Authors

Smart and Sustainable Construction Monitoring: A Unified Lightweight Digital Twin Framework for Geotechnical Risk

WaiSan Teh, YeanChin Tan

G&P Professionals Sdn Bhd, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

ABSTRACT

Effective risk management in geotechnical construction depends on timely access to reliable monitoring data, yet in practice this data is frequently scattered across spreadsheets, PDF reports, and informal communication channels. By the time anomalies are identified and communicated to the right parties, the window for early intervention has often passed. The Digital Twin (DT) has been proposed as a solution, but most implementations rely on Building Information Modelling, dense IoT instrumentation, and complex data pipelines that introduce significant cost and complexity barriers, limiting their practical adoption across construction broadly, particularly in geotechnical works, where the challenge is most acute. Unlike structural or architectural elements, geotechnical conditions involve inherent underground uncertainties and dynamic changes that evolve throughout the entire construction duration, making timely access to monitoring data not a convenience but a risk management necessity. This paper proposes a lightweight, web-based monitoring framework built on two core capabilities: spatial visualisation of project progress and threshold-based automated alerting. Rather than pursuing full Digital Twin integration, the framework automates the derivation, evaluation and communication of monitoring information while accepting data through the reporting workflows site teams already operate. Engineer-defined rules trigger automated notifications when readings approach or exceed established alert thresholds, keeping engineering judgment at the centre of the risk management process. The framework is structured around a georeferenced spatial interface where geotechnical works such as piling, ground treatment, deep excavation, and instrumentation activities are represented as synchronised layers, allowing anomalies to be identified visually in their site context rather than buried in tabular reports. Representative use cases from Malaysian geotechnical construction practice demonstrate how engineer-configured rules and spatial visualisation together enable earlier detection of, and response to, construction risk, suggesting that meaningful improvements are achievable through a focused, replicable implementation that practitioners can adapt within existing project constraints.

KEYWORDS: digital twin maturity, geotechnical monitoring, construction risk management, observational method