CoastPredict Pilots and Regional Digital Twins: Strategic Integration Needs Across the Ocean Value Chain

This presentation, delivered at the CoastPredict General Assembly in Mérida (Mexico), argues that CoastPredict pilots and Regional Digital Twins of the Ocean provide ideal symbiotic ecosystems for real transformation in ocean sciences, as called for by the UN Ocean Decade, AAAS, NASEM, and the EU Ocean Act. Drawing on 17+ years of experience building SOCIB as a multiplatform research infrastructure, the talk presents a strategic framework for integrated ocean observing and coastal digital twins structured around five key components: observing system, predictive capabilities, ocean data lake, frontend interactive scenarios, and co-design with society. Scientific highlights include 14-year glider endurance transects in the Ibiza Channel (Juza et al., 2025) revealing meso- and submesoscale variability, and the CALYPSO US-ONR DRI results on vertical velocities at submesoscale structures. Societal applications cover ten sectors from beach safety to marine spatial planning. The presentation emphasizes the need for organizational and cultural transformation — moving from ocean integration to ocean strategy — applying principles, PRFAQ and AGILE methodologies. SOCIB DTO prototypes in the Balearic Sea are presented as first steps towards multi-dimensional regional digital twins aligned with EDITO, DITTO, and CoastPredict.