IDEATION has advanced in its mission to support the EU Mission “Restore our Ocean and Waters” with the completion of the SWOT Analysis of potential Digital Twins of Inland Waters. The IDEATION team conducted a preliminary Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis for 6 types of inland waters Digital Twins (DTs).

IDEATION is considering eight types of inland waters: rivers and estuaries, lakes, reservoirs, wetlands, snow and ice, urban water, groundwater, and coastal water. For each, preliminary use cases are under  co-creation with a diverse set of stakeholders. This initial SWOT analysis has been performed for six of these use cases. The analyses for Rivers & Estuaries and Wetlands are currently in progress and will be included in the near future.

The preliminary analysis across the RUCs has highlighted several critical cross-cutting themes:

1. Stakeholder Engagement is Paramount
2. Data Quality and Integration Needs Improvement
3. Cybersecurity and Data Governance are Critical

The next steps involve further refining the SWOT analyses and integrating these findings, along with additional insights from ongoing Multi-Stakeholder Forums (MSFs) and new research outcomes from the rest of the work to be done to define the final IDEATION roadmap. This roadmap will provide strategic guidance for the creation and implementation of effective Digital Twins of inland waters.