About the speaker：
Prof. Minhan Dai is a chair professor of marine environmental science at Xiamen University, where he served as the Director of State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science between 2005-2021. He was elected an Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2017. He won the 2022 Axford Medal Award by Asia Oceania Geosciences Society (AOGS) in recognition of excellence in geosciences. He is a member of the expert group of the High-level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy, and China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED). He is currently co-chairing the international program: Surface Ocean and Low Atmosphere Study (SOLAS). His primary research interests include ocean carbon/nutrients biogeochemistry and their coupling with ocean dynamics in the broad context of climatic and environmental changes. He is also well known for his work on marine radiochemistry. Recently, his research scope has expanded to the interface between science and policy. He initiated the COASTAL-SOS Project endorsed by UN Ocean Decade in 2021.
Prof. Dai's Webpage: https://mel2.xmu.edu.cn/staff.asp?tid=13
About keynote speech:
Towards Digital Twin of the Coastal Ocean in an UN-endorsed Project “Coastal-SOS”
Minhan Dai, Fei Chai, Yawei Luo, Nengwang Chen, Wenxin Hong, Zhixuan Wang, Yangyang Zhao, Yimin Chen
Xiamen University, China
Abstract:
COASTAL-SOS, or “Coastal Zones Under Intensifying Human Activities and Changing Climate: A Regional Programme Integrating Science, Management and Society to Support Ocean Sustainability”, is an endorsed project of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. COASTAL-SOS partners cross-sectoral stakeholders from East Asian countries to advance scientific understanding of critical coastal ocean health issues with special attention on coastal eutrophication and hypoxia. Through interdisciplinary research, the project examines the trajectories of six model East Asian coastal ecosystems over the past 50 years and predict their future (30-year) direction. The project enables effective integration of science, governance, and society to fundamentally change the business-as-usual development model of the coastal zone.
One of the important goals of COASTAL-SOS is to provide an integrated science database and modelling platform, or Digital Twin of the Coastal Ocean (DTCO) for digital transformation to meet the demands of the coming era for rapid, dynamic transformation of ocean observations and human societies intended to realize smart coastal communities. The DTCO aims to replicate and synthesize multiple virtual realities of complex coastal zones and will empower the public, science communities, industries, and governments to understand, monitor, and seek solutions to a variety of environmental problems to achieve coastal ecosystem conservation and maintain a healthy and sustainable coastal ocean.
This presentation will then showcase our on-going efforts in constructing DTCO of different coastal systems, including Digital Twins of Xiamen Bay and Shansha Bay, and a Digital Twin of an offshore farming system.