KAUST Coral Restoration Initiative
Client Overview
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), located on the Red Sea coast in Saudi Arabia, is renowned for its world-class research output. Ranked 8th globally in 2019 for research excellence. One of KAUST’s flagship initiatives is the KAUST Coral Restoration Initiative (KCRI), a groundbreaking collaboration with NEOM, aimed at propagating and outplanting 2 million corals across a 100-hectare reefscape on Shushah Island in the Red Sea. This restoration initiative, which falls under the Technologies and Special Projects (T&SP) within the National Transformation Institute, focuses on rehabilitating coral reefs, enhancing biodiversity and developing sustainable methods for coral regeneration.
Challenge
The KAUST Coral Restoration Initiative (KCRI) faces multiple challenges that may hinder large-scale coral restoration efforts:
- Environmental Uncertainty: Climate change and local anthropogenic stressors pose significant threats to coral health, creating unpredictable conditions for restoration that must be mitigated.
- Data Limitations: The lack of real-time, high-quality synoptic data makes it difficult to monitor coral and reef site health effectively and predict environmental changes that could affect restoration efforts.
- Collaboration: Enable secure and effective collaboration among a wide range of global research institutions and teams to foster innovation using access to Reef data.
- Scaling Challenges: Expanding restoration efforts across larger reef areas and varied ocean environments is technically and logistically complex along with challenges in creating the infrastructure, capital and fulfilling resourcing.
- Biodiversity Loss: Declining diversity of coral species adds complexity to the restoration process, requiring specific targeted interventions to rehabilitate coral populations.
The Solution
To tackle these challenges, KCRI is implementing advanced Digital Twin technology and AI-driven predictive analysis to enable better real-time monitoring and decision-making. Partnering with DigyCorp alongside other key partners, KCRI is developing a Hybrid Digital Twin solution that provides critical insights into the coral ecosystem. It will host technology that offers 3D visualization data, which is processed into dense point clouds (DPCs). These datasets provide vital actionable insights into the health and progress of the coral restoration process. DigyCorp’s Operational Software plays a crucial role in managing the lifecycle of coral production at scale, supporting both land and reef nurseries. This software will help track and manage the inventory of 2 million corals, including their transplantation onto the reef, ensuring precision in restoration management.To enable global collaboration, DigyCorp’s secure Digital Twin platform will allow international research teams to collaborate seamlessly, providing trusted security models to ensure control and integrity of reef data across global research organizations.
Outcomes
- Improved Efficiency: The Digital Twin solution will accelerate the decision-making process and effectiveness in coral restoration by providing real-time iteratively imprived data-driven insights, reducing project delays.
- Enhanced Coral Survival and Reef Ecological Trajectories: Through better monitoring and predictive analysis, coral survival and growth will be increased, contributing to more effective restoration planning and outcomes.
- Scalable Solution: DigyCorp’s software and technology will form a key tool for KCRI to scale the restoration project efficiently, managing 2 million corals across unprecedented 100-hectare area.
- Collaborative Success: Secure collaboration spaces allow international teams to work together seamlessly on KCRI's unique digital assets, fostering further innovations in coral reef ecology, reef restoration strategy, and ensuring effective data sharing without compromising security.
Client Feedback
“DigyCorp’s Digital Twin technology along with other KCRI parners will be transformative for our coral restoration initiative. Real-time insights and predictive capabilities will drastically improve the precision of our efforts, allowing us to scale and optimized practice that will benefit restoration globally.”
Lead Scientist, KAUST Coral Restoration Initiative
Key Takeaways
- Key Benefits: KAUST’s collaboration with DigyCorp underpins improved restoration processes, faster project execution and increased restoration effectiveness through real-time monitoring and AI-driven predictions.
- Business Impact: By leveraging Digital Twin and AI technology, KCRI will be able to scale its restoration efforts while ensuring operational efficiency and global collaboration. This will allow KAUST to achieve its long-term sustainability and biodiversity goals, significantly contributing to global coral restoration.
Key Metrics
Restoration planning for effective outcomes: Increase coral survival, growth and ecological trajectories through better predictive analysis and
monitoring.
Project Efficiency: Optimize workflow performance due to real-time data availability and quicker decision-making.
Scale of Operations: The target is to grow and outplant over 2 million
corals, improving scalability and operational control.
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environmental restoration projects?
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