Oral B4 - Asian Hub

9:05 AM - 9:17 AM JST(12:05 AM - 12:17 AM UTC)

[hIaLijy4-02] Digital twin of the ocean as a catalyst for blue economy innovation

*Fei Chai¹ (1. Xiamen University (China))

The global ocean economy is undergoing an urgent transition from an ecologically harmful, profit-driven model to a sustainable blue economy. Yet traditional maritime governance systems still struggle with real-time monitoring, cross-sector collaboration, and efficient decision-making, highlighting a pressing need for advanced digital solutions. The Digital Twin of the Ocean (DTO) offers a promising pathway forward. By creating dynamic, virtual replicas of marine environments, it integrates real-time observations with advanced modeling, supported by AI and supercomputing. Its multi-module architecture, encompassing data, models, analysis, and visualization, enables stakeholders to ask critical questions in the immediate ("What now?"), prospective ("What next?"), and hypothetical ("What if?") scenarios. Advanced DTO systems have the potential to support a wide range of blue economy sectors through full-lifecycle management, including aquaculture, offshore wind energy, shipping, disaster mitigation, blue carbon initiatives, and marine tourism. However, challenges remain in areas such as integrating heterogeneous data, improving model accuracy, and ensuring cybersecurity. Future development should focus on establishing unified mathematical frameworks, hybrid modeling techniques, edge-cloud computing systems, and enhanced interdisciplinary collaboration. With sustained investment and global cooperation, DTOs can become a cornerstone of a sustainable and resilient blue economy.