SEADOTs – Socio-ecological ocean management applications using Digital Ocean Twins

SEADOTs (Social-Ecological Ocean Management Applications using Digital Ocean Twins) is a research and innovation action that has recently received funding from the Mission Restore our ocean and waters by 2030 calls. SEADOTs will work with the integration of socio-ecological models into the EU Digital Twin Ocean (DTO) to advance holistic, just, and sustainable ocean management by bringing a predictive component for social-ecological aspects into comprehensive digital ocean twins (DOTs). DOTs, as the extension of DTO, will combine digital representations of the ocean with human activities in the ocean and combine socio-ecological and socio-economic data with ocean data, ecosystem data, and a variety of models.  

SEADOTs will work towards data acquisition and providing spatially explicit social-ecological data by merging socio-centric models with digital twin representations of specific oceanic regions. This will be demonstrated through applications in the Norwegian North Sea, the Southern North Sea and the Baltic Sea that address current challenges and developments of these areas. The collected data will be more comprehensive and include geospatial attributes, which are typically lacking in social domain data. The 'what-if' scenarios will focus on harmonising sustainable fisheries management with marine protected zones, assessing the impact of offshore wind projects on a small-island community, and examining the economic advantages and implications of shared marine spaces. These applications simulate the intricate interactions between human activities and marine ecosystems, with the objective to facilitate and inform political decision making, marine spatial planning, and adaptive management. SEADOTs ambition is to help safeguard ocean ecosystems, promote sustainable resource use, and enhance social and economic well-being. The project will leverage developments from ongoing Mission and Green Deal projects and demonstrate Ocean Management Applications with Digital Ocean Twins on the EU Digital Twin Ocean infrastructure as well as on distributed platforms for socio-ecological, socio-economic, and political decision makers. For that purpose, SEADOTs will collaborate with the co-funded projects, ongoing DTO projects, engage in stakeholder capacity building, and ensure data interoperability with geospatial ocean data in suitable repositories beyond the project period.  

The SEADOTs consortium is built across different scientific and technical excellence including social science, socio economics, standardisation, twin development, marine spatial planning, marine policy, gaming, and the UN Decade Ocean Best Practice.