Can Earth be saved by its digital twin?

DW (English)

Floods, droughts, wildfires — extreme weather events affect us all. But what exactly will happen to your city or house? To help us understand, the EU has created a digital twin of the Earth to analyze the effects of climate change.

Transcript

00:00Floods, droughts, wildfires, extreme weather events affect us all.

00:05But what exactly will happen to my city, my neighborhood, my house?

00:09To help us understand and combat the effects of climate change,

00:12the EU just launched a gigantic project.

00:15A digital twin of planet Earth.

00:18Digital twin? What's that again?

00:21A digital twin is a virtual representation of an object or a system.

00:25It mirrors the real-world counterpart.

00:28Digital twins are designed to be realistic,

00:31and AI is used to simulate various scenarios.

00:34Those are meant to help us make better decisions.

00:38The EU's project Destination Earth or DESTINY

00:41could for example answer questions like

00:44Is this the right place to build my house?

00:47What else can we use DESTINY for?

00:50Various simulations will be accessible through the DESTINY platform.

00:54The app could show you things like

00:56what might happen when a flood hits your neighborhood

00:58or how different climate scenarios could affect tourism in your region.

01:02If you're a farmer, you might want to check how the climate will affect your harvest.

01:07Or maybe you simply want to know where to best place solar panels.

01:11The possibilities are endless.

01:14The DESTINY platform offers users and developers tools

01:17to build their own specific scenarios.

01:20Right now, there are only a few services up and running

01:23as the data is still being added.

01:25The goal is to have a full digital replica of Earth

01:28and all its systems by 2030.

01:31So, how is it built?

01:34The core is a massive database called Data Lake.

01:38It compiles environmental data from major providers

01:41like the European Space Agency,

01:43the Earth Observation Institute Copernicus and many more.

01:47Whenever scientists run a simulation on the digital twin,

01:50data produced by the model is also fed back into the database.

01:55By the way, not only the EU is developing a digital twin of planet Earth.

02:00Chipmaker NVIDIA also has one.

02:03According to them, Taiwan's government plans to use their model to predict typhoons.

02:09But there's not only digital twins of our planet.

02:12These data models can be used in all kinds of contexts.

02:16What else could digital twins be used for?

02:19Here's three examples.

02:21Making surgeries safer.

02:24A digital twin of the human body or a specific organ

02:27can help test procedures before an actual surgery.

02:31Simulating surgeries on a digital twin could help estimate risks,

02:35making the process much safer.

02:38Making your city more livable.

02:41With digital twins of cities, urban planners can test

02:44how greening and building structure affects air quality,

02:47temperature or wind, for example.

02:49This kind of information can help decide where to put shops, schools or roads.

02:54Making trains more punctual.

02:57Germany's national railway company Deutsche Bahn

03:00is creating a digital twin of their rail network.

03:04Simulating changes to train routes or schedules

03:07could help estimate the consequences for travellers and minimise disruptions.

03:13In short, digital twins are meant to maximise efficiency and minimise risks.

03:18However, they require loads of computing power,

03:21currently available only to big institutions.

03:24This is the computer that runs NVIDIA's Digital Earth, by the way.

03:29But who knows, in the future we might all carry our own digital twin

03:33in our pockets when we visit the doctor.

03:36Wouldn't that be amazing?

03:38That's all from me today. Have a good one.

03:43Thanks for watching.

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