Digital Twin-sustained 4D Ecological monitoring of restoration in fishery depleted areas (Digi4Eco)
Short description
This project aims to develop a digital twin-sustained 4D ecological monitoring system made by networks of robotic platforms, tailored for restoration efforts in fishery-depleted areas. These platforms can collect data to build digital twins for expanding our understanding of the 4D changes of marine ecosystems.
Project partner University of Gothenburg will focus on the development of a digital twin for robotic monitoring of the impact of elevated particle loads (plumes). The project will use Kristineberg Center for equipment tests and demonstrations, as well as for summerschools. Missions of two tele-operated seafloor robots from the sedimentology lab at Kristineberg will be planned using a digital twin, and executed at a station in the Gullmarsfjord which is regularly trawled for Norway lobsters.
Researchers in the project
Laurenz Thomsen, Department of Marine Sciences, University of Gothenburg
E-mail: laurenz.thomsen@gu.se
Azizul Hakim, Department of Marine Sciences, Kristineberg Center, University of Gothenburg
E-mail: azizul.hakim@gu.se
More about the Experimental Sedimentology and Seafloor Robot Laboratory at Kristineberg Center.
A digital twin of the ocean - DTO
A digital twin is a digital representation of real-world entities or processes. Digital twins use real-time and historical data to represent the past and present, and numerical models to simulate future scenarios.
Researchers will be able to use the DTO to predict how climate change and human activity will affect marine ecosystems, such as the Posidonia meadows and tuna migration. It will help assess different management plans and choose the most efficient one to implement taking into consideration all parameters, including socio-economic ones.
Entrepreneurs will be able to use the DTO to plan activities at sea. For instance to optimally plan the siting of aquaculture farms, taking into account decadal predictions of salinity, plankton, currents and extreme heat events, with daily forecasting of oxygen, nutrients, nitrates or harmful algae blooms. This will optimise production and minimise negative impacts. The same approach would be of value to accelerate the implementation of marine renewable energies.
Local authorities will be able to use the DTO to test, among other things, the effectiveness of blue and green infrastructures resilient to sea-level rise tested on several scenarios.
Citizens will be able to contribute to biological and ecological observation campaigns (e.g. on plastics) to improve models and use these models for own purposes e.g. extreme weather events alerts, local jellyfish bloom predictions or safe and clean swimming spots.
Source: European Commission