Wildfire digital twins: a paradigm shift from monitoring systems to intelligent decision infrastructures

Recent advances in Earth observation, artificial intelligence, physics-based modelling, and cyberinfrastructure have accelerated the development of wildfire digital twins (WFDTs), yet existing capabilities remain fragmented across monitoring, fusion, prediction, simulation, and decision support.

Unlike prior reviews that primarily address individual aspect of wildfire, this review and vision paper provides an integrated synthesis of WFDTs. We propose a six-layer WFDT architecture, identify <b>six</b> core capabilities spanning situational awareness through adaptive learning, and organise applications across the wildfire lifecycle from prevention and detection to response, smoke management, and post-fire recovery.