The project launch follows on from discussions during a virtual Frontiers Symposium event in January, organised by the RAE, that explored using digital tools for practical interventions to prevent and reverse environmental degradation in Asia and Africa. 

Frontiers Symposia bring together early and mid-career researchers and practitioners from industry and NGOs to address serious development challenges.  

This particular symposium looked at the interconnected roles of monitoring, conservation, and rights and roles of local communities, bringing experts from biodiversity and conservation, engineering, social sciences and community groups together to identify solutions. 

Delegates considered how technology could be used for participatory research and decision-making, data access, visualisation and analysis, and for real-time monitoring and learning. Dr Saeed and her colleague and co-investigator Dr Atiyeh Ardakanian, will use the funding they have received to develop a digital twin (DT) prototype which is a digital representation of the real-world environment that can be used for simulations.

Digital twins can revolutionise how we approach projects involving the water-energy-food nexus allowing more efficient and effective decision-making, by optimising the interlinkages and interdependencies,”

Dr Saeed explains.

It means we can simulate how different processes and equipment configurations affect energy consumption, water quality, and the crops that yielded from the treated water.”