2022 SOST Opportunities and Actions Roundtable
Summary: Digital twins of the ocean can help address many of the priorities identified in the Opportunities and Actions for Ocean Science and Technology Report while also supporting the cross-cutting themes of Climate Change and Resilient Ocean Science and Technology Infrastructure. One of the challenges in a large government organization is that there are many different departments and agencies responsible for various aspects of the ocean science and technology enterprise. Each has a very specific function, deals with very specific data to solve very specific problems, but the relationships between and inter-dependencies of those data are often not recognized or accounted. While interagency working groups can improve coordination and data sharing between agencies, to truly address the opportunities and actions in the report will require the translation of data to information to knowledge and the supporting infrastructure to effectively and efficiently accomplish this. Digital twins of the ocean can help. They provide a virtual representation of the real ocean that combines data and observations from the real ocean with models, data science and artificial intelligence to adapt as the real world changes. Most significantly and powerfully, they can be manipulated to address “what if” scenarios that enable many diverse users to interact with the data and information to improve collective understanding and inform management and policy decisions. Many of the required marine technological elements needed to characterize and monitor the marine environment are available. Finding ways to transfer these skills / technologies through an integrated and organized digital approach will be vital in producing the insights needed to help address many of the priorities identified in the Opportunities and Actions for Ocean Science and Technology Report. It is recommended that SOST, or some appropriate affiliate organization, convene a working group of digital twin of the ocean practitioners from government, academia and the private sector to establish best practice in their development and ensure interoperability in a U.S. domestic context, while aligning with the goals and objectives of the DITTO UN Ocean Decade Program.
Sector: Industry
Organization: Fugro
POC: David Millar, DMillar@fugro.com
Other Contacts: Josie Loy Brillon, JLoy@fugro.com