AquaTwin

💎 Idea

AquaTwin is a satellite-based digital twin for flood-related agricultural biosecurity, forecasting, and early warning. It focuses on potato fields exposed to floodwater, especially in the Dutch Maas floodplain, where contaminated surface water can create serious risks for seed potato production.

The problem is operational and urgent. After a flood event, farmers, inspectors, water boards, cooperatives, and insurers need to know which exact parcels were flooded, which parcels are exposed to contaminated surface-water pathways, and which parcels require immediate inspection or quarantine action. At the moment, this information is fragmented across separate systems: satellite flood maps, crop-boundary datasets, water-level data, pathogen risk zones, and field inspection records. This creates delay during the first 48-72 hours, when decisions are most critical.

AquaTwin solves this by creating a live decision-support digital twin that connects satellite flood detection, crop parcel data, pathogen hazard zones, water-level indicators, crop-stress information, and forecasting logic in one interface. The system transforms raw flood information into parcel-level risk intelligence.

The core workflow is:

Sentinel-1 flood detection → BRP crop-parcel overlay → contaminated hazard buffer zone analysis → water-level and weather indicator check → crop-stress assessment using Sentinel-2 NDVI → parcel-level contamination pathway risk → early warning and ranked inspection list.

The platform classifies parcels into practical risk categories: HIGH, MEDIUM, LOW, and SAFE. This helps inspectors identify which fields should be checked first, which parcels may need quarantine investigation, and which areas can be deprioritised.

AquaTwin also includes an early-warning and forecasting component. The digital twin is designed to monitor rainfall forecasts, water-level signals, Sentinel-1 flood anomalies, and vegetation stress indicators to warn users before and immediately after flood-related contamination risk increases. This means AquaTwin is not only a post-event mapping tool. It is a forecasting and decision-support system for flood-related agricultural biosecurity.

A key innovation is the contaminated hazard buffer zone and Green Shield scenario. Around high-risk watercourses or flood-exposed areas, the platform can simulate buffer zones where selected non-potato crops or riparian vegetation are used as biological and spatial shields for potato fields. These buffer zones are intended to reduce direct exposure between potatoes and contaminated water pathways, support ecological filtering, and guide safer land-use planning near hazard zones.

In the current prototype, AquaTwin demonstrates SAR-based flood mapping, parcel-level risk scoring, early-warning logic, and a Green Shield scenario interface. The long-term goal is to help authorities, farmers, cooperatives, and insurers act faster, reduce unnecessary crop destruction, support quarantine decisions, and create auditable spatial evidence for insurance and regulatory workflows.

AquaTwin turns flood data into actionable water-agriculture risk intelligence.                         

🛰️ EU space technologies

AquaTwin uses EU space technologies as the backbone of its monitoring, forecasting, and field-validation workflow.

Copernicus Sentinel-1 SAR is used for flood detection.  AquaTwin uses Sentinel-1 flood layers to detect inundated areas and connect them to affected agricultural parcels.

Copernicus Sentinel-2 MSI is used for crop-stress and vegetation monitoring. AquaTwin uses this information to compare pre- and post-flood vegetation conditions and identify fields where flood exposure may be followed by crop stress.

Galileo and EGNOS will be included in the operational roadmap for field inspection and validation. 

AquaTwin also combines EU space data with national and local datasets, including BRP crop parcels, NVWA brown-rot risk rules, water-level indicators, rainfall forecast information, and surface-water hazard logic. The value is created by fusing these datasets into a single digital twin rather than using satellite layers separately.

🌊 EU Space for Water

AquaTwin addresses the Monitoring Extreme Water-Related Events challenge.

AquaTwin contributes to protecting and managing water resources by linking flood monitoring with agricultural biosecurity. It does this in five ways.

First, AquaTwin improves flood-event monitoring by using Sentinel-1 SAR to identify inundated areas shortly after satellite acquisition. This gives decision-makers a spatial overview of where floodwater has reached agricultural land.

Second, it connects floodwater to crop-parcel exposure. Instead of showing flood extent only as a general map, AquaTwin intersects flood polygons with BRP agricultural parcels and identifies which potato fields are actually affected.

Third, it adds contamination pathway intelligence. The digital twin includes what-if scenarios, contaminated hazard buffer zones around risky watercourses, flood-exposed areas, and pathogen-sensitive zones. This makes it possible to distinguish between a parcel that is simply near a flood and a parcel that is likely connected to a contaminated surface-water pathway.

Fourth, AquaTwin includes forecasting and early warning. The platform is designed to combine rainfall forecasts, water-level changes, Sentinel-1 flood anomalies, and Sentinel-2 vegetation indicators to warn users when contamination risk is increasing. This supports earlier preparation by farmers, inspectors, water boards, and cooperatives.

Fifth, AquaTwin supports nature-based mitigation through the Green Shield scenario. The digital twin can simulate buffer zones where selected non-host crops, riparian vegetation, or alternative buffer crops are placed between contaminated water pathways and potato fields. These buffer zones can help reduce direct exposure, support ecological filtering, and guide safer land-use decisions in high-risk areas. Tradeoffs if the plot is converted from consumption potatoes to seed potatoes.

This approach helps protect water resources and agricultural systems at the same time. It supports targeted inspection, avoids unnecessary blanket restrictions, improves evidence for insurance claims, and helps farmers adapt to more frequent flood events.

The concept can be scaled beyond the Dutch pilot area. Any EU region with satellite flood data, crop-parcel registries, water-level information, and plant-health rules could adapt the same digital twin methodology.

🤼 Team

• Rakibun Athid - GIS & Digital Twin
• Nawwar Fatima Procheta - Water Resources & Disaster Risk
• Saurabh Bhagchandani - Product Development & Urban Planning
• Rishav Kumar - Resource Management & Remote Sensing
• Anisha - GeoAI & Geomatics
• Chamali - Core Technology Lead
• Zilin Lai - Land Administration & Regional Planning
• Naponu Lodompui - Natural Resources & Spatial Finance

Visit our Digital Twin Platform here - https://huggingface.co/spaces/Anisha10101010/AquaTwin