Among the various benefits brought forward by the Industry 4.0, an eminent benefit is the opportunity to leverage on digital technologies, such as Internet of Things, connected smart devices, and machine learning and optimization algorithms to make improved decisions. Within this trend, Digital Twins represent a technological concept to promote the convergence of advanced solutions offering the cradle for model-based and data-driven approaches as strong foundations for a timely and intelligent decision-making.
New possibilities are opened by the use of Digital Twins in the creation of decision-making architectures and frameworks in the whole assets/systems’ lifecycles at different levels of details (from item to systemic level) and to support different functionalities (monitoring, performance evaluation, diagnostics and prognostics, augmented operations, optimization). Research works on Digital Twins as advanced capability for Smart Maintenance and Industrial Asset Management may then cover different topics, including the technical and management spheres, the role of human operators, and the impact on sustainability, productivity and resilience.

Maintenance and asset management in the countries of Latin America have experienced a great advance in recent years. Mainly starting within oil & gas, maintenance and asset management are being applied in different sectors spacing from mining and energy towards infrastructures and health, amongst others. However, the journey to reach an effective and efficient management is far from over. For instance, a Colombian survey from 2018 and involving 411 companies showed that 19% of the sampled companies were already applying asset management (either ISO 55001 or PAS 55), and 20% were close to it. However, most of the surveyed enterprises still considered maintenance as an operational activity, rather than a strategic one. To improve the Latin America landscape, academia and industry are called to collaborate to explore the added value that maintenance and asset management can bring to enterprises.
Given the above, this invited session is meant to call for contributions from Latin America researchers concerning maintenance and asset management. One of the intrinsic objectives of this session is to contribute to the building of a Latin America network of universities and industries working in Maintenance and Asset Management.

The Architecture, Engineering, Construction and Operation (AECO), transportation and utilities sectors are increasingly embracing the digital age. Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Management are spreading fast across infrastructure companies, thus enabling a better control of cost and activities throughout their lifecycle. Companies are now realising the potential of digitisation to deliver value not only in the design and engineering phase but also in the other phases of the asset lifecycle (construction, usage, renovation, and demolition).
Concepts such as Smart Cities, Internet of Things and Industry 4.0 are now seen as major opportunities for actors in the infrastructure sectors to improve their products, processes, systems and services. The linkage between the real world and the virtual world enabled by these emerging technologies – supported by new data models and innovative data management strategies – allow to set up Dynamic Digital representations of the real World, called Digital Twins. This session will focus on Digital Twins applied to the infrastructure sector, particularly focussing on how this emerging approach can be used to realise value from existing and new infrastructure in a sustainable manner. In this context, authors are invited to submit unpublished contributions in the following areas of interest:

• Building Information Modelling and Building/Infrastructure Data Management
• Digital Twins of buildings and infrastructure systems;
• Smart cities and digital twins
• Intelligent and Predictive infrastructure asset management;
• Augmented/Virtual/Mixed Reality for building and infrastructure management;
• Blockchains/Distributed Ledger Technologies for infrastructure;
• Strategies for managing whole-life asset data through digital twins;
• Case studies and Demonstrations.