Context
The European Digital Twin Ocean is a revolutionary initiative launched by the European Commission. It is designed to make ocean knowledge easier to access, explore and use. It brings together data, models, computing capabilities and applications so that users can better understand the Ocean, explore possible changes and support science-based decisions.
EDITO provides the public digital platform that makes this possible. As EDITO moves into its next phase, let’s dive into why EDITO is needed and what it offers.
What is the European Digital Twin of the Ocean?
The European Digital Twin Ocean is a virtual replica of the ocean designed to make ocean knowledge more accessible and useful.
It brings together information from many different sources (including satellites, sensors, computer models and other ocean observations) to provide an increasingly comprehensive and up-to-date picture of the ocean.
By combining these different sources of information, the European Digital Twin Ocean can help us better understand what has happened, what is happening now, and what might happen next.
From ocean data to understanding and action
The ocean is constantly changing. Understanding these changes requires bringing together large amounts of information about physical, biological, chemical and human processes.
A Digital Twin Ocean (or DTO) makes it possible to connect this information and use it to explore real-world conditions and processes.
The European Digital Twin Ocean provides both historical and near real-time information about the ocean’s real-world conditions and processes. It can also be used to simulate different scenarios and explore possible outcomes.
For example, DTO applications can help users explore and predict:
Impact of plastic pollution, algal blooms or oil spills in specific areas;
Effects of climate phenomena or human activities;
Behaviour of marine species;
How nature-based solutions such as seagrass meadows or salt marshes could respond to flooding or erosion.
By exploring and comparing scenarios, researchers, data scientists, decision-makers, local authorities and other users can better understand the potential impact of different actions on the ocean.
Where does EDITO fit in?
The European Digital Twin Ocean and EDITO are closely connected, but they are not the same thing:
The European Digital Twin Ocean is the broader digital representation of the ocean that Europe is building together.
EDITO is the digital infrastructure and public platform that enables users to access, use and contribute to it.
EDITO brings together data, models, applications, services and computing resources in a common digital environment. It builds on existing European assets, in particular EMODnet and the Copernicus Marine Service, combining their data and services within a single framework.
In simple terms:
The European Digital Twin Ocean is what we are building.
EDITO is the platform that helps us build and use it.
More about the European Digital Twin Ocean
You can watch the following video for more details:
What's next?
Want to learn more about the platform? Continue with What is EDITO?
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