The DTE Digital Twin Earth ) Hydrology Next project aims to develop and demonstrate, in a pre-operational phase, an Earth Observation-based Digital Twin Component (DTC) as an advanced digital replica of an Earth system component and its interactions with human activities and ecosystems. Focused on Europe and specific regions in Africa and Central America, the project will develop high-resolution spatio-temporal analyses and with a strong focus on enhancing the role of satellite-based Earth Observation products.
The overall objective of the DTE Hydrology Next is to prototype an advanced DTE demonstrator over Europe and targeted regions in Africa and Central America at high resolution in space and time (targeting 1 km and 1 hour) by extending the implementation of the recent DTE Hydrology and DTE Hydrology Evolution projects, carried out over the Po River valley in Northern Italy and the Mediterranean region, respectively.
CIMA Research Foundation’s contribution
CIMA’s activities will focus mainly on two fronts. The first is the improvement of the FloodPROOFS East Africa hydrological forecasting system over the Greater Horn of Africa, recently developed for the African Union Commission. In this context we will work with the Continuum hydrological model currently operating in Italy for flood monitoring and forecasting, making it suitable for the ingestion of high-resolution satellite products, both using existing products and others developed by the partners during the project.
The second is the continuation of the activities carried out in previous ESA projects (DTE Hydrology, 4DMED-Hydrology) to develop a high-resolution (1 km, daily) Snow Water Equivalent product for four case studies in Europe. The input data will be developed by the project partners and will be used in the S3M cryospheric model, developed by CIMA Research Foundation.
