An international study published in Frontiers in Science, coordinated by the Institute for Hydrogeological Research and Protection of the National Research Council of Perugia (CNR-Irpi), describes the creation of an innovative virtual model that, for the first time, replicates the Earth's water cycle by incorporating high-resolution satellite observations. The model was created as part of the "Digital Twin Earth Hydrology" project, which was financed by the European Space Agency. Its goal is to provide a tool for optimizing water resource management and mitigating water-related calamities. It was made possible by a collaboration of 11 scientific partners from around Europe, including the Universities of Bologna, Perugia, and Genoa in Italy. "With the advancement of the climate crisis and the increase in human impact on the water cycle, it becomes of fundamental importance to have advanced simulation tools: the platform developed is, in fact, a 'digital twin' of our planet, a virtual replica capable of providing a test environment that can be used by anyone for effective management of water resources," says Luca Brocca, a researcher at CNR-I and first-author of the paper. "Phenomena such as floods and droughts remain, in fact, difficult to predict: our goal is to create a system that allows non-experts, including policymakers and citizens, to run interactive simulations".
|