Oral C5 A Federated Ocean-Earth Digital Twin Ecosystem: Connecting EDITO, Destination Earth and Open Standards

2:35 PM - 2:45 PM JST(5:35 AM - 5:45 AM UTC)

[cMFDCOEL-05] Digital Ocean Twins as an Emerging Tool for Advancing Ocean Literacy: Opportunities and Challenges

*Lara Veylit¹ (1. SINTEF Ocean (Norway))

Digital twins of the ocean (DTOs) have the potential to be an ideal digital tool to enhance ocean literacy due to their interactive capabilities and integration of data from multiple disciplines. However, DTOs are vulnerable to misuse and to be misinterpreted by users, which could hinder users’ ability to act as responsible ocean stewards. In this work, we assess whether DTOs can be useful affective learning tools for advancing ocean literacy, considering the possible mismatch between the technological complexity of DTOs and the needs of non-technical end users. We particularly highlight the importance of co-designing DTOs for explicit user groups in collaboration with experts from a range of fields, including Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) researchers and information designers, to develop effective and accessible user interfaces. We cautiously conclude that DTOs can be useful affective learning tools for improving collective ocean literacy via attitudinal change and can facilitate reaching high-level policy objectives (per the goals of initiatives such as the EU DTO and the UN Ocean Decade) when user needs (such as those of decision makers) are prioritized.