News

10/02/2026

The ESA Digital Twin Earth Components: Open Science Meeting took place at ESA ESRIN from 2 to 4 February 2026. The event brought together scientists, research organisations, policymakers and digital twin projects, offering a space to connect and exchange ideas.

Forest DTC was also present at the event. On the opening day, in the ESA Lead DTCs Demonstrations session, Forest DTC was presented by Science Lead Matti Mõttus and Project Manager Renne Tergujeff. The Forest DTC presentation highlighted the project’s vision and ongoing work, as well as the current capabilities of the Forest DTC prototype system, demonstrating how the platform can simulate forest dynamics and provide support for forest management.

The full event agenda and shared presentations can be found here.

19/01/2026

The 8th Winter Satellite Workshop with Remote Sensing Days will be held in Espoo, Finland, from 20 to 23 January 2026. The Forest Digital Twin Component will be featured in the poster session on Wednesday, 21 January. Please come and have a chat if you are attending!

You can also view the poster here.

12/11/2025

Trial period of the Forest DTC Prototype system for Core Users has concluded:

• Core Users had access to the prototype system for approximately one week to explore key functionalities and assess its current usability.
• Core Users were also invited to demo/feedback sessions. In these sessions, the project team engaged with user representatives from three of the project’s Use Cases (Czechia, Finland and Catalonia).
• Feedback was positive and encouraging, and this input is instrumental in shaping priorities and guiding future development.
• We thank all Core Users for their time, engagement and contributions during the trial.

07/11/2025

Upcoming events with Forest DTC present

• 11 November 2025 – “Digital Twins for climate, biodiversity and Earth System modeling”, a one-day hybrid seminar organised by CSC – Finnish IT Center for Science, in Espoo, Finland.
• 17–18 November 2025 – “3rd ESA Carbon Science Cluster Meeting”, a two-day online meeting.
• 20–23 January 2026 – “8th Winter Satellite Workshop”, a New Space event organised in Espoo, Finland.
• 2–5 February 2026 – “ESA Digital Twin Earth Components: Open Science Meeting 2026”, a physical meeting organised at ESA ESRIN, Frascati, Italy.

03/11/2025

We are happy to share that the Forest DTC User Meeting and Prototype Demo, organised on 28 October, was a success. The event brought together about 50 participants online, including experts from research, industry and public sector organisations across Europe.

The session featured:

1. A live demonstration of the Forest DTC prototype system showcasing its current capabilities and user interface. Participants were introduced to simulation workflows that enable the exploration of various climatic scenarios, the testing of alternative forest management strategies and the integration of bark beetle and fire risk disturbance models.
2. Presentations on the Use Cases, covering forest management in Finland, bark beetle risk in Czechia, fire risk in Catalonia and model validation at selected ICOS forest stations. Feedback collected during the event indicated that the Use Cases effectively demonstrated the overall potential of the Forest DTC for users.
3. Interactive discussions and poll-based questionnaires, through which we gathered feedback, ideas and strategic input to guide the Forest DTC’s ongoing development.

We have also launched a trial period for our Core Users, giving them access to the prototype system for testing and further exploration. The goal is to gather more specific and constructive feedback from the Core Users.

Thank you to all participants for your engagement and contributions so far! Please stay tuned for updates and new opportunities to get involved.

10/10/2025

We will organise Forest Digital Twin Component (DTC) User Meeting & Prototype Demonstration online on the 28^th of October from 9:30 to 11:00 CET. Welcome!

The goal of the event is to share our progress in developing the Forest Digital Twin and to gather your valuable feedback. As the two-year project is reaching its halfway point, we will demonstrate the Forest DTC prototype system and intermediate results from the four project Use Cases, inviting your comments. Your insights will be instrumental in guiding the development further and ensuring that it meets the needs of its future users, including researchers, government bodies, policymakers and forestry enterprises.

Please sign up here to receive the calendar invitation and to help us in planning the meeting. Feel free to share this invitation further.

Looking forward to meeting you online on the 28^th of October!

01/07/2025

The ESA Living Planet Symposium 2025, one of the world’s largest Earth observation conferences, took place in Vienna from 23 to 27 June, bringing together experts and projects under the theme “from observation to climate action and sustainability for Earth”.

The Forest DTC consortium was actively represented at the symposium, including a presentation by our Science Lead, Matti Mõttus, titled “Forest Digital Twin Component for DestinE” in the session “Using Earth Observation to develop Digital Twin Components for the Earth System”, chaired by ESA’s Martin Wearing and Edward Malina.

You can see the presentation here.

The symposium also offered a valuable opportunity for the Forest DTC consortium to meet in person with project partners and ESA colleagues. Together, we reflected on key insights from the event and discussed potential next steps in the development of a forest digital twin.

24/06/2025

The Forest DTC consortium has published an engaging visualisation on severe bark beetle outbreaks in Czechia using the DestinE Storytelling service (DEA).

This short story effectively illustrates how a warming climate is increasing the severity of pest attacks in forests across Europe.

See the DEA story here.

15/05/2025

We are excited to invite you to participate in an online survey and a webinar aimed at shaping the future of the Forest Digital Twin.

• We invite you to contribute your expertise by completing the Forest DTC User Questionnaire. This survey of approximately 10 minutes collects insights into key requirements, simulation needs and optimal use cases for the Forest Digital Twin. The questionnaire is designed to capture diverse perspectives, ensuring that the system will reflect the needs and priorities of its user community.
• To complement the survey, we are hosting a Forest DTC user webinar for stakeholders and potential users at 10:00–12:00 CEST on Friday, 13 June 2025, where we will introduce the Forest Digital Twin, its objectives, approach and applications, and engage in discussions about user needs and expectations. Please register here to receive a link to the webinar.

05/05/2025

VTT has published a short online article presenting the digital twinning of forests.

Read the full article here, including insights from Matti Mõttus, Science Lead of the Forest DTC project.

The article is also available in Finnish.

05/02/2025

The consortium participated in the ESA Digital Twin Earth Components: Open Science Meeting at ESRIN in Frascati, Italy, from 3–5 February 2025. The Science Lead of the project, Matti Mõttus, presented the activities of Forest DTC on the first day.

The full agenda of the event can be found here.

23/01/2025

Forest DTC project consortium was represented at the Winter Satellite Workshop in Espoo, Finland, on 21–23 January 2025.

Matti Mõttus presented Forest DTC with a poster that can be seen here. The workshop also featured an engaging session on Digital Twins, including an insightful presentation by Martin Wearing of ESA.

06/11/2024

The new ESA Digital Twin Component for forests officially launched with its kick-off meeting on 6 November 2024. This two-year project brings together a consortium of six partners to develop a pre-operational, end-to-end digital replica of real-world forest systems. The initial focus will be on forests in Europe, paving the way for the global application of the Forest Component.

News posts before 2024 are related to the earlier Forest Digital Twin Earth Precursor project. The Precursors, launched by ESA, aimed to prototype a Digital Twin Earth for specific domains.

03/02/2022

The Forest Digital Twin Earth Precursor project has successfully concluded. The final review meeting took place on 3 February 2022.

13/10/2021

The consortium presented the results of Forest Digital Twin Earth Precursor during this year’s Phi Week on Wednesday 13 October.

10/08/2021

The consortium participated in GI Week 2021 conference in early July. We had virtual presentations during the conference in two separate sessions. Matti Mõttus held both presentations.

Our conference paper is also now available at doi.org/10.1553/giscience2021_01_s130.

28/04/2021

Forestry TEP (f-tep.com) has published a blog post describing their key role in the implementation process of Forest Digital Twin Earth Precursor. Have a look at it here.

19/03/2021

Finnish Forest Association expressed their interest towards our Digital Twin Earth Precursor project and wrote an online article about digital twins of forests.

Read it in English here or in Finnish here.

11/02/2021

The Forest Digital Twin Precursor has begun nicely, and the first work package is now finished. So far, the consortium has investigated user requirements for the future digital twin and set a preliminary definition, development targets and implementation scheme for the Forest DTE.

Read more about the results of WP 1 here.

16/10/2020

Consortium leader VTT has released short online articles about the Forest Digital Twin Earth Precursor (DTEP).

Read about Forest DTEP and comments from Matti Mõttus (principal scientist at VTT) in English here and in Finnish here.

16/10/2020

The consortium has participated to the annual Phi-Week, this time held as virtual event. Phi-week is Earth Observation event organised by ESA-EOP (ESA Earth Observation Programmes). The event focuses on innovation in Earth Observation and showcases the latest achievements in Earth Observation applications, science and technology.

This year Phi-Week aimed to contribute to the concept of Digital Twin Earth. Our consortium held a poster session during the week, which generated positive and interesting discussion about Forest DTEP. In addition, we presented e-poster that can be watched here.