Digital Twin Earth Hydrology Next
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
Climate change is profoundly affecting the global water, energy and carbon cycle, increasing the likelihood and severity of extreme events [e.g., Brocca et al., 2023]. Better decision-support systems are essential to accurately predict and monitor environmental disasters, and optimally manage water and environmental resources. A Digital Twin Component (DTC) on Hydrology and Hydro-Hazards would offer ground-breaking solutions for monitoring and simulation, yet it requires high-resolution (1 km, 1 hour-day) satellite Earth Observation (EO) data, fully integrated with advanced and spatially distributed modelling systems.
The overarching objective of the Digital Twin Earth (DTE) Hydrology Next project is to prototype a full advanced end-to-end demonstrator of DTE over Europe and targeted regions in Africa and central America at high resolution in space and time (targeting 1 km and 1 hour) by extending the successful implementation of DTE Hydrology and DTE Hydrology evolution projects that has been carried out over the Po River Valley in northern Italy and over the Mediterranean region, respectively. Brocca et al. [2024] provided a full overview of the DTE Hydrology projects including challenges, limitations and future steps.
Specifically, previous DTE Hydrology (Evolution) projects have demonstrated the potential to advance towards an end-to-end reconstruction of the hydrological cycle at high resolution in space and time by an effective combination of state-of-the-art EO data, in situ observations, advanced hydrological and hydraulic modelling, AI and advanced digital platform capabilities. DTE Hydrology Next project will provide further advances in that respect by implementing use cases for flood and landslide prediction, drought monitoring and water resources management, and by developing a cloud-based infrastructure for the visualisation and the full interaction with the simulations and the results of the Use Cases.
CONSORTIUM
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