Towards a Digital Twin Prototype of Alpine Glaciers: Proposal for a Possible Theoretical Framework

The Destination Earth (DestinE) European initiative has recently brought into the scientific community the concept of the Digital Twin (DT) applied to Earth Sciences. Within 2030, a very high precision digital model of the Earth, continuously fed and powered by Earth Observation (EO) data, will provide as many digital replicas (DTs) as the different domains of the earth sciences are. Considering that a DT is driven by use cases, depending on the selected application, the provided information has to change. It follows that, to achieve a reliable representation of the selected use case, a reasonable and complete a priori definition of the needed elements that DT must contain is mandatory. In this work, we define a possible theoretical framework for a future DT of the Italian Alpine glaciers, trying to define and describe all those information (both EO and in situ data) and relationships that necessarily have to enter the process as building blocks of the DT itself. Two main aspects of glaciers were considered and investigated: (i) the metric quantification of their spatial dynamics (achieved through measures) and (ii) the qualitative (semantic) description of their health status as definable through observations from domain experts. After the first identification of the building blocks, the work proceeds focusing on existing EO data sources providing their essential elements, with specific focus on open access high-resolution (HR) and very-high-resolution (VHR) images. This last issue considered two scales of analysis: local (single glacier) and regional (Italian Alps). Some considerations were furtherly reported about the expected glaciers-related applications enabled by the availability of a DT at regional level. Applications involving both metric and semantic information were considered and grouped in three main clusters: Glaciers Evolution Modelling (GEM), 4D Multi Reality, and Virtual Reality. Limitations were additionally explored, mainly related to the technical characteristics of available EO VHR open data and some conclusions provided.

Automated summary

The DestinE European initiative has introduced the concept of the Digital Twin (DT) in Earth Sciences, aiming to create a high precision digital model of the Earth by 2030. This digital model will be continuously updated with Earth Observation data and will provide digital replicas for different domains within the earth sciences. This study focuses on defining a theoretical framework for a future DT of the Italian Alpine glaciers and explores the necessary information and relationships that need to be included. The study considers the spatial dynamics and health status of glaciers and evaluates the availability of EO data for constructing the DT at both local and regional scales.