DIGI4ECO, focused on improving marine conservation through digitisation and robotics, kicks off

Just a few weeks ago kicked off the European project DIGI4ECO (𝐷𝑖𝑔𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑇𝑤𝑖𝑛𝑛-𝑠𝑢𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑑 4𝐷 𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑜𝑔𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑜𝑓 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑖𝑛 𝑓𝑖𝑠ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑑𝑒𝑝𝑙𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑠), which aims to digitise old data and create an optimal digital environment for the extraction of key ecological indicators for the implementation of policies aimed at improving the restoration and conservation of marine habitats. This digital environment will also be fed by new information obtained from underwater stations and state-of-the-art robotic platforms.

During the project's kick-off meeting, held last March at the Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM-CSIC), the consortium members focused on defining the main objectives of DIGI4ECO and establishing a roadmap to achieve them.

"Over the next four years, the 18 project partners from 10 European countries will work together to improve the conservation status of European marine habitats in the Mediterranean and Atlantic," says Jacopo Aguzzi (ICM-CSIC), the project coordinator. 

Data available to all

One of the priorities of the initiative is to collect, sort and make available to the scientific community and management agencies data that have not yet been used through new tools such as artificial intelligence.

"This will allow us to extract numerical information from images and videos, as well as to standardise and harmonise information of different nature and format in centralised data banks by the participating partners," explains the ICM-CSIC researcher Joan B. Company, who adds that "the processes standardisation and the collection of biological and environmental data using cameras and oceanographic and geochemical sensors will allow us to extend the scope of ecological monitoring from metres to hectares, as well as to increase the frequency and continuity of data collection”.

It should be noted that the project includes the acquisition of data thanks to the use of robots and underwater observatories. This, together with the images obtained through high-definition cameras, will enable the communities of large predators to be characterised and how they relate to the rest of the marine ecosystems to be understood. Finally, geostatistical procedures will be used to scale the information obtained at specific points to regional scales. 

"This will help us to design automated routines taking into account ecological indicators such as species density and biodiversity, which is key for the development of adaptive ecological models, whose accuracy can be fine-tuned by the progressive incorporation of new data," highlights the scientific team.

Real-time data acquisition

Much of the data for some of the key species will be obtained from real-time biologging tools, which will help to understand the response of many species to environmental and human-induced changes. This is essential to improve predictions in fisheries management, which must consider biological, environmental, social and economic aspects.

All in all, the scientific team assures that the project offers a "unique opportunity" to pool historical data with more recent data, which will allow spatio-temporal comparisons and an assessment of the current state of Europe's seas and oceans, valuable information for decision-makers in the field of environmental management. 

The centres and organisations involved in the project include: 2 Coronis Computing, the Università Politecnica delle Marche, the Atlantic Technological University, Tuco Yacht Vaerft Aps; the Universitat Politécnica de Catalunya, the Educational Excellence Corporation, Engitec Systems International, the Geomar Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research in Kiel; Gothenburg University, Graal Tech, the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Spartan Space, Spaceapps, the National Centre for Scientific Research "demokritos", Robust Systems Engineering, Stratagem and the Marine Institute of Ireland.