Network-Scale Digital Twin for Real-Time Condition Assessment and Prediction of Railway Earthworks Exposed to Climate Change Impacts

Objective

Europe operates one of the world's most extensive, dense, and ageing rail networks, and intensifying climate extremes are converting hidden geotechnical vulnerabilities into operational risk. In the predominantly unsaturated soils beneath tracks, coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical (THM) behaviours include rainfall-driven suction loss and pore pressure rise, drought-induced shrinkage and cracking, and thermal cycling that alters soil fabric and stiffness. These processes accelerate deformation and track geometry degradation and raise failure likelihood. Conventional point-based inspections seldom reveal where weakening starts or how it propagates across the network. Without THM-aware sensing and modelling at scale, operators lack timely visibility to anticipate the next extreme, leaving safety, reliability, and capacity persistently exposed. GeoTwin4Rail will revolutionize the operations and maintenance of railway earthworks for climate change adaptation by uniquely integrating breakthrough innovation in advanced THM coupling modelling, novel physics-informed surrogate modelling, hybrid monitoring, and cutting-edge digital twin (DT) technologies. The Experienced Researcher (ER) will leverage her unique expertise in THM coupling modelling with domain experts to advance a connected DT framework to achieve real-time assessments of railway earthworks under extreme climatic conditions, which will provide actionable guidance for railway operation and maintenance, enhancing safety, reliability, and ride comfort for passengers in the EU. Moreover, GeoTwin4Rail will serve as a scalable framework for global adoption, advancing resilient-infrastructure management and global climate-adaptation efforts. Through this work, the ER aims to consolidate her expertise in transportation geotechnics, specifically in THM monitoring and predictive maintenance, and to build a long-term academic career in Europe, delivering scalable solutions for climate-resilient railway systems.