The transport sector has no shortage of data. Fleets generate vehicle telemetry, charging infrastructure produces energy data, logistics platforms track movements and infrastructure operators monitor traffic and assets. The challenge is what happens when that information remains separated across different systems, organisations and modes of transport.
A new Digital Twin Design Framework developed through the TransiT research hub offers an interesting response. Developed by researchers at Cranfield University, the University of Glasgow and Heriot-Watt University, the framework considers how digital twins could work together across road, rail, maritime and air transport to support decarbonisation. The significance is not simply the creation of another digital tool, but the attempt to create a common structure for understanding transport as a connected system.
From individual assets to connected systems
A digital twin is a digital representation of a real-world object, process or system that can be used to understand performance and test potential changes. Transport already uses digital twins for applications such as predictive maintenance, traffic management, fleet operations and electric vehicle charging, but these applications are often developed independently. A fleet management system might know where vehicles are and how they are performing, while a charging platform might know when electricity is being consumed and a logistics platform might know when freight needs to arrive. Individually, each dataset has value. Combined, they could provide a much clearer picture of how transport decisions interact.
The new framework adapts the ISO 23247 digital twin architecture, originally developed for manufacturing, to transport. The research identified fragmentation and limited interoperability between existing digital twin applications as barriers to using the technology for system-level decarbonisation. This is important because transport emissions are rarely determined by one vehicle, one journey or one organisation. They are the result of multiple decisions and dependencies across the wider network.
Decarbonisation is a system problem
The transition to lower-carbon transport is often discussed through individual technologies. Should a fleet move to battery electric vehicles? Where should charging infrastructure be installed? Could hydrogen or alternative fuels provide another solution? These are important questions, but they do not exist in isolation.
Consider an electric HGV operating a regular freight route. Its emissions and operational performance will depend on factors including the vehicle, payload, route, charging availability, electricity supply and delivery schedule. Change one element and the consequences can appear somewhere else. A new charging hub could support fleet electrification but increase electricity demand at a particular location. Changing delivery schedules could reduce congestion while creating different charging requirements, while moving freight between road, rail and maritime transport could alter both emissions and infrastructure requirements.
A digital twin provides a way of testing these interactions before committing to them. The researchers’ illustrative scenario brings together aircraft using sustainable aviation fuel, electric airport ground vehicles, electric HGVs and charging infrastructure. The value lies less in any individual technology than in being able to understand how they operate alongside one another and what happens when one part of the system changes.
The value is in the connections
The proposed architecture brings together real-world assets, communication technologies, the digital twin itself, user-facing tools and cross-system functions such as interoperability, cybersecurity and governance. For logistics, the cross-system element could be particularly important.
A future freight network could involve vehicles, depots, charging infrastructure, warehouses, ports, rail terminals, electricity networks and digital freight platforms, all interacting with one another. Without interoperability, each organisation sees only its own part of the network. With connected systems, there is potential to understand how a decision in one part of the supply chain affects another.
This could change the way businesses approach decarbonisation planning. Instead of asking whether one intervention works in isolation, organisations could test how different interventions work together and whether an apparent solution simply moves an environmental or operational problem somewhere else.
The UK is already moving in this direction
The framework is emerging alongside wider UK work on transport digital twins. In July 2026, the Department for Transport announced £30 million of funding for Integrated Transport Digital Twin trials. The programme is intended to help local transport authorities develop and test digital twins that support more integrated approaches to planning and managing transport networks.
DfT research has also examined how uncertainty should be incorporated into an Integrated Transport Digital Twin. This is particularly relevant to decarbonisation because the transport system businesses are planning for does not yet exist. Energy prices will change, vehicle technologies will develop, charging infrastructure will expand, regulation will evolve and freight patterns will shift.
A useful digital twin therefore needs to do more than replicate today’s network. It needs to help decision-makers explore different possible futures and understand the consequences of their choices. For organisations making long-term investments in vehicles, infrastructure and energy, that ability to test different scenarios could become increasingly valuable.
Data quality matters
There is, however, a significant condition attached to this opportunity: the quality of the data feeding the system. More data does not automatically mean better decisions. If information is inconsistent between systems, missing important variables or collected using different methodologies, a digital twin can create a misleading sense of precision.
This is particularly important for emissions data. Businesses increasingly need to understand the emissions associated with individual transport movements, but calculations can depend on assumptions around fuel consumption, energy sources, distance, payload and methodology. If different organisations are working from different datasets or calculating emissions in different ways, connecting those systems does not necessarily produce a more accurate picture.
The framework recognises this challenge by incorporating data exchange, assurance, cybersecurity and governance alongside the physical and digital components of transport. This is an important point because the success of digital twins will depend as much on how organisations manage and share data as it does on the technology itself.
From modelling to decision-making
The commercial value of digital twins will ultimately depend on whether they improve decisions. For a logistics operator, that could mean testing the impact of electrifying a particular route before purchasing vehicles. For a shipper, it could mean comparing different combinations of road, rail, maritime and air freight while considering emissions alongside cost and operational requirements. For an infrastructure operator, it could mean understanding whether proposed charging capacity will meet future demand.
For policymakers, the technology could provide a way to test infrastructure or policy interventions across an entire network rather than assessing them individually. The value is therefore not the digital replica itself, but the ability to ask better questions of the system.
What happens if charging demand doubles? What happens if freight shifts from road to rail? What happens if electricity becomes constrained at a particular location? Which combination of interventions delivers the greatest emissions reduction without creating a new operational constraint elsewhere?
These are questions that matter to businesses making significant investment decisions, particularly when the cost of getting those decisions wrong is high.
A framework, not a finished solution
It is important not to overstate what has been delivered. The researchers describe the framework as a reference architecture rather than a completed digital twin ready for widespread deployment. The work involved reviewing more than 100 studies and consulting specialists before refining the proposed structure, but the next challenge is testing it through real-world applications.
That stage will be critical. Transport contains an enormous variety of systems, commercial relationships and operational requirements. Connecting them will require more than a technical architecture. Questions around data ownership, access, cybersecurity, commercial confidentiality and responsibility for decisions made using shared data will all need to be addressed.
The development also sits within a wider movement towards standards for connecting multiple digital twins. ISO 23247 has continued to develop, including work around digital threads and the composition of multiple digital twins. That direction is particularly relevant to transport, where it is unlikely that one organisation will own a single digital twin representing the entire network.
A more realistic future is a network of digital twins operated by different businesses, infrastructure providers and public bodies that can communicate with one another.
What this means for logistics
For logistics leaders, the emergence of a common design approach is less about adopting a new piece of technology and more about reconsidering how sustainability decisions are made. Decarbonisation strategies are often developed in organisational silos. Sustainability teams calculate emissions, procurement teams assess suppliers, logistics teams manage transport and technology teams manage data, yet the physical supply chain does not operate in those silos.
A decision to change vehicle technology affects energy demand. A procurement decision affects transport requirements. A change in routing affects infrastructure and delivery performance, while a change of mode affects both emissions and lead times. Digital twins could provide a way of bringing those decisions together and understanding their wider consequences before changes are implemented.
The real test will be whether organisations can move from using digital technology to describe what is happening to using it to understand the consequences of changing it. That is where digital twins could become particularly valuable to sustainable logistics: not as another dashboard, but as a way of connecting the decisions that determine how goods actually move.
Publication note
The new framework will be published as ‘A Standardised Digital Twin Design Framework for Transport System Decarbonisation’ in ‘Sustainable Cities and Society’, providing a peer-reviewed contribution to the development of interoperable digital twins for transport decarbonisation.
Farsi, M., Namoano, B., Latsou, C. and Alquraan, M. (2026) ‘A standardised Digital Twin design framework for transport system decarbonisation’, Sustainable Cities and Society, 149, 107714.
Available here: A standardised Digital Twin design framework for transport system decarbonisation – ScienceDirect