ILIAD: Integrated Digital Framework for Comprehensive Maritime Data and Information Services

ILIAD builds on the assets resulting from two decades of investment in blue economy policy and infrastructure and aims to establish an interoperable, data-intensive and cost-effective Digital Twin of the Oceans (DTO). It leverages the explosion of new data provided by many different Earth sources, advanced computing infrastructures (cloud computing, HPC, Internet of Things, Big Data, social networks, and more) in an inclusive, virtual/augmented and engaging way to address all Earth Data challenges. It will contribute to a sustainable ocean economy as defined by the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the Ocean, a global multi-stakeholder cooperation centre.

The ILIAD DTO will merge a large volume of diverse data, with a rich semantic and data-agnostic approach to enable simultaneous communication with real-world systems and models. Ontologies and a standard style descriptor will facilitate semantic information and intuitive discovery of underlying information and knowledge to provide a seamless experience.

The combination of geovisualisation, immersive visualisation and virtual or augmented reality allows users to explore, synthesise, present and analyse the underlying geospatial data interactively.

ILIAD’s DTO-enabled technology will contribute to the implementation of the EU’s Green Deal and Digital Strategy and to the achievement of the outcomes of the UN Decade of Oceans and the Sustainable Development Goals. To realise its potential, the ILIAD DTO will follow the System of Systems approach, integrating all existing EU digital Earth observation and modelling infrastructures and facilities.

To promote additional applications through the ILIAD DTO, the ILIAD Marketplace will be created. Like an app shop, vendors will use the ILIAD Marketplace to distribute applications, add-ons, interfaces, raw data, citizen science data, synthesised information and value-added services derived from the ILIAD DTO.