On Thursday 15 October 2026, from 13.00 to 15.00 (CEST), SEADITO and the MSP Research Network (MSPRN) will host the online seminar Digital Twin Oceans for coastal management and marine planning: Challenges, Opportunities and Future Needs, as part of the MSPFutures Webinar Series. The seminar is organised by the Fundación Instituto de Hidráulica Ambiental de Cantabria (FIHAC) in Santander, Spain, and is open to everyone interested.
Digital Twin Oceans (DTOs) are rapidly emerging as tools to combine observations, models and visualisation in support of ocean governance. Yet many challenges and opportunities remain unexplored for coastal and marine planners: what new capabilities do DTOs really offer, how can social and ecological knowledge be integrated into them, and opportunities and limitations for their uptake in decision-making?
The seminar will draw on the practical experience gained across the case studies of the Horizon Europe project SEADITO (Social-Ecological Analysis and Models for Digital Twin Ocean, GA ID: 101157243), coordinated by Aalborg University, Denmark.
After an introduction to Digital Twin Oceans and the SEADITO project by Dr. Ida Bonnevie (Aalborg University), three SEADITO case studies will present their advancements across different geographic scales:
- Central Baltic: an ecosystem services supply application for Maritime Spatial Planning (LIAE, Latvia and FGI, Finland).
- Pan-European: a demonstrator for marine socio-ecological vulnerability assessment across coastal regions of European seas (FIHAC, Spain).
- Costa Brava: co-designing digital support with stakeholders for coordinated fisheries closures (ICM-CSIC, Spain).
The session continues with presentation of ATALAYA, a national-scale digital twin for climate-resilient coastal management in Spain, presented by FIHAC.
DABI Interactive Discussion
The second half of the seminar is interactive. The discussion will explore how DTOs can support more informed and integrated decision-making, improve our understanding of complex marine socio-ecological interactions, and which development priorities should come next.
The DABI framework used in the round-table discussion
| DABI | What we will discuss |
|---|---|
| Drivers | The scientific, policy, technological, environmental and societal factors creating the need for DTOs |
| Added Value | The new capabilities DTOs offer compared with existing tools, including scenario analysis, forecasting and cumulative effects assessment |
| Barriers | Technical, data, institutional, governance and societal limitations that constrain DTO development and uptake |
| Impacts | Expected effects, and possible unintended risks, of DTOs on science, decision-making, governance and stakeholders |
Agenda
| Time (CET) | Session |
|---|---|
| 13.00-13.05 | Welcome and introduction to the seminar FIHAC / MSP Research Network |
| 13.05-13.20 | What is a DTO? Introducing the SEADITO project Dr. Ida Bonnevie, Aalborg University (AAU), Denmark |
| 13.20-13.50 | Emerging case studies from SEADITO 1. Ecosystem Services Supply application for Maritime Spatial Planning: a case study from the Central Baltic. Dr. Solvita Strake, Latvian Institute of Aquatic Ecology (LIAE), Latvia, and Miia Farstad, Finnish Geospatial Research Institute (FGI), Finland 2. Pan-EU Demonstrator for Marine Socio-Ecological Vulnerability Assessment. Dr. Alejandra G. Cabanillas, Fundación Instituto de Hidráulica Ambiental de Cantabria (FIHAC), Spain 3. Co-designing digital support with stakeholders for coordinated fisheries closures on the Costa Brava, Spain. Dr. Maik Neukirch, Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM-CSIC), Spain |
| 13.50-14.05 | ATALAYA: a national-scale digital twin for climate-resilient coastal management in Spain Dr. Moisés Álvarez Cuesta, FIHAC, Spain |
| 14.05-14.15 | Questions and answers |
| 14.15-14.55 | Interactive round-table: the DABI discussion (Drivers, Added Value, Barriers, Impacts) Facilitated by FIHAC and IOW |
| 14.55-15.00 | Wrap-up and final comments FIHAC |
How to join?
The seminar requires registration.
The seminar takes place on Microsoft Teams. To take part in the group discussion, please join from a computer. The session will be recorded.
Click the button below to open the event page, then select Register to sign up.
Questions?
For more information, contact
- Alejandra G. Cabanillas – alejandra.garcia@unican.es
- Daniel Depellegrin – daniel.depellegrin@unican.es
- Renan Goncalves – renan.goncalves@unican.es
About MSPRN
The Marine Spa al Planning Research Network is a diverse group of scientists, policy-makers and practitioners engaged in the constructive development of MSP through critical thinking, teaching, research, consultancy and implementation. We bring together academic expertise from across the social and natural sciences, such as marine ecology, terrestrial planning, geography, and political science, working alongside practitioners, consultancies and policy-makers. We are an informal network open to new participants who share our overall aims and encourage early-career researchers to join us. For more information, please visit our website. Note however, that we are currently in the process of transferring the website to a new host (Oldenburg to Nantes) so the website is currently not fully functional. To join the network please email registration@msprn.net.
SEADITO has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No. 101157243.