Digital twin applications on cultural world heritage sites in China: A state-of-the-art overview

Recent decades have witnessed digital twin as a toolkit to collect, process, and utilize graphical, spatial and other attribute data of cultural heritage. It has been widely applied on cultural world heritage sites in China, which have significant differences in ages, types, materials, and history of maintenance and conservation. Although specific cases are reported previously, a comprehensive overview is still lacking. This paper explores the association between digital twin and heritage conservation, classifying digital twin techniques into six levels to tackle three tasks: data acquisition, visualization and application. It systematically reviews Chinese heritage digitization practices, considering variations in complexity and purposes, and demonstrates typological and chronological characteristics as well as the composition of stakeholders.