抄録
Amid the accelerating pace of global urbanization, the structure and operation of urban systems have become increasingly complex, rendering traditional governance models inadequate to meet the demands for real-time responsiveness, scientific decision-making, and collaborative management. The emergence of smart cities has advanced the informatization and intelligence of urban governance; however, their technology framework—centered on sensing, data acquisition, and platform integration—has gradually revealed limitations such as data silos, semantic fragmentation, and delayed decision responses. In recent years, digital twin cities, as an evolution and deepening of smart cities, have redefined the logic and paradigm of urban governance through their capabilities of virtual–real mapping, dynamic interaction, and intelligent simulation. This paper systematically reviews the conceptual evolution from smart cities to digital twin cities, delineates the key transition of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) from static spatial representation to dynamic intelligent computation, and highlights the mechanisms of core technologies such as C(BIM)+GIS integration, GeoAI, and game engine–based immersive visualization in enabling digital twin construction and refined urban governance. Furthermore, from the perspective of governance transformation, the study elucidates the innovative features of digital twin cities in proactive prediction, computation-driven decision-making, and holistic collaboration, while also analyzing challenges related to computational bottlenecks, data ethics, and cross-disciplinary theory. The paper aims to construct a systematic cognitive framework for the evolution from smart to digital twin cities, revealing the GIS-driven technological logic and paradigm shift of refined urban governance, and providing practical insights for the intelligent, sustainable, and human-centered development of future cities.
