Climate change Adaptation using Digital geospatial twins and Earth Observation

closed

Despite the beauty of its landscape, Vietnam is environmentally fragile, being the sixth worldwide most affected country by natural disasters and other weather-related losses. This trend is expected to be exacerbated by climate change-induced effects the society will have to face and adapt to. Meanwhile, Vietnam is experiencing impressive economic growth which, unfortunately, will have only temporary advantages, if not conjugated with social and environmental sustainability. The protection of natural resources and the increase of resilience strategies combined with social equitable development and civic participation is vital for the country. The global availability of new big geospatial data and services (e.g., Copernicus), most of them open and free of charge, and new methods and open-source tools, increases the capacity of sensing and monitoring the status of the environment and bring to the creation of Digital Twins enabling revisiting the past, understanding the present, and predicting the future of Vietnam. Being able to meet previous challenges, with the newly available opportunities, requires the strengthening of national skills, including educational possibilities, for several stakeholders to achieve higher degrees of knowledge in Earth Observation and in models/technologies enabling Digital Geospatial Twins. The project consists of designing, implementing, and blending teaching of 4 new innovative courses, training of trainers in HEIs of Vietnam, development of required digital infrastructure for Vietnamese HEIs, and dissemination of the results to wider society and stakeholders. The courses will be exploited in existing programs of Vietnam partner universities and within 5 years 300 students will study them. Besides the general indirect benefit of the whole society, including vulnerable groups, there will be a direct benefit for the HEIs (staff and students) and the associate partners (authorities and companies involved in environmental issue).