Environmental issues are not only ecological but also societal and cultural. To address them effectively, we need to understand how human societies interact with the environment. This session highlights the importance of social science in environmental research and vice versa, and invites contributions that explore how interdisciplinary collaboration can lead to innovative and sustainable solutions. We welcome scientists from all disciplines of environmental and social sciences, data analysts, methodologists, and metadata experts to share their insights, case studies, and challenges. We aim to foster meaningful discussions and exchange of ideas across academic groups, research infrastructures, the private sector, and policy makers. By integrating the expertise of social scientists with environmental research, we can develop a more comprehensive and holistic understanding of environmental problems leading to pathways for viable climate action plans and supporting policies. Let's work together to contribute to a more sustainable relationship between people and the environment.
Topics may include, but are not limited to:
– Climate action plans and solutions for green and sustainable cities
– Cultural heritage and environmental sustainability
– Environmental policy and governance
– Air quality and climate indicators
– Sustainable agriculture and land use
– Biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services
– Climate adaptation and resilience
– Development of resilient communities through disaster risk reduction
– Citizen and participatory science and public engagement
– Best practice methodologies for specific use cases
– Metadata standards for integration of data from different research domains
– Project reports or infrastructure requirements related to multidisciplinary use cases

Our solicited speaker is Bonnie Wolff-Boenisch, CEO of CESSDA ERIC. Bonnie has 25 years of work experience in research and infrastructures, management and advocacy across different cultures, countries and disciplines. She is a member of Scientific Advisory Boards in Germany, Italy, France and the US, and has a PhD in Isotope Geochemistry from the Max-Planck Institute in Mainz, Germany.

Knowledge co-creation is key for participatory and transdisciplinary research and is often described as “science with society”, rather than science for society. Co-creation, co-production, and co-design refer to methods of participatory collaborative research, with adjacent terms including “public engagement”, or “community-led". All these methods are becoming increasingly recognised as necessary for solving complex societal and sustainability problems and challenges such as climate change, with joint efforts required from academia, enterprises, governments, and local/indigenous communities. Another advantage of co-creating with communities is that collaboratively designed solutions are more likely to be implemented and sustained long-term.

There are a wide variety of co-creation methodologies, including citizen science methods, which differ in levels of community collaboration depending on the question and goals of knowledge production. This session welcomes topics and case studies of co-creation from all disciplines and levels of participation of non-academic actors, from community consultation during the planning phases of the project goals to citizen scientists as data crowdsourcing. The idea is to not only highlight best practice, but also identify challenges associated with community co-creation. By sharing major learnings, best practices, and strategies, the session aims to promote increased participatory methods in mainstream science activities. Those participating in the session may also choose to submit a full paper in a special issue of Geoscience Communication (an EGU journal that covers outreach, public engagement, widening participation, and knowledge exchange in the geosciences), which will be based on the contributions of this session.

This session is a call for researchers to recognise that they are more than mere observers, and that non-academia actors are more than those observed. By enabling discussions and knowledge production on equal basis, transdisciplinary co-creation can empower communities, especially underrepresented communities who are often not heard.

Urban areas are major contributors to climate change and are especially vulnerable to its effects. Over the coming decades, millions of urban residents are expected to face rising sea levels, more intense storms, inland flooding, and extreme temperature variations. These challenges will strain urban infrastructure, reducing access to essential services and lowering the quality of life. Most critical economic and social infrastructure is located in cities, making them highly exposed to climate risks. However, many cities are not yet equipped to respond effectively due to outdated policies, limited resources, and low public awareness.
Citizen science offers a valuable way to address these challenges by enhancing our understanding of urban climate, health, and air quality. Through the active involvement of citizens and stakeholders, communities can collect critical data on air quality and other environmental factors. This participatory approach not only improves our knowledge of climate risks but also strengthens adaptation strategies for urban areas. Simple, low-cost tools can be used by citizens to gather atmospheric data, while stakeholders provide insights into local vulnerabilities. Additionally, unconventional data sources, such as crowdsourced observations and urban cellular networks, can offer important information on climate impacts and response strategies.
By engaging citizens in these efforts, we foster a sense of responsibility for the environment and build stronger support for adaptation initiatives. Citizen participation in data collection provides hands-on experience with the real effects of climate change, leading to greater awareness and climate-friendly behaviors. This is essential for meeting climate mitigation goals, along with technological and societal actions. Citizen science projects that monitor climate variables, health impacts, and air quality in urban settings, as well as those that develop digital tools to enhance public knowledge, play a critical role in combating misinformation and advancing climate adaptation.
This session encourages contributions that explore participatory science, crowdsourced data collection, and best practices for involving citizens in Europe’s climate adaptation strategies.

In the Anthropocene, water resources are simultaneously under unprecedented stress and the foundation for most ecosystem and societal processes. It is more important than ever to thoroughly understand the hydrological cycle and its interactions with other complex physical systems and social dimensions to address water-related challenges and develop actionable, sustainable solutions. To do this effectively, we need to move beyond a “science-as-usual” approach and leverage transdisciplinary knowledge involving multiple actors, including scientists, policymakers, local communities and indigenous peoples, NGOs and local associations, media, and businesses. Each of these actors brings a unique perspective and expertise, and we must empower and value their contributions with practices such as co-creation, to arrive at integrated solutions for complex water management issues. Co-creation can be defined as an iterative and collaborative process of mutual learning in which different knowledge interact and are integrated to address complex societal issues. Such approaches are common in policy creation and public services development but up until now have been under-described, -formalized, and -utilized in the context of water resources management and hydrological sciences.
Therefore, this session welcomes studies on co-creation approaches in hydrology and water resources management. More specifically, we welcome studies including, but not limited to: experiences and case studies of participatory and co-creation approaches applied to hydrology and water resources management; co-modelling approaches and socio-hydrological studies involving participation of stakeholders; meta-analyses, review of other experiences, and literature reviews; critical geography, political ecology and other critical approaches to co-creation and stakeholders involvement in water resources decision making.

Co-organized by the Working Group on Co-Creation of Water Knowledge of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences: https://iahs.info/Initiatives/Scientific-Decades/helping-working-groups/co-creating-water-knowledge/

The session aims to explore the intricate relationships between living organisms and the Earth system from different angles. It highlights research on the influence of biodiversity, and animals, on ecosystem functioning and resilience. While biological diversity is vital for natural ecosystems such as forests and wetlands, and crucial for maintaining healthy freshwater ecosystems, soil systems, and oceans, it is also a factor that affects an ecosystem’s response to disturbances, in turn affecting notions such as (ecosystem) integrity, health and resilience. Animals, on the other hand, are an integral part of the biosphere within the Earth system, and a growing body of evidence suggests that, despite their small biomass compared to plants and microbes, the animals in terrestrial and aquatic biomes are important geoengineers of both the physical and chemical environment.
Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, the session invites contributions from fields such as geosciences, ecology and modelling, recognizing the interplay between biological and physical processes in controlling key planetary processes such as water, carbon and nutrient cycling, as well as geomorphic processes. This comprehensive, broader approach helps highlight several distant topics, such as: how biodiversity affects ecosystem integrity, health, and response to disturbances; how it influences processes such as restoration, and rewilding, including reintroduction of large animals to restore ecosystem functioning. The session also focuses on the specific contributions of animals to Earth system processes, as the emerging discipline of zoogeoscience including biogeochemical cycles and physical displacement of soils and sediments and bioturbation. Finally, the session also addresses and it underscores the importance of scientific evidence in informing political decisions, such as the EU Nature Restoration Law.
In sum, in this session we aim to recognize the wide range of biogeoscience, and the broader Earth system science research projects with an aim to understand the functional role of biodiversity in the Earth system, and highlight the need for interdisciplinary research and the importance of studying these processes at various spatial and temporal scales. This session is combined from sessions ITS3.7/BG0.6 Biodiversity from a Geoscience perspective and BG1.9 Animals in the Earth System.

Mountains are complex social-ecological systems and natural laboratories in which to tangibly explore and understand how drivers and processes of global change manifest in specific places. In this session, we invite inter- and transdisciplinary contributions that examine environmental change, their associated impacts for ecosystems and people in mountain environments, and measures taken to address these impacts. This session is open to conceptual as well as empirical measurement and/or modelling or scenario studies of mountain climate, cryosphere, ecology, hazards, and hydrology, which also incorporate studies on intersecting socio-economic dimensions and risks.
Mountains as complex terrain are challenging to parameterize in models and also due to the lack of data in high-elevation. Climate change, including elevation-dependent warming, shifting precipitation patterns, retreating glaciers, degrading permafrost, are reshaping high-mountain landscapes. These changes have a direct impact on population of these regions. Likewise, there is a need to capture and account for socio-economic changes such as demographic and land-use change and their projections to improve our understanding of how hazards, vulnerability, and exposure interact in terms of impacts and risks.
This session seeks to explore problems to environmental change. Contributions focused on mountain system dynamics through remote sensing, numerical modelling, laboratory techniques, and field observations are welcome, as are efforts to reduce uncertainties surrounding future compounding hazards and risks. We welcome contributions that describe how steps are being taken to address such knowledge gaps, and integration methods that include societal data and information to characterise and represent a more comprehensive systems approach to global change.
As 2025 marks the UN-declared International Year for Glaciers' Preservation, and the kick-off to the UN Decade of Action for Cryosphere Sciences, this session especially invites contributions that addressing the challenges and opportunities posed by a changing cryosphere, with particular attention to the human dimensions associated with adaptation and resilience.
This session is endorsed and supported by the Mountain Research Initiative, the Institute for Interdisciplinary Mountain Research of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, and the Sediment Cascades and Climate Change initiative.

Terrestrial ecosystems emit and sequester carbon dioxide. Terrestrial carbon sources and sinks are crucial components of the global carbon cycle, especially now as the atmospheric CO2 concentration rises.
Terrestrial ecosystems include forests, rangelands, croplands, steppes, agroforestry systems, World residential areas and other lands. Interdisciplinary research has assessed land use transitions with unprecedented progress in recent times. Social and economic development, population growth, urbanization and globalization affect land conversion on all continents. The on-going climate change and the rise of green house gases in the atmosphere pose challenges to scientific research. Advances of remotes sensing intermingled with national statistics and citizen science assist in updating our perceptions on global changes in terrestrial ecosystems.
This session invites scientists from different disciplines to attend interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary dialogues on drivers affecting the sinks and sources of global terrestrial carbon. Global overviews based on different methodologies are invited as well as case studies at continental, national and regional levels. Presentations should address changes in global terrestrial ecosystems in the 20th and 21st century.

Environmental challenges of the 21st century demand a concerted scientific effort to understand the complex interactions within the Earth system. Open and accessible word-class sustainable research infrastructures together with enhanced international cooperation are crucial to foster innovation in the field.
In this context, we propose a dedicated session to showcasing the progress and future directions of environmental research infrastructures within the ENVRI (Environmental Research Infrastructures) community. The session aims to highlight the integrative approaches, collaborative frameworks, and technological advancements that have been made in environmental monitoring, data sharing, and analysis through the ENVRI initiative.
The session will present an overview of the current state of environmental research infrastructures in Europe, emphasizing the harmonization of data collection methodologies, standardization of data formats, and the implementation of FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) data principles and service provision. We will discuss the impact of these infrastructures on facilitating multidisciplinary research on climate change, biodiversity loss, atmospheric composition, and Earth system processes.
Contributions to this session will include case studies demonstrating the successful application of ENVRI infrastructures in addressing key environmental questions, fostering collaboration across scientific domains, and providing essential services to researchers, policymakers, and society. We will also explore the challenges faced by the research community, such as data management, funding sustainability, and the integration of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning in environmental research.
Future perspectives will be a central part of the discussion, with a focus on the expansion and evolution of ENVRI to accommodate new scientific domains, improve transnational access, and enhance training and education for the next generation of environmental scientists.
This session welcomes scientists, infrastructure operators, data managers, policymakers, and other stakeholders involved in the development and use of environmental research infrastructures. Together, we will map out the path forward for an integrated, efficient, and responsive ENVRI ecosystem that can better predict and mitigate the impact of environmental changes at both the European and global scales.

Global change drivers on ecosystems, such as land/sea use change, direct exploitation, climate change, pollution, and invasive alien species are the major contributors to the accelerating biodiversity crisis and shifts in biome boundaries. Mounting evidence has demonstrated the link between these drivers and changes in biodiversity, such as the loss of species, declines in functional and genetic diversity, and reduction in geodiversity. However, our understanding of the impacts of these drivers on biodiversity across local to global scales remains limited. In this session, we warmly invite contributions related but not limited to studies on 1) the current state or patterns of biodiversity and main drivers; 2) changes in biodiversity and ecosystem functioning; 3) trends and future scenarios of biodiversity change; 4) species migrations and links to environmental and anthropogenic influences, and 5) changes in biodiversity resulting from conservation, restoration, management and policy.

We aim to bring together excellent research about past, present, and future biodiversity, using data from field sampling, and airborne or space-based remote sensing observations. We welcome studies ranging from local-scale field experiments to large-scale theoretical modeling, including both individual-ecosystem (i.e. terrestrial, marine and freshwater systems) and cross-ecosystem studies. We explicitly welcome novel conceptual ideas, large-scale observations, field experiments, earth system modeling, or data synthesis related to biodiversity change across spatial and temporal scales, and from various data sources toward a better understanding of global change impacts on biodiversity.

BG3.20 Borealization of tundra ecosystems

Arctic and alpine tundra ecosystems are changing fast in response to ongoing climate change and increased human pressures linked to land use changes. One observed phenomenon in response to these changes is the northward and upward shift in the distribution of temperate or boreal species from southerly latitudes or lower elevations, a process known as borealization. Examples of tundra borealization include the encroachment of woody species, the spread of non-native species, and changes in the composition of plant, animal and microbial communities. Borealization also alters the trophic and functional structure of ecosystems, changes landscape structure and impacts ecosystem processes such as the strength of carbon sink and sources.

Geomythology is not only a perspective that allows for the reinterpretation of mythological narratives through the lens of extreme events, it is also an inclusive research approach that appreciates the value of oral tradition and local knowledge. These narratives and knowledge relate to geomorphological and hydrographic features, as well as geohazards.
Grassroots interpretations of the origins of geomorphological and hydrographic features, local knowledge, and the narratives associated with them – myths and legends – create a network of dependencies illustrating the interactions between humans and the environment. This synergy led to the emergence of a long neglected but now strongly promoted need for the protection of geoheritage. Incorporating a humanistic perspective into the study of geological processes, landforms, and hydrometeorological phenomena elevates the value of individual geosites to a much broader category: the geocultural heritage of civilizations. This approach supports the development of geotourism and holds potential for geoeducation.
The session aims to give new impetus to interdisciplinary discourse on the environment through the lens of geomythology.
We invite you to submit abstracts in the proposed thematic blocks; however, we are also open to new thematic proposals beyond those we have suggested:
• Meteor impacts, earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions in myths and oral tradition.
• The potential of research on local knowledge regarding geomorphological and hydrographic features, as well as geological processes and hydrometeorological phenomena.
• Oral tradition in the context of empirical evidence and the dating of geomorphological processes.
• Local knowledge about sudden phenomena and extreme events, such as rockfalls, landslides, extreme floods, karst phenomena, hailstorms, etc.
• Geomythical perspectives in oral traditions.
• From Geomythology to Geoheritage – exploring the often-elusive meanings of geosites.
• Geo-Mytho-Tourism – new types of local and regional geobrands.
• The potential of geomyths for geoeducation.

The implementation of ambitious system-wide strategies, such as the Sustainable Development Goals and global climate policies, requires a holistic approach that integrates the economy, energy, land, food and water systems. Integrated assessment models (IAMs) have advanced science and policymaking but often lack representation of subnational dynamics, such as gender, within-region income distribution, and other social and spatiotemporal heterogeneity. These gaps limit insights into policy implementation, consumer demand projections, and equity outcomes, highlighting the need to explore subregional distributional impacts and variables critical to human development and welfare, including labour markets, supply chains, and health impacts from air pollution or heat exposure. At the same time, escalating resource depletion and climate change make it increasingly urgent to integrate the complex interdependencies between water and food security within the nexus concept. In this context, exploring definitions and strategies for achieving water and food security is essential, as they can vary across spatial scales, from local to global. Bridging the gap between science, policy, and community necessitates interdisciplinary collaboration, engaging diverse stakeholders to share knowledge, overcome barriers, and co-create innovative, multiscale solutions. Such efforts are essential to enhance resilience and deliver robust evidence for transformative policies. By embracing a plurality of perspectives and methodologies, this session seeks to drive the design and implementation of equitable, resilient, and sustainable policies.

In light of the continuous expansion of urban areas worldwide, coupled with the backdrop of global change, there is a pressing need to advance the sustainability of these regions. Cities are transforming to deal with this, through desealing strategies and the growing role of vegetation in the city. In urban areas, the infrastructure, facilities and buildings, are components of the critical zone which is consequently influenced by human activities and usage. These have a considerable impact on the movement and balance of water, energy and pollutants.
Among these impacts, extensive expansion of human activities has resulted in the huge demands for wide range of synthetic organic chemicals and increases their discharge into the environment. These organic chemicals, collectively termed emerging organic contaminants (EOCs). include ingredients of PPCPs, pesticides, hormones, and industrial ingredients (such as flame retardants, PFASs, and plasticizers). The extensive application and presence of EOCs in our daily consumer products and the nature of these substances results in their widespread distribution and discharge primarily to the aquatic and soil environment. As a result, they have become ubiquitously detectable and pseudo-persistent in environments across the world with the potential for accumulation in food chains.

In this session, we will examine (i) the particular biophysical processes of the urban critical zone in interactions with anthropogenic processes controlled by human activities and stakeholders, and (ii) transport, interactions and biogeochemical process of pollutants, and especially EOCs in sole surface water, groundwater and soil systems, and their interfaces.

The objective of the session is
- to offer insights into the urban critical zone, particularly those that include observations, measurements of fluxes, descriptions of biogeochemical, physical and human resilience processes, and the development of models to address these cross-cutting issues.
- to facilitate interdisciplinary dialogue in order to establish the urban critical zone as a unifying concept.
- to explore the state of the art in sampling methodologies, and lab scale, field and modelling studies for transport, interactions and biogeochemical process of EOCs between water-soil interfaces/systems, to provide a comprehensive perspective for understanding their environmental fate and behavior in the aquatic environment, for the further assessment of their potential risk.

This session invites valuable contributions from EU-funded projects, networks, and partnerships engaged across the European raw material value chain, encompassing efforts from research, society, environment, and business sectors. The focus is on the goals, key activities, achievements, and future plans of these collaborative efforts, making each participant an integral part of the discussion rather than on in-depth technical presentations.
The session aims to:
• Highlight the strategic objectives of various projects, networks, and partnerships in promoting sustainable, socially, and environmentally responsible resource management and innovation.
• Showcase collaborative actions and cross-project synergies, including technology, industry, environment, society, and policies.
• Present notable outcomes as well as industrial, societal, and environmental impacts that contribute to the EU’s vision for a low-carbon, circular economy.
• Discuss future directions and plans for scaling innovations and enhancing sustainability throughout the value chain at different scales.
Special attention will be given to cross-sector collaborations and initiatives that promote the integration of research, industry, society, and policy efforts. These collaborations focus on fostering sustainable development, enhancing the resource efficiency of the raw materials sector, and contributing to the EU’s strategic goals for circularity and economic resilience.
This session aims to facilitate collaboration and knowledge exchange among projects, networks, and partnerships, serving as an entry point for more specialised sessions on specific aspects of the raw material value chain and sustainability. By promoting a cross-project perspective, the session ensures that the outcomes of various initiatives are widely disseminated within the EGU community, fostering a holistic approach to sustainable resource development.

This session is co-organised by
Horizon Europe projects AGEMERA, MultiMiner, EIS, GoldenRAM, AVANTIS, LITHOS, EXCEED
Finnish projects: JTF Development of the Extractive Industry in the Lapland, Northern Ostrobothnia and Kainuu (KAKE); ERDF Lapland Mining hub

Plastic pollution is ubiquitous in terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecosystems. Reliable data on plastic abundance and fluxes are crucial to study its sources, sinks, transport dynamics, and impact. Furthermore, long-term and large-scale monitoring is required to design, implement, and assess plastic pollution prevention and reduction measures. In this session we invite contributions that present recent advances in plastic pollution monitoring across the entire Geosphere (atmosphere, land surface, soil, rivers, estuaries, oceans and beyond). Presentations may focus on:
• Novel monitoring methods, including advanced techniques (e.g. remote sensing, multi/hyperspectral cameras, acoustic sensors, artificial intelligence);
• Monitoring strategies, including large-scale and long-term efforts, and citizen science approaches;
• All plastic size ranges, from nano to macro;
• Baseline studies to assess current plastic pollution levels;
• Long-term trends or recent discoveries based on plastic monitoring data.
With this session we aim to bring together scientists that work on novel approaches to provide reliable data on environmental plastic pollution.

The proposed session, "Innovative Weather Driven Event Management for Society," explores how weather influences the planning and execution of various scientific and societal events, from large public gatherings to specialized community activities. The focus will be on integrating advanced weather forecasting technologies into event management to improve decision-making.

Key areas of discussion will include:
- Developing real-time, weather-responsive strategies.
- Assessing the impact of severe weather on event safety and execution.
- Utilizing AI, machine learning, and data fusion to predict and manage weather-related risks.