NSF Convergence Accelerator Track E: Digital Reefs: A Globally Coordinated, Universally Accessible Digital Twin Network for the Coral Reef Blue Economy

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole MA

Investigators

Abstract

Coral Reefs support almost one billion people worldwide, yet development of a thriving Coral Reef Blue Economy is threatened by planetary resilience issues and lack of universal access to the data and tools needed to address current challenges. Digital Reefs leverages Digital Twin Technology, Gaming Engine Platforms and Cloud Analytics to transform the way humans access, interact with, and use scientific data and models to solve societies’ most pressing environmental problems. Digital Reefs delivers intuitive, immersive 4-dimensional visualizations of each coral reef ecosystem and a suite of interactive user-inspired tools to empower millions of stakeholders around the world with the most effective decision-making tools in a rapidly changing ocean. Within 5 years, Digital Reefs, scaled to the globally interconnected Digital Reefs Network, will be the go-to tool for effective management, conservation, and restoration of coral reefs, and for communicating and sharing data, knowledge and experience. Ultimately, the Digital Reefs technology framework will provide the blueprint for expansion of Digital Twin technology oceanwide. Occupying less than 1% of the ocean surface, coral reef ecosystems play a disproportionately large role in the global economy, with an estimated annual value of $1 trillion. In the US, 4 million acres of coral reef support hundreds of thousands of jobs and protect vast expanses of coastal property, including strategic military infrastructure. Yet the sustainable growth of the Coral Reef Blue Economy is threatened by planetary resilience issues and a lack of access to intuitive, actionable data that can help to solve problems. The project bridges this gap, leveraging 21st century Digital Twin technologies to build digital replicas of actual coral reef ecosystems, continuously updated in near-real time by sensor and satellite data transmitted from the physical reef. The Digital Reefs platform employs Visualization softwares and Gaming Engines to create intuitive, immersive, interactive 4-D visualizations of each reef, and a suite of user-inspired decision-making tools via an easily navigable user-interface. Our fully functional, interactive Digital Reefs prototype of Palmyra Atoll, delivered in two years, will include 4 Data Layers (3-D reef bathymetry, temperature, currents, and benthic communities and changes through time) and 4 User Tools that facilitate climate risk assessment, ecosystem service optimization, effective restoration designs and invasive species and plastics monitoring. A modular platform design will allow easy integration of additional data and tools, guided by user-inspired research conducted throughout the project. Application of gaming engines to create immersive, Virtual Reality experiences with scientific data will deliver living coral reef ecosystems into homes, classrooms and boardrooms alike, to transform our relationship with the ocean and the Blue Economy. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.