TWINE: TWInning capability for the Natural Environment

Digital twins are an exciting and rapidly developing research area, with the potential to provide a step change in the way we understand our evolving environment and its impact on sensitive systems.

The TWInning Capability for the Natural Environment (TWINE) programme is being co-delivered by the Met Office and Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) to explore the potential of this technology for transforming environmental science and across priority areas including climate change adaptation and mitigation, biodiversity and ecosystems, and natural hazards and their mitigation.

Through the TWINE programme, NERC and the Met Office have funded six digital twin pilot projects across a range of applications, including harmful algal blooms, flooding and coastal overtopping, optimising data collected by ocean gliders and aircraft, and multi-objective land-use decisions.

We will introduce the TWINE programme, giving a brief overview of the projects which are advancing our understanding of how we can harness the potential of digital twinning technology. These include cross-sector challenges such as: risk to natural resources, Net Zero targets, and addressing the science-to-policy lag.