Sustainability intelligence: Integrating Artificial Intelligence, the Internet of Things, and Digital Twins for resource-efficient and climate-resilient systems

Abstract

Sustainability has become one of the defining scientific and societal challenges of the twenty-first century. Climate change, rapid urbanization, population growth, increasing energy demand, and declining natural resources require decision-making that is continuous, adaptive, and supported by reliable environmental intelligence. Conventional monitoring systems, which often rely on periodic measurements and isolated analytical tools, are no longer sufficient for managing highly dynamic environmental systems. Recent advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), edge computing, and Digital Twins provide unprecedented opportunities to transform sustainability management from reactive monitoring into intelligent, predictive, and autonomous decision-making. IoT enables continuous environmental sensing, AI extracts knowledge from large heterogeneous datasets, edge intelligence supports low-latency analytics, while Digital Twins create dynamic virtual representations of physical systems capable of simulation and optimization. This critical integrative review examines recent developments in AI-enabled sustainability across smart energy systems, intelligent water management, precision agriculture, transportation, smart buildings, circular economy, and climate resilience. Rather than reviewing these technologies independently, the paper analyzes their interactions within an integrated digital ecosystem and discusses emerging topics including Green AI, carbon-aware computing, explainable AI, federated learning, cybersecurity, and sustainability governance. The review method combines a structured multi-database search with targeted evidence and standards updates through June 2026. Building upon the reviewed literature, the paper introduces the Sustainability Intelligence Framework (SIF), a conceptual seven-layer architecture integrating IoT sensing, edge intelligence, AI analytics, Digital Twins, decision intelligence, and sustainability assessment within a continuous feedback cycle. The proposed framework provides a systems-level perspective for designing adaptive, resilient, and resource-efficient infrastructures capable of supporting future sustainable development. The synthesis identifies continuous, auditable sustainability assessment (Layer 7), rather than the underlying six-layer IoT/cyber–physical stack, as the framework’s distinct contribution. It also shows that reported benefits remain difficult to compare because field validation, system boundaries, rebound effects, and lifecycle digital burdens are inconsistently reported.