Kostas Karatzas (editor) - Advances and new trends in environmental informatics : digital twins for sustainability

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This book presents the main research results of the 34th edition of the long-standing and established international and interdisciplinary conference series on environmental information and communication technologies (EnviroInfo 2020).

The conference was held from 23 to 24 September 2020 virtually. It was organized by the Research Centre on Interactive Media, Smart Systems and Emerging Technologies (RISE), Nicosia, Cyprus, under the patronage of the Technical Committee on Environmental Informatics of the Gesellschaft fr Informatik e.V. (German Informatics SocietyGI). RISE is a research centre of excellence in Cyprus, aiming to empower knowledge and technology transfer in the region of South-East Mediterranean. It is a joint venture between the three public universities of Cyprus (University of Cyprus, Cyprus University of Technology and Open University of Cyprus), the Municipality of Nicosia and two renowned international partners, the Max Planck Institute for Informatics, Germany, and the University College London, UK.

This book presents a selection of peer-reviewed research papers that describe innovative scientific approaches and ongoing research in environmental informatics and the emerging field of environmental sustainability. Combining and shaping national and international activities in the field of applied informatics and environmental informatics, the EnviroInfo conference series aims at presenting and discussing the latest state-of-the-art development on information and communication technology (ICT) and environmental-related fields. A special focus of the conference was on digital twins and, in particular, the emerging research concept of digital twins for sustainability, where natural systems are twinned with digital replicas, to improve our understanding of complex socio-environmental systems through advanced intelligence. Sustainable digital twins of smart environments are also a flagship project of RISE.

The respective articles cover a broad range of scientific aspects including advances in core environmental informatics-related technologies, such as earth observation, environmental monitoring and modelling, big data and machine learning, robotics, smart agriculture and food solutions, renewable energy-based solutions, optimization of infrastructures, sustainable industrial/production processes and citizen science, as well as applications of ICT solutions intended to support societal transformation processes towards the more sustainable management of resource use, transportation and energy supplies.

We would like to thank all contributors for their submissions. Special thanks also go to the members of the programme and organizing committees, for reviewing all submissions. In particular, we like to thank our local organizers at RISE who responded fast and generated a digital twin of the physical conference and hosted it online. We also deeply appreciate the help and support of the Environmental Informatics Community that backed up our efforts to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic and to have a stimulating and productive online event. Last but not least, a warm thank you to our sponsors that supported the conference.

Finally, we wish to thank Mrs. Barbara Bethke and Mr. Christian Rauscher from Springer and the entire Springer production team for their assistance and guidance in successfully producing this book.