May was a dynamic month for the SEADITO project, with stakeholder workshops unfolding across our European case areas. In Greece, we officially kicked off engagement for the Saronikos Gulf, one of SEADITO´s five case areas, a region rich in ecological complexity and socio-economic activity. As part of our mission to co-design social-ecological models for the European Digital Twin Ocean (EU DTO), the Greek case study is now entering the participatory phase, starting with the scientific community.
First stop: The Scientific Community
The first workshop convened members of the scientific community to collaboratively explore the social-ecological dynamics of the Saronikos Gulf and their integration into the European Digital Twin Ocean (EU DTO). Discussions focused on key variables, obstacles, and potential solutions for sustainable urban and tourism development along the coastal front. A central insight from the session was the recognition that public trust and connection with science are essential, and can be strengthened through participatory research.
Exploring Policy Dimensions: SEADITO’s Second Workshop in Greece
The second stakeholder workshop for SEADITO’s Greek case study focused on policy development within the Saronikos Gulf, continuing the project’s commitment to co-designing socially grounded models for the European Digital Twin Ocean (EDITO). Building on the initial engagement with the scientific community, this session brought together governance actors to examine how policy effectiveness is shaped by human dynamics.
Discussions highlighted the importance of trust, knowledge sharing, and collaboration – factors often excluded from technical models and decision-support tools, yet critical to real-world implementation. Participants emphasized that these “human” dimensions play a decisive role in whether marine policies succeed or fail in practice.
SEADITO is actively working to incorporate these complex, hard-to-measure elements into the development of what-if scenarios and model design. By doing so, the project aims to ensure that the digital twin framework reflects not only ecological data but also the social realities of decision-making.
One of the key reflections from the workshop was that making better decisions about the ocean requires more than data – it requires a deeper understanding of people.
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