Digital Twin-Enabled Structural Health Monitoring of Urban Drainage and Flood Control Infrastructure under Extreme Rainfall Events: A Case Study of Tehran

Urban drainage and flood control infrastructure plays a critical role in mitigating the impacts of extreme rainfall events in large metropolitan areas. Aging structural components, increased impervious surfaces, and climate-driven changes in rainfall patterns have significantly increased the vulnerability of these systems. Conventional flood management approaches primarily focus on hydraulic capacity and surface runoff modeling, while the structural condition and degradation of drainage infrastructure are often assessed through periodic inspections with limited ability to capture progressive damage. This study proposes a digital twin-enabled framework for integrating structural health monitoring (SHM) into the condition assessment and performance evaluation of urban drainage and flood control infrastructure. The framework combines sensor-based monitoring, response-driven damage indicators, and physics-informed digital models to capture structural behavior under flood-induced loading conditions. By continuously updating the digital twin using monitoring data, the proposed approach enables real-time assessment of structural condition and supports durability-oriented decision-making. The framework is demonstrated through a case study of representative urban drainage and flood control structures in Tehran, a metropolitan area experiencing recurrent surface flooding during intense rainfall events. The results show that integrating SHM with digital twin modeling provides deeper insight into structural performance under hydraulic loading, enables early identification of degradation trends, and supports predictive maintenance strategies. The findings highlight the potential of digital twins and SHM as complementary tools for enhancing the resilience and reliability of urban flood management infrastructure.

کلیدواژه ها:

Urban flooding ، Drainage infrastructure ، Structural health monitoring ، Digital twin ، Flood-induced loading ، Smart infrastructure ، Case study of Tehran