource strategies with anticipatory and adaptive resilience objectives. Each theoretical perspective is assigned a distinct explanatory role, reducing conceptual ambiguity and strengthening internal coherence. The study adopts a theory-building approach based on structured synthesis of the literature and analytical reasoning. It does not undertake empirical testing or system-level modelling. Instead, it develops analytically grounded propositions that explain how feedback, learning, and governance conditions shape the transition from digitally enabled infrastructure to cognitive infrastructure. The paper contributes to infrastructure and sustainability scholarship in three ways. First, it introduces cognitive infrastructure as a theoretically integrated construct. Second, it clarifies the conditions under which digital twins extend beyond efficiency optimisation to support systemic sustainability. Third, it outlines conceptual limitations and directions for future empirical research and policy development.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Rekha Mishra
AU  - Anindita Chatterjee
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/05/26
TI  - From Physical Assets to Cognitive Infrastructure: The Role of Digital Twins in Enabling Circular Economy and Resilient Design
BT  - Proceedings of the International Conference on Infrastructure Development and Sustainability (ICIDS 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 183
EP  - 205
SN  - 3005-155X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-685-2_12
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-685-2_12
ID  - Mishra2026
ER  -