A Digital Twin City Model for Capturing Walkability Distress of Elderly Adults

This paper overviews the design of a digital twin city (DTC) model that captures and quantifies walkability distress of older adults via harnessing experiential and physiological data collected from mobile phones and wearable sensor devices. Based on a transdisciplinary endeavor among construction science, urban planning & landscape architecture, civil engineering, computer science, and public health, the goals of this work are to: (1) create a DTC model that quantifies older adults' collective distress and associated environmental conditions; and (2) leverage the DTC model to develop and evaluate technological and environmental interventions to alleviate older adults' distress while walking, which can lead to promoting their independent mobility and health. This research is conducted in collaboration with local stakeholders and older adults in an underserved neighborhood in Houston, TX, Magnolia Park-Manchester. This paper will discuss the experimental design, community engagement activities, and tentative design of interventions driven by convergent insights obtained from data analysis and community feedback to improve mobility of older adults in the urban environment.