Greenhouse gas emissions, resource extraction, pollution and other environmental pressures are globally destabilising climates and ecosystems that provide the basis for human (and non-human) living. Humans take a dual role in this relationship as the main driver/cause of environmental change, but also as subjects of that change.

This interdisciplinary session aims to bring together three broad research questions that highlight different aspects of the human-environment system.
(a) To what extent can environmental impacts be avoided by tackling important drivers of energy and material use?
(b) What are the potentials and limitations for a demand-side transformation that reduces environmental pressures?
(c) How does environmental change affect the demand for energy and materials?
We welcome analyses across individual, societal and system level, and encourage an explicit consideration of how the assessed human-environment interaction is affected by the characteristics of the socio-technical and political-economic provisioning systems that link resource use to social outcomes in the study context.

We welcome presentations that spur discussion between different disciplines and address crucial questions that deal with consumption and possible limits to sustaining current levels or growing resource use. We encourage studies from a wide range of disciplines and methodological underpinnings, including but not limited to ecological economics, societal metabolism, social provisioning, human needs, and integrated assessment modelling and scenario building.

The session disentangles human-environment interactions especially in the context of the Paris Agreement climate targets. It hopes to provide multiple perspectives on the challenges and potential for living in a world where human well-being for all can be achieved with minimal environmental impact and within planetary boundaries. This could include studies on drivers of energy and resource use, potentials and limitations of decoupling, infrastructure needs and reform, improvements in service provisioning, as well as deeper changes in the mode of production and consumption and in socio-technical / political-economic systems or regimes (e.g., post-growth, efficiency, sufficiency, avoid-shift-improve, lifestyles, circular economy, alternative need satisfiers). This also calls for studies exploring alternative scenarios and modelling methods with different socioeconomic futures and distributional implications.

Climate change is debated most often for its environmental and socioeconomic repercussions; however, it also has a dramatic impact on tangible cultural heritage worldwide. The safeguard and fruition of cultural assets – outdoors or indoors, and either on land, underground, or underwater – are jeopardized by the current and expected environmental changes. The behavior of the component materials varies likewise, in response to global warming, sea level rise, ocean acidification, and the increase of extreme weather events.
This session addresses the climate change risk to cultural heritage from the interdisciplinary perspective of geosciences, which represent a valuable support for investigating the properties and durability of the materials (e.g., stones, ceramics, mortars, pigments, glasses, and metals); their vulnerability and the changes in weathering dynamics; the key environmental variables (pertaining to climate, microclimate, air pollution, water and soil composition) and the effects of extreme events; the techniques and products to improve conservation practices; and the adaptation measures for heritage protection. This session welcomes contributions based on approaches including but not limited to field and laboratory analysis and testing; damage assessments and simulations; modelling of risk scenarios and decay trends; strategies of monitoring and remote investigation; and processing of environmental databases.

The impact of human activity in the geosphere is becoming widespread and increasingly common. We are creating gigatons of solids each year which make their way into the environment, ranging from discarded municipal wastes such as plastics to industrial products such as iron- and steel-making slags. However, many of these materials, termed here anthropogenic geomaterials, can be utilised for sustainability purposes, for example reuse of fly ash or slag in concrete. This session invites contributions involving applications of anthropogenic geomaterials for a sustainable future. Examples might include valorisation of anthropogenic geomaterials for environmental benefits such as atmospheric CO2 mineralisation or biodiversity enhancement, or reuse/reprocessing of anthropogenic geomaterials in new products needed for a sustainable future such as low-carbon concrete or batteries.

Over the last decade, the transition towards low-carbon and renewable energy systems (RES) has accelerated significantly around the world. This has been in response to both national and international policies as well as incentives promoting the decarbonisation of energy systems to meet climate change targets. However, the low-carbon energy transition has precipitated expansive land use or ecosystem change, recognised by the IPBES as the greatest drivers of ecosystem degradation. Subsequent impacts on biodiversity and related ecosystem processes have major implications for natural capital (NC) and ecosystem service (ES) provision within and beyond the hosting ecosystem.

The objective of this session is to pool ecological, technological and societal research and gather new evidence and insights from around the world on the effects of the low-carbon energy transition on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems relating to NC and ES. This session also aims to explore innovative methods to enhance the ecosystem sustainability of the low-carbon energy transition. Studies may (but are not limited to):
• Present the effects of different RES (e.g., solar energy, wind energy, biogas, smart and decentralised energy systems) on specific pools of NC (e.g., soil, water, atmosphere, habitat, biodiversity, biotic resources) and/or the provision of ES (e.g., nutrient cycling, local climate regulation, biomass production, pollination);
• Discuss the implications of the energy transition to the long-term sustainability of different hosting ecosystems (e.g., temperate grasslands, arid ecosystems, aquatic or marine systems) or human-made systems (e.g., arable land);
• Discuss the societal implications of increased RES (e.g., community acceptance of changing natural/semi-natural landscapes);
• Discuss the policy implications (at national or international level) and potential economic consequences of incorporating NC and ES in the land use decision-making process when planning for RES;
• Discuss the opportunities offered by different RES to enhance environmental co-benefits and ecological outcomes that support NC and ES;
• Present methods to maximise techno-ecological synergies that provide beneficial relationships between technological and ecological systems to increase the sustainability of RES.

We encourage abstracts based on empirical evidence or those that take a modelling or framework approach to present solutions to the sustainable integration of RES within local ecosystems.

This combined session aims to provide extensive overview of different methodologies applied to pursue the achievement of one or more Sustainable Development Goals as well as to address issues related to national GHG reporting.

In one part session includes submissions related to global or regional applications of geospatial data analysis techniques to address sustainability challenges (land, energy, water, climate, infrastructure, vegetation, health etc.) and their interactions. Contributions aiming at improving the understanding, planning, and evaluation of technological, environmental and policy solutions pursuing the achievement of one or more Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will be considered. The main methodological requirement is the use of GIS data (from earth observation, in-situ collection, or statistical offices) and manipulation tools to develop and apply innovative methodologies leveraging bottom-up, spatially-explicit information and highlighting their benefits vis-à-vis aggregated, top-down analysis. Preference will be given to studies which are broader in geographical scope, and which can be scaled to other contexts.

Also, session will emphasize the importance of LULUCF sector in reaching the long-term climate mitigation objective. Contributions related to national and subnational carbon budget estimates (past, present and future) in different land uses (forests, crops, grasslands, urban areas), using multiple data sources and different calculation methods, will be considered. NFI-based, remote sensing and modelling studies on C stocks and/or fluxes in different ecosystem pools (live biomass, dead wood, litter or soil) are encouraged. Aim is to highlight main issues regarding data integration and model calibration and validation process.

Nature-Based Solutions and Climate Engineering in Climate Governance

As reaching the Paris agreement goal of limiting the global mean surface warming even below 2ºC becomes increasingly difficult with only emission reduction, additional measures complementing greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions to limit global warming gain more attention: Nature-based Solutions and Climate Engineering.
Nature-based solutions (NbS) have gained popularity as a set of integrated approaches that contribute to climate change adaptation, slowing further global warming, supporting ecosystem services and biodiversity, while promoting sustainable development. To achieve the full potential of NbS to address climate change, there is an urgent need for multidisciplinary teams of scientists to articulate solutions that engage policy makers and enable NbS interventions to reduce carbon emissions while benefiting human well-being. This will require systemic change in the way we conduct research, promote collaboration between institutions and with policy makers.

Climate Engineering (CE) is much more controversial. Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) aims at removing CO2 from the atmosphere through techniques such as ocean fertilization, artificial upwelling or enhanced weathering. CE has been criticized for creating potentially dangerous side effects, distracting from the root cause of climate change (GHG emissions), and being difficult to govern. So what, if any, should be the future role of CDR and SRM in the climate governance toolbox and to what extent should CE research have high priority? which knowledge gaps must be addressed before a decision for or against these techniques can be taken?
This session aims to advance knowledge of innovative NbS approaches for more inclusive and resilient communities from inter-disciplinary perspectives.

Specific topics include, but are not limited to:
— Benefits: The potential of NbS and CE to help achieving climate goals
— Feasibility: Tools and best practices enabling successful implementation and upscaling of NbS; impact assessment of real-life NbS projects, especially for the Global South and developing countries; and technical feasibility and risks in implementing CE
— Viability: Cost-benefit analysis of NbS and CE to multiple Sustainable Development Goals
— Governance: New NBS governance models and co-creation approaches and tools; and regional and global challenges and solutions for fair and inclusive governance of CE.

In a fast-changing environment, earth’s ecosystems are facing multiple stressors compromising the provision of essential services for mankind, and the resiliency of the natural environment itself.
Climate change, water pollution and scarcity affect biodiversity, socio-economic and climate related vulnerabilities and as a consequence, water and food security and human health.
The recent European Green Deal aims at Europe becoming the world’s first climate-neutral continent by 2050 and it does so by setting climate, energy, transport and taxation policies fit for reducing net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030. This program sets ambitious yet realistic targets for the next decades, auspicating the transformation of European Countries into a modern resource-efficient economy and society in line with the Sustainable Development Goals.
However, to address both the impacts as well as the causes of climate change, it is fundamental to create conditions where ecosystem services are optimized for both the local population and global objectives. Yet, the use of ecosystem services assessment in decision making might prove challenging when it comes to economic and social domains, as well as the perception and concept of natural environment may differ across disciplines. Such transdisciplinary approach plays a key role in Nature Based Solutions and opens up to the participation of multiple stakeholders in local governance, thus offering a multitude of co-benefits for the environment and for communities.
This session aims at opening a common ground between the natural, physical, social and economic sciences towards a resilient planet, by providing examples of challenges and opportunities and harmonizing best practices in this field.
We welcome transdisciplinary contributions on terrestrial, marine, and urban ecosystem services assessment that take into account the natural and the human dimension, advance in modelling complex spatio-temporal and social dynamics and transdisciplinary approaches towards nature inspired and supported solutions for social benefits and ecosystems’ resilience.

Citizen science (the involvement of the public in scientific processes) is gaining momentum across multiple disciplines, increasing multi-scale data production on Earth Sciences that is extending the frontiers of knowledge. Successful participatory science enterprises and citizen observatories can potentially be scaled-up in order to contribute to larger policy strategies and actions (e.g. the European Earth Observation monitoring systems), for example to be integrated in GEOSS and Copernicus. Making credible contributions to science can empower citizens to actively participate as citizen stewards in decision making, helping to bridge scientific disciplines and promote vibrant, liveable and sustainable environments for inhabitants across rural and urban localities.
Often, citizen science is seen in the context of Open Science, which is a broad movement embracing Open Data, Open Technology, Open Access, Open Educational Resources, Open Source, Open Methodology, and Open Peer Review. Before 2003, the term Open Access was related only to free access to peer-reviewed literature (e.g., Budapest Open Access Initiative, 2002). In 2003 and during the “Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities”, the definition was considered to have a wider scope that includes raw research data, metadata, source materials, and scholarly multimedia material. Increasingly, access to research data has become a core issue in the advance of science. Both open science and citizen science pose great challenges for researchers to facilitate effective participatory science, yet they are of critical importance to modern research and decision-makers.

We want to ask and find answers to the following questions:
Which approaches and tools can be used in Earth and planetary observation?
What are the biggest challenges in bridging between scientific disciplines and how to overcome them?
What kind of participatory citizen scientist involvement (e.g. how are citizen scientists involved in research, which kind of groups are involved) and open science strategies exist?
How to ensure transparency in project results and analyses?
What kind of critical perspectives on the limitations, challenges, and ethical considerations exist?
How can citizen science and open science approaches and initiatives be supported on different levels (e.g. institutional, organizational, national)?

Groundwater, the hidden component of the water cycle, traditionally receives less attention than surface water from both the scientific community and policy makers, due to it being "out of sight, out of mind". However, this precious resource is inextricably linked to the maintenance of natural ecosystems and human well-being. Groundwater has always been part of the lives of worldwide communities: irrigated agriculture is primarily sustained by groundwater resources, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions; holy wells and sacred springs are part of our global cultural heritage, while disagreement over groundwater resources have previously resulted in turmoil and national/transboundary conflicts. These obvious interconnections, however, are neglected in favour of the development of sectorial approaches to groundwater resource assessment.
Socio-hydrogeology has recently been proposed as an effective approach to addressing complex groundwater-related issues in an increasingly holistic and integrated manner. By focusing on the reciprocity between humans and groundwater, it aims to explore and understand their dynamic interactions and feedbacks with a final goal of developing transdisciplinary solutions for transdisciplinary problems. Due to the more "personal" (i.e., individual household/community supplies) and local nature of groundwater in many instances, socio-hydrogeology seeks to understand individuals and communities as a primary source, pathway and receptor for potable groundwater supplies, including the role of local knowledge, beliefs, risk perception, tradition/history, and consumption. In essence, the “socio” in socio-hydrogeology embodies sociology, including social, cognitive, behavioural and socio-epidemiological science.

For this session we encourage contributions from diverse fields, including:
• Examples of socio-hydrogeological assessments (e.g., participatory monitoring, stakeholder engagement, public participation, citizen science)
• Integration of “non-expert” knowledge and experience within quantitative and qualitative hydrogeological studies
• Challenges and opportunities arising from the integration of hydrogeology and social sciences
• Social and political approaches to water resources research
• Groundwater geoethics and national/transboundary conflicts
• Attempts to integrate behavioural, experiential or knowledge-based data with hydrogeological/health risk assessment models
• Educational goals for future socio-hydrogeologists

Environmental systems often span spatial and temporal scales covering different orders of magnitude. The session is oriented toward collecting studies relevant to understand multiscale aspects of these systems and in proposing adequate multi-platform and inter-disciplinary surveillance networks monitoring tools systems. It is especially aimed to emphasize the interaction between environmental processes occurring at different scales. In particular, special attention is devoted to the studies focused on the development of new techniques and integrated instrumentation for multiscale monitoring of high natural risk areas, such as volcanic, seismic, energy exploitation, slope instability, floods, coastal instability, climate changes, and another environmental context.
We expect contributions derived from several disciplines, such as applied geophysics, geology, seismology, geodesy, geochemistry, remote and proximal sensing, volcanology, geotechnical, soil science, marine geology, oceanography, climatology, and meteorology. In this context, the contributions in analytical and numerical modeling of geological and environmental processes are also expected.
Finally, we stress that the inter-disciplinary studies that highlight the multiscale properties of natural processes analyzed and monitored by using several methodologies are welcome.

The session gathers geoscientific aspects such as dynamics, reactions, and environmental/health consequences of radioactive materials that are massively released accidentally (e.g., Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear power plant accidents, wide fires, etc.) and by other human activities (e.g., nuclear tests).

The radioactive materials are known as polluting materials that are hazardous for human society, but are also ideal markers in understanding dynamics and physical/chemical/biological reactions chains in the environment. Thus, the radioactive contamination problem is multi-disciplinary. In fact, this topic involves regional and global transport and local reactions of radioactive materials through atmosphere, soil and water system, ocean, and organic and ecosystem, and its relations with human and non-human biota. The topic also involves hazard prediction and nowcast technology.

By combining 35 years (> halftime of Cesium 137) monitoring data after the Chernobyl Accident in 1986, 10 years dense measurement data by the most advanced instrumentation after the Fukushima Accident in 2011, and other events, we can improve our knowledgebase on the environmental behavior of radioactive materials and its environmental/biological impact. This should lead to improved monitoring systems in the future including emergency response systems, acute sampling/measurement methodology, and remediation schemes for any future nuclear accidents.


The following specific topics have traditionally been discussed:
(a) Atmospheric Science (emissions, transport, deposition, pollution);
(b) Hydrology (transport in surface and ground water system, soil-water interactions);
(c) Oceanology (transport, bio-system interaction);
(d) Soil System (transport, chemical interaction, transfer to organic system);
(e) Forestry;
(f) Natural Hazards (warning systems, health risk assessments, geophysical variability);
(g) Measurement Techniques (instrumentation, multipoint data measurements);
(h) Ecosystems (migration/decay of radionuclides).

The session consists of updated observations, new theoretical developments including simulations, and improved methods or tools which could improve observation and prediction capabilities during eventual future nuclear emergencies. New evaluations of existing tools, past nuclear contamination events and other data sets also welcome.

Hydroclimatic conditions and availability of water resources in space and time constitute important factors for maintaining adequate food supply, the quality of the environment, and the welfare of citizens and inhabitants, in the context of a post-pandemic sustainable growth and economic development. This session is designed to explore the impacts of hydroclimatic variability, climate change, and temporal and spatial availability of water resources on different factors, such as food production, population health, environment quality, and local ecosystem welfare.
We particularly welcome submissions on the following topics:
• Complex inter-linkages between hydroclimatic conditions, food production, and population health, including: extreme weather events, surface and subsurface water resources, surface temperatures, and their impacts on food security, livelihoods, and water- and food-borne illnesses in urban and rural environments.
• Quantitative assessment of surface-water and groundwater resources, and their contribution to agricultural system and ecosystem statuses.
• Spatiotemporal modeling of the availability of water resources, flooding, droughts, and climate change, in the context of water quality and usage for food production, agricultural irrigation, and health impacts over a wide range of spatiotemporal scales.
• Smart infrastructure for water usage, reduction of water losses, irrigation, environmental and ecological health monitoring, such as development of advanced sensors, remote sensing, data collection, and associated modeling approaches.
• Modelling tools for organizing integrated solutions for water supply, precision agriculture, ecosystem health monitoring, and characterization of environmental conditions.
• Water re-allocation and treatment for agricultural, environmental, and health related purposes.
• Impact assessment of water-related natural disasters, and anthropogenic forcing (e.g. inappropriate agricultural practices, and land usage) on the natural environment (e.g. health impacts from water and air, fragmentation of habitats, etc.)

The world's energy, water, and land systems are in transition and rapidly integrating, driven by forces such as socioeconomic, demographic, climatic, and technological changes as well as policies intended to meet Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and other societal priorities. These dynamics weave across spatial scales, connecting global markets and trends to regional and sub-regional economies. At the same time, resources are often locally managed under varying administrative jurisdictions closely tied to inherent characteristics of each commodity such as river basins for water, grid regions for electricity and land-use boundaries for agriculture. Local decisions, in turn, are critical in deciding the aggregate success and consequences of national and global policies. Thus, there is a growing need to better characterise the energy-water-land nexus to guide robust and consistent decision making across these scales under changing climate.

This session aims to address this challenge for the energy-water-land nexus in nascent infrastructure planning and sectoral transitions. Contributions can include work dealing with applications of existing nexus approaches in sustainability assessment and design of future developments at different scales (i.e. urban to regional planning), as well as new methods that address existing gaps related to incorporating processes at different scales, bridging data gaps, improving optimisation approaches, or dealing with transboundary issues.

Wind and solar power are the predominant new sources of electrical power in recent years. Several countries or regions regularly exceed 100% of variable renewable energy in their grids. By their very nature, wind and solar power, as well as hydro, tidal, wave and other renewable forms of generation are dependent on weather and climate. Modelling and measurement for resource assessment, site selection, long-term and short term variability analysis and operational forecasting for horizons ranging from minutes to decades are of paramount importance.

The success of wind power means that wind turbines are increasingly put in sites with complex terrain or forests, with towers extending beyond the strict logarithmic profile, and in offshore regions that are difficult to model and measure. Major challenges for solar power are notably accurate measurements and the short-term prediction of the spatiotemporal evolution of the effects of cloud field and aerosols. Planning and meteorology challenges in Smart Cities are common for both.

For both solar and wind power, the integration of large amounts of renewable energy into the grid is another critical research problem due to the uncertainties linked to their forecast and to patterns of their spatio-temporal variabilities.

We invite contributions on all aspects of weather dependent renewable power generation, e.g.:

• Wind conditions (both resources and loads) on short and long time scales for wind power development, especially in complex environments (e.g. mountains, forests, coastal or urban).
• Inter-annual variability of solar and wind resource.
• Typical Meteorological Year and probability of exceedance for wind and solar power development.
• Wind and solar resource and atlases.
• Wake effect models and measurements, especially for large wind farms and offshore.
• Performance and uncertainties of forecasts of renewable power at different time horizons and in different external conditions.
• Forecast of extreme wind events and wind ramps.
• Local to global impacts of renewable energy power plants or of large-scale integration.
• Dedicated wind measurement techniques (SODARS, LIDARS, UAVs etc.).
• Dedicated solar measurement techniques (pyranometric sensors, sun-photometer, ceilometer, fish-eye cameras, etc.) from ground-based and space-borne remote sensing.
• Tools for urban area renewable energy supply strategic planning and control.
Other related topics will be considered by the conveners.

This session addresses spatial and temporal modelling of renewable energy systems, both in a prospective as well as in a retrospective manner. Therefore, contributions which model the characteristics of future renewable energy systems are equally welcome as contributions which assess the characteristics of the past performance of renewable energies. Session contributions may reach from purely climate based assessments of simulated renewable generation time series, over assessments of land use to full energy system models used to better understand energy systems with high shares of renewables.

Studies may for instance
Improve our understanding of how climate data can be used to model renewables
Show the spatial and temporal variability of renewable energy sources
Assess the complementarity of different renewable energy sources or locations
Derive land availability scenarios for renewable energies based on climatic, technical, economic, or social criteria
Assess past spatial deployment patterns of renewables
Assess past impacts on land cover and land-use change, including impacts on biodiversity and other environmental indicators
Derive integrated scenarios of energy systems with high shares of renewables (Including systems from the local scale e.g. in form of local Energy Communities to the national or continental scale).

The objective of the session is to provide an insight into recent advances in the field of renewable energy system modeling. The session welcomes papers dedicated to climatic and technical issues, environmental impact assessments, and policy-making, forecasting and real time applications concerning renewable energy systems.

Geothermal energy is often viewed as a source of green, ideally renewable, energy. The sustainability of geothermal exploitation, however, has many aspects and needs to be looked at in more detail. Geothermal’s sustainability applies to three distinct topics.
On the one hand, the sustainability of reservoir exploitation plays an important role if operators plan on using geothermal waters of a specific aquifer over a long period without short-circuiting and without changing the hydraulic, hydrogeochemical and mechanical properties of the reservoir. On the other hand, operation strategies, quality of equipment, and hydrochemical signatures of the exploited reservoir waters impact and limit the sustainability of geothermal equipment such as pipes and pumps.
Lastly, the contribution hydrothermal energy is able to make towards an efficient energy transition in the name of climate change mitigation needs to be investigated further, especially considering its inherent low degree of efficiency, its environmental impacts at the well site and overall social acceptance.
This session aims at an interdisciplinary platform addressing the overarching aspects of geothermal exploitation and its role in environment protection. While still technical, we also invite stakeholders and policy makers to discuss whether the socio-economic and legal frameworks require adjustments to promote geothermal energy.

This session will focus on, but is not limited to:

- Impacts of stimulation, exploitation, and any water treatment on the reservoir

- Strategies for assessment and monitoring of the sustainability of geothermal reservoir exploitation (case studies and success stories)

- Impacts of chemical properties of the water on geothermal equipment (corrosion, scaling…)

- Life cycle assessments of geothermal systems

- Geothermal emissions of equipment manufacturing and operation of geothermal power plants

- Impacts on biodiversity/integrity of ecosystems in the geothermal reservoirs

- Social acceptance, community engagement, position in the current legal framework

With an increasing demand for low-carbon energy solutions, the need of geothermal resources utilization is accelerating. Geothermal energy can be extracted from various, often complex geological settings, e.g. fractured crystalline rock, magmatic systems or sedimentary basins. Current advancements also target unconventional systems (e.g., Enhanced Geothermal Systems, super-hot, pressurized and co-produced, super-critical systems) besides conventional hydrothermal systems. Optimizing investments leads to the development of associated resources such as lithium, rare earths and hydrogen. This requires a joint effort for monitoring, understanding and modelling geological systems that are specific to each resource.
A sustainable use of geothermal resources requires advanced understanding of the properties of the entire system during exploration as well as monitoring, including geophysical properties, thermo-/petro-physical conditions, fluid composition; structural and hydrological features; and engineering challenges. Challenges faced are, among others, exploration of blind systems, reservoir stimulation, induced seismicity or related to multiphase fluid and scaling processes.

The integration of analogue field studies with real-life production data, from industrial as well as research sites, and their organization and the combination with numerical models, are a hot topic worldwide. With this session we aim to gather field, laboratory and numerical experts who focus their research on geothermal sites, to stimulate discussion in this multi-disciplinary applied research field. We seek for contributions from all disciplines, ranging from field data acquirements and analysis to laboratory experiments, e.g. geophysical surveys or geochemical experiments, and from the management and organization of information to numerical models as well as from (hydro)geologists, geochemists, (geo)physicists, surface and subsurface engineers.

The session welcomes contributions about shallow geothermal energy applications, including traditional closed- and open-loop borehole heat exchangers as well as so-called energy geostructures (e.g. thermo-active foundations, walls, tunnels).
Different types of analysis and approaches are relevant to this session, spanning from the evaluation of ground thermal properties to the mapping of shallow geothermal potential, from energy storage and district heating to sustainability issues and consequences of the geothermal energy use, from the design of new heat exchangers and installation techniques to the energy and thermo-(hydro-) mechanical performance of energy geostructures, from the local behaviour of a heat exchanger to the city scale implementation of energy geostructures. Contributions based on experimental, analytical and numerical modelling are welcome as well as interventions about legislative aspect.

Hydropower is a mature and cost-competitive renewable energy source, which helps stabilize fluctuations between energy demand and supply. The structural and operational differences between hydropower systems and renewable energy farms may require changes in the way hydropower facilities operate to provide balancing, reserves or energy storage. Yet, non-power constraints on hydropower systems, such as water supply, flood control, conservation, recreation, navigation may affect the ability of hydropower to adjust and support the integration of renewables. Holistic approaches that may span a range of spatial and temporal scales are needed to evaluate hydropower opportunities and support a successful integration maintaining a resilient and reliable power grid. In particular, there is a need to better understand and predict spatio-temporal dynamics between climate, hydrology, and power systems.
This session solicits academics and practitioners contributions that explore the use of hydropower and storage technologies to support the transition to low-carbon electricity systems. We specifically encourage interdisciplinary teams of hydrologists, meteorologists, power system engineers, and economists to present on case studies and discuss collaboration with environmental and energy policymakers.
Questions of interest include:
- Prediction of water availability and storage capabilities for hydropower production
- Prediction and quantification of the space-time dependences and the positive/negative feedbacks between wind/solar energies, water cycle and hydropower
- Energy, land use and water supply interactions during transitions
- Policy requirements or climate strategies needed to manage and mitigate risks in the transition
- Energy production impacts on ecosystems such as hydropeaking effects on natural flow regimes.

Storage of energy and carbon dioxide in subsurface geological formations is of key importance in the green shift: relying on renewables, zero carbon power and heat generation. The suitability of subsurface storage sites depends on the properties and integrity of the reservoir and its confining units under thermal, mechanical, hydraulic and chemical stress. Secure subsurface storage requires geological knowledge and sound risk evaluations, which in turn is essential for obtaining public acceptance of these technologies. This session offers a platform for inter-disciplinary scientific exchange between different branches of storage expertise. It addresses storage of fluids in geological reservoirs at all scales, from laboratory experiments to full-scale storage projects. Individual studies and active projects integrating elements of the storage chain as well as field projects focused on geological storage as pathways for a low carbon future are invited.

Relevant topics include but are not limited to:
• Regional and local characterization of storage formations, caprocks, and faults as well as their behaviour during injection and storage, including long-term response
• Evaluation of available infrastructure and injection strategies, physical and chemical reservoir response
• Geophysical and geochemical monitoring for safe and cost-efficient storage
• Coupling of different energy storage types in a carbon neutral power system
• Heat exchange systems, including geothermal energy utilization
• Public perception of subsurface storage in energy systems

Suitable contributions can address, but are not limited to:
• Field testing and experimental approaches aimed at characterizing the site, its key characteristics and the behaviour of the injected fluid
• Studies of natural analogue sites and lessons learnt for site characterisation and monitoring techniques
• Laboratory experiments investigating fluid-rock-interactions
• Risk evaluations and storage capacity estimates
• Numerical modelling of injectivity, fluid migration, trapping efficiency and pressure response as well as simulations of geochemical reactions

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 investigation and selection are primarily geoscientific tasks that require interdisciplinary collaboration of different disciplines, like geophysics, hydrogeology, (hydro-)geochemistry, mineralogy, geomechanics, material science, and geological as well as THMC modelling. Moreover, successful and socially accepted site selection and disposal implementation depend not only on geoscientific state-of-the-art results, sound engineering 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 or carbon dioxide, barrier integrity is a crucial aspect for the assessment of nuclear waste disposal. 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) geoscientific, geochemical, geotechnical and material science 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.

Geoscience knowledge is essential to investigate safety requirements that are established by national agencies to construct a geological disposal for high-level and/or long-lived radioactive waste in a specific selected site. Safety requirements include isolation of the nuclear waste from humans and the accessible biosphere, containment by retention and retardation of contaminants, limited water flow to the geo-engineered facility and long-term geological stability of the site. Experiences in many countries have shown that acceptable conditions for selecting a construction site can be found in diverse rock types as granites, metamorphic basement rocks, plastic clays, indurated claystones, evaporites, porous volcanic tuffs and highly compacted volcanic tuffs.
Geoscientist are tackling challenging issues to support the site selection process. These include hydraulic testing in low permeability formations, appropriate selection of borehole testing fluids, porewater characterization, radionuclide-rock and rock-water interactions, geo-mechanical testing of clay rocks, characterization and classification of fractures in crystalline rock, fracture network modelling, development of long-term site evolution models, management of large amount of data obtained during the site characterization phase, integration of diverse geoscientific data and the development of plausible future evolution scenarios. For this reason, in this session, relevant topics included, but not limited are:
• Data digitalization/management and parameter collection
• Development of new methodologies for site characterization (i.e., rock characterization)
• Laboratory-scale, underground research laboratories and large-scale mock-up experiments
• Radionuclide migration in rocks
• Natural analogues and/or full scale in situ testing
• Modelling and upscaling of coupled processes: Thermo-Hydro-Mechanical-Chemical/Biological (T-H-M-C /B)
• Repository induced effects (i.e., gas formation/reactivity, temperature changes, induced seismicity and chemical reactions).
• Long-term geological evolution scenarios including natural processes which may impact the geosphere over very long timescales, including tectonics/neotectonics (uplift, subsidence, faulting), climate change and its effect on groundwater flow and composition (i.e., global warming/cooling with permafrost development), and climatic and/or tectonic induced erosion (i.e. glacial erosion)
• Code and model development and uncertainty treatment

The rejuvenated International Commission on Geoheritage is all set to unveil statues for designation of ‘Global Heritage Stone Resource’. The idea is to promote the heritage /natural stones with Outstanding Universal Value vis-à-vis their cultural, architectural, and Utilitarian parameters.
Our session deals with promoting heritage/natural stones of Outstanding Universal Value which contributed to the evolution of human culture and architecture from the entire world in agreement with the goals of the IUGS-ICG-HSS and IGCP HerSTONES project (2020-2024). The session invites papers on diverse themes such as the impact of heritage stones in the evolution of human cultures, architectural legacy, sustainability of historical quarries, preservation, and sustainable restoration of the urban and rural stone-built heritage.
Selected contributions from our previous EGU sessions were published in high impact factor journals, such as Geological Society of London Special Publications (SP407: Global Heritage Stone: Towards International Recognition of Building and Ornamental Stones), Episodes Special Issue on Heritage Stones (volume 38-2, June 2015), Geoscience Canada (volume 43(1), March 2016), Geoheritage (2018), Episodes (volume 44 (1) March 2021). Currently, the contributions from our session at EGU 2021 are in preparation for publication in the journal Geoheritage. Selected contributions of EGU 2022 will be considered for publication in a special issue of a well-rated journal.

Material recovery is critical to recoup as much as of the waste economic and ecological value (Thierry et al., 1995). In the Circular Economy, this is of the utmost importance to close material loops and re-design production and consumption patterns in a more restorative and regenerative fashion (Morseletto, 2020). Indeed, different types and levels of material recovery can soothe the pressure on raw material extraction and hopefully reduce the ultimate quantities of waste.
Material recovery plays a leading role in the current quest for circularity. Therefore, we are interested in hosting studies looking at the circular use of wastes for material recovery. We welcome and encourage interdisciplinary approaches to the topic. Potential research issues include but are not limited to the following:

1. Resource extraction/recovery from wastes;
2. Metals and Rare Earth Elements (REE) extraction and recovery techniques;
3. Reuse of waste materials in construction;
4. Techniques that perform resource recovery;
5. Drawbacks of and barriers to material recovery;
6. Digital technologies for material recovery;
7. Material recovery for Industrial Symbiosis;
8. Business models and practices for Material Recovery.

The demand for raw materials and critical raw materials, to supply the needs of both society and industry, is continuously growing, imposing environmental, societal, and technological challenges.
These activities are inevitably accompanied by the production of large volumes of residues, through both exploitation and processing.
In the past, mining activity and extractive waste management were approached, mainly considering the environmental hazards and landscape degradation, but, nowadays, the development of innovative and technological processes, that allow us to reduce, reuse and recycle such industrial residues, as well as more sustainable exploitation practices, give us the opportunities to exploit the huge volumes of past mineral waste as an important source of raw materials.
Residues, such as waste rock, tailings, slags and fly ashes, often hold impressive residual mineral values, and have the potential to be converted to secondary raw materials and mineral resources, for these reasons further challenges are the geochemical, petrographic and mineralogical characterization and the modelization of waste deposits to realistically assess the prospects for sustainable exploitation. It must become the norm to maximize resource use, reduce the volume for final disposal, and also mitigate the risk of environmental damage, associated with the increasing global demand for raw materials and minerals resources.

The main topics to be discussed in this session address, but are not limited to:
- Characterization of geomaterials, their environmental interactions, and decay
- Characterization of industrial residue resources and their environmental assessment
- Secondary raw materials exploitation and valorisation

Research and innovation in exploration and mining of raw materials is increasingly focused on the prospect of developing completely new methods and technologies to find and exploit new mineral deposits within Europe. Amongst these technologies, robotisation and miniaturisation of exploration/production platforms (robotic autonomous explorers & miners) allow to reconsider “non-economical” deposits (abandoned, small, ultra-depth), extract them in a socially and environmentally responsible way, and produce useful metallurgical products which can be used further-on for manufacturing.
Underground operation of an autonomous or semi-autonomous underground platform is an extremely challenging problem where solution have to come from the close collaboration of robotic engineers, mining engineers, mineralogists, geochemists, geophysicians and structuralists to solve challenges as diverse as locomotion in water or slurries, localization and mapping in relationship with an orebody, automated extraction planning, optimization of extraction tools, and real-time selective mineralogy.
Contributions from geologists, geophysicists, mining engineers, robotic engineers, software developers are welcome.

Mineral deposits represent principal sources of metallic and non-metallic raw materials for our society. The implementation of new climate policies and the rise of green energy production and use will trigger an unprecedented demand increase for such resources. Formation of economic commodities requires component sequestration from source region, transport and focusing to structural or chemical barriers. These enrichment processes typically involve magmatic, hydrothermal, weathering or metamorphic events, which operate in diverse geodynamic settings and over various time scales. The scope of this session is to collect insights from diverse areas of mineral exploration, field, analytical or experimental studies of mineral deposits as well as resource characterization and extraction. We invite contributions from fields of economic geology, mineralogy and geochemistry in order to advance our understanding of ore-forming systems.

Dissolution, precipitation, and chemical reactions between infiltrating fluid and rock matrix alter the composition and structure of the rock, either creating or destroying flow paths. Strong, nonlinear couplings between the chemical reactions at mineral surfaces and fluid motion in the pores often leads to the formation of intricate patterns: networks of caves and sinkholes in karst area, wormholes induced by the acidization of petroleum wells, porous channels created during the ascent of magma through peridotite rocks. Dissolution and precipitation processes are also relevant in many industrial applications: dissolution of carbonate rocks by CO2-saturated water can reduce the efficiency of CO2 sequestration, mineral scaling reduces the effectiveness of heat extraction from thermal reservoirs, acid rain degrades carbonate-stone monuments and building materials.

With the advent of modern experimental techniques, these processes can now be studied at the microscale, with direct visualization of the evolving pore geometry. On the other hand, the increase of computational power and algorithmic improvements now make it possible to simulate laboratory-scale flows while still resolving the flow and transport processes at the pore-scale.

We invite contributions that seek a deeper understanding of reactive flow processes through interdisciplinary work combining experiments or field observations with theoretical or computational modeling. We seek submissions covering a wide range of spatial and temporal scales: from table-top experiments and pore-scale numerical models to the hydrological and geomorphological modelling at the field scale. We also invite contributions from related fields, including the processes involving coupling of the flow with phase transitions (evaporation, sublimation, melting and solidification).

Metallurgical slags are generated as a by-product of smelting during ironmaking, steelmaking, and the production of ferroalloys and non-ferrous metals. The formation conditions result in complex (geo)chemical and mineralogical characteristics unique to slags alone. Historically slags have been discarded as a waste product and, through release of potentially toxic trace elements, represent a hazard to the environment and human health. However, increasingly we are realizing the resource potential of what was previously thought of as waste, thus reducing the environmental impact and taking a step closer to a circular economy.

The aim of this short course is to is to give an overview on the environmental geochemistry and resource potential of metallurgical slags by summarizing processes for the generation of slags, describing their chemical and mineralogical characteristics, outlining the fundamental geochemistry that propels slag weathering, and illustrating the utilization of slags and resource recovery of valuable metals from slags. This short course is a follow up of a book entitled “Metallurgical Slags: Environmental geochemistry and Resource Potential” published in 2021 by the Royal Society of Chemistry and gives an overview useful for the environmental geochemists, geologists, mining and civil engineers, waste and resource managers, and all those interested and inspired by a circular economy and minimizing our environmental footprint on planet Earth.

List of presentations:
1. Presentation of the book: Metallurgical Slags: Environmental Geochemistry and Resource Potential (Vojtěch Ettler and Nadine Piatak)
2. Metallurgical overview and production of slags (Elias Matinde, MINTEK, South Africa)
3. Geochemistry and mineralogy of slags (Nadine Piatak, USGS, USA)
4. Weathering of slags (Jakub Kierczak, University of Wroclaw, Poland)
5. Leaching properties and environmental fate of slags (Vojtech Ettler, Charles University, Czech Republic)
6. Environmental applications of slag (Helena Gomes, University of Nottingham, UK)
7. Metal recovery from slags (Anna Potysz, University of Wroclaw, Poland)
8. Discussion and course closure

Numerous cases of induced/triggered seismicity associated with anthropogenic activity resulting either directly or indirectly from injection/extraction related to geo-resources exploration have been reported in the last decades. Induced earthquakes felt by the general public can often negatively affect public perception of geo-energies and may hinder future geo-energy development. Furthermore, large earthquakes may jeopardize wellbore stability and damage surface infrastructure. Thus, monitoring and modeling processes leading to fault slip, either seismic or aseismic, are critical to developing effective and reliable forecasting methodologies during deep underground exploitation. The complex interaction between injected fluids, subsurface geology, stress interactions, and resulting fault slip requires an interdisciplinary approach to understand the triggering mechanisms and may require taking coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical-chemical processes into account.
In this session, we invite contributions from research aimed at investigating the interaction of the above processes during exploitation of underground resources, including hydrocarbon extraction, wastewater disposal, geothermal energy exploitation, hydraulic fracturing, gas storage and production, mining, and reservoir impoundment for hydro-energy. We particularly encourage novel contributions based on laboratory and underground near-fault experiments, numerical modeling, the spatio-temporal relationship between seismic properties, injection/extraction parameters, and/or geology, and fieldwork. Contributions covering both theoretical and experimental aspects of induced and triggered seismicity at multiple spatial and temporal scales are welcome.

Faults and fracture zones are fundamental features of geological reservoirs that control the physical properties of the rock. As such, understanding their role in in-situ fluid behaviour and fluid-rock interactions can generate considerable advantages during exploration and management of reservoirs and repositories.

Physical properties such as frictional strength, cohesion and permeability of the rock impact deformation processes, rock failure and fault/fracture (re-)activation. Faults and fractures create fluid pathways for fluid flow and allow for increased fluid-rock interaction.

The presence of fluids circulating within a fault or fracture network can expose the host rocks to significant alterations of the mechanical and transport properties. This in turn can either increase or decrease the transmissibility of a fracture network, which has implications on the viability and suitability of subsurface energy and storage projects. Thus, it is important to understand how fluid-rock interactions within faults and fractures may alter the physical properties of the system during the operation of such projects. This is of particular interest in the case of faults as the injection/ remobilisation of fluids may affect fault/fracture stability, and therefore increase the risk of induced seismicity and leakage.

Fieldwork observations, monitoring and laboratory measurements foster fundamental understanding of relevant properties, parameters and processes, which provide important inputs to numerical models (see session “Faults and fractures in geoenergy applications 1: Numerical modelling and simulation”) in order to simulate processes or upscale to the reservoir scale. A predictive knowledge of fault zone structures and transmissibility can have an enormous impact on the viability of geothermal, carbon capture, energy and waste storage projects.

We encourage researchers on applied or interdisciplinary energy studies associated with low carbon technologies to come forward for this session. We look forward to interdisciplinary studies which use a combination of methods to analyse rock deformation processes and the role of faults and fractures in subsurface energy systems, including but not restricted to outcrop studies, monitoring studies, subsurface data analysis and laboratory measurements. We are also interested in research across several different scales and addressing the knowledge gap between laboratory scale measurements and reservoir scale processes.

Naturally fractured reservoirs are of great importance in various disciplines such as hydrogeology, hydrocarbon reservoir management, nuclear waste repositories, CO2 storage and geothermal reservoir engineering. This session addresses novel ideas as well as established concepts for the representation and numerical simulation of discontinuities and processes in fractured media.
The presence of fractures modifies the bulk physical properties of the original media by many orders of magnitudes and often introduces strongly nonlinear behaviour. Fractures also provide the main flow and transport pathways in the rock mass, dominating over the permeability of the rock matrix and creating anisotropic flow fields and transport.
Numerical modelling of such systems is especially challenging and often requires creative new ideas and solutions, for example the use of stochastic models. Understanding the hydraulic and mechanical properties of fractures and fracture networks thus is crucial for predicting the movement of any fluid such as water, air, hydrocarbons, or CO2.
The geologist toolboxes for modelling fractured rocks and simulating processes in fractured media experiences constant extension and improvement. Contributions are especially welcome from the following topics:

• Deterministic or stochastic approaches for structural construction of fractured media
• Continuous or discontinuous (DFN) modelling methods representing static hydraulic and/or mechanical characteristics of fractured media
• Simulation of dynamic processes, hydraulic and/or mechanical behaviour and THMC coupling in fractured media
• Deterministic and stochastic inversion methods for calibrating numerical models of fractured media
• Numerical modelling concepts of accounting for fractured properties specifically in groundwater, petroleum or geothermal management applications

We encourage researchers to elaborate on applied projects on the role of faults and fractures in subsurface energy systems in our session. We are interested in research across different scales and disciplines and welcome warmly ECS.
With field and laboratory studies from the same subjects please refer to our co-session ERE 5.2 “Faults and fractures in geoenergy applications – monitoring, laboratory and field work results".

Thermal, hydraulic and mechanical processes in aquifers are of increasing interest for hydrogeological analysis for development of innovative field and laboratory experiments. Both in research and in practice, accurate characterization of subsurface flow and heat transport, observations of induced or natural variations of the thermal regime. The seasonal and long-term development of thermal and mechanical conditions in aquifers, and heat transfer across aquifer boundaries are focus points. This also includes the role of groundwater in the context of geothermal energy use for predicting the long-term performance of geothermal systems (storage and production of heat), and integration in urban planning. There are many ongoing research projects studying heat as a natural or anthropogenic tracer, and which try to improve thermal response testing in aquifers. Such techniques are of great potential for characterizing aquifers, flow conditions, and crucial transport processes, such as mechanical dispersion. Understanding the interaction of hydraulic, thermal and mechanical processes is a major challenge in modern hydrogeology. Deep underground constructions, tunnels, CO2 storage, hydro- and enhanced geothermal applications are prominent subjects. We invite contributions that deliver new insight into advances in experimental design, reports from new field observations, as well as demonstration of sequential or coupled modeling concepts. The session aims to provide an overview of the current and future research in the field, covering any temporal or spatial scale, and seeks to address both separate and coupled processes.

Thermal Energy Storage is a key component for an efficient and low-carbon energy balance. TES allows a flexibility of storage volume and storage time, and represents a cross-sector technology. As it is coupling heat, cooling energy, and electricity, which still belong in most cases to completely different market sectors, there is currently a marginal integration among the operators.
The aim of this session is to increase the understanding on how the existing gap on efficiency issues (energy balance and losses), social acceptance, and how to best adress the technical obstacles concerning the Underground Thermal Energy Storage (UTES) technologies themselves (high complexity of geological configurations forcing different approaches to the issue) or how to integrate renewable energy sources (e.g. geothermal, solar, thermal, …) with UTES technologies .

Geological media are a strategic resource for the forthcoming energy transition and constitute an important ally in the fight to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change. Several energy and environmental processes in the subsurface involve multi-physical interactions between the porous and fractured rock, and the fluids filling the voids: changes in pore pressure and temperature, rock deformation and chemical reactions occur simultaneously and impact each other. This characteristic has profound implications on the energy production and the waste storage. Forecasts are bounded to the adequate understanding of field data associated with thermo-hydro-mechanical-chemical (THMC) processes and predictive capabilities heavily rely on the quality of the integration between the input data (laboratory and field evidence) and the mathematical models describing the evolution of the multi-physical systems. This session is dedicated to studies investigating THMC problems by means of experimental, analytical, numerical, multi-scale, data-driven and artificial intelligence methods, as well as studies focused on laboratory characterization and on gathering and interpreting in-situ geological and geophysical evidence of the multi-physical behavior of rocks. Welcomed contributions include approaches covering applications of carbon capture and storage (CCS), geothermal systems, gas storage, energy storage, mining, reservoir management, reservoir stimulation, fluid injection-induced seismicity and radioactive waste storage.

Modelling of geological subsurface utilisation in terms of chemical or thermal energy storage as well as hydrocarbon production and storage are required to ensure a safe and sustainable energy supply. Utilisation of the geological subsurface may induce changes in hydraulic, thermal, mechanical and chemical regimes, which need to be assessed using modern geological and reservoir modelling. Our session aims at the integration of experimental and numerical modelling methods for quantification and prediction of the potential impacts resulting from geological subsurface utilisation including:
• Site characterisation and determination of site-specific geological and process data.
• Development of static geological models.
• Integration of experimental data into static and dynamic models as well as application of numerical models for experimental design and interpretation.
• Development and benchmarking of modelling tools.
• Model and parameter upscaling techniques.
• Model coupling addressing the interaction of thermal, multi-phase flow, geochemical and geomechanical processes in the fluid-rock system.
• Application of modelling tools for site characterisation and prediction of potential impacts.
• Methods for risk assessment and efficient site operation.

Reservoir stimulation has been widely applied for extracting geo-energy resources worldwide, e.g., conventional/unconventional oil and gas, as well as geothermal energy. Although it is a critical technology to the development of those geo-energy resources, it is seen critical because of its potential environmental impacts, e.g., consuming a large amount of water, and potentially inducing earthquakes and polluting water in the subsurface and at the earth’s surface. Environmental impacts related to geo-energy production include short-term or long-term air pollution (e.g., CH4/CO2 emission), water pollution, solid waste disposal, and direct or indirect earth’s surface damage. These issues are increasingly becoming the focus of society, in particular under the context of boosting the development of clean energy.
This session will consider the latest advances in reservoir stimulation in geo-energy projects and provide new insights concerning the environmental impacts related to geo-energy production. Abstracts dedicated to the following domains are welcome: (1) integrated geological/engineering technology for reservoir stimulation; (2) fraccability evaluation of geo-energy reservoirs; (3) the development of hydraulic fracturing technologies; (4) the potential use of alternative fracturing fluids, i.e., supercritical CO2, N2, and foam fracturing; (5) big data and AI applications focused on reservoir stimulation; (6) fracturing efficiency; (7) induced seismic and micro-seismic monitoring of fracturing operations; (8) direct and indirect environmental impacts related to the production of any geo-energy resource, e.g. water pollution, CH4/CO2 emission, solid waste disposal.
Contributions based on laboratory experiments, field tests and case studies, numerical simulations and other modelling techniques are equally welcome.

Recently, there have been significant breakthroughs in the use of fiber-optic sensing techniques to interrogate cables at high precision both on land and at sea as well as in boreholes and at the surface. Laser reflectometry using both fit-to-purpose and commercial fiber-optic cables have successfully detected a variety of signals including microseism, local and teleseismic earthquakes, volcanic events, ocean dynamics, etc. Other laser-based techniques can be used to monitor distributed strain, temperature, and even chemicals at a scale and to an extent previously unattainable with conventional geophysical methods.

We welcome any contributions to recent development in the fields of applications, instrumentation, and theoretical advances for geophysics with fiber-optic sensing techniques. These may include - but are not limited to - application of fiber-optic cables or sensors in seismology, geodesy, geophysics, natural hazards, oceanography, urban environment, geothermal application, etc. with an emphasis on laboratory studies, large-scale field tests, and modeling. We also encourage contributions on data analysis techniques, machine learning, data management, instruments performances and comparisons as well as new experimental field studies.

Geomechanics has been demonstrated over the past 30 years as having key importance for the safe and sustainable usage of underground environments. In particular, knowledge of geomechanics is critical for exploration and production of geothermal energy, groundwater, hydrocarbon, and mineral resources. Geomechanics play the central role in any underground storage (such as natural gas, CO2 and H2) and disposal of nuclear or toxic waste. The main goal of this session is therefore to bring together researchers from various engineering and geo-disciplines to share their knowledge in recent advancements in experimental, numerical, theoretical and field application of geomechanics. A particular focus is on the large uncertainties that are often associated with geomechanical measurements or models. In addition to abstracts that exclusively aim at uncertainty quantification and/or reduction at least a discussion of uncertainties is encouraged in every abstract.