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How Svalbard is becoming a living lab for marine restoration
A new tool is helping researchers simulate erosion and climate change, turning data into action.
In the icy reaches of the Svalbard archipelago, a quiet revolution in marine restoration is underway.
Researchers are building a digital twin of the region – an interactive, data-rich simulation designed to help researchers and restoration teams understand how climate change is affecting Arctic coastlines and how its impacts might be reduced.
It brings together real environmental data, computer models, and storytelling in a user-friendly service that lets users explore erosion, sea ice loss, and changes in marine life.
What is a digital twin?
A digital twin is a virtual copy of a real-world system – in this case, the vulnerable coastal systems in Svalbard. Digital twins used in environmental science are very different from earlier versions built for structures like wind turbines or oil platforms.
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Because ecosystems are complex and not fully understood, digital twins in ecology combine observations, computer models, expert knowledge, and ‘what if’ scenarios that users can explore by interacting with simulations.
Understanding and defining these ‘what if’ scenarios is a central part of building a digital twin. They can include climate models that show how global climate change may affect natural systems.
Open data is another important part of environmental digital twins. Compared to other sciences, environmental science has been slower to make data widely available.
“The Svalbard twin is a way to bring together complex datasets and make them accessible to people who need them most – restoration practitioners,” says Lara Veylit, a researcher at SINTEF.
“We’re not just visualising data. We’re guiding users to use the best available science, and hopefully allowing for data-driven decision making that could shape the future of the Arctic,” she says.
A toolbox for restoration
The Svalbard digital twin is part of a larger marine restoration toolbox developed through CLIMAREST, a project funded by the European Union.
The toolbox includes five regional digital twins. Each focused on a different restoration challenge – from seagrass meadows in Ireland to oyster bed reefs in France.
The Arctic twin is especially urgent. Svalbard is warming faster than most places on Earth, and its coastlines are threatened by both natural forces and human activity.
The digital twin brings together:
- Wave models to simulate erosion patterns
- Drone images of vulnerable coastlines
- Sea ice and ocean warming data from CMEMS
- Tourism pressure data from Statistics Norway
- Biodiversity data from the Norwegian Polar Institute
All of this is shown in an interactive format, using sliders, drop-down menus, and maps that let users explore different scenarios and datasets. The service includes a Jupyter notebook, openly available, where users can experiment with code and data using free computing power.
The service will also include a dashboard designed for non-technical users, making it easy to view data, models, and the outcomes of ‘what if’ scenarios.
Science meets storytelling
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What makes the Svalbard twin unique is how it uses storytelling.
“We wanted to move beyond static graphs and charts,” says researcher and project coordinator Ida B. Øverjordet. “Each twin tells a story – about the place, the people, and the pressures it faces. It’s a way to make the science more relatable and actionable.”
Users start with an overview of erosion challenges in Svalbard. From there, they can explore maps showing settlements, drone footage of coastlines being considered for nature-based solutions, and timeline data on population and tourist trends.
They can also look at past biodiversity surveys, visualise wave heights and ice coverage, and even test future climate scenarios using data from the Norwegian Meteorological Institute.
Ensuring data transparency
The digital twin also embodies modern data ethics.
It follows the FAIR principles (findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable), meaning that data can be easily found, shared, and reused. This includes less traditional data, such as drone images at different stages of processing.
“We’re making data that was once locked away in hard drives or local servers available to the world,” Veylit notes. “That’s a huge step forward for transparency and collaboration.”
Built to last
The EU's recent Nature Restoration Law presents an opportunity for the growth of the marine restoration community.
To make sure the Svalbard twin remains available in the long term, it will be hosted on two major EU data platforms: Blue-Cloud 2026 and EDITO infra. Hosting it in two places reduces the risk of future funding gaps and ensures that restoration teams can keep using the tool long after the CLIMAREST project ends in November 2025.
The goal of the digital twin is to make science accessible to more people by keeping data, models, and expert knowledge openly available over time.
“We’re building tools not just for today’s challenges, but for tomorrow’s solutions,” says Veylit.
The Arctic may be remote, but digital twins like the one in Svalbard are helping turn the restoration of its coastlines into a shared, global effort – powered by data, driven by science, and guided by stories.
References:
Veylit et al. Democratizing marine restoration best practices in a digital toolbox, International Journal of Data Science and Analytics, 2025. DOI: 10.1007/s41060-025-00926-5
Veylit et al. Developing regional digital twins for marine restoration in the CLIMAREST project, 2025. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.32829.37606
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