Digital twins to revolutionize our knowledge of the oceans

The use of digital twins (exact reproductions of objects or environments), pioneered by the aerospace industry, is commonplace in engineering and manufacturing.

Although the concept is not new, its applications to the natural world are.

Despite this, they promise to revolutionize our knowledge of the oceans, seas and waters, and become a turning point in our ability to protect and restore them.

“I like the term 'twinning' because it reflects evolution.

It is an example of how much the community dedicated to marine sciences has evolved”

Martin Visbeck, head of the Physical Oceanography research unit at the Helmholtz Center for Oceanographic Research in Kiel

“Marine scientists try to understand the systems and their dynamics.

This allows us to model and make forecasts over the ocean similar to weather forecasts in the atmosphere.

We now have the ability to look into the distant future, but I never thought we would move towards ocean engineering like the one we are seeing today," says Martin Visbeck, head of the Physical Oceanography research unit at the Helmholtz Center for Oceanographic Research in Kiel. (GEOMAR) and professor at the university of that German city.

“I like the term

because it reflects evolution.

It is an example of how much the community dedicated to marine sciences has evolved.

We are moving from understanding to planning in order to achieve positive effects in the oceans by favoring solutions inspired by nature, perfecting the blue economy in order to reduce its environmental impact, and determining the optimal size and location of marine protected areas” .

Visbeck is part of an ambitious team of scientists collaborating in the development of the European Union Starfish 2030 mission: Recover our oceans and our waters.

In this initiative, the Digital Twin of the Ocean, better known by its English acronym DTO, is a crucial component to contribute to the task of recovering the oceans, seas and waters by 2030 and making the European Green Deal a reality.

From the fragments to the whole image

There are many examples of how digital twins are helping researchers and the private sector to simulate the future effects of climate change and, more generally, the effect of human action on the environment.

One example is Norwegian aquaculture, where fjord salmon farmers fight against sea lice.

Simulation with digital twins helps farmers find the best solutions to prevent the proliferation of these tiny parasites.

Another example is in the Netherlands, where digital twin technology is helping to refine interventions to protect against sea level rise.

This particular digital twin has been designed to support defense strategies against advancing waters through the optimal combination of widening levees, reinforcing sandbars, and strengthening mangroves and coral reefs.

"We already have fragments of digital twins," Visbeck noted.

“This is not to say that we don't have the technology, but right now the twins are biased or respond to very specific questions.

We're looking forward to having the DTO, and we've started to put together a framework for data and models to be much more connected and able to exchange information and use the information exchanged, so that you can take a broader view and investigate the effects in other areas of the ocean.

From data storage repositories to the digital twin

However you measure it, the ocean is immense.

Although it is difficult to imagine, 97% of the water on Earth is found in the oceans.

This means that creating models that seek a comprehensive understanding of the planet's ocean ecosystem is complicated and requires large data repositories, advanced cloud-based systems, and high-performance computing to process the information.

Equally important is building on existing resources, such as the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service, the European Marine Observation and Data Network (CMEMS and EMODnet, respectively), and the Commission's research infrastructures. European Union, such as the European Multidisciplinary Observatory of the Seabed and the Water Column (EMSO), Euro-Argo,

Creating a constantly evolving digital image of the global marine environment is Pierre Bahurel's specialty.

“We currently use digital ocean systems to make ocean-related forecasts and provide information,” explains the CEO of Mercator Ocean International, as well as the creator and director of CMEMS.

“Our team and others have worked in silos and created separate databases,” he explains.

“The time has come for ocean monitoring and information services to work together and combine different resources.

This is what we are currently doing with the recovery mission of the oceans and waters.

Combining the different projects, in the end we will be able, for example, to offer a first version of an integrated DTO”, he details.

“We know the actors and we know what to do.

I think it will take a few years for it to work on the scale we dream of, but it will be really fantastic."

Pierre Bahurel, CEO of Mercator Ocean International and creator and director of the CMEMS

Bahurel is excited about the possibility of applying the best of marine science and technology to take oceanography to a whole new level.

“There are people who may say that it is too soon;

to others it may seem too late, but I think it is the right time”, says Bahurel, who has also worked in Europe for Copernicus.

"Of course, it took us a few years and it wasn't easy, but we met with all the actors and others who were competing for the same thing, and we decided to partner."

The same steps will now be taken to reach the Digital Twin of the Ocean.

"We will do everything possible to present something concrete within a year," says Bahurel.

“We will strive to have a good plan in six months.

I think it will take a few years for it to work on the scale we dream of, but it will be really fantastic."

A copy of the ocean that will work in the cloud

The insights gained from the twin will be critical in helping scientists, policymakers and citizens understand the role that nature and humans play in shaping the ocean's future.

It will also help design the best policies and ways to manage ocean and water resources to achieve the European Union's goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.

This is a major turning point for ocean forecasters like Nadia Pinardi, Professor of Oceanography at the University of Bologna who coordinated the monitoring and evaluation of the EMODnet Mediterranean Sea Checkpoint .

“The digital representation of the ocean will help us test solutions in the future,” he says.

“Just as engineering companies check the reliability of physical objects by first simulating them in the digital environment, we will do the same with the ocean.

A digital twin is a way to protect our coastal environment by knowing in advance which solutions work best”, she specifies.

“Just as engineering companies check the reliability of physical objects by first simulating them in the digital environment, we will do the same with the ocean”

Nadia Pinardi, Professor of Oceanography at the University of Bologna

As an example, Pinardi predicts how the Digital Twin of the Ocean will help improve adaptive capacity in the face of threats to the coast from storms and sea level rise.

"Storm surges are the result of the combined effect of tides and strong winds," he explains.

“What is the solution to defend the coastline and protect lives and our property?

Until now, the solutions were the physical barriers erected in front of the sea and the annual filling of the beaches with sand.

Some may think that it is better to use solutions inspired by nature, since nature has the intrinsic ability to protect coastal areas, for example, with seagrass beds and mangroves...

For researchers, the DTO will help predict how changes in climate and human activity will affect marine ecosystems such as Mediterranean seagrass beds and tuna migrations.

At the same time, the technology could enable entrepreneurs like fish farmers to maximize production by predicting salinity, currents and extreme heat events, with daily forecasts of oxygen, nutrients, nitrates or harmful algal blooms.

It will also make it easier for local authorities to test which green and blue infrastructure could offer resilient solutions to sea level rise in different scenarios.

For citizens, the open and public models of digital twin technology will create a virtual feedback loop where they too can interact and provide instant feedback on their environment.

In turn, this information will be useful to refine the models of biological and ecological observation campaigns (as in the case of marine litter), or advance planning in the event of extreme weather alerts, predictions of dangerous jellyfish multiplication or beaches not safe for bathroom.

Once operational, the DTO will enable scientists to go beyond numbers and spreadsheets and tell the story of the ocean.

In Viseck's view, the digital twin can be used to communicate problems and solutions, which is a key aspect of climate change governance.

“As scientists, we see that phenomena such as warming and sea level rise are coming.

I think for many non-experts this is all quite abstract, a series of numbers in graphs, charts and maps.

Explaining that the Earth is going to change to become drier and warmer and showing these effects on maps is not easy to communicate to non-specialists.

Unfortunately, not everyone knows how to read a map or interpret numbers.

For most people, it's much more intuitive to put something in relation to what they see.

For example, we all understand landscapes, or ocean landscapes.

So if we can show people how the ocean landscape will change, that will make an impact and help them choose between different development options.

It is the way in which land and seascapes are changing that will impress non-experts the most.

And I believe that digital twins and advanced visualizations will allow us to do just that”, emphasizes the scientist.

Start a new adventure of creating digital twins

In February 2022, one of the largest projects to create digital twins was launched.

ILIAD, a flagship international project funded under the European Green Deal Call, has laid the groundwork for the development of the ILIAD Digital Twin of the Ocean (DTO).

It is a data-rich, interoperable digital twin designed to take full advantage of the vast amounts of new data brought in by terrestrial sources and modern computing infrastructures, from social media to the Internet of Things.

Building on the resources of 20 years of investment in policies and infrastructure for the blue economy, ILIAD will apply a “system of systems” approach to exploring the ocean through a virtual reality geo-visualization application.

The application will combine high-resolution modeling with instant detection of ocean parameters and the use of advanced algorithms to predict spatio-temporal phenomena and recognize patterns.

Specifically, the ILIAD DTO will consist of several instantaneous or near-instantaneous replicas of the ocean.

These digital twins will be used to facilitate the design and development of smart and innovative services, paving the way for an open, practical and equitable ocean digital twin within the European Union and beyond, starting with associated countries.

pilot projects will be carried out

in various sectors, such as marine renewable energy, fisheries and aquaculture, as well as marine traffic and port security.

To promote other applications through the ILIAD DTO, the partners will create the ILIAD Marketplace, similar to a

store , which vendors will use to distribute smartphone applications, plugins, interfaces, raw data, data provided by citizen science , synthesized information and value-added services derived from the ILIAD DTO.

The research described in this article was financed with EU funds.

Article originally published

Translation of NewsClips.

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