The International Digital Twins of the Ocean Summit 2022 took place in London on 4-5 May, 2022. It was hosted by the UK Government and led by the Digital Twins of the Ocean (DITTO) programme of the UN Ocean Decade. As one of the satellite events, Coastal-SOS successfully held a hybrid webinar on “Aiming Digital Twin Ocean of Xiamen Bay: Prospective from a UN Decade-Endorsed Project Coastal-SOS” on 28 April.

Prof. Fei Chai from the Second Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, convened the webinar. Prof. Nengwang Chen and Prof. Yawei Luo from Xiamen University chaired the meeting. In this webinar, researchers reviewed existing observational data and modelling and discussed the future plan to construct DITTO in Xiamen Bay. About 150 people from China, Malaysia and other countries and regions attended the webinar and participated in the online discussion.

Onsite panel discussion

Prof. Fei Chai giving a presentation

As opening, Prof. Yawei Luo presented an overview of COASTAL-SOS.

Prof. Nengwang Chen introduced the observation bases in Xiamen Bay. He pointed out that Xiamen Bay was improving its sky-air-earth-sea integrated observation system and needed to develop more high-resolution sensors. In addition, historical data synthesis, data processing and data driven models are necessary to provide a solid observation basis for DITTO of Xiamen Bay.

Prof. Yuwu Jiang gave a presentation on the modeling in Xiamen Bay. Xiamen Bay has developed ocean models forced by meteorological and hydrological models, which are used in storm surge forecasting and trajectory prediction for the debris and missing persons, laying a good foundation for DITTO of Xiamen Bay.

Prof. Fei Chai gave an introduction to the basic concepts and research frontiers of DITTO and shared ideas for DITTO construction in Xiamen Bay. He said that DITTO connected the real ocean and the virtual ocean through data, modeling and visualization, which required developing standards and best practices to integrate data, co-designing with multiple users and stakeholders and working closely with global communities.

Experts from different fields were invited to participate in the panel discussion. Prof. Huijie Xue, Prof. Zhongping Li, Prof. Jian Ma and Prof. Yangfan Li from Xiamen University gave constructive suggestions on DITTO construction in Xiamen Bay from various perspectives such as physical oceanography, remote sensing, observation and policy. Prof. Feng Zhou and Prof. Yuntao Wang from the Second Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources introduced the DITTO practice in Changjiang Estuary, proving valuable experience for the construction of DITTO in Xiamen Bay and other COASTAL-SOS research areas.

Based on this Xiamen satellite event and other related conferences, Xiamen has successfully bid to host the DITTO International Summit 2023, preliminarily planned in association with Xiamen’s World Ocean Week in November 2023. We welcome the attention and participation of scholars from home and abroad.