Skip to content

DTE Hydrology Evolution

The project was born as a deepening of ESA 4D MED with the aim of creating a prototype of a “digital twin” (Digital Twin), i.e. a digital replica of the hydrological system, for the Mediterranean basin. Started in April 2022 and finished in April 2023, DTE Hydrology Evolution was led by CNR-IRPI.

The project

DTE Hydrology Evolution represents the ideal continuation of the previous DTE Hydrology, which had proven as an effective combination of the use of state-of-the-art satellite data, ground observations, hydrological and hydraulic models, artificial intelligence tools and advanced digital platform functionalities, would allow to reconstruct the hydrological cycle with high spatial and temporal resolution (1 km). The case study of the project was represented by the Po River basin. DTE Hydrology Evolution further carried out studies in this field, creating a Digital Twin prototype for the entire Mediterranean basin, which can be used for the prediction of extremes hydrologic data, the management of the water resource cycle and the simulation of the variations which the system may undergo.

Results

  • Implementation of hydrological modeling on the cloud
  • Evaluation of the hydrological balance on a Mediterranean scale
  • Implementation of a platform for data exploration and modeling results as the first DTE prototype

CIMA Research Foundation’s contribution

As part of the project, the CIMA Foundation has implemented high-resolution (1 km) hydrological modeling on all the basins bordering the Mediterranean. The Continuum model was shot on the HPC architecture made available by ESA and forced with the products of soil moisture, precipitation and evapotranspiration realized within the project. This allows the resolution of the hydrological balance on a Mediterranean scale. See for example the case “Large scale water balance assessment” on the data exploration platform https://explorer.dte-hydro.adamplatform.eu/
Furthermore, CIMA studied the flood event caused by the Medicane (Mediterranean hurricane) Apollo of October 2021, reproducing the flooded areas with detailed hydraulic modeling (2-metre resolution) and evaluating how the use of satellite data affects up to the estimate of the impacts. The flooded areas resulting from the simulation were compared with that observed by the Sentinel 1 satellite, so as to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the satellite data and of the hydrological and hydraulic modeling (See for example the case “FLOOD\FLOODING PREDICTION” on the platform).