A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal
Blueprint conceptualization for a river basin's digital twin
Authors: Pal, Debasish; Marttila, Hannu; Ala-Aho, Pertti; Lotsari, Eliisa; Ronkanen, Anna-Kaisa; Gonzales-Inca, Carlos; Croghan, Danny; Korppoo, Marie; Kämäri, Maria; van Rooijen, Erik; Blåfield, Linnea; Silander, Jari; Baubekova, Aziza; Bhattacharjee, Joy; Haghighi, Ali Torabi; Uvo, Cintia Bertacchi; Kaartinen, Harri; Rasti, Mehdi; Klöve, Björn; Alho, Petteri
Publisher: IWA PUBLISHING
Publishing place: LONDON
Publication year: 2025
Journal: Hydrology Research
Journal name in source: HYDROLOGY RESEARCH
Journal acronym: HYDROL RES
Volume: 56
Issue: 3
First page : 197
Last page: 212
Number of pages: 16
ISSN: 1998-9563
eISSN: 2224-7955
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2166/nh.2025.111
Web address : https://doi.org/10.2166/nh.2025.111
Self-archived copy’s web address: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/491624106
To achieve a good ecological status of water resources, we are exploring new frontiers by envisioning river basin planning through the newly promoted digital twin perspective. In river basin management, a digital twin is an innovative virtual paradigm - a holistic living replica of the river basin achieved by seamless integration of real-time monitoring, historical observations, data analytics, predictive modeling, and high-performance computing within a framework of interoperable software and scalable hardware - leveraging nuanced understanding of complex environmental, social, and economic interactions, discerning uncertainties, and bridging critical knowledge gaps for progressive improvement in system understanding, optimization of operational efficiency, and continuous advancements in decision-making. This perspective paper lays the groundwork in transforming the futuristic vision of a river basin's digital twin into reality. The proposed blueprint outlines the processes for integrating digital twin components, creating dynamic replicas of river basin systems, and conducting virtual what-if analyses. Aligning with digital transformation, this work segments the river basin into distinct systems to effectively manage diverse objectives and ensure adaptability across various river basin types with spatiotemporal scalability. Supporting sustainable management, the digital twin holds immense potential to surpass existing decision-support systems through continuous bi-directional feedback loops with the river basin.
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Funding information in the publication:
This research is part of the Green-Digi-Basin project, which was funded by the European Union – Next Generation EU Recovery and Resilience Facility through the Research Council of Finland (RCF), and the DefrostingRivers project, which was funded by RCF. Debasish Pal and Joy Bhattacharjee received funding through the University of Oulu (Green-Digi-Basin, grant number 347704). Anna-Kaisa Ronkanen, Marie Korppoo, Maria Kämäri, Jari Silander, and Cintia Bertacchi Uvo received funding through the Finnish Environment Institute (Green-Digi-Basin, grant number 348022). Eliisa Lotsari received funding through the Aalto University (DefrostingRivers project, grant number 338480). Erik van Rooijen received funding through the Aalto University (Green-Digi-Basin, grant number 347703). Linnea Blåfield received funding from the University of Turku through the Green-Digi-Basin project (grant number 347701) and the Kone Foundation (grant number 202104246). Danny Croghan received funding from the Maa- ja Vesitekniikan Tuki Ry (grant number 4651). Mehdi Rasti received funding from the University of Oulu (Profi6, grant number 336449) and the Business Finland (DigiPave, project number 3992/31/2023). Harri Kaartinen received funding through the Finnish Geospatial Research Institute FGI (Green-Digi-Basin, grant number 347702).
