Smarter Decisions for Our Oceans and Soil

• January 19, 2026

What if we could predict crop failures before they happen? Or track ocean health in real-time to prevent ecosystem collapse?

That’s not science fiction anymore. It’s happening right now through two groundbreaking EU-funded initiatives that are transforming how we understand and protect the systems that feed us.

The recent CORDIScovery podcast from the EU’s Research & Innovation Days brought together experts working on the cutting edge of agricultural and marine innovation. Their message? The future of food security depends on making smarter decisions, faster. And that requires fundamentally new ways of seeing our planet.

The Twin Revolutions: Soil and Ocean

Two parallel crises are unfolding beneath our feet and beneath the waves. Around 70% of European soils are in poor condition. Marine ecosystems face unprecedented pressure from overfishing, pollution, and climate change. Both systems are critical to feeding a growing global population.

Traditional monitoring approaches can’t keep pace. Laboratory soil testing takes weeks. Marine surveys cover tiny fractions of ocean space. By the time we identify problems, opportunities for intervention have often passed.

Enter the concept of Digital Twins: virtual replicas of physical systems that use real-time data, AI, and advanced modelling to simulate, predict, and optimise real-world outcomes.

Two major EU initiatives are pioneering this approach. AI4SoilHealth is building a Soil Digital Twin. EDITO is creating the European Digital Twin Ocean. Together, they represent a fundamental shift in how we manage the natural systems that sustain us.

AI4SoilHealth: Bringing Soil Health Out of the Laboratory

For generations, assessing soil health meant collecting samples, shipping them to laboratories, waiting for results, and making decisions based on weeks-old information. That model doesn’t work when conditions change rapidly.

The project’s objective is ambitious. Create an open-access, Europe-wide digital infrastructure that can assess and continuously monitor soil health metrics without requiring traditional laboratory analysis. The system uses state-of-the-art AI methods combined with deep soil health understanding to function as a Digital Twin of Europe’s soils.

How It Works

The AI4SoilHealth platform integrates multiple data streams. Satellite imagery provides continuous earth observation data. Ground sensors capture real-time soil conditions. Historical datasets offer context and validation. Machine learning algorithms process this information to generate actionable insights.

The result is a comprehensive Soil Health Index that farmers and land managers can access through a mobile phone app. Instead of waiting weeks for laboratory results, they get immediate feedback on soil conditions across their land parcels.

This isn’t just faster. It’s fundamentally different. The system can identify emerging problems before they become visible to the human eye. It can recommend interventions tailored to specific locations. It supports precision agriculture approaches that optimise inputs and reduce environmental impact.

Real-World Applications

The practical implications are significant. Farmers can make more informed decisions about crop selection, irrigation, fertilisation, and soil management practices. Land managers can monitor restoration efforts and adapt strategies based on real-time feedback. Policymakers can track progress toward the EU’s ambitious goal of transitioning to healthy soils by 2030.

The project has engaged farmer associations in more than 10 countries to test the tools and provide feedback. This co-design approach ensures the technology meets actual user needs rather than theoretical specifications.

The AI4SoilHealth Data Cube for Europe, Soil Health Degradation Monitor, and Rapid Soil Health Assessment Toolbox represent a complete ecosystem of decision-support tools. All data is distributed under an Open Data license, allowing development communities to build additional applications and services.

EDITO: The European Digital Twin Ocean

While AI4SoilHealth focuses on land, the European Digital Twin Ocean initiative tackles the marine realm. Led by Mercator Ocean International and the Flanders Marine Institute on behalf of the European Commission, EDITO has entered its second phase with a €14 million investment running through 2028.

Jérôme Gaspero, an Earth observation expert serving as product manager for EDITO, represents a community of researchers and developers building the most comprehensive digital representation of our oceans ever attempted.

Beyond Static Data

Traditional ocean monitoring relies on ship-based surveys, fixed buoys, and periodic satellite observations. These methods provide valuable data but offer limited temporal and spatial coverage. EDITO transforms this fragmented landscape into an integrated, dynamic system.

The platform combines diverse data sources including satellite remote sensing, in-situ sensors, underwater cameras, acoustic monitoring, and oceanographic models. AI algorithms process this information to create real-time simulations of ocean conditions, predict future states, and identify emerging threats.

This isn’t just about collecting more data. It’s about turning data into actionable knowledge that decision-makers can actually use.

Applications Across Sectors

EDITO serves multiple user communities with different needs. Researchers use the platform to study complex marine processes and test hypotheses through virtual experiments. Marine Protected Area managers access real-time monitoring data to inform adaptive management strategies. Industry stakeholders use ocean forecasts to optimise operations and reduce environmental impact.

The PHAROS project is actively integrating with EDITO to build local Digital Twin Ocean representations of demonstration sites in Gran Canaria and Iceland. These “local twins” provide high-resolution monitoring of ecosystem restoration efforts, tracking biodiversity changes, nutrient flows, and the effectiveness of nature-based solutions.

EDITO aligns with global initiatives including the UN Digital Twin of the Ocean Programme and Destination Earth, ensuring interoperability and adherence to international standards. The platform is designed to support the development of tailored regional digital twins addressing specific ecosystem and climate needs in Lighthouse Areas across Europe.

The Co-Creation Model

Phase 2 of EDITO emphasises expanding accessibility beyond technical experts. The platform is being redesigned to serve non-experts, community groups, and local stakeholders. €2 million in open calls will support the integration of new community-driven data, models, and applications.

This co-creation approach recognises that effective ocean management requires diverse perspectives and local knowledge. Digital twins shouldn’t be black boxes controlled by technical elites. They should be collaborative platforms that empower all stakeholders to contribute and benefit.

The Connection: Food Security in a Changing Climate

Both AI4SoilHealth and EDITO address fundamental challenges to food security. Healthy soils are essential for crop production. Healthy oceans provide protein for billions of people and regulate climate systems affecting agriculture worldwide.

Climate change is disrupting both systems simultaneously. Extreme weather events degrade soils and disrupt marine ecosystems. Temperature changes alter growing seasons and fish distributions. Traditional management approaches based on historical patterns no longer work when the patterns themselves are changing.

Digital twins offer a way forward. By simulating complex systems and running “what-if” scenarios, they allow us to test interventions virtually before implementing them physically. This accelerates learning and reduces the risk of unintended consequences.

Adaptive Management in Practice

Consider a farmer facing increasingly unpredictable rainfall patterns. The AI4SoilHealth system can simulate how different soil management practices would perform under various climate scenarios. The farmer can compare outcomes and select strategies that build resilience rather than gambling on outdated assumptions.

Or consider an ocean farmer cultivating seaweed and shellfish in an Integrated Multitrophic Aquaculture system. The EDITO platform can forecast nutrient availability, water temperature changes, and potential harmful algal blooms. This information allows proactive adjustments that protect harvests and marine ecosystems.

These aren’t hypothetical examples. They’re happening now in projects across Europe.

Challenges and Limitations

Digital twins aren’t magic solutions. They face real challenges that temper enthusiasm with realism.

Data quality matters enormously. Models are only as good as the information feeding them. Gaps in sensor coverage, calibration issues, and measurement errors all propagate through systems. Both AI4SoilHealth and EDITO invest heavily in data validation and quality control.

Computational demands are substantial. Processing vast datasets in real-time requires significant infrastructure. The EU’s investment recognises that building these capabilities is a public good requiring public funding.

User adoption presents another challenge. Sophisticated tools are useless if target users don’t understand them or trust them. Both projects emphasise co-design, user feedback, and interface simplicity to overcome adoption barriers.

Perhaps most fundamentally, digital twins can inform decisions but can’t make them. Human judgment, values, and priorities still determine outcomes. Technology provides better information. People must still decide what to do with it.

What This Means for the Future

By 2030, EDITO envisions a fully operational Digital Twin Ocean platform serving as a global benchmark for digital ocean solutions. AI4SoilHealth aims to support the EU Commission’s objective of transitioning to healthy soils by the same year.

These aren’t isolated initiatives. They’re part of a broader shift toward digital environmental management systems that integrate earth observation, AI, and decision support across multiple domains.

The EU Mission to Restore Our Ocean and Waters by 2030 explicitly identifies digital twins as enabling infrastructure. The Mission Soil initiative similarly relies on AI-enhanced monitoring to track progress across 100 living labs and lighthouses throughout Europe.

This creates opportunities for integration and synergy. Soil health affects nutrient runoff into coastal waters. Ocean conditions influence precipitation patterns affecting agriculture. Terrestrial and marine systems aren’t separate. Digital twins that model these connections can reveal leverage points for intervention that siloed approaches miss.

The Research & Innovation Days Context

The EU’s Research & Innovation Days bring together projects receiving Horizon Europe funding to share progress, identify synergies, and engage policymakers. The CORDIScovery podcast series captures conversations between scientists working on critical challenges.

Featuring AI4SoilHealth and EDITO in the same episode isn’t coincidental. It reflects recognition that food security, climate resilience, and ecosystem health are interconnected challenges requiring coordinated responses.

Both projects exemplify principles central to EU research policy. They’re collaborative, involving partners across multiple countries and disciplines. They’re open, making data and tools publicly accessible. They’re user-focused, engaging stakeholders throughout development rather than imposing top-down solutions.

Most importantly, they’re action-oriented. These aren’t academic exercises. They’re building operational systems designed to support real decisions with real consequences for real people.

Getting Involved

Both platforms offer opportunities for participation.

AI4SoilHealth provides an API and mobile app allowing farmers, researchers, and land managers to access soil health data and contribute observations. The Rapid Soil Health Assessment Toolbox enables field measurements that feed into the broader system.

EDITO’s open calls invite projects to integrate data, models, and applications into the platform. The upcoming information session on 29 January 2026 will detail funding opportunities for third-party contributions.

For researchers, both initiatives offer rich datasets and computational infrastructure for scientific investigation. For policymakers, they provide evidence bases for regulations and incentive programs. For citizens concerned about environmental sustainability, they offer transparency into the state of systems that affect everyone.

The Bottom Line

Making smarter decisions for our oceans and soil isn’t optional. It’s essential for food security, climate resilience, and environmental sustainability.

Digital twins represent a fundamental evolution in how we monitor, understand, and manage complex natural systems. By combining real-time data, AI analysis, and predictive modelling, they transform fragmented information into actionable knowledge.

AI4SoilHealth and EDITO demonstrate this potential across terrestrial and marine domains. Their success will influence how Europe approaches environmental management for decades.

The technology is impressive. But technology alone solves nothing. What matters is whether these tools empower better decisions that lead to healthier soils, healthier oceans, and more resilient food systems.

That outcome depends on continued investment, user engagement, and willingness to adapt management practices based on new information. The infrastructure is being built. The question is whether we’ll use it wisely.

Given the challenges ahead, we don’t have the luxury of choosing otherwise.

---

Sources:

1. CORDIScovery Podcast: “Smarter decisions for our oceans and soil” – EU Research & Innovation Days 2025
2. AI4SoilHealth Project (EU Horizon Europe, 2023-2026) – https://ai4soilhealth.eu
3. EDITO – European Digital Twin Ocean Phase 2 (2025-2028) – Mercator Ocean International & VLIZ
4. CORDIS EU Research Results – Project ID 101086179 (AI4SoilHealth)
5. CORDIS EU Research Results – Project ID 101227771 (EDITO 2)
6. EU Mission: A Soil Deal for Europe – European Commission
7. EU Mission: Restore Our Ocean and Waters by 2030 – European Commission
8. PHAROS Project – Digital Twin Ocean Integration & Marine Restoration
9. European Soil Health Observatory – EU Joint Research Centre
10. European Research & Innovation Days 2025 – European Commission