The Digital Twin Water Management Project of the Shule River is a pioneering initiative in modernizing water governance in arid regions of China, Facing extreme precipitation-evaporation imbalance and high agricultural dependency on river water, the project leverages cutting-edge digital twin technologies to build a comprehensive virtual representation of the watershed and irrigation systems. Which has remarkably enhanced core capabilities of the management including forecasting, early warning, scenario simulation, and contingency planning.

The project integrates GIS, Building Information Modeling (BIM), and 2000 Internet of Things (IoT) sensors to capture real-time hydrological, meteorological, and operational data. These feed into multi-model simulations, including hydraulic modeling, water allocation optimization, and irrigation scheduling, all coordinated through a layered architecture of IoT platform, twin system layers, a digital cockpit, and application modules. The system has dramatically improved management efficient of the scheme, and saved water over 5% and increased yield by 15% for some of crops.

The digital system has made innovative change of the scheme management system in the 3 aspects, includes (a) transitioning from traditional supply-driven irrigation to demand-responsive allocation based on real-time crop water needs; (b) improving gate control precision from centimeter-level to millimeter-level, significantly enhancing operational accuracy and efficiency; (c)enabling remote monitoring and intelligent automation of water infrastructure.

Recognized as a China National Excellency of Digital Twin Project, this effort not only addresses local challenges of water management but also offers replicable strategies for smart water management in other regions across China and worldwide, contributing to intelligent future of water governance.