Presentation

In an era of unprecedented environmental challenges, the potential of digital twins—dynamic, data-driven representations of the real world—has never been more crucial. This conference, From Data to Decision Making, invites international experts and academics to explore the forefront of environmental digital twins. 
 With speakers from diverse international backgrounds, the event promises a rich exchange of ideas, blending technical expertise with innovative thematic insights and visualization techniques. The conference is structured around core sessions, each led by a keynote speaker, covering essential topics specific to environmental digital twins. Sessions include: technical skills, such as data integration, machine learning, real-time monitoring, and AI-based modeling techniques; targeted applications of digital twins in addressing environmental challenges, with case studies ranging from water and soil management to climate adaptation strategies; and the integration of social sciences and humanities to enhance visualization and communication.

 Attendees will benefit from insights shared by four esteemed international speakers alongside a keynote from the JUNON programme, fostering an interdisciplinary perspective. In addition, young researchers will present their latest work in a dynamic poster session featuring impactful flash presentations, with awards for outstanding contributions.

This conference will be a place to discuss projects encouraging collaborative engagement and practical solutions to pressing environmental issues. In addition, a unique evening event will showcase the research carried out by young people in collaboration with JUNON and local secondary schools. This is an opportunity for attendees to witness the enthusiasm and creativity of the next generation, driving forward the future of environmental digital twins.
Held in the historic city of Orléans, along the scenic banks of the Loire River, the event offers an inspiring environment steeped in heritage and natural beauty, ideal for forward-thinking discussions on environmental innovation.

This conference is funded by the ARD CVL JUNON Programme, an ambitious initiative launched in the Centre Val-de-Loire region that aims to establish a pioneering research hub focused on environmental digital twins and natural resource management.

 

Convenor

Sébastien Dupraz

French Geological Survey (BRGM) - FR 

Confirmed speakers

Click on the name to display the abstract

• Marianna Charitonidou, Think Through Design Architectural, Urban and Landscape Design Studio Marianna Charitonidou - GR

  

  Marianna Charitonidou

   Think Through Design Architectural, Urban and Landscape Design Studio Marianna Charitonidou

  Address:  119 Artemidos, 17562, Athens -  Greece

   Email: m.charitonidou@icloud.com

  Dr. Marianna Charitonidou is the Founder and CEO of Think Through Design Architectural, Urban and Landscape Design Studio Marianna Charitonidou (https://charitonidou.com). She is a licensed architect engineer, urbanist, and historian/theorist of architecture and urbanism. She holds a PhD Degree and an MPhil Degree from the National Technical University of Athens, an MSc Degree from the Architectural Association, and a Master’s Degree from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. She is the author of many books, among which are: Reinventing Modern Architecture in Greece: From Sentimental Topography to Ekistics (London, New York: Routledge, 2025), Architectural Drawings as Investigating Devices: Architecture’s Changing Scope in the 20th Century (Routledge, 2023) and Drawing and Experiencing Architecture: The Evolving Significance of City's Inhabitants in the 20th Century (Transcript Publishing, 2022). Among her highly cited scientific publications is “Urban scale digital twins in data-driven society: Challenging digital universalism in urban planning decision-making” published in the International Journal of Architectural Computing. She has been teaching at the University level since 2012. She has been a Lecturer and Researcher at ETH Zurich, Princeton University, Columbia University, École française de Rome, the Getty Research Institute and the Canadian Centre for Architecture. She has received many awards for her research, teaching, conferences and writings on architecture and urban studies. She curated the exhibition The View from the Car: Autopia as a New Perceptual Regime (https://viewfromcarexhibition.gta.arch.ethz.ch/) at ETH Zurich.

  Urban scale digital twins and shaping a sustainable future of city planning: Socio-technical perspectives and urban planning policymaking

  The presentation aims to explore how urban scale digital twins can combine social and environmental equity. A point of departure of the presentation is the fact that the debates on smart cities often focus on technical issues, neglecting the social aspects of urban planning. My presentation intends to investigate how the role of urban scale digital twins in shaping urban policies can be informed by socio-technical perspectives that incorporate social and policy issues related to democracy and climate change. To combine environmental and social equity, it is pivotal to bring together the social and technical viewpoints of urban planning. This can become possible by establishing decision-making strategies that focus on how participatory design methods can be related to using urban scale digital twins in policy-making concerning urban planning. At the core of the presentation is the comparison of different cases of urban scale digital twins worldwide. I also scrutinise how each of them treated data collection and the role of citizens in decision-making.   Recently, the notion of urban scale digital twin has acquired a central place in the domain of urban planning and particularly within the field concerning smart cities design. The potential of urban-scale digital twins lies mainly in their capacity to monitor activities in the city and use the monitoring data to shape more sustainable design solutions. Among the technologies used to create urban-scale digital twins are the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, big data, and Artificial Intelligence (AI). “Digital twin” is a term used to refer to the digital representation that enables comprehensive data exchange. It can contain models, simulations, and algorithms describing their counterparts and their features and behaviour in the real world. A “digital twin” is a digital representation of a physical process, person, place, system, or device. Digital twins are conceptualised as digital replicas of physical entities. They are based on technological advances such as sensing, processing, and data transmission. Apart from the field of urban analytics, they are also used in the domain of computational social sciences. Within the framework of the endeavour to explore design methods that promote sustainability on both the urban and architectural scale, the presentation will analyse the potential of urban scale digital twins lies mainly in their capacity to monitor activities in the city and to use the data of monitoring for shaping more sustainably efficient design solutions. 

   

• Marine Gonse, Computer Science, Image, Interaction Laboratory (L3i), La Rochelle University - FR

  

  Marine Gonse

  Computer Science, Image, Interaction Laboratory (L3i), La Rochelle University

  Address:  Institut LUDI,  Bâtiment Pascal - Avenue Michel Crépeau, 17042 La Rochelle Cedex 1 - France

   Email: randon_marine@orange.fr

  Marine Gonse is a marine ecologist with expertise in animal movement modelling, ecological forecasting, and biologging. She holds a PhD from L’Institut Agro (France), where she studied the spatial structure and connectivity of a flatfish population. She later developed a real-time forecasting system for endangered killer whales at Simon Fraser University (Canada) and conducted postdoctoral research at Ifremer on the movement ecology of seabass, pollack, and spiny lobster. She now leads a four-year Chair Junior project at La Rochelle University (L3i Lab), aiming to build a digital twin of marine animal movements using biologging data and generative AI. Her work bridges marine ecology, statistics, and artificial intelligence, with the goal of developing innovative tools to support biodiversity conservation and sustainable ocean use.

  Building a Digital Twin for Marine Wildlife: Forecasting Animal Movements in a Changing Ocean

  In the context of climate change and growing human activity at sea, predicting marine ecosystem responses in near real time is essential for effective ocean conservation and management. This relies on developing ecological forecasting tools that integrate multimodal observations with statistical models. Such systems can support marine spatial planning by forecasting animal movements and reducing conflicts between wildlife and human activities, such as habitat incursions or vessel collisions.

  I will introduce the concept of a digital twin of animal movement and the challenges of monitoring and modelling such processes. I will then present a real-time data-assimilative forecasting system developed in 2022 to predict Southern Resident Killer Whales’ movements in the Salish Sea. This endangered population faces a high risk of vessel collision. Using opportunistic sightings and movement models within a probabilistic data assimilation framework, we forecasted whale locations up to 2.5 hours ahead with <5 km error. An R Shiny app was built to visualize whale trajectories and vessel positions.

  Finally, I will present a new project that uses biologging data and generative AI to develop a digital twin of marine animal movement. Biologging provides rich multimodal datasets to reconstruct past behaviours. Generative models will simulate realistic trajectories and forecast future habitats, enabling new insights into population responses to climate and anthropogenic pressures.

   

• Wilco Hazeleger, Utrecht University - NL

  

  Wilco Hazeleger

  Utrecht University 

  Address:  Heidelberglaan 8,  3584 CS Utrecht - The Netherlands

   Email: w.hazeleger@uu.nl

  Wilco Hazeleger is Rector Magnificus of Utrecht University and professor of Climate System Science. As rector, he is responsible for research, education and student affairs at UU. Hazeleger studied meteorology at Wageningen University and Reading University (UK). He obtained his PhD in physical oceanography at Utrecht University in 1999. He then worked at Columbia University (New York) and at the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI). He was also professor of Climate Dynamics at Wageningen University. From 2014 to 2019, he was director of the Netherlands eScience Center, focusing on digitization in all scientific domains. Hazeleger was dean of the Faculty of Geosciences until March 2025. He was involved in promoting diversity and inclusivity and in inter- and transdisciplinary research focused on sustainability. His research focuses on climate research and applications of AI and data science in it.

  Digital twins of the Earth with and for humans

  Digital twins of the Earth are digital representations of the Earth system, spanning local to global scales and various domains. Their purpose is to monitor, forecast and assess the Earth system and the consequences of human interventions on the Earth system. Providing users with the capability to interact with and interrogate the system, digital twins of the Earth are decision support systems for addressing environmental challenges. By informing humans of their impact on the Earth system, digital twins aspire to promote new pathways moving forward. By answering causal queries through intervention analysis, they can enhance evidence-based policy making. In this presentation examples will be given from a climate adaptation point of view. Existing digital twins of the Earth are primarily technological information systems that represent the physical world. We argue that that social and physical worlds are intrinsically interconnected and that humans must be accounted for both within and outside digital twins of the Earth: Within twins to represent human impacts and responses that are integral to the Earth system; and outside twins to govern access and development and to guide responsible use of information acquired from twins. This is clear in designing spatial planning and climate adaptation at local scales as well as addressing mitigation policies at global scales. Incorporating human interactions in digital twins of the Earth represents a transformative frontier, promising unparalleled insights into Earth system dynamics and empower humans for action.

   

• Félix Iglesias Vázquez, TU Wien, Institute of Telecommunications - AT

  

  Félix Iglesias Vázquez

  TU Wien

  Address:  Gusshausstraße 25 / E389, 1040, Vienna, Austria

   Email: felix.iglesias@tuwien.ac.at

  Dipl.-Ing. Dr. techn. Félix Iglesias Vázquez is a Machine Learning and AI expert specializing in feature engineering, unsupervised learning, streaming, and time-dependent data. With around 60 scientific publications in top-tier venues, he has contributed to numerous national and international research projects. As a Senior Scientist at TU Wien, his work focuses on anomaly detection, machine learning algorithms, and network traffic analysis.
  He has taught and led R&D initiatives across several European countries, addressing data analysis and AI challenges in diverse domains—including renewable energy, sustainable architecture, environmental science, IoT, cybersecurity, network communications, and medicine. His collaborations span government, industry, and academic institutions.

  Why Generative AI Won’t Save the Planet (but Cognitive Twins Might)
  Rethinking AI for Environmental Digital Twins

  Current AI innovation is dominated by large language models and generative systems—trained offline on curated, idealized data. While powerful, these models are fundamentally mismatched with the volatile, incomplete, and ever-evolving nature of environmental data. In this talk, we challenge prevailing assumptions of mainstream AI paradigms and redirect attention toward the specific demands of environmental digital twins (EDTs).
  EDTs are not just static models; they require continuous adaptation, real-time reasoning, the ability to detect and respond to novel situations, and intelligibility for human decision-makers. These requirements highlight fundamental challenges in AI, such as catastrophic forgetting, concept drift, novelty detection in streams, and the plasticity–stability tradeoff. These are not peripheral issues but structural limitations that must be addressed in the architecture of EDT systems.
  We refer to a new generation of EDTs—what we might call cognitive twins—as AI-augmented systems that combine environmental modeling with cognitive capabilities like anticipation, adaptation, and communication. These twins go beyond system mirroring: they support reasoning, summarize evolving information, and help experts maintain situational awareness. Intelligence here is not just computational; what makes a twin “cognitive” is tied to architectural clarity, goal coherence, and the relevance of what is being modeled—questions that remain irreducibly human.
  While AI can assist in harmonization and local decisions, it cannot define what matters, what to model, or why the system exists. These are design questions, not engineering ones. This talk outlines a roadmap toward operational, self-aware, and enduring EDTs.

• Fabrice Klein, Grand Port Maritime de Bordeaux - FR

  

  Fabrice Klein

  Grand Port Maritime de Bordeaux 

  Address:  152 quai de Bacalan, 33000 Bordeaux - France

   Email: f-klein@bordeaux-port.fr

  Fabrice Klein, PhD in Computer Engineering and Signal Processing, joined the Port of Bordeaux in 2002 (in charge of maritime instrumentation). From 2012 to 2016, he headed the Port of Bordeaux's IT Department, and since 2016 has participated in European applied research projects to prepare the port of the future.
  He manages the river's digital twins, co-constructed with local water stakeholders, which has led to the creation of a platform in operation since April 2023 that now hosts several digital models, such as that of the Saint Lawrence.
  These technologies and this vision have helped fuel future use cases for the citiverse for territorial resilience: https://www.itu.int/metaverse/virtual-worlds/

  Operating Report of LISOS Digital Twins: Accelerating the resilience of territories to climate change and developing hydro-diplomacy

  The river's digital twins, which have been in operation since April 2023, aim to anticipate the impacts of climate change through open tools that bring together local authorities and private actors. A demonstrator on the St. Lawrence River (Canada) has proven the interoperability of this approach with other rivers. By integrating open data such as upstream flow, weather conditions and climate projections, this system simulates historical or future scenarios while assessing various impacts (water discharges, temperature rise, etc.).
  It is aimed at a wide audience (decision-makers, local authorities, design offices, scientists, IT experts, citizens) that it seeks to federate for the benefit of the territory and local authorities. 
  The pooling of efforts and the sharing of results, facilitated by Open Source, thus make it possible to accelerate territorial resilience in the face of climate change.
  For local authorities, this tool facilitates environmental studies, reduces study times and costs and allows digital work to be shared, thus enriching the model. It also offers more autonomy to more easily exploit the results of simulations and launch new ones. 
  The project illustrates how technology and the digital commons can respond to environmental challenges, foster hydro-diplomacy and encourage participatory democracy to anticipate conflicts related to water scarcity.

   

Partners of the event