Digital twinning of river basins towards full-scale, sustainable and equitable water management and disaster mitigation

Abstract Digital twins are transforming the paradigm of water management and water hazard mitigation globally, facilitating more effective governance. However, comprehensive digitalisation at the basin scale still faces major challenges in data, modelling, policy incentives, and, most critically, wi...

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Main Authors: Yifan Yang, Chen Xie, Ziwu Fan, Zhonghou Xu, Bruce W. Melville, Guoqing Liu, Lei Hong
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nature Portfolio 2024-12-01
Series:npj Natural Hazards
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/s44304-024-00047-2
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author Yifan Yang
Chen Xie
Ziwu Fan
Zhonghou Xu
Bruce W. Melville
Guoqing Liu
Lei Hong
author_facet Yifan Yang
Chen Xie
Ziwu Fan
Zhonghou Xu
Bruce W. Melville
Guoqing Liu
Lei Hong
author_sort Yifan Yang
collection DOAJ
description Abstract Digital twins are transforming the paradigm of water management and water hazard mitigation globally, facilitating more effective governance. However, comprehensive digitalisation at the basin scale still faces major challenges in data, modelling, policy incentives, and, most critically, widespread inequity. This article outlines a framework for building widely applicable digital-twin basins and addressing the main obstacles. Ensuring high-quality water data requires more comprehensive and well-controlled data aggregation and provision protocols. Significant improvements to the existing data infrastructure are necessary to support this effort. Most existing water models are not effectively integrated and do not include multi-physics to reflect all essential correlated physical processes at the basin scale. The current advancement in physics-informed data-driven approaches may provide a solution. Furthermore, global initiatives are critical to reducing major inequity in less developed regions, particularly the Global South, during digitalisation. It is imperative that researchers, practitioners and policymakers take decisive actions to prioritise research and allocate resources to foster transboundary collaborations towards integrated and extensive digital-twin basin systems, promoting the sustainability and resilience of global water resources.
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institution Kabale University
issn 2948-2100
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publishDate 2024-12-01
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record_format Article
series npj Natural Hazards
spelling doaj-art-e4ffaf326e3048ed95443ab090b46ea52024-12-15T12:06:36ZengNature Portfolionpj Natural Hazards2948-21002024-12-01111710.1038/s44304-024-00047-2Digital twinning of river basins towards full-scale, sustainable and equitable water management and disaster mitigationYifan Yang0Chen Xie1Ziwu Fan2Zhonghou Xu3Bruce W. Melville4Guoqing Liu5Lei Hong6State Key Laboratory of Water Resources Engineering and Management, Wuhan UniversityHydraulic Engineering Department, Nanjing Hydraulic Research InstituteHydraulic Engineering Department, Nanjing Hydraulic Research InstituteNational Institute of Water and Atmospheric ResearchDepartment of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The University of AucklandHydraulic Engineering Department, Nanjing Hydraulic Research InstituteHydraulic Engineering Department, Nanjing Hydraulic Research InstituteAbstract Digital twins are transforming the paradigm of water management and water hazard mitigation globally, facilitating more effective governance. However, comprehensive digitalisation at the basin scale still faces major challenges in data, modelling, policy incentives, and, most critically, widespread inequity. This article outlines a framework for building widely applicable digital-twin basins and addressing the main obstacles. Ensuring high-quality water data requires more comprehensive and well-controlled data aggregation and provision protocols. Significant improvements to the existing data infrastructure are necessary to support this effort. Most existing water models are not effectively integrated and do not include multi-physics to reflect all essential correlated physical processes at the basin scale. The current advancement in physics-informed data-driven approaches may provide a solution. Furthermore, global initiatives are critical to reducing major inequity in less developed regions, particularly the Global South, during digitalisation. It is imperative that researchers, practitioners and policymakers take decisive actions to prioritise research and allocate resources to foster transboundary collaborations towards integrated and extensive digital-twin basin systems, promoting the sustainability and resilience of global water resources.https://doi.org/10.1038/s44304-024-00047-2
spellingShingle Yifan Yang
Chen Xie
Ziwu Fan
Zhonghou Xu
Bruce W. Melville
Guoqing Liu
Lei Hong
Digital twinning of river basins towards full-scale, sustainable and equitable water management and disaster mitigation
npj Natural Hazards
title Digital twinning of river basins towards full-scale, sustainable and equitable water management and disaster mitigation
title_full Digital twinning of river basins towards full-scale, sustainable and equitable water management and disaster mitigation
title_fullStr Digital twinning of river basins towards full-scale, sustainable and equitable water management and disaster mitigation
title_full_unstemmed Digital twinning of river basins towards full-scale, sustainable and equitable water management and disaster mitigation
title_short Digital twinning of river basins towards full-scale, sustainable and equitable water management and disaster mitigation
title_sort digital twinning of river basins towards full scale sustainable and equitable water management and disaster mitigation
url https://doi.org/10.1038/s44304-024-00047-2
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