Games have the power to ignite imaginations and place you in someone else's shoes or situation, often forcing you into making decisions from perspectives other than your own. This makes them potentially powerful tools for communication, through use in outreach, disseminating research, in education at all levels, and as a method to train the public, practitioners and decision makers in a order to build environmental resilience. This session is a chance to share your experiences and best practice with using games to communicate geosciences, be they analogue, digital and/or serious games.

3D representation technology is a fast developing field, made possible by progress in computing and reflected by the gaming and video industries. Notably, 3D-printing provides a cost-effective and tactile way to illustrate research concepts, while Augmented Reality (AR) or Virtual Reality (VR) allow to grasp complex processes and geometries using common smartphones or handheld devices. Using these technologies, 3-dimensional objects and datasets are developed that are well suited for outreach, teaching and wider public engagement.

The design of 3D models of the Earth on different scales based on photogrammetry, mapping and imagery, modelling and inverse modelling is a challenging task. Before 3D data sets (physically real or virtual) can be explored in outreach activities or teaching settings, several steps have to be taken which all come with their own issues: how to export data into the objects formats used in the 3D engineering community; how to feed objects into software to allow 3D-printing; how to manipulate virtual objects easily using handheld devices.

We welcome contributions that are focused on technical aspects of real or virtual realisations, as well as their use in pedagogy, outreach or public communication of Earth Sciences research topics.

Do you consider yourself a science communicator or science communication researcher? Does your research group or institution participate in public engagement activities? Have you ever evaluated, studied, or published your education, outreach or engagement efforts? Scientists and communication practitioners engage non-peer audiences through numerous pathways including websites, blogs, public lectures, media interviews, and educational and research collaborations. A considerable amount of time and money is invested in these activities and they play an important role in how different publics come to understand scientific topics, issues, and the research process. However, few opportunities and incentives exist to optimize science communication practices and to evaluate the effectiveness of different engagement approaches. This session, run at both AGU and EGU, encourages critical reflection on science communication best practices and provides an opportunity for the community of science communicators and researchers to share best practices and experiences with evaluation and research in this field.

Weather and climate services involve the production, translation, transfer, and use of scientific information for decision-making. They include long term climate projections, monthly to seasonal forecasts and daily weather forecasts. They are particularly useful (i) for several climate sensitive sectors such as agriculture, water resources, health, energy, disaster risk reduction and (ii) in developing countries where vulnerability to climate change and weather shocks is high. This interdisciplinary session aims at showing tools, results, methodologies that could lead in fine to an operational improvement of WCS in developing countries. It focuses not only on models improvement but also on how to interact with end-users, assess WCS added value, broadcast information, avoid inequalities access, involve the private sector etc. The session will focus particularly on feedbacks and results from different case studies located in the global South.

Liaising with stakeholders and policy-makers is becoming increasingly important for scientists to turn research into impactful action. In hydrological sciences, this is needed when implementing innovative solutions in areas such as river basin management, water allocation, impact-based hydrological forecasting, flood protection, drought risk management, climate change mitigation, ecohydrology and sustainable environmental solutions, among others.

The science-policy interface is not just as a way to increase the impact of our science, but it is also a scientific subject in itself. It presents several challenges to both scientists and policy-makers. They include understanding the different steps in the policy cycle: from setting the agenda to formulating, adopting, implementing, monitoring and evaluating polices. It is also crucial to know which facts and evidences are most needed at each step, so scientists can provide the best information at the right time and in the best way.

This session provides the opportunity for discussing with policy makers and addressing the necessary skills to facilitate the uptake of science in policy formulation and implementation: how science influences policy and policies impact science? How scientists can provide easily digestible pieces of evidence to policy-makers? What are the key gaps in joining science to feasible policy solutions in the water sector? How can we use knowledge to improve policy, and vice-versa?

We invite contributions that reflect on the needs of scientists and policy makers at different levels, from local, regional to EU and international levels. Hydrologists have long contributed to produce policy briefs and provide government advice on water-related issues. This session focuses on sharing these experiences (successes or failures), case studies, narratives and best practices at different phases of the policy-making process.

Invited speaker: Philippe Quevauviller (Research Programming and Policy Officer, European Commission, DG HOME, Brussels): “Bridging science, policy, industry and practitioners communities and the citizen dimension for enhancing disaster resilience”

Human interaction with the environment has gone through several stages of evolution. Being a product of the natural evolution of living organisms in the biosphere, Homo sapiens as a species has evolved in the geochemical conditions of the virgin biosphere. The rapid development of intellectual abilities of this genus allowed, first, to survive in adverse environmental conditions around the whole world, then, to cultivate the land, transform the entire system of biocenoses, and now to create a new habitat for man exclusively. The result was a significant geochemical transformation of the virgin biosphere, but a kind of punishment for the achieved progress was the emergence of a number of endemic diseases of a geochemical nature. Nowadays a variety of anthropogenic sources of pollution and their location in various natural geochemical conditions require not only constant monitoring of the chemical state of soil, water, air and food products, but also the development of spatially differentiated approaches to assessing the risk of provoked diseases. To solve this problem it is necessary concertedly interpreting a geochemical and medical information in order to assess the risks to human health associated with modern natural and anthropogenic geochemical features in urban and rural habitats. During session we propose to discuss:
1) global trends of health transformation in new geochemical environment of modern noosphere;
2) criteria for determining pollution level depending on environmental and geochemical constrains;
3) new approaches to assess the risk of diseases of geochemical nature in different countries;
4) the problem of mapping the risk zones, related to negative medical effects due to deficiency or excess of certain chemical elements or compounds.
Session co-sponsored by the European Association of Geochemistry.

Public information:
Human interaction with the environment has gone through several stages of evolution. Man as a species first survived in adverse environmental conditions around the world, then he began to cultivate the land, exploit other species and develop industry, changing the structure and composition of natural ecosystems, and now creates a new habitat exclusively in accordance with his own requirements. This activity leads to significant chemical pollution of the environment at the local, and in some cases at the regional level, which leads to disruption of natural food chains. This process is followed by the negative biological reactions of living organisms, including the man himself. These reactions and, in particular, endemic diseases of a geochemical nature can be regarded as a kind of punishment for the progress made. Emerging environmental problems require not only constant monitoring of the chemical state of soil, water, air and food products and identification of anthropogenic induced negative reactions, but also the development of spatially differentiated approaches to assessing the risk of triggered negative reactions and diseases. During our session, we will discuss:
1) global trends in health status in the new geochemical environment of the modern noosphere (the anthropogenic stage of biosphere evolution);
2) methods and criteria for determining the level of environmental pollution by metals, pesticides, radionuclides and pharmaceutical substances;
3) new approaches to assessing the risk of pollution and diseases of a geochemical nature in different countries;
4) the problems of identifying and mapping risk zones.
We kindly invite all interested parties to our session.

World-wide an increasing number of research projects focus on the challenges associated with changes in the Arctic regions. Whereas these often have a natural and physical science focus, this session focuses on trans-disciplinary approaches to study the multiple phenomena associated with global warming, especially but not exclusively in Arctic regions. Another focus is to understand better how to tackle these in large, trans-disciplinary research projects, initiatives and programs (e.g. HORIZON2020 Nunataryuk, INTAROS and the T-MOSAIC program of the International Arctic Research Council, NSF Navigating the New Arctic), as well as communicating results effectively to the public in terms of outreach and education. Contributions are invited, but are not limited, to the following themes:
• science communication, education and outreach tools, and co-production of knowledge
• integration of social and natural science approaches
• indigenous and collaborative approaches to adaptation and mitigation, equitable mitigation, and risk perception
• socio-economic modelling in relation to Arctic environmental change,
• examining the impacts of permafrost thaw and other phenomena on health and pollution as well as infrastructure (and consequences of the built environment).

One of the aims of this session is to bring together researchers from both social and natural sciences who are involved or interested in reaching out to stakeholders and the general public, and share successful experiences. Examples from past, ongoing and future initiatives that include traditional indigenous knowledge and scientific tools and techniques are welcome.

This session merged from

ITS5.9/EOS4.14
Trans-disciplinary aspects of researching permafrost thaw: science communication, integration, monitoring, modelling and risk perception
Co-organized by CL4/CR4/GM7/HS12/NH9
Convener: Peter Schweitzer | Co-conveners: Annett Bartsch, Susanna Gartler

EOS4.1
Where human and natural systems meet: promoting innovative tools for Arctic outreach and education
Convener: Terenzio zenone | Co-conveners: Frederic Bouchard, Stein Sandven, Ylva Sjöberg, Donatella zona

CR4.5
Towards collaborative frameworks for permafrost research that incorporate northern principles: challenges and opportunities
Convener: Peter Morse | Co-conveners: Ryley Beddoe, Hugh O'Neill, Ashley Rudy, Greg Sieme

Remaining carbon budgets specify the quantity of CO2 that can be emitted before a given warming level (such as the 1.5 °C target) is reached, and are thus of high interest to the public and policymakers. Yet, there are many sources of uncertainty which make it challenging to deduce this finite amount of CO2 emissions. The theoretical foundation of carbon budgets is based on the concept of the Transient Climate Response to cumulative CO2 Emissions (TCRE). This is the pathway-independent ratio of global warming per unit of cumulative CO2 emissions. However, accounting for non-CO2 forcings and changes in albedo or other Earth system feedbacks provides further challenges in calculating TCRE and the remaining carbon budgets.

This session aims to further our understanding of the climate response under different emission scenarios, and to advance our knowledge of associated carbon budgets consistent with meeting various levels of warming. We invite contributions that use a variety of tools, including fully coupled Earth System Models, Integrated Assessment Models, or simple climate model emulators. We welcome studies exploring different aspects related to carbon budgets and the TCRE framework, including: the governing mechanisms behind linearity of TCRE and its limitations, effects of different forcings and feedbacks (e.g. permafrost carbon feedback) and non-CO2 forcings (e.g. aerosols, and other non-CO2 greenhouse gases), estimates of the remaining carbon budget to reach a given temperature target (for example, the 1.5 °C warming level from the Paris Agreement), the role of pathway dependence, the climate-carbon responses to different emission scenarios (e.g. SSP scenarios, or idealized scenarios), and the behaviour of TCRE in response to artificial CO2 removal from the atmosphere (i.e. negative emissions). Contributions from the fields of climate policy and economics focused on applications of carbon budgets are also encouraged.

Comprehensive studies to address ocean science issues require synergistic collaboration across the globe between many subdisciplines including science, engineering, environment, society and economics. However, it is a challenge to unify these aspects under a common program or study, and as such has been recognized as a main goal of the United Nations “Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030)”. Consequently, this session will bring together early-career representatives from a wide range of subdisciplines to demonstrate the strength of an interdisciplinary and intercultural approach when addressing global concerns, such as the dynamic impacts of climate change, focusing on the North Atlantic region as an example.

Continuous and comprehensive data is crucial to our understanding of the ocean. Yet, developing the advanced tools and technologies required for long-term ocean monitoring is not merely an engineering problem, as the data produced by these instruments will have future environmental and socio-economic impacts. A comprehensive view of the ocean also requires an understanding of past conditions. Thus, this session will also include contributions from paleo-oceanography to link the past to the future. In this vein, we will discuss our attempts at transdisciplinary and transcultural collaboration and share what we have learned for future approaches.

We invite contributions from a wide range of enthusiasts, including those in the natural sciences (e.g. biology, physics), applied sciences (e.g. engineering and technology, business), humanities (e.g. law), and social sciences (e.g. economics, political science). We also invite contributions from educators and administrators who are interested in experimenting with novel methods of building and encouraging research within interdisciplinary and multicultural graduate school programs.

The successful implementation of safe deep geological disposal of spent fuel, high-level waste and other long-lived radioactive waste is one of the currently most pressing environmental challenges in several countries worldwide. Site exploration and assessment are primarily geoscientific tasks that require interdisciplinary collaboration of different geoscientific disciplines, like geophysics, hydrogeology, (hydro-)geochemistry, mineralogy, geomechanics, and geological as well as THMC modelling. Successful and socially accepted site selection and implementation, however, not only depend on geoscientific state-of-the-art results and R&D programs but to a large extent on well-designed public outreach and public involvement/participation activities as well as on suitable regulatory frameworks.
As for other subsurface technologies such as the storage of thermal energy and other energy carriers, or the deposition of chemotoxic waste, barrier integrity is a crucial aspect for the assessment of nuclear waste disposal. Different technical concepts in diverse geological candidate formations are being discussed. Numerical simulations, in conjunction with experimental studies are an integral part of safety and environmental-impact assessment concepts involving barrier integrity as a key component. Reliable comparative analyses of potential technological options require coupled THMC models capturing the particularities of each rock type and associated repository concept to a comparable level of sophistication. Structural as well as process complexity are often met by data scarcity and variability, necessitating the treatment of uncertainties and variability.
Aside from geoscientific and technological aspects this interdisciplinary session also addresses social and regulatory challenges by welcoming contributions from research and technical support organizations, waste management organizations, regulatory bodies, and NGOs. The session provides a platform for the exchange of i) geophysical, geochemical, geotechnical knowledge for assessing the integrity of multi-barrier systems considering equally conceptual, theoretical, computational and experimental aspects as well as ii) safety assessment strategies and tools, disposal concepts, national and transnational public outreach and involvement programs, siting approaches and relevant regulatory frameworks. Presentations related to other subsurface technologies that face comparable challenges are also welcome.

Public information:
We are organizing a ZOOM meeting to take place on May 4th. There will be an oral block running from 08:30 to 12:00 with 12 minute presentations. This will be followed by an afternoon session of Pitch Presentations running from 14:00 to 15:30. In both meetings, presentation material will be shared audio-visually. The session will remain open for chat-based discussion until about 17:00.

The programme of both sessions and the links to the ZOOM Meetings can be found here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/16TJC7em-Grf-RCHqSnta9L7VvV3aU3bb_TRwZ79O7-8/edit?usp=sharing

In complex systems, such as terrestrial ecosystems uncertain information (whether in observation, measurement, interpretation or models) is the norm, and this impinges on most knowledge that earth scientists generate. It is important to quantify and account for uncertainty in our models and predictions otherwise results can be misleading. This is particularly important when predictions are to be used in a decision-making process where the end user needs to be able to properly evaluate the risk involved.

Quantitative estimation of uncertainty is a difficult challenge, that continually calls for the development of more refined tools. Many diverse methods have been developed, such as non-linear kriging in spatial prediction, stochastic simulation modelling and other error propagation approaches and even methods including the use of expert elicitation, but many challenges still remain. A second and often overlooked challenge with uncertainty is how to communicate it effectively to the end users such as scientists, engineers, policy makers, regulators and the general public.

In this session, we will examine the state of the art of both uncertainty quantification and communication in earth systems sciences. We shall give attention to three components of the problem: 1) new methods and applications of uncertainty quantification, 2) how to use such information for risk assessment, and 3) how to communicate it to the end-user. Dealing with uncertainty across all these three layers is a truly multidisciplinary task, requiring input from diverse disciplines (such as earth science, statistics, economics and psychology) to ensure that it is successful. The main aim of this session is to connect the three components of the problem, offering multiple perspectives on related methodologies, connecting scientists from different fields dealing with uncertainty and favouring the development of multidisciplinary approaches.

In this session, we invite contributions to explore diverse experiences with inter- and transdisciplinary research and practice, that is specifically applied in the mountain context. Taking mountains as complex social-ecological systems, they provide a concrete and spatially-defined contexts in which to explore how global change phenomena manifests and how it poses challenges and opportunities for communities and society in general.

Addressing societal concerns, and finding suitable solutions with regards to associated impacts of global change in mountains, requires and inter- and transdisciplinary (IT-TD) approach to research and practice. We invite contributions based on empirical research and/or practical experience with IT-TD, to critically reflect on these practices in the mountains context and learn from experiences that explicitly address societal grand challenges such as (but not limited to) climate change impacts and adaptation, transformations to sustainability, disaster risk reduction, or transitions to low carbon economies. We welcome contributions depicting research experiences in European mountain regions, other mountain regions around the world, as well as contributions from Early Career Researchers.

The session is led and coordinated by the Mountain Research Initiative (MRI) with expectations to be able to draw from this session as inputs for the formulation of future research agendas and coordination of research collaborations in mountain regions, worldwide.

www.mountainresearchinitiative.org

Public information:
In this session, we invite contributions to explore diverse experiences with inter- and transdisciplinary research and practice, that is specifically applied in the mountain context. Taking mountains as complex social-ecological systems, they provide a concrete and spatially-defined contexts in which to explore how global change phenomena manifests and how it poses challenges and opportunities for communities and society in general.

Addressing societal concerns, and finding suitable solutions with regards to associated impacts of global change in mountains, requires and inter- and transdisciplinary (IT-TD) approach to research and practice. We invite contributions based on empirical research and/or practical experience with IT-TD, to critically reflect on these practices in the mountains context and learn from experiences that explicitly address societal grand challenges such as (but not limited to) climate change impacts and adaptation, transformations to sustainability, disaster risk reduction, or transitions to low carbon economies. We welcome contributions depicting research experiences in European mountain regions, other mountain regions around the world, as well as contributions from Early Career Researchers.

The session is led and coordinated by the Mountain Research Initiative (MRI) with expectations to be able to draw from this session as inputs for the formulation of future research agendas and coordination of research collaborations in mountain regions, worldwide.

www.mountainresearchinitiative.org