Digital Twins of the Ocean - DITTO Decade programme

The Vision of the DITTO Programme is a world where Digital Twins of the Ocean are used to support ocean protection, ocean governance and a sustainable blue economy.

The Mission of DITTO is to develop and share a common understanding of Digital Twins of the Ocean (DTOs); to establish best practices, and advance a digital framework for DTOs to empower ocean professionals from all sectors around the world to effectively create their own digital twins.

Digital Twins of the Ocean (DTOs) enable users to address "What if" scenarios based on shared data, models and knowledge. DTOs empower ocean professionals, citizen scientists, policymakers, and local communities to visualise and explore ocean knowledge, data, models and forecasts. The use of Digital Twins of the Ocean is rapidly evolving, spanning a wide range of use cases from engineering to policy, from science to operational services. DITTO promotes co-design of twins, their application, and capacity building.

The DITTO Whitepaper defines the concept of digital twins of the ocean, lays out the challenges, opportunities for actions and suggestions for their implementation. Moreover, it introduces the five working groups of DITTO, each focusing on one key element in the development of digital twins of the ocean:

WG 1: Supportive Ocean Observations & Data Networks

WG 2: Integrative Digital Twins Models

WG 3: Interoperability Nexus and Architecture for Ocean Digital

WG 4: Community Engagements

WG 5: Capacity Development for the Digital Ocean

The Steering Committee (SC) is responsible for providing scientific and technical insights, overseeing the DITTO implementation, and determining time-limited task specific working groups. The SC is made up of experts from the ocean and digital twinning community from a diverse perspective:

Leading Co-Chairs

• Joanna Staneva (Helmholtz Zentrum HEREON, Germany)
  
• Fei Chai (Xiamen University, China)

Co-Chairs

• Marina Tonani (Mercator Ocean International, France)
  
• Swadhin Behera (JAMSTEC, Japan)

• Anna Hermsen (Netherlands)
• Alain Arnaud (Mercator Ocean International, France)
• Avichal Mehra (NOAA/NWS/NCEP/EMC, USA)
• Deanesh Ramsewak (Centre for Maritime and Ocean Studies (CMOS) at UTT, Trinidad and Tobago)
• Di Wan (Fisheries and Oceans Canada / Pêches et Océans Canada, Victoria, Canada)
• Giovanni Coppini (Euro-Mediterranean Centre on Climate Change (CMCC) Foundation, Italy)
• Irikomuni Zauisomue (University of Namibia, Namibia)
• Joaquín Tintoré (SOCIB and IMEDEA (CSIC-UIB), Spain)
• Jon Blower (National Oceanography Centre, UK)
• Matthew Palmer (Plymouth Marine Laboratory, UK)
• Patrick Heimbach (University of Texas at Austin, USA)
• Sung Yong Kim (Korea)
• Urmas Lips (Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia)

The SC has direct communication with the network of DITTO implementing partners, the Ocean Decade Coordination Unit, the Ocean Prediction DCC, other relevant Ocean Decade Programs, DITTO affiliated projects, and regional, national and community based digital ocean twinning activities.

The DITTO steering committee is a group of individuals from different scientific backgrounds and countries, who are deeply engaged in issues related to digital twins. The selected steering group elected two leading co-chairs and two additional co-chairs from within the SC to lead the work of the committee.

The ECOPs community will select 2-3 further members of the ECOPs community to the complete DITTO SC.

You can reach out to the DITTO Steering Committee via the following email: ditto.oceandecade@gmail.com .