Keywords: Internet of Meaning, HESTIA, Domain-Specific Modeling
Astract: At first glance, the Internet of Things brings about an expectation for users (be it individuals or organizations) to interact with the many Internet-connected “things” in a natural way while also enhancing everyday work and life. The emergence of smart cities, and smart homes, also fuels the need for a broad audience to interact with the Internet of Things in a natural way. In current practice, however, users are confronted with the need to negotiate a complex landscape involving a myriad of protocols, standards, and work-arounds to integrate “legacy” devices, etc. We contend that users should not have to think about their world in terms of specific sensors, actuators, gateways, and protocols but rather in terms of room temperatures, the desire to increase the temperature in the living room, the concern that the plants in the garden are watered on time, etc. This creates a need to bridge this gap by creating a semantically meaningful layer of abstraction on top of the sensors and actuators that make up the “device and protocols oriented” Internet of Things, to create an Internet of Meaning. To this end, this chapter reports on the HESTIA framework, which combines: (1) An abstraction of the implementation details pertaining to, e.g., different protocols, standards, etc. (2) A domain-specific (conceptual) modeling framework in terms of which “things” can be captured in a way that is meaningful to the domain at hand (3) Based on this, a domain-specific language that is understandable by the user, enabling users to define control/behavioral rules in terms that are meaningful to them The presented HESTIA framework will be illustrated in terms of examples in the context of home and garden automation. Though such application contexts seem less challenging and complex than industrial Internet of Things applications, the variety of devices and protocols and distance between users and the technical details are often larger than in the case of industrial Internet of Things.

Keywords: Enterprise Architecture, Architectural Coordination, Digital Twins for Urban Planning, Local Digital Twin
Astract: Digital Twins (DTs) carry the promise of improved decision-making about, as well as monitoring and understanding of, the twinned entity. This makes them an attractive instrument to support the, often complex and multi-faceted, decision-making processes germane to urban planning. DTs require considerable technological investments, as they tend to be data-hungry and computing-intensive. Business-wise, such investments are only meaningful if they really add value to the intended decision-making processes. However, most current DT development approaches primarily focus on the technological potential of DTs within the limited scope of isolated business scenarios, and rarely address trade-offs between costs and benefits towards the business case, let alone the broader implications for IT/IS portfolio management. These broader considerations are crucial in urban planning contexts, which typically involve a broad ecosystem of parties, complex decision-making challenges, and pre-existing technological landscapes. Drawing on the discipline of Enterprise Architecture Management (EAM), this paper argues that architectural coordination of DT development initiatives would enable more effective valorisation of DTs potential, and more effective management of DT-related technology within a broader technological landscape. To this end, the paper discusses the vision for and an initial sketch of a specialisation of EAM for DT development.

Keywords: Digital Twin Engineering, Enterprise Architecture, Sustainable Real Estate Management
Astract: In the context of Real Estate Management, Digital Twins (DTs) can act as transformative tools for the integration of sustainability into construction practices by providing dynamic, data-driven virtual representations of physical assets. They enable stakeholders to optimise processes, reduce resource consumption, and align with sustainability objectives. However, effective implementation of DTs, in this context, remains limited by fragmented data ecosystems across different organisations, incomplete integration with regulatory frameworks, and insufficient consideration of sustainability goals. This is especially challenging, as access to high quality, and integrated, data is critical for DTs. Enterprise Architecture (EA) is generally used as an instrument to aid in managing and coordinating such challenges, as it provides a structured approach to addressing these challenges by aligning technical, organisational, and sustainability objectives. In line with this, we propose three primary research objectives: (1) assessing the current state of EA approaches for integrating DTs, (2) developing sustainability-oriented EA modelling concepts and design patterns, and (3) exploring the scalability of DTs from individual buildings to smart cities. Our aim is to position DTs as comprehensive decision-support tools for sustainability, enabling stakeholders to achieve better-informed decisions while addressing regulatory compliance, resource efficiency, and life cycle impacts.

Keywords: Digital Twin Engineering, Enterprise Architecture, Sustainable Real Estate Renovation
Astract: In the Architecture, Engineering, Construction & Operations (AECO) sector, Digital Twins (DTs) serve as transformative tools to integrate sustainability into renovation decision-making by providing dynamic, data-driven representations of physical assets. They enable stakeholders to optimise processes, improve resource efficiency, and ensure compliance with evolving regulations. However, the implementation of DTs in this context remains challenged by fragmented data ecosystems, insufficient regulatory integration, and limited consideration of sustainability goals. Enterprise Architecture (EA) offers a structured approach to overcoming these challenges by aligning technical, organisational, and sustainability-related objectives. To advance this, we define two key research objectives: (1) assessing current EA approaches for integrating DTs, and (2) developing sustainability-oriented EA modelling concepts and design patterns. Our aim is to position DTs as comprehensive decision-support tools for sustainability, enabling stakeholders to achieve better-informed decisions while addressing regulatory compliance, resource efficiency, and life cycle impacts.

Keywords: Enterprise Architecture, Architectural Coordination, Digital Twins
Astract: Digital Twins (DTs) carry the promise of supporting better decision-making, monitoring, and learning in relation to the twinned entity, by integrating novel technologies, including digital models, symbolic and sub-symbolic artificial intelligence, as well as advanced optimisation, simulation, and visualisation techniques. However, delivering such a promise requires considerable investments, which can only valorise in the long run, as DTs tend to be ‘data hungry’, in need of ample sensors, actuators and serious computing power. Yet, most current approaches to DT development focus on isolated scenarios, which not only limits the understanding of the value of DTs, but also their broader implications. The introduction of DTs, generally, also entails a wider digital transformation in an (inter-)organisational context, while such transformations need to be properly managed. We also observe that, since DTs are fundamentally a class of (highly advanced) information systems, this inevitably makes them an integral part of an enterprise’s broader (inter-organisational) portfolio of information systems. In line with this, we argue that, in order to (also) improve the socio-economical sustainability of DT solutions, their development, deployment and evolution need to be subject to architectural coordination within the broader frame of enterprise architecture management (EAM). From this perspective, we discuss some potential directions of research in (enterprise) architectural coordination of DT development, in order to help address some crucial challenges of socio-economically sustainable development and evolution of DTs as part of a broader portfolio of information systems.