As part of the second UN Ocean Conference, a Digital Twins of the Ocean workshop will be held in the exterior of the Portugal Pavilion on 27th June 2022.

Digital Twins of the Ocean (DITTO) is one of the actions of the 2021-2030 United Nations Decade of Oceans Science for Sustainable Development.

Digital Twins of the Ocean will become a digital framework in which all marine data, modelling, and simulation, along with AI algorithms and specialised tools including best practice, will enable shared capacity to access, manipulate, analyse, and visualise marine information.

It will enable users and partners to create ocean related development scenarios addressing issues such as energy, mining, fisheries, tourism, and nature-based solutions. Digital-Twins can quantify benefits and environmental change and provide powerful visualisations. DITTO will empower ocean professionals including scientific users to create their own local or topical digital twins of ‘their ocean issue’ by using standard workflows.

This workshop will present the Digital Twin of the Ocean concept with a basis in the UN DITTO initiative. It will further present various ongoing Digital Twin of the Ocean projects, in particular the European Digital Twin of the Ocean and the Iliad Digital Twins of the Ocean Green Deal project.

Registration and Agenda

The workshop is separated into two parts:

Part I: UN DITTO and Digital Twins of the Ocean 1400-1445 (Wave stage, Portugal Pavilion)

Description: This workshop will present the Digital Twin of the Ocean concept with a basis in the UN DITTO initiative. It will further present various ongoing Digital Twin of the Ocean projects in particular the European Digital Twin of the Ocean and the Iliad Digital Twins of the Ocean Green Deal project.

1400	Welcome	Bente Lilja Bye	BLB
1405	UN DITTO – Digital Twins for an accessible ocean	Martin Visbeck	GEOMAR
1420	The European Mission Ocean and the European Digital Twin	Zoi Konstantinou	EC, DG MARE
1435	The European Digital Twin of the Ocean	Alain Arnaud	Mercator Ocean International

Part II: Iliad and Digital Twins of the Ocean (Wave stage, Portugal Pavilion)

Description: This workshop will present the Green Deal Iliad Digital Twin of the Ocean Project's contributions to the Digital Twins of the Ocean concept. In particular, we will focus on its requirements and architecture, the concept and implementation of a marketplace, and general contribution to enhanced decision support on local, regional, and global levels.

1505	Welcome	Artur Rocha	INESCTEC
1510	Iliad Pilots and requirements for Digital Twins of the Ocean	Georgios Sylaios	Democritus University of Thrace
1520	Iliad Digital Twin Marketplace	Bente Lilja Bye	BLB
1530	Iliad interoperability Architecture	Pedro Sarmento	Wavec
1540	ILAD modeling and decision support	Artur Rocha	INESCTEC

Speakers

Prof. Dr. Martin Visbeck

Prof. Dr. Martin Visbeck is head of the research unit Physical Oceanography at GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel and professor at Kiel University, Germany. His research interests revolve around the ocean’s role in the climate system, ocean circulation, upwelling systems, integrated global ocean observation, digital-twins of the ocean, and the ocean dimension of sustainable development. He led the ‘Future Ocean’ Network in Kiel to advance integrated marine sciences by bringing together different disciplines to work on marine issues. He serves on a number of national and international advisory committees, including a member of the Governing Board of the International Science Council (ISC), Joint Scientific Committee of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP), leadership council of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), and past member of the Interim Decade Advisory Board for the UN Decade of Ocean Science Decade for Sustainable Development 2021-2030 and the EU ocean mission board assembly. He was elected fellow of the AGU, AMS, TOS, and the European Academy of Sciences. Martin Visbeck is involved in strategic planning and decision-making processes about the ocean, and sustainable development at a national, European, and global level.

Zoi Konstantinou

Zoi Konstantinou is Policy Officer in the European Commission, DG Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (MARE), Unit for Maritime Innovation, marine knowledge, and investment. Zoi is a Marine Scientist MSc-PhD, specialising in Integrated Coastal and Marine Management. Before joining the European Commission she worked in marine research, science-policy interface and science communication, and in higher education. As an EC Policy Officer, she is involved in issues related to marine observations and data, the management of the European Marine Observation and Data network (EMODnet), the European Digital Twin Ocean, and other issues related to knowledge and research.

The Commission's Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries is responsible for the policy area of fisheries, the Law of the Sea, and Maritime Affairs.

Alain Arnaud

Alain Arnaud is Head of Digital Program at Mercator Ocean international. Senior Satellite Image Application Expert and Space Business Consultant, he graduated from Ecole Polytechnique (X89) and received his PhD in computer science in 1997. He worked as a technical manager in the French Space Agency (CNES) and the European Space Agency (ESA). In 2000 he founded ALTAMIRA INFORMATION specialised in the millimetric measurement of ground movements from radar satellite images, becoming part of the CLS Group in 2010. From 2010 to 2015 he was director of radar activities for CLS Group. From 2015 to 2017 he was a partner of Avet Venture, high tech venture capital fund. Since 2017, he is leading the digital transition at Mercator Ocean, as manager of the WEkEO project (in collaboration with Eumetsat and ECMWF) and manager of the Digital Twin of the Ocean program.

Georgios Sylaios

Georgios Sylaios is a Full Professor at the Democritus University of Thrace (DUTH), Department of Environmental Engineering, Xanthi, Greece. He was the Chair of the Department in the period 2014-2016. At present, he is the Head of the Laboratory of Ecological Engineering and Technology. He is a physical oceanographer by training, with long experience in the coordination of European and nationally-funded research projects. Overall, he has coordinated 34 research projects with a total DUTH budget of 6 million euros. He has been the coordinator of ODYSSEA, a Blue Growth research project funded by Horizon 2020 with a budget of 8.4M Euros. Currently, he is a Work-package leader and Executive Board Member in EcoScope and Iliad H2020 projects. His publication list includes 276 scientific publications, 88 of which are published in peer-reviewed international journals, 81 in peer-reviewed international proceedings, 51 in national proceedings, 42 technical reports, 1 e-book, 9 book chapters, and 4 special issues as Guest Editor. His works have received 1,500 citations (h-index 21). Sylaios's research interest lie in the field of environmental monitoring and operational modelling in coastal aquatic systems; hydrography and biogeochemistry of marine systems; hydrology and nutrients management of streams and rivers (mostly heavily modified); precision irrigation and water-saving technologies at farm scale; numerical models nesting, coupling, and predictive operation; artificial intelligence, machine learning, and neuro-fuzzy modelling.

Bente Lilja Bye

Bente Lilja Bye runs a research and consultancy company, BLB, focusing on transforming Earth observation data into information and knowledge for societal benefit. Bente supports the NextGEOSS data hub and platform operations, particularly through capacity development and resource mobilization which she also offers to the Iliad Digital Twin of the Ocean. In Iliad she serves as Innovation manager. She has acted as Director of the European Sea Level Service and contributed to developing the marine component of the Copernicus program (GMES). Since 2004 Bente has been an active member of the GEO community, starting out serving as Research Director of the Norwegian Mapping Authority. She has been engaged both as a representative in the GEO plenary, in committees, and contributing to the GEO Work Programme. She has served on the GEO Program Board representing Norway bringing her expertise on the polar regions. Bente characterises herself as a nature loving gadget geek and is frequently seen on various expeditions on land or ocean.

Pedro Sarmento

Pedro Sarmento has more than 10 years of expertise in digital and analytics, as well as project implementation, particularly IT solutions implementation, with +20 years of experience. Currently, Pedro works in Wavec where among others he leads the co-design development in the H2020 project Iliad Digital Twin of The Ocean. In 2019 he founded ACC for Airlines, a consultancy firm focused on the airline industry's digital transformation journey. Pedro has spent the majority of his career developing project methodologies, solution architectures, and solution development in Accenture.

Artur Rocha

Artur Rocha is a senior researcher at INESC TEC since 1998. He is a research center coordinator of HumanISE - Human-centered computing and Information Science. Current research interests include platforms and methods for collaborative research, privacy-preserving distributed computation, the semantic sensor Web (IoT), and Big Data processing. From October 1996 to December 1997, he was an associate member of CERN - European Laboratory for High Energy Physics, IT Division/Web Office. In the EOOS area, he participates in the implementation of the RAIA Observatory (Interreg projects RAIA, RAIA.co, RAIA TEC, MarRisk, and RADAR ON RAIA), SeaBioData(EEA), MELOA (H2020), and C4G which is the Portuguese node of EPOS (H2020 EPOS-SP). He leads the modeling and analytics work package in Iliad.

Registration and Agenda