SIST EN 18162:2026

Building Information Modelling (BIM) - Digital twins applied to the built environment - Concept and definitions

This document defines the concepts and definitions and is the first part of a set of standards to define the framework for digital twins in the built environment. It includes the terms and definitions, the relation with building information modelling and addresses the lack of standards for the qualitative specification of a digital twin, which can include geometric, attributive, structural and infrastructural quality, as applicable.
This document is based on the experiences obtained in use cases [1] and documents from other technical committees, including ISO/IEC 30173.
This document can be used in the development of other standards and in support of communications among diverse, interested parties or stakeholders. This initiative aims to define an ecosystem of digital twins opening the opportunity to release even greater value, using data for the public good.

Building information modelling - Digitale Zwillinge in der bebauten Umwelt - Struktur und Definitionen

Dieses Dokument definiert das Rahmenwerk für digitale Zwillinge in der bebauten Umwelt. Es beinhaltet Begriffe, die Beziehung zu Building Information Modelling und befasst sich mit dem Fehlen von Standards für qualitative Spezifikationen eines digitalen Zwillings, die geometrische, attributive, strukturelle und infrastrukturelle Qualitäten, falls anwendbar, beinhalten können.
Es wird auf den Erfahrungen aus Anwendungsfällen[1] und anderen TCs basieren, einschließlich ISO/IEC30173, Digital twin - Concepts and terminology.
Dieses Dokument kann in der Entwicklung anderer Standards und als Unterstützung der Kommunikation unter diversen interessierten Parteien oder Interessengruppen verwendet werden. Diese Initiative zielt auf die Defi
nierung eines Ökosystems für digitale Zwillinge ab und eröffnet die Möglichkeit, bessere Werte und Daten für gemeinnützige Zwecke zu veröffentlichen.

Modélisation des informations de la construction (BIM) - Jumeaux numériques en environnement bâti - Concept et définitions

Le présent document définit les concepts et définitions et constitue la première partie d’une série de normes destinée à définir le cadre des jumeaux numériques dans l’environnement bâti. Il comprend les termes et définitions, la relation avec la modélisation des informations de la construction, et remédie au manque de normes portant sur la spécification qualitative d’un jumeau numérique, qui peut inclure la qualité géométrique, attributive, structurelle et infrastructurelle, selon le cas.
Ce document repose sur les expériences obtenues dans les cas d’utilisation [1] et les documents provenant d’autres comités techniques, notamment l’ISO/IEC 30173.
Le présent document peut être utilisé pour élaborer d’autres normes et pour soutenir la communication entre diverses parties intéressées ou parties prenantes. Cette initiative vise à définir un écosystème de jumeaux numériques permettant de générer encore plus de valeur en utilisant les données au service de l’intérêt public.

Informacijsko modeliranje gradenj (BIM) - Digitalni dvojčki v grajenem okolju - Koncept in definicije

Ta dokument opredeljuje koncepte in definicije ter je prvi del niza standardov za opredelitev okvira za digitalne dvojčke v grajenem okolju. Vključuje izraze in definicije, povezavo z modeliranjem informacij o gradnji (BIM - Building Information Modelling) ter obravnava pomanjkanje standardov za kakovostno specifikacijo digitalnega dvojčka, ki lahko vključuje geometrijsko, atributivno, strukturno in infrastrukturno kakovost, kjer je to primerno.
Ta dokument temelji na izkušnjah, pridobljenih v primerih uporabe [1] in dokumentih drugih tehničnih odborov, vključno z ISO/IEC 30173.
Ta dokument se lahko uporablja pri razvoju drugih standardov in kot podpora komunikaciji med različnimi zainteresiranimi stranmi ali deležniki. Ta pobuda si prizadeva opredeliti ekosistem digitalnih dvojčkov, kar odpira priložnost za sprostitev še večje vrednosti z uporabo podatkov v javno dobro.

General Information

• Status: Published
• Public Enquiry End Date: 24-Apr-2025
• Publication Date: 08-Apr-2026
• ICS: 35.240.67 - IT applications in building and construction industry
• ICS: 91.010.01 - Construction industry in general
• Technical Committee: BIM - Building Information Modelling (BIM)
• Current Stage: 6060 - National Implementation/Publication (Adopted Project)
• Start Date: 17-Mar-2026
• Due Date: 22-May-2026
• Completion Date: 09-Apr-2026
• Ref Project: EN 18162:2026 - Building Information Modelling (BIM) - Digital twins applied to the built environment - Concept and definitions

Relations

• Refers: SIST ISO 6707-1:2021 - Buildings and civil engineering works -- Vocabulary
• Effective Date: 25-Mar-2026

Overview

FprEN 18162 - produced by CEN/TC 442 - defines core concepts and definitions for applying Building Information Modelling (BIM) to digital twins in the built environment. As the first part of a standards set, it establishes a common vocabulary, a taxonomy for types and stages of digital twins (asset, component, system, process), and the notion of a digital twin environment and common data environment (CDE). The document addresses the current gap in qualitative specification of digital twins (geometric, attributive, structural and infrastructural quality) and sets foundations to promote data sharing, interoperability and FAIR principles across the asset lifecycle.

Key topics

• Terminology and taxonomy: clear definitions for digital twin (DTw), asset digital twin (ADTw), component DTw, system DTw (SDTw), process DTw (PDTw), and ADTw stages (Prototype, Instance, Aggregate).
• Data types and behaviour: distinction between contextual (static; structured/unstructured) and dynamic (fast-moving; real/synthetic) datasets and how they integrate in a DTw.
• Qualitative specification: scope for defining geometric, attributive, structural and infrastructural quality for digital twins (addresses current lack of standards).
• Digital twin environment: definition of the ICT ecosystem needed to host, synchronize and operate digital twins and stakeholders’ interactions.
• Semantic interoperability: alignment with Web of Data approaches (RDF, SKOS, OWL) to support linked data, ontologies and machine-readable vocabularies.
• Use cases and lifecycle focus: guidance on interrogative (querying/historic) and predictive (simulation/forecasting) uses across design, construction, handover and operation.

Applications

• Enables consistent BIM + digital twin deployment across projects for buildings, infrastructure and civil works.
• Helps owners, facility managers and operators specify and evaluate twin quality for asset management, maintenance and performance optimisation.
• Supports software vendors and platform providers in designing interoperable DTw systems and data spaces.
• Guides policy-makers, standards developers and data custodians in establishing data-sharing frameworks that follow FAIR principles and semantic standards.
• Useful for aggregating DTw data for city-scale analytics, resilience planning, and public-good data initiatives.

Who should use this standard

• Architects, engineers, contractors and BIM managers
• Asset owners, facility and infrastructure managers
• Software vendors, IoT and data platform providers
• Standards bodies, policymakers and research organisations

Related standards

• ISO 19650‑1:2018 (BIM information management concepts)
• ISO/IEC 30173 (Digital twin - Concepts and terminology)
• ISO 6707‑1 (Buildings and civil engineering vocabulary)

FprEN 18162 establishes the foundational vocabulary and taxonomy required to build interoperable, high-quality digital twins in the built environment, enabling better lifecycle data use and cross‑stakeholder communication.

Standards Content (Sample)

SLOVENSKI STANDARD
01-maj-2026
Informacijsko modeliranje gradenj (BIM) - Digitalni dvojčki v grajenem okolju -
Koncept in definicije
Building Information Modelling (BIM) - Digital twins applied to the built environment -
Concept and definitions
Building information modelling - Digitale Zwillinge in der bebauten Umwelt - Struktur und
Definitionen
Modélisation des informations de la construction (BIM) - Jumeaux numériques en
environnement bâti - Concept et définitions
Ta slovenski standard je istoveten z: EN 18162:2026
ICS:
35.240.67 Uporabniške rešitve IT v IT applications in building
gradbeništvu and construction industry
91.010.01 Gradbeništvo na splošno Construction industry in
general
2003-01.Slovenski inštitut za standardizacijo. Razmnoževanje celote ali delov tega standarda ni dovoljeno.

EN 18162
EUROPEAN STANDARD
NORME EUROPÉENNE
March 2026
EUROPÄISCHE NORM
ICS 35.240.67
English Version
Building Information Modelling (BIM) - Digital twins
applied to the built environment - Concept and definitions
Modélisation des informations de la construction (BIM) Building information modelling - Digitale Zwillinge in
- Jumeaux numériques en environnement bâti - der bebauten Umwelt - Struktur und Definitionen
Concept et définitions
This European Standard was approved by CEN on 12 January 2026.

CEN members are bound to comply with the CEN/CENELEC Internal Regulations which stipulate the conditions for giving this
European Standard the status of a national standard without any alteration. Up-to-date lists and bibliographical references
concerning such national standards may be obtained on application to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre or to any CEN
member.
This European Standard exists in three official versions (English, French, German). A version in any other language made by
translation under the responsibility of a CEN member into its own language and notified to the CEN-CENELEC Management
Centre has the same status as the official versions.

CEN members are the national standards bodies of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia,
Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway,
Poland, Portugal, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye and
United Kingdom.
EUROPEAN COMMITTEE FOR STANDARDIZATION
COMITÉ EUROPÉEN DE NORMALISATION

EUROPÄISCHES KOMITEE FÜR NORMUNG

CEN-CENELEC Management Centre: Rue de la Science 23, B-1040 Brussels
© 2026 CEN All rights of exploitation in any form and by any means reserved Ref. No. EN 18162:2026 E
worldwide for CEN national Members.

Contents Page
European foreword . 3
Introduction . 4
1 Scope . 6
2 Normative references . 6
3 Terms and definitions . 6
4 Abbreviated terms . 8
5 Taxonomy . 8
5.1 Asset digital twin (ADTw) stages and types . 8
5.1.1 General. 8
5.1.2 ADTw prototype (ADTwP) . 9
5.1.3 ADTw instance or ADTw (ADTwI or ADTw) . 9
5.1.4 ADTw aggregate (ADTwA) . 10
5.1.5 Additional aspects: Existing assets in the built environment . 10
5.2 Process digital twin (PDTw) in the built environment . 11
6 DTw stakeholders in the built environment . 12
Bibliography . 13

European foreword
This document (EN 18162:2026) has been prepared by Technical Committee CEN/TC 442 “Building
Information Modelling (BIM)”, the secretariat of which is held by SN.
This European Standard shall be given the status of a national standard, either by publication of an
identical text or by endorsement, at the latest by September 2026, and conflicting national standards shall
be withdrawn at the latest by September 2026.
Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of
patent rights. CEN shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.
Any feedback and questions on this document should be directed to the users’ national standards body.
A complete listing of these bodies can be found on the CEN website.
According to the CEN-CENELEC Internal Regulations, the national standards organisations of the
following countries are bound to implement this European Standard: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia,
Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland,
Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of North
Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye and the United
Kingdom.
Introduction
This document defines the terminology for describing the relation between objects in the built
environment sector, their digital twin (DTw) counterparts, and associated information.
In addition, this document aims at facilitating data flow within this sector, promoting the availability,
sharing, and reuse of high-quality data to drive the creation of new business models and services, thus
contributing to the development of data spaces. This development strives for better adherence to the
FAIR principles (see Nachabe et al. [5] for more information), which means that information and services
related to buildings and civil engineering works and their digital twins should be easily findable,
accessible, interoperable, and reusable.
Moreover, the Web of Data initiative led by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has developed a set
of authoritative standards for semantic interoperability. These standards enable the representation,
exchange, querying, reasoning and validation of knowledge based on graph-oriented data models which
can be relevant for DTw. Resource Description Framework (RDF) vocabularies, Simple Knowledge
Organization System (SKOS) taxonomies and Web Ontology Language (OWL) ontologies help define and
organize the important concepts of a domain, as well as the relationships that can exist between objects
in that domain.
The use of standard vocabularies for metadata is already ubiquitous on the web, and the use of ontologies
to structure data are becoming increasingly important, notably via the Linked Open Data initiative.
Semantic interoperability of data and services on data spaces is favoured by a widespread use of
ontologies.
As point of start, it is inherent to any digitalisation of a real asset in the built environment, that two main
types of information are faced:
— contextual data sets, behaving as static data with minor changes across the lifetime of the real asset;
— dynamic data sets, behaving as fast-moving data series in short intervals of time, approaching
towards near-real-time rates.
From the contextual data sets, two main subtypes are considered: structured and unstructured data.
From the dynamic data sets, another two main subtypes are considered: real and synthetic data.
Figure 1 represents these relations between the types and subtypes of data.

Figure 1 — Representation of the main types and subtypes of data
Considering that a digital twin:
a) represents a virtual system that contains all relevant information about the target entity for the DTw's
specific uses; and
b) is not a static representation due to its synchronization with its target entity over time;
it can thus include both types of data sets (contextual and dynamic), as well as a method to track the
evolution of the real asset over time.
In addition, to be able to connect stakeholders with all these data sets, an information and communication
technology (ICT) digital twin system or environment is needed as an integrated, multi-domain physics
application space to operate them. As it happens to be in any digital twin environment or system, these
two basic drivers can include completely different requests depending on which is the role of the
stakeholder interacting and the typology of the digital twin. However, two main overarching purposes
can be described, as described in [6]:
Interrogative: The data sets can be consulted for the current and past histories. Individual digital twin
can be interrogated for their current system state. Multiple aggregation of digital twin data sets would
provide data that would be correlated for predicting future states.
Predictive: The digital twin would be used for predicting future behaviour and performance of the target
entity. That also includes simulation of alternative configurations or hypothetical scenarios. Before
reaching a mature stage, the prediction would be of the behaviour of the designed asset with components
that vary between its high and low tolerances in order to ascertain that the as-designed product met the
proposed requirements. Once the asset is built, the predictive performance would be based on current
point in the product's lifecycle at its current state and move forward.
1 Scope
This document defines the concepts and definitions and is the first part of a set of standards to define the
framework for digital twins in the built environment. It includes the terms and definitions, the relation
with building information modelling and addresses the lack of standards for the qualitative specification
of a digital twin, which can include geometric, attributive, structural and infrastructural quality, as
applicable.
This document is based on the experiences obtained in use cases [1] and documents from other technical
committees, including ISO/IEC 30173.
This document can be used in the development of other standards and in support of communications
among diverse, interested parties or stakeholders. This initiative aims to define an ecosystem of digital
twins opening the opportunity to release even greater value, using data for the public good.
2 Normative references
The following documents are referred to in the text in such a way that some or all of their content
constitutes requirements of this document. For dated references, only the edition cited applies. For
undated references, the latest edition of the referenced document (including any amendments) applies.
ISO/IEC 30173:2023, Digital twin — Concepts and terminology
ISO 6707-1, Buildings and civil engineering works — Vocabulary — Part 1: General terms
3 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document the terms and definitions within ISO/IEC 30173, ISO 6707-1 and the
following apply.
ISO and IEC maintain terminology databases for use in standardization at the following addresses:
— ISO Online browsing platform: available at https://www.iso.org/obp
— IEC Electropedia: available at https://www.electropedia.org/
3.1
asset
item, thing or entity that has potential or actual value to an organization
Note 1 to entry: It refers to independent units of the built environment (e.g. a building like a house or an hospital,
an infrastructure like a bridge or a road).
[SOURCE: ISO 55000:2014, 3.2.1, modified — The notes to entry have been removed and a new Note 1 to
entry has been added.]
3.2
asset digital twin
ADTw
digital twin (3.5) of an asset (3.1)
3.3
common data environment
CDE
agreed source of information for any given project or asset (3.1), for collecting, managing and
disseminating each information container through a managed process
[SOURCE: ISO 19650-1:2018, 3.3.15, modified — The note to entry has been removed]
3.4
component digital twin
CDTw
digital twin (3.5) of a component
Note 1 to entry: The component digital twin is typically a major element of the ADTw (3.2) or the PDTw (3.6), that
has significant impact on the performance of the target entity to which it belongs.
EXAMPLE A component digital twin can refer to a Heat Pump within the HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air
conditioning) system of a building.
3.5
digital twin
DTw
digital representation of a target entity with data connections that enable convergence between the
physical and digital states at an appropriate rate of synchronization
Note 1 to entry: Digital twin has some or all of the capabilities of visualization, simulation, surveying, monitoring,
forecasting, control, etc.
3.6
process
set of interrelated or interacting activities that use inputs to deliver an intended result
[SOURCE: ISO 9000:2015, 3.4.1, modified — The notes to entry have been removed]
3.7
process digital twin
PDTw
digital twin (3.5) of a process (3.6)
Note 1 to entry: Process refers to procedures taken along the lifecycle of the assets (3.1) in the built environment
(e.g. construction processes, maintenance processes…).
Note 2 to entry: Digital twin has some or all of the capabilities of visualization, simulation, surveying, monitoring,
forecasting, control, etc.
3.8
system
interacting objects organized to achieve one or more stated purpose
3.9
system digital twin
SDTw
digital twin (3.5) of a system (3.8)
Note 1 to entry: A system digital twin provides visibility into a set of interconnected or interdependent target
entities.
EXAMPLE A system digital twin can refer to the whole HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) system
of a building.
3.10
digital twin environment
system providing functionalities f
...