Piloting an Information Management Framework for Environmental Digital Twins
Lead Research Organisation:
NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHY CENTRE
Department Name: Science and Technology
Abstract
This research is focused on the development of a widely applicable IMFe that is informed by a new pilot digital twin and other existing twin initiatives. The activity will develop the IMFe in an agile way, as described in the IMFe report [2] and so fundamental to the project's success will be tight coupling of the IMFe development within the digital twin (WP4) and the developments of the IMFe for more general use, including in other digital twins (WP3). This tight coupling is depicted in Figure 1. The ambition to develop a fully functioning digital twin, with well-developed IMFe components, means the development will need to be streamlined and efficient. Strong user interaction, particularly with Defra family representatives, will ensure that the maximum value is obtained from the digital twin whilst delivering the dual purpose of an IMFe in practice, as evidenced by an asset register that contains the IMFe components developed.
Publications
Durden J
(2024)
Defining the target population to make marine image-based biological data FAIR
in Ecological Informatics
| Description | The principles of information management in environmental digital twins (established in a previous study) were successfully tested against a set of digital twins, including a new demonstrator twin of the Haig Fras Marine Protected Area. A key part of the project was to facilitate discussions at a national and international level, which was done through a Senior Stakeholder Group and through participation in multiple international conferences, including a large Summit in China (see other outputs in this submission). This community collaboration is vital to ensure that digital twins use common approaches and are interoperable. |
| Exploitation Route | The assets are being made freely available, including via the asset catalogue and the website above. |
| Sectors | Environment |
| URL | https://imfe-pilot.noc.ac.uk/ |
| Description | Yes. The outcomes of the project have been presented and discussed with multiple stakeholders in government and industry. In particular, the demonstrator digital twin of the Haig Fras Marine Protected Area has been co-designed with potential end users in Defra and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, the body responsible for monitoring the UK's MPAs. Additionally, the project facilitated discussions with a wider range of stakeholders, including the Met Office, the Digital Twin Hub, the Alan Turing Institute and others. These discussions are being sustained through follow-on projects funded as part of the NERC/Met Office TWINE programme |
| First Year Of Impact | 2023 |
| Sector | Environment |
| Impact Types | Societal Policy & public services |
| Title | Greater Haig Fras autonomous underwater vehicle seafloor survey - mosaicked image tiles used to assess benthic assemblages and seabed types (2012). |
| Description | Seafloor visual images were acquired during a survey within the Greater Haig Fras Marine Conservation Zone (MCZ), central Celtic Sea, in 2012. This was the first in a series of similar surveys to be conducted in this location. A camera system mounted on the autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) Autosub6000 was deployed during RRS Discovery cruise 377/8 (D377/8), and images were collected from four 4.7 km transect lines. Images were mosaicked in "tiles" consisting of five consecutive images (each tile representing approximately 7.3 m2 of seabed). Images were orthorectified and scaled to a common altitude per tile. The mosaicked tiles are provided in this collection. The aim of the survey was to undertake high-resolution acoustic seabed mapping and visual imagery in a Marine Protected Area, in order to highlight the capability of AUV technology for offshore seabed mapping and benthic assemblage assessment. The work was initially undertaken as part of a Defra-funded project "Investigating the feasibility of utilizing AUV and Glider technology for mapping and monitoring of the UK MPA network (MB0118)", Case study 2: Shallow-water AUV mapping off SW UK (https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/500733/), and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) funded Autonomous Ecological Surveying of the Abyss project (NE/H021787/1), involving scientists from the National Oceanography Centre (NOC), UK. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Dataset only just published, but was used in demonstrator of Haig Fras Digital Twin, co-designed with Defra/JNCC |
| URL | https://www.bodc.ac.uk/data/published_data_library/catalogue/10.5285/093edbc7-3552-3d35-e063-6c86abc... |
| Title | Greater Haig Fras autonomous underwater vehicle seafloor survey - raw images (2012). |
| Description | A collection of raw format seafloor visual images acquired during a survey within the Greater Haig Fras Marine Conservation Zone (MCZ), central Celtic Sea, in 2012. This was the first in a series of surveys to be conducted in this location. A camera system mounted on the autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) Autosub6000 was deployed during RRS Discovery cruise 377/8 (D377/8), and images were collected from four 4.7 km transect lines. The raw images are provided in this collection, available on request. The images are provided in a raw format unique to the Grasshopper 2 camera system. The aim of the survey was to undertake high-resolution acoustic seabed mapping and visual imagery in a Marine Protected Area, in order to highlight the capability of AUV technology for offshore seabed mapping and benthic assemblage assessment. The work was initially undertaken as part of a Defra-funded project "Investigating the feasibility of utilizing AUV and Glider technology for mapping and monitoring of the UK MPA network (MB0118)", Case study 2: Shallow-water AUV mapping off SW UK (https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/500733/), and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) funded Autonomous Ecological Surveying of the Abyss project (NE/H021787/1), involving scientists from the National Oceanography Centre (NOC), UK. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Dataset has only just been published, but was used in the online Digital Twin demonstrator, which has been co-designed with Defra/JNCC |
| URL | https://www.bodc.ac.uk/data/published_data_library/catalogue/10.5285/090239b1-b7dd-1030-e063-6c86abc... |
| Title | Processed multibeam bathymetry grids from the Whittard Canyon and Haig Fras (JC166/7, 2018). |
| Description | Multibeam swath bathymetry data were collected with a hull-mounted Kongsberg EM122 and EM710 echosounder during RRS James Cook cruise JC166 (Chief Scientists Veerle Huvenne and Maaten Furlong) June-July 2018. The cruise was conducted to map Whittard Canyon, a deep ocean canyon in the Bay of Biscay, and Greater Haig Fras, a Marine Conservation Zone, in order to obtain a better insight in the biodiversity patterns, benthic habitat distributions and sediment transport processes of submarine canyons. The data were edited using Caris HIPS software by Catherine Wardell and gridded at 50m spacing (EM122) and 10m (EM710) in a WGS84 UTM Zone 29N projection. The vertical datum of the data is matched to mean sea level (MSL). They were exported as longitude-latitude-depth triples. Funding was provided to CLASS (Climate Linked Atlantic Sector Science), the National Capability Single Sector Marine Research Programme by NERC. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Dataset only just published, but was used in demonstrator of Haig Fras Digital Twin, co-designed with Defra/JNCC |
| URL | https://www.bodc.ac.uk/data/published_data_library/catalogue/10.5285/f3a790c8-2edc-36ed-e053-6c86abc... |
| Description | Research data alliance - New working group on digital twin interoperability |
| Organisation | Research Data Alliance (RDA) |
| Country | Global |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Pilot IMFe staff have contributed to the formation of a new RDA working group on digital twin interoperability. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Our partners are leading the working group which has started as a bird of a feather meeting to scope the working group activity in 2023 |
| Impact | Scoping of a working group on global digital twin interoperability |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | Turing Research and Innovation Cluster: Digital Twins |
| Organisation | Alan Turing Institute |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | We have led the thinking behind developing projects that align with IMFe, and are contributing to the Turing projects |
| Collaborator Contribution | They are developing further the ethics challenges, as well as furthering the AI required for the biodiversity monitoring. |
| Impact | None as yet |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | UN Decade for sustainable ocean development digital twin of the ocean (DITTO) actions |
| Organisation | SINTEF |
| Country | Norway |
| Sector | Multiple |
| PI Contribution | Pilot IMFe was a formal project within the UN Decade for sustainable ocean development digital twin of the ocean (DITTO) actions including the TURTLE sub action on digital twin interoperability.. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The PIlot IMFe projects contributes to the overall success of the UN Decade action which is dependent on contributions by partners. |
| Impact | The partnership has enables the outcomes and recommendation of the project to reach the global digital twins community . |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | WHOI Reef Digital Twins |
| Organisation | Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Active engagement between practitioners to share best practice and activities needed to further our work. We are actively pursuing joint projects. |
| Collaborator Contribution | As above |
| Impact | No impact as yet |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Title | Haig Fras Digital Twin Demonstrator |
| Description | This application is a Digital Twin of the Haig Fras Marine Protected Area. Through an interactive map interface it allows the user to access a wide range of data about Haig Fras including sea bed images, bathymetry and observations of species found in the area. The user can also perform a set of interactive calculations to help design future surveys to assess biodiversity. It is build from the following components: Frontend: A frontend application created in React, with the ability to interact with different data formats on both the backend and frontend. This project depends on certain backend services to perform tile server activities, as well as authentication and data calculations. API: The backend APIs that are called from the frontend to retrieve data, perform calculations on that data, handle logins and access permissions. Tileserver: Tile servers for serving Cloud Optimised Geotiff and MBtiles files. monitor_docker: A Python package for monitoring container operation on the server. frontend_test: Automated selenium tests for the frontend. salt_config: Salt configuration rules to build the virtual machines which host the digital twin. |
| Type Of Technology | Webtool/Application |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Open Source License? | Yes |
| Impact | The software has been demonstrated to JNCC and conversations are ongoing about how they will use it. |
| URL | https://imfe-pilot.noc.ac.uk |
| Title | pIMFe Digital Asset Register |
| Description | The pIMFe Digital Asset Register is a digital catalogue that describes and makes the digital twin discoverable by the community. It describes the digital twin in a machine actionable way for other digital twins to be able to find tools or components. This is the first iteration of such a catalogue that will evolve in future proejcts. |
| Type Of Technology | Webtool/Application |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Impact | This the first of a kind service that will be developed further in future projects |
| URL | https://catalogue-imfe.ceh.ac.uk/pimfe/documents |
| Description | AGU fall meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presented the Pilot IMFe project at the AGU fall meetings to get feedback form the international informatics research community. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022,2023 |
| URL | https://www.agu.org/fall-meeting |
| Description | Climate Informatics 2023 presentation incorporating IMFe principles in IceNet |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This conference brought together climate science practitioners around AI and data science perspectives, where I was able to bring the IMFe alongside sustainable software engineering to highlight the importance of such frameworks for future Digital Twin developments. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://youtu.be/sfmVOaR_YCg?si=b-gJFmoq4xNQEQ78 |
| Description | Senior Stakeholder Meeting, March 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Workshop on environmental digital twins with selected representatives from research, government and industry, chaired by Prof. Stephen Belcher of the Met Office, with representation from NERC, the Alan Turing Institute, Defra, InnovateUK and others. Primary purpose was to influence the shape of future UK-wide collaborations and strategies. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Senior Stakeholder Meeting, October 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Workshop on environmental digital twins with selected representatives from research, government and industry, chaired by Prof. Kirstine Dale of the Met Office, with representation from NERC, the Alan Turing Institute, Defra, UKSA and others. Primary purpose was to influence the shape of future UK-wide collaborations and strategies, specifically discussing alignment with the Digital Twin Hub and the TWINE programme. This was a follow-on from the March workshop. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Talk on the Role of Digital Research Infrastructure in Environmental Digital Twins |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Talk presented at a workshop on Analytics for Digital Earth organised by the University of Glasgow with support from the Royal Statistical Society through a Mardia Prize |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/mathematicsstatistics/research/stats/analytics/emulationanduncertainty... |
| Description | Webinar on Digital Twins of the Natural Environment: Achieving a Synergy of Process and Data Understanding |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Webinar presented to the CSDMS community (Community Surface Dynamics Modeling System) Abstract below: Digital twins are increasingly important in many domains, including for understanding and managing the natural environment. Digital twins of the natural environment are fueled by the unprecedented amounts of environmental data now available from a variety of sources from remote sensing to potentially dense deployment of earth-based sensors. Because of this, data science techniques inevitably have a crucial role to play in making sense of this complex, highly heterogeneous data. This webinar will reflect on the role of data science in digital twins of the natural environment, with particular attention on how resultant data models can work alongside the rich legacy of process models that exist in this domain. We will seek to unpick the complex two-way relationship between data and process understanding. By focusing on the interactions, we will end up with a template for digital twins that incorporates a rich, highly dynamic learning process with the potential to handle the complexities and emergent behaviors of this important area. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://csdms.colorado.edu/wiki/Presenters-0618 |
| Description | Webinar on The role of data science and digital research infrastructure in environmental digital twins |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Talk as part of the OEMC Webinar series (as part of teh Open Earth Monitor project). Abstract below: Digital twins are increasingly important in many domains, including for understanding and managing the natural environment. Digital twins of the natural environment are fueled by the unprecedented amounts of environmental data now available from a variety of sources from remote sensing to potentially dense deployment of earth-based sensors. Because of this, data science techniques inevitably have a crucial role to play in making sense of this complex, highly heterogeneous data. This seminar will reflect on the role of data science in digital twins of the natural environment, with particular attention on how resultant data models can work alongside the rich legacy of process models that exist in this domain. We seek to unpick the complex two-way relationship between data and process understanding. By focusing on the interactions, we end up with a template for digital twins that incorporates a rich, highly dynamic learning process with the potential to handle the complexities and emergent behaviors of this important area. The seminar will also consider the important role that Digital Research Infrastructure can play in underpinning digital twin development, including supporting FAIR assets to underlying data and modelling resources as well as ensuring federation between digital twin structures. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://us2.campaign-archive.com/?u=3be514c4ed02897886a18aecc&id=934012841d |