Metaverse and Digital Twins: contributions, opportunities and challenges to a sustainable use of the ocean

Abstract

Human activity often negatively affects the ocean and their livelihoods, with overexploited fisheries, marine pollution, plastic litter, or acidification. The importance of sustainable use of the ocean is recognized under United Nations’ SDG 14, which focused on ocean habitats. Dealing with the challenges facing the ocean and their use requires ocean-related stakeholders to make informed decisions, often complex, due to the cross-domain nature of the issues and the still quite limited amount of knowledge and tools available for such a decision-making process. This article discusses a conceptual framework addressing the contributions and challenges that a Digital Twin Ocean, as a key element of the Metaverse, faces or presents to sustainable ocean use, in support of its stakeholders.