A hydrographic dataset of the Wadden Sea as a foundation for a digital twin of the coastal ocean

The Wadden Sea stretches along the coasts of the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark in Western Europe. As the world's largest coherent channel-shoal environment and as a UNESCO world heritage site, managing economic and political interests is complex. All stakeholders require a common understanding through shared, public databases and tools, e.g., to comply with the strict national park legislation. Although digital twins of the European oceans are emerging, current solutions still lack spatial resolution and neglect changes in coastal morphology. Here, we present a hydrographic dataset of the Wadden Sea covering the period of 2015 to 2022 with annually updated topography, and we outline a framework for the transition of digital twins toward the coastal oceans. A coupled numerical modeling approach was used to derive tides, currents, waves, salinity, temperature, and suspended sediments in 20-minute intervals. All data were published in an open-access governmental repository as files and web services with FAIR metadata documentation.