Members of the Resilient HydroTwin project participated in ICONHIC 2026, presenting new research on how digital technologies and community-centered approaches can support more resilient responses to increasing climate-related risks.
The conference brought together researchers, practitioners, and experts from across the world to discuss emerging challenges in natural hazards on infrastructure. Within this context, the Resilient HydroTwin team contributed two presentations exploring the integration of human behavior and societal adaptation into next-generation flood resilience frameworks.
The first contribution, “Behavioral Digital Twin: Integrating Human Dynamics for Flood Emergency Resilience”, introduced a framework for incorporating behavioral dynamics into digital twins for flood management. While existing digital twins have significantly advanced the representation of physical processes, such as hydrology and infrastructure performance, this work highlights the importance of including human responses as a critical component of resilience. By integrating agent-based modelling and behavioral archetypes, the approach enables the exploration of how different evacuation behaviors influence safety outcomes and emergency response. You can read more Here.
The second contribution, “A conceptual foundation for community-centric decision support through soft adaptation in urban climate resilience”, focused on the role of soft adaptation measures in strengthening urban resilience. The research emphasizes that, while hard infrastructure remains essential for flood protection, future resilience strategies must also consider societal preparedness, warning systems, evacuation planning, education, and institutional coordination. Integrating these measures into decision-support frameworks can help cities better anticipate and respond to future climate challenges.
Together, these contributions reinforce one of the central objectives of Resilient HydroTwin: developing a socio-technical digital twin that connects physical processes, infrastructure systems, and human dynamics to support more effective and inclusive flood resilience planning.
Beyond the scientific discussions, ICONHIC 2026 provided an excellent opportunity to exchange ideas with the international research community, strengthen collaborations, and reflect on the importance of interdisciplinary approaches to address the complex challenges posed by climate change.