Advanced environmental data and simulations offer new possibilities for coastal resilience, yet they often remain difficult to access and use beyond specialist communities. AETHERIA addresses this gap by connecting artificial intelligence, including generative AI, with Earth and Ocean digital twins, turning complex environmental simulations into accessible, localised assessments and decision-support services for coastal planning, climate adaptation and risk preparedness.

The 36-month Horizon Europe project runs from September 2026 to August 2029 and brings together 20 European partners. Its services will be developed and tested across four pilot contexts: the East Mediterranean (Crete and Cyprus), Varna–Danube, Cabo de Gata–Níjar and the Oslo Fjord.

MIO-ECSDE leads AETHERIA’s stakeholder engagement and the development of participatory demonstration activities, ensuring that public authorities, civil society, young people and underrepresented groups contribute to shaping services that respond to local needs and priorities. It also leads public engagement and education activities, coordinates stakeholder-led demonstrations and feedback, and leads the development of policy recommendations and a Sustainability Roadmap to support the long-term uptake of project results.

  • Level of completion 5% 5%

AETHERIA aims to develop an inclusive, AI-powered platform that enables experts and non-specialists to explore, compare and assess localized coastal risk scenarios. By connecting with Destination Earth and other European digital twin infrastructures, it will help users understand environmental changes, evaluate potential impacts and response options and make decisions grounded in scientific evidence, local needs and a transparent understanding of uncertainties associated with forecasts and simulations.

AETHERIA combines technological innovation with stakeholder engagement, participatory design and real-world testing. Its main activities include:

  • Integrating environmental data and digital twins: connecting Earth and Ocean digital twins with satellite observations, in-situ measurements and with AI-powered simulations generate localized coastal impact assessments.
  • Developing accessible AI-powered services: creating multilingual, natural-language interfaces through which users can explore environmental information, ask questions, visualise results and explore “what-if” scenarios.
  • Validating coastal impact assessments: comparing simulation outputs with observational and historical data, using common benchmarks and structured stakeholder feedback.
  • Adapting European AI tools: using technologies from European AI Factories to explain environmental data, summarise simulation results and compare scenarios.
  • Strengthening environmental monitoring and forecasting: developing real-time forecasting and early-warning services to monitor coastal changes such as flooding, erosion, water-quality deterioration.
  • Testing and validating simulations: comparing model outputs with observational and historical data, assessing uncertainties and incorporating stakeholder feedback to improve the reliability of results.
  • Engaging stakeholders in co-design: involving public authorities, civil society organizations, coastal communities and other users in identifying needs, defining requirements and testing services across the four pilot areas.
  • Promoting public engagement and education: organising workshops, demonstrations and educational activities to strengthen environmental awareness, digital literacy and public participation.
  • Support informed decision-making and policy uptake: developing tools that compare coastal risk scenarios and response options against stakeholder-defined criteria and communicate confidence levels, potential impacts and socio-economic trade-offs.

These activities will be tested through four complementary pilot contexts:

  • East Mediterranean — Crete and Cyprus: shoreline change and erosion, marine plastic transport, wave-energy potential, protection of coastal cultural heritage, and alerts for extreme weather and Saharan dust events
  • Varna Port and the Danube River Mouth: port operations and navigation risks, sedimentation and storm surges, nutrient and plastic flows, and threats to wetlands and protected habitats.
  • Cabo de Gata–Níjar Natural Park: erosion of protected coastal sites, extreme-wave impacts on sensitive habitats, and marine litter accumulation linked to visitor pressures.
  • Oslo Fjord and the Hvaler archipelago: wastewater and river-runoff tracking, high-resolution coastal circulation forecasts, water-quality warnings and identification of suitable sites for sustainable aquaculture.

AETHERIA will deliver practical tools, services and guidance to strengthen coastal resilience and support the wider uptake of AI-powered Digital Twin technologies. Key results will include:

  • An integrated AI-powered Digital Twin platform, combining environmental simulations, a multilingual generative AI interface, real-time coastal monitoring and decision-support tools tailored to different user needs.
  • Local monitoring and early-warning services, including shoreline-change maps, marine plastic drift forecasts, water-quality indicators and coastal hazard alerts.
  • A Validation and Benchmarking Framework and a Pilot Evaluation & Scalability Blueprint, supported by a Digital Twin Readiness Checklist to help assess the potential for deployment in other regions.
  • Public engagement and educational resources, including “My Digital Coast” school kits and interactive climate-action games, alongside hands-on training and participatory/citizen science activities.
  • Three policy briefs addressing the contribution of Digital Twins to climate and coastal resilience and marine governance.
  • A Replication Toolkit and Sustainability Roadmap, providing deployment guidance, pathways for adoption, and options for continued hosting, maintenance and integration of services with European digital infrastructures beyond the project’s timeframe.

Title: Generative AI and SurrogatE digital Twins for Human-centric coastal and Earth systems Resilience & Impact Assessments (AETHERIA)

Funding instrument: Horizon Europe — Research and Innovation Action
Call: HORIZON-INFRA-2025-01
Topic: HORIZON-INFRA-2025-01-TECH-03 — AI-powered impact simulations in support of the Destination Earth initiative
Project duration: 1 September 2026 – 31 August 2029 (36 months)
EU contribution: €9,615,582.68.

 

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