Design and development of a web‐based interactive twin platform for watershed management

Abstract There are limitations to traditional digital watershed platforms in terms of realistic visualization of geospatial elements and powerful decision support for watershed management. To advance the status quo, a web‐based digital twin is designed and implemented in this article that can: (1) realize virtual simulation of geographic elements on the browser side; (2) present the current situation and excessive information of the watershed water environment; and (3) provide decision support for integrated watershed management. Multiple 3D modeling methods are adopted cooperatively for total‐factor virtual simulation of geographic elements, and a browser‐side data loading scheme is designed for dynamic loading and cull rendering of 3D models. Additionally, schemes for spatiotemporal modeling of multisource data, analysis of multitype data, and scientific computation of mathematical models are proposed to support precise watershed management, making the platform practical. The implemented digital twin is applied in the Chaohu Lake Watershed, demonstrating that it can realize both stunning visual effects and practical decision‐support functions.