Awareness and expectations from the climate change adaptation digital twin

Digital Twins have become a buzzword often associated with innovation and transformation. The notion of digital twin includes a tight integration between models, data and decisions, which has resulted in a diverse and proliferating set of use cases, with applications across multiple areas of science, technology, and society. In the field of earth sciences, the digital twin for climate adaptation promises the potential to predict the impact of climate change with unprecedented reliability at regional and national scales. However, despite the opportunities and challenges it may bring to the climate adaptation community, researchers and practitioners working in the climate adaptation field may not be aware of such a digital twin and the added value of the information it can provide, and may even hold unrealistic expectations for purposes it can be applied to. To assess the awareness and expectations from the climate adaptation digital twin, a survey was launched targeted to adaptation researchers and practitioners. The analysis of results shows that the community sample reached with the survey (25 answers) is generally unaware of digital twins, let alone the one for adaptation to climate change, except for some academics involved in research projects of technical nature. The increase in the spatial and temporal resolution of climate and impact models, together with the simulation of different climate adaptation options to develop better regional and local adaptation strategies are the main highlighted opportunities, although for many it remains unclear who will be able to access the data and how to handle it. We suggest that a more tailored engagement and communication strategy is needed to raise awareness on the climate adaptation digital twin, the opportunities it may provide to the climate adaptation community and to the general public, and the interaction modes available for the uptake of the information generated. This calls for a stronger involvement of other disciplines, including experts in communication and dissemination, social sciences and humanities, user experience and data visualisation, in this undertaking.