Machine learning (ML) is currently transforming data analysis and modelling of the Earth system. While statistical and data-driven models have been used for a long time, recent advances in machine learning now allow for encoding non-linear, spatio-temporal relationships robustly without sacrificing interpretability. This has the potential to accelerate climate science, by providing new physics-based modelling approaches; improving our understanding of the underlying processes; reducing and better quantifying climate signals, variability, and uncertainty; and even making predictions directly from observations across different spatio-temporal scales. The limitations of machine learning methods need to also be considered, such as requiring, in general, rather large training datasets, data leakage, and/or poor generalisation abilities, so that methods are applied where they are fit for purpose and add value.

This session aims to provide a venue to present the latest progress in the use of ML applied to all aspects of climate science and we welcome abstracts focussed on, but not limited to:
- Causal discovery and inference: causal impact assessment, interventions, counterfactual analysis
- Learning (causal) process, equations, and feature representations in observations or across models and observations
- Hybrid models (physically informed ML, emulation, data-model integration)
- Novel detection and attribution approaches, including for extreme events
- Probabilistic modelling and uncertainty quantification
- Super-resolution for climate downscaling
- Explainable AI applications to climate data science and climate modelling
- Distributional robustness, transfer learning and/or out-of-distribution generalisation tasks in climate science

Machine learning (ML) methods have emerged as powerful tools to tackle various challenges in ocean science, encompassing physical oceanography, biogeochemistry, and sea ice research.
This session aims to explore the application of ML methods in ocean science, with a focus on advancing our understanding and addressing key challenges in the field. Our objective is to foster discussions, share recent advancements, and explore future directions in the field of ML methods for ocean science.
A wide range of machine learning techniques can be considered including supervised learning, unsupervised learning, interpretable techniques, and physics-informed and generative models. The applications to be addressed span both observational and modeling approaches.

Observational approaches include for example:
- Identifying patterns and features in oceanic fields
- Filling observational gaps of in-situ or satellite observations
- Inferring unobserved variables or unobserved scales
- Automating quality control of data

Modeling approaches can address (but are not restricted to):
- Designing new parameterization schemes in ocean models
- Emulating partially or completely ocean models
- Parameter tuning and model uncertainty

The session welcomes also submissions at the interface between modeling and observations, such as data assimilation, data-model fusion, or bias correction.

Researchers and practitioners working in the domain of ocean science, as well as those interested in the application of ML methods, are encouraged to attend and participate in this session.

Cities are intricate multi-scale systems, composed of diverse sub-components such as population, energy, transport, and climate. These components interact on various time scales, from hourly to seasonal to annual and beyond. Effective urban models and digital twins, crucial for urban planning and policy-making, must account for these complex interactions as they govern the growth and functioning of cities, often giving rise to emergent large-scale phenomena. However, our ability to quantitatively describe city behaviour remains limited due to the myriad of processes, scales, and feedbacks involved.
This session invites studies focused on modelling and monitoring the dynamics of multiple sectors and city-biosphere interactions. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
• Demography
• Urban transport networks
• Energy consumption
• Anthropogenic emissions and Pollution
• Urban climate
• Urban hydrology
• Urban ecology

Our aim is to elucidate the complex dynamics within urban environments and explore how urban form and function can be optimised to enhance the liveability and well-being of their citizens.

Machine learning (ML) is being used throughout the geophysical sciences with a wide variety of applications. Advances in big data, deep learning, and other areas of artificial intelligence (AI) have opened up a number of new approaches to traditional problems.

Many fields (climate, ocean, NWP, space weather etc.) make use of large numerical models and are now seeking to enhance these by combining them with scientific ML/AI techniques. Examples include ML emulation of computationally intensive processes, data-driven parameterisations for sub-grid processes, ML assisted calibration and uncertainty quantification of parameters, amongst other applications.

Doing this brings a number of unique challenges, however, including but not limited to:
- enforcing physical compatibility and conservation laws, and incorporating physical intuition,
- ensuring numerical stability,
- coupling of numerical models to ML frameworks and language interoperation,
- handling computer architectures and data transfer,
- adaptation/generalisation to different models/resolutions/climatologies,
- explaining, understanding, and evaluating model performance and biases.
- quantifying uncertainties and their sources
- tuning of physical or ML parameters after coupling to numerical models (derivative-free optimisation, Bayesian optimisation, ensemble Kalman methods, etc.)

Addressing these requires knowledge of several areas and builds on advances already made in domain science, numerical simulation, machine learning, high performance computing, data assimilation etc.

We solicit talks that address any topics relating to the above. Anyone working to combine machine learning techniques with numerical modelling is encouraged to participate in this session.

Climate change results from atmosphere constituent modulation affecting the top-of-atmosphere energy balance, or land use changes at the Earth’s surface, altering surface albedo, amongst other “forced” changes. These natural or anthropogenic climate drivers are termed “climate forcing” agents. This session highlights research assessing and quantifying uncertainties in forcing agent evolution and their climate influence using Earth System Model simulations, or Earth observations. We invite contributions on all climate forcing research aspects, including the development of historical and future forcing time-series, analyses that use idealized, single- or multi-model approaches, or observational methods to evaluate the climate change impacts. We are especially interested in studies that examine the responses to forcing changes through time, using next-generation (CMIP7), current (CMIP6, CMIP6Plus), or previous CMIP phases. Research considering multiple components of the climate system (the ocean, atmosphere, cryosphere, land surface/subsurface, and biology) is highly encouraged.

The Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) is instrumental in advancing our understanding of the Earth’s climate system and its future projections. However, Earth system models (ESM) exhibit disparities in critical aspects, particularly in their responses to anthropogenic forcings and the dynamical coupling of physical and biogeochemical systems. Given that the Earth system science community, and notably the IPCC, relies on CMIP outputs to inform policy and mitigation strategies, it becomes imperative to address these inherent uncertainties through a multidisciplinary approach that unites atmospheric, oceanic, and terrestrial modeling analyses. In this session, we invite studies that investigate uncertainties and model disagreements across all facets associated with the CMIP ensembles. These may include, but are not limited to, the following contributions:

1. Identification of processes and key entities with significant disparities across CMIP models: Quantifying sources of uncertainty across CMIP models, which may include i) internal variability, ii) process representations/model parameterization, iii) ESM architecture, and iv) external forcing.

2. Use of reduced complexity models and emulators: Exploring the uncertainty range with computationally fast model approaches, particularly the parts of the distribution not well represented by the CMIP ensembles.

3. Critical scientific priorities for future CMIP/Earth system model development: Recognizing and comprehending uncertainties and their underlying mechanisms are essential for guiding future model development and refining climate projections. We welcome contributions that focus on enhancing model performance and reducing uncertainties across disciplines for future CMIP iterations.

4. Opportunities, challenges, and constraints in using CMIP output for impact research: Uncertainties are amplified at regional scales; nevertheless, CMIP model projections are extensively utilized for impact studies by researchers unfamiliar with these sources of uncertainty and structural limitations of CMIP projections. We invite contributions that use innovative approaches to address these challenges in impact studies with CMIP output.

In summary, this session aims to foster collaboration and dialogue among climate scientists and modelers to increase the efficient use of CMIP output and meet the pressing challenges of climate change.

Join us for an interdisciplinary session, where we will explore how cutting-edge omics technologies are transforming our understanding of ecosystems and their resilience in response to climatic change across all scales. Over billions of years, spatial and temporal shifts in environmental conditions have driven the evolution of diverse microbial, fungal, plant and animal species, shaping the ecosystems, atmosphere, and climate of Earth. Gaining insights into how these organisms and biomes function, adapt, and interact requires a deep understanding of their components and the complex feedback systems they form.

Technological innovations in measuring and interpreting “meta-omics” datasets are now providing unprecedented mechanistic insights across diverse organisms, scales, and environmental spheres. These advances also drive the development of next-generation models to predict ecosystem function. In this session, we bring together ecologists, geochemists, and evolutionary biologists to examine the available omics toolkits for studying organisms and communities and to discuss ongoing efforts to integrate this knowledge across biological and temporal scales to address pressing Earth system science questions.

By combining eco-evolutionary insights with ecosystem-level concepts like community traits and resilience, we aim to foster future ITS sessions that apply integrated omics approaches alongside geoscience techniques for a deeper, mechanistic understanding of ecosystems.

We welcome contributions studying all Earth’s spheres (Biosphere, Atmosphere, Hydrosphere, Cryosphere, Geosphere), using a wide range of omics datasets (metagenomics, metatranscriptomics, metabolomics, proteomics, lipidomics, spectranomics, ionomics, elementomics, and isotopomics) as well as other large datasets such as trait, phenotype, inventory, pollen, and fossil records. We are particularly interested in studies involving control experiments, long-term ecological surveys, or flux networks, as well as research that provides mechanistic insights and employs big data in Earth system models or machine learning to scale patterns across space and time.

Advances in forest system modelling and monitoring techniques are crucial for deepening our understanding of forest ecosystems and their dynamic responses to environmental stresses and disturbances. These advancements are instrumental in addressing global environmental challenges by improving predictions and adapting management strategies accordingly. This session aims to bring together scientists and researchers focused on the latest advancements in forest systems modelling, observational techniques, and analytical methodologies to enhance our understanding of forest structural dynamics, soil carbon (C) dynamics, and the impacts of natural disturbances such as wildfires, insect’s outbreaks, pathogens/disease, droughts, and windstorms. Specifically, this session covers the following topics:

• Advancements in Forest System Modelling: Presentations on new models or significant improvements in existing models, that help predict and analyse forest growth, structural dynamics, C sequestration in biomass and soils, and ecosystem resilience. This includes models that integrate hydrological, meteorological, and biological processes.

• Innovative Monitoring Techniques: Studies showcasing novel observational technologies or methodologies, including remote sensing, isotopic tracing, or ground-based monitoring systems that provide new insights into forest mortality, growth patterns, and C cycling.

• Impact of Natural Disturbances: Research on how wildfires, insect’s outbreaks, pathogens/disease, droughts, and severe wind events alter forest structure, soil C stocks, and overall ecosystem functions. Contributions may include forward-looking information, post-disturbance recovery processes, disturbance modelling, and strategies for disturbance mitigation and adaptation.

• Cross-Scale Integration: Contributions that demonstrate the integration of innovative integrations of data and models across different spatial and temporal scales to understand forest biomass and soil dynamics comprehensively.

• Implications for future Management Strategies: Insights into how advanced modelling and monitoring approaches can shape policy development, offer a range of adaptation strategies, and inform management practices to enhance forest resilience and C retention.

As environmental challenges intensify, Nature-based Solutions (NbS) have emerged as a critical approach for fostering sustainable and resilient ecosystems across diverse landscapes. The integration of natural processes into planning and management offers significant benefits for environmental health and socio-ecological balance. However, the complexity of ecosystems—whether urban, rural, or regional—often presents challenges in the effective design and implementation of these solutions. The advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and decision support tools provides a powerful means to overcome these obstacles, enabling a deeper understanding and more precise application of NbS across various contexts.
This session will explore the potential for combining in a way that benefits both fields. It will look at how AI-driven tools can be used to improve environmental planning and policymaking. By examining case studies and practical examples, the session will demonstrate how AI enhances the effectiveness of NbS by improving our ability to model, predict, and optimize their impacts on ecosystems. Furthermore, the discussion will address the role of AI in developing fair and inclusive governance frameworks, ensuring that the advantages of NbS are accessible to all communities and regions. Additionally, the economic implications of integrating AI with NbS will be explored, highlighting opportunities for cost-effective and scalable sustainable action. The session will address common challenges and misconceptions associated with AI in ecosystem management, emphasizing the need for effective integration strategies and long-term sustainability. This session seeks to:
• Enhancing NbS with AI: Examine how AI can be used in conjunction with NbS to enhance our understanding of socio-ecological systems and amplify the impact of NbS across various ecosystems.
• AI-driven implementation: Illustrate the ways in which AI can facilitate the design and implementation of NbS, thereby supporting the achievement of sustainable environmental management.
• Governance and equity: Debate the potential of AI-enabled decision support tools to promote inclusive governance models, ensuring fair and effective NbS deployment in diverse contexts.
• Economic and sustainability insights: Investigate the economic benefits and sustainability outcomes of integrating AI with NbS for scalable solutions.

In an era where environmental challenges are increasingly complex, the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into data-driven approaches is transforming how we understand and address these issues. This session aims to bring together professionals from national and regional agencies across Europe who are leveraging AI technologies to enhance environmental research and policy-making.
We invite participants to share their experiences, case studies, and innovative applications of AI in environmental monitoring, data analysis, and policy development. A key focus will be on how to build the necessary infrastructures and frameworks that facilitate the effective implementation of AI applications to support policy-making processes.
Key topics may include:

- Developing robust data infrastructures for AI integration
- AI applications in real-time environmental monitoring
- Creating collaborative frameworks for sharing AI-driven insights across agencies
- Strategies for overcoming challenges in implementing AI technologies in environmental contexts
- The role of AI in data-driven policy consulting and its impact on sustainability

By fostering interdisciplinary dialogue and collaboration, this session aims to identify best practices, explore new opportunities, and enhance the collective capacity of European agencies to address pressing environmental challenges through the power of AI. Join us in shaping the future of environmental policy and research in Europe!

It is undeniable reality the fact of increasing frequency and severity of natural hazards on a global scale. A trend that seems likely to continue in the future, as a consequence of increase in extreme weather events and climate change, constituting one of the most significant risks for the natural, technological and human environment. This session concerns the use of Geoinformatics technologies, specifically the use of Geographical Information Systems and Remote Sensing technologies as well as Artificial Intelligence methodologies, in order to understand the mechanisms of the manifestation and evolution of catastrophic phenomena, mostly related to floods, landslides, droughts and wildfires.
New data, remotely or in-situ acquired, advanced methodologies for their analysis and integration aimed at managing natural hazards are welcome in this session. Particular emphasis is placed on the application of explainable Artificial Intelligence methods, through techniques such as Shapley Additive explanations (SHAP) and Local Interpretable Model-agnostic Explanations (LIME), Permutation Importance, Partial Dependence Plot, Explainable Boosting Machine, etc., aimed at understanding the decision-making mechanism in problems related to the occurrence and evolution of natural hazards. Participants will be exposed to state-of-the-art technologies and practical applications to gain a full picture of the possibilities available for building applications of good disaster management practices. The intention of the session is to present successful cases that cover natural hazards in different environments and climate scenarios, leveraging cutting-edge technologies and contributing to the formation of a safer and more resilient society in the light of increased environmental challenges.

Data imperfection is a common feature in Geosciences. Scientists and managers alike are faced with uncertain, imprecise, heterogeneous, erroneous, missing or redundant multi-source data. Traditionally, statistical methods were used to address these shortcomings. With the advent of Big Data, Machine Learning methods, the development of new techniques in data mining, knowledge representation and extraction as well as artificial intelligence, new avenues are being offered to tackle the shortcomings of data imperfection.
This session aims to provide a venue to exchange on the latest progress in assessing, quantifying and representing data imperfection in all of its forms. We welcome abstracts focused on, but not limited to:
- Use cases and applications from all fields of Geosciences on missing value imputation, data fusion, imprecision management, model inversion. Examples may be built on any type of data: alpha-numerical time series, georeferenced field data, satellite, areal or ground imagery, geographical vector data, videos, etc...
- Theoretical developments for data fusion and completion; uncertainty assessment and quantification, knowledge extraction and representation from heterogeneous data, reasoning and decision making under uncertainty.
- Multi-disciplinary approaches including artificial intelligence and geosciences are encouraged. Contributions addressing data issues and solutions related to participatory sciences, crowd-sourced data and opportunistic measurements will be particularly appreciated.

Earth System Science is witnessing an ever-increasing availability of textual, digital trace, social sensing, mobile phone, opportunistic sensing, audiovisual, and crowdsourced data. These data open unprecedented new research avenues and opportunities but also pose important challenges, from technical hurdles to skewed coverage, difficulties in quality control, and reproducibility limits.

Textual data is a case in point. Digital newspaper repositories, social media platforms, and archives of peer-reviewed articles provide vast amounts of digitalized text data. At the same time, large language models, such as ChatGPT, have opened new scalable ways of extracting research-relevant and actionable information from texts. However, such models are far from unbiased and may not be transparent, interpretable, or open access, hindering reproducibility. The same holds true for other types of data and associated data mining methods, such as knowledge extraction from images, audio, and videos.

This session welcomes abstracts that explore using text and other emerging data sources in Earth System Sciences, especially in hydrology, natural hazards, and climate research. The session scope spans data analysis methodologies, scientific advances from the analysis of emerging data, and broader perspectives on the opportunities and challenges that these data sources present. Specific topics include but are not limited to, for example: assessment of natural hazard impacts (e.g. floods, droughts, landslides, temperature extremes, windstorms), real-time monitoring of disasters, evidence synthesis, public sentiment analysis, policy and awareness tracking, discourse and narrative analyses, natural language processing, large language models, social media analysis, historical data rescue, image mining, deep learning, and machine learning.

Earth System Reconstructions provide vital insights across all geological spatiotemporal scales, from the depths of deep time to future projections, crucial for understanding the complex interplay among the geosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere. These reconstructions are underpinned by paleogeographic research at regional to global scales. They leverage emerging modeling techniques and expanding databases to elucidate the interactions and feedback driving major past environmental crises and long-term evolutionary changes. In the current era of climate, biodiversity, and energy crises, such reconstructions are increasingly pivotal in shaping informed decision-making, with applications spanning environmental risk assessments, climate forecasting, and resource exploration.

The field is witnessing significant advancements through the application of machine learning, large language models, and other sophisticated statistical and nonlinear optimization techniques. These methods enhance our ability to interpret complex and often obscure geological, environmental, and geophysical data. By integrating approaches from various disciplines, we enhance the quantifiability of geological processes over a broad spectrum of spatial and temporal scales. This integration is critical for incorporating better quantifications of uncertainty in both parameter values and model choice, as well as the fusion between geophysical, geological and environmental sensing constraints with data analyses and numerical modelling of Earth Systems.

We invite contributions from all disciplines focused on modeling or constraining Earth Systems, from deep geological times to anticipated future scenarios, whether regional or global in scope. We welcome submissions that are analytical or lab-focused, field-based, or involve numerical modelling. This session also aims to explore cutting-edge methods, tools, and approaches that push the boundaries of inference and uncertainty analysis, and interdisciplinary model-data fusion. We ask the question `Where to next?’ in our collective quest to develop digital twins of our planet.

We also celebrate the contributions of early career researchers, open/community research philosophy, and innovations that have adopted interdisciplinary approaches.

NFDI4Earth recognises the crucial role of data centers in bridging disciplinary divides within Earth System Sciences (ESS) and beyond. This session, proposed by co-applicants of the NFDI4Earth (www.nfdi4earth.de), aims to leverage the ITS program group's focus on interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches. Contributions from both data center providers and researchers to explore data center challenges in interoperability and opportunities within ESS are welcome.
The session will explore how data centers can facilitate collaboration and address complex challenges by:
Integrating Disciplines: Explore interdisciplinary data fusion and stakeholder engagement for data management.
Addressing Socially Relevant Problems: Address how data centers can aid transdisciplinary research on sustainability challenges and utilize data from public authorities for interdisciplinary ESS research and public engagement.
We encourage proposals from researchers and data center experts addressing:
I) Innovative Data Fusion: How can data centers seamlessly integrate diverse ESS data to tackle societal challenges?
II) Engaging Communities: How can data centers integrate stakeholder knowledge (academia, policymakers, public) for problem-solving?
III) Sustainability & Public Engagement: What opportunities exist for data centers to contribute to transdisciplinary research on sustainability challenges (e.g., climate change and impacts, biodiversity loss and safeguarding food security) and foster public engagement with ESS issues through citizen science data?
IV) Operation & Sustainability Models: How can we manage the diversity of ESS data centers and foster cooperation and interoperability?
Expected Outcomes:
Identify diverse interdisciplinary data management approaches in ESS.
Recommend enhanced collaboration between data centers, researchers, and stakeholders.
Develop strategies for leveraging data centers to support transdisciplinary research addressing societal challenges.
Create a roadmap for integrating stakeholder needs into NFD4Earth data center practices.

Downscaling aims to process and refine global climate model output to provide information at spatial and temporal scales suitable for impact studies. In response to the current challenges posed by climate change and variability, downscaling techniques continue to play an important role in the development of user-driven climate information and new climate services and products. In fact, the "user's dilemma" is no longer that there is a lack of downscaled data, but rather how to select amongst the available datasets and to assess their credibility. In this context, model evaluation and verification is growing in relevance and advances in the field will likely require close collaboration between various disciplines.

Furthermore, epistemologists have started to revisit current practices of climate model validation. This new thread of discussion encourages to clarify the issue of added value of downscaling, i.e. the value gained through adding another level of complexity to the uncertainty cascade. For example, the ‘adequacy-for-purpose view’ may offer a more holistic approach to the evaluation of downscaling models (and atmospheric models, in general) as it considers, for example, user perspectives next to a model’s representational accuracy.

In our session, we aim to bring together scientists from the various geoscientific disciplines interrelated through downscaling: atmospheric modeling, climate change impact modeling, machine learning and verification research. We also invite philosophers of climate science to enrich our discussion about novel challenges faced by the evaluation of increasingly complex simulation models.

Contributions to this session may address, but are not limited to:

- newly available downscaling products,
- applications relying on downscaled data,
- downscaling method development, including the potential for machine learning,
- bias correction and statistical postprocessing,
- challenges in the data management of kilometer-scale simulations,
- verification, uncertainty quantification and the added value of downscaling,
- downscaling approaches in light of computational epistemology.

The advancement of Open Science and the affordability of computing services allow for the discovery and processing of large amounts of information, boosting data integration from different scientific domains and blurring traditional discipline boundaries. However, data are often heterogeneous in format and provenance, and the capacity to combine them and extract new knowledge to address scientific and societal problems relies on standardisation, integration and interoperability.
Key enablers of the OS paradigm are ESFRI Research infrastructures, of which ECCSEL (www.eccsel.org), EMSO (https://emso.eu/) and EPOS (www.epos-eu.org), are examples currently enhancing FAIRness and integration within the Geo-INQUIRE project. Thanks to decades of work in data standardisation, integration and interoperability, they enable scientists to combine data from different disciplines and data sources into innovative research to solve scientific and societal questions.
However, while data-driven science is ripe with opportunity to ground-breaking inter- and transdisciplinary results, many challenges and barriers remain.

This session aims to foster scientific cross-fertilization exploring real-life scientific studies and research experiences from scientists and ECS in Environmental Sciences. We also welcome contributions about challenges experienced in connection to data availability, collection, processing, interpretation, and the application of interdisciplinary methods.
A non-exhaustive list of of topics includes:
- multidisciplinary studies involving data from different disciplines, e.g. combining seismology, geodesy, and petrology to understand subduction zone dynamics
- interdisciplinary works, integrating two or more disciplines to create fresh approaches, e.g. merging solid earth and ocean sciences data to study coastal areas and earth dynamics
- showcase activities enabling interdisciplinarity and open science, e.g. enhancing FAIRness of data and services, enriching data provision, enabling cross-domain AI applications, software and workflows, and transnational access and capacity building for ECS
- transdisciplinary experiences that surpass disciplinary boundaries, integrate paradigms and engage stakeholders from diverse backgrounds, e.g. bringing together geologists, social scientists, civil engineers and urban planners to define risk maps and prevention measures in urban planning, or studies combining volcanology, atmospheric, health and climate sciences

Time series are a very common type of data sets generated by observational and modeling efforts across all fields of Earth, environmental and space sciences. The characteristics of such time series may however vastly differ from one another between different applications – short vs. long, linear vs. nonlinear, univariate vs. multivariate, single- vs. multi-scale, etc., equally calling for both specifically tailored methodologies as well as generalist approaches. Similarly, also the specific tasks of time series analysis may span a vast body of problems, including

- dimensionality/complexity reduction and identification of statistically and/or dynamically meaningful modes of (co-)variability,
- statistical and/or dynamical modeling of time series using stochastic or deterministic time series models or empirical components derived from the data,
- characterization of variability patterns in time and/or frequency domain,
- quantification various aspects of time series complexity and predictability,
- identification and quantification of different flavors of statistical interdependencies within and between time series, and
- discrimination between mere co-variability and true causality among two or more time series.

According to this broad range of potential analysis goals, there exists a continuously expanding plethora of time series analysis concepts, many of which are only known to domain experts and have hardly found applications beyond narrow fields despite being potentially relevant for others, too.

Given the broad relevance and rather heterogeneous application of time series analysis methods across disciplines, this interdisciplinary session shall serve as a knowledge incubator fostering cross-disciplinary knowledge transfer and corresponding cross-fertilization among the different disciplines gathering at the EGU General Assembly. We equally solicit contributions on methodological developments and theoretical studies of different methodologies as well as applications and case studies highlighting the potentials as well as limitations of such techniques across all fields of Earth, environmental and space sciences and beyond.

NASA successfully launched the Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) mission on February 8, 2024. The spacecraft carries three groundbreaking instruments: the Ocean Color Imager (OCI), the Hyper-Angular Rainbow Polarimeter #2 (HARP 2), contributed by the University of Maryland Baltimore County, and the Spectro-polarimeter for Planetary Exploration (SPEXone), contributed by the Netherlands. This mission makes simultaneous measurements of the optical properties of water bodies, land, and the atmosphere that are first of their kind. This interdisciplinary session invites research on oceans, lakes, land, aerosols, and clouds, covering topics such as radiative transfer theory, algorithm development (including machine learning), validation, ocean and aquatic system biogeochemistry, terrestrial processes, and atmospheric process studies. Submissions demonstrating the connections between the atmosphere, ocean/aquatic systems, and land, as well as the synergistic use of PACE’s three sensors, are highly encouraged. We welcome the submissions that are using data collected during PACE validation campaigns (e.g., PACE-PAX). The session aims to strengthen collaboration across disciplines to fully utilize PACE’s unique dataset.

Satellite imagery has become critical in documenting and responding to the impacts of armed conflicts. These impacts cover environmental degradation, infrastructure destruction and deterioration of societal functions, such as access to clean water, food security, and public health.

However, there continue to be challenges around alignment and clarity regarding the methodological and ethical considerations of carrying out and collaborating on the environmental and social impacts of remote sensing in humanitarian contexts. The field relies on best practices but has not yet articulated the goals of this and how it encompasses authentication, privacy and scientific standards. These considerations are especially important when using the data in accountability settings, including in criminal prosecution and international tribunals, where satellite data can be used as legal evidence.

This session welcomes presentations showcasing the state of play of using remote sensing to monitor environmental and societal harm in conflict-affected regions. Subsequently, it will raise questions at the frontier of our research discipline: how can we understand the impacts of RS mapping and output sharing on victims, ecosystems, and partners in conflict-affected areas? What are opportunities to involve local stakeholders in data collection and verification? How can RS be most effective in supporting international norm-building and norm-compliance around the costs of war? What protocols should RS research adhere to to ensure relevance in addressing accountability and victim support through international legal frameworks?

By addressing these questions, this session aims to start a conversation among practitioners and academics on how remote sensing can be responsibly and effectively used to address the environmental and societal impacts of armed conflicts while supporting justice and accountability.

Natural hazards (e.g., earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods, landslides and ground subsidence), their cascading effects and societal risks, can strongly influence, and be influenced by human activities (e.g., migration, construction, architectural design, urban planning, forestation, deforestation, damming and drainage re-routing). The relationship between environmental risks and human behavior is dynamic in space and time. Understanding and using well this transdisciplinary interconnectedness is critical for improving disaster preparedness, urban planning, and environmental management. Investigating such complex relationships requires innovative joint analysis of the modern big earth observation data (e.g., optical, hyperspectral, GRACE, GNSS, RADAR, LiDAR), together with historical and paleo records of multi-hazards (e.g., literature, catalogue, geomorphology, and trenching), as well as anthropogenic (e.g., indigenous wisdom and tales), demographic (e.g., population, ethnicity, age), and developmental (e.g., economy, public policy) datasets. This session solicits contributions that employ earth observation (especially imaging geodesy) and interdisciplinary data sets for disaster risk reduction. We aim to encourage transdisciplinary discussions between data providers, researchers, and stakeholders, and thus welcome instrument designers, geodesists, natural scientists, social scientists, historians, anthropologists, engineers, architects, policy makers, and community workers to come together to celebrate success and highlight challenges in the integration of earth observation data in promoting resilience building and sustainable development.

High-impact climate and weather events typically result from the interaction of multiple climate and weather drivers, as well as vulnerability and exposure, across various spatial and temporal scales. Such compound events often cause more severe socio-economic impacts than single-hazard events, rendering traditional univariate extreme event analyses and risk assessment techniques insufficient. It is, therefore, crucial to develop new methodologies that account for the possible interaction of multiple physical and societal drivers when analysing high-impact events under present and future conditions. Despite the considerable attention from the scientific community and stakeholders in recent years, several challenges and topics must still be addressed comprehensively.

These include: (1) identifying the compounding drivers, including physical drivers (e.g., modes of variability) and/or drivers of vulnerability and exposure, of the most impactful events; (2) Developing methods for defining compound event boundaries, i.e. legitimate the ‘cut-offs’ in the considered number of hazard types to ultimately disentangle enough information for decision-making; (3) Understanding whether and how often novel compound events, including record-shattering events, will emerge in the future; (4) Explicitly addressing and communicating uncertainties in present-day and future assessments (e.g., via climate storylines/scenarios); (5) Disentangling the contribution of climate change in recently observed events and future projections; (6) Employing novel Single Model Initial-condition Large Ensemble simulations from climate models, which provide hundreds to thousands of years of weather, to better study compound events. (7) Developing novel statistical methods (e.g., machine learning, artificial intelligence, and climate model emulators) for compound events; (8) Assessing the weather forecast skill for compound events at different temporal scales; (9) Evaluating the performance of novel statistical methods, climate and impact models, in representing compound events and developing novel methods for reducing uncertainties (e.g., multivariate bias correction and emergent constraints); and (10) engaging with stakeholders to ensure the relevance of the aforementioned analyses.

We invite presentations on all aspects of compound events, including but not limited to the topics and research challenges described above.

Life on earth evolved through various geological ages in close interaction with the climate system. While the past climate changes have played a crucial role in shaping the terrestrial life distribution by modifying habitat and resource availability, modern humans have compounded these impacts by inducing a dramatic shift in the global biodiversity patterns. The evolutionary history of terrestrial life is characterized by migrations, adaptations, speciation and mass extinctions, with constant restructuring of the global ecosystem. Understanding the complex linkage between climate and terrestrial life forms is crucial in managing the present environmental challenges and developing effective conservation strategies for addressing potential biodiversity crisis in the future.

This session aims at bringing together multidisciplinary research on how climate has impacted and will impact terrestrial life forms and ecosystem structure in the past, present and future.

Topics of interest include,
- Mass extinctions in the past
- Climate and human influences on global biodiversity patterns
- Climate-driven species migrations
- Genetic diversification and speciation
- Vegetation dynamics and biome shifts
- Habitat degradation and effects on species distribution
- Species interactions and changes in ecosystem composition
- Climate-ecosystem modelling
- Conservation ecology

This multidisciplinary session at the nexus between climate change research and ecology will provide an opportunity for researchers to interact, forge new collaborations and exchange knowledge.

Over the past 50 years, climate extremes have caused more than 2 million deaths and an estimated $3.64 trillion in economic losses worldwide. Beyond these direct impacts, the effects on population health have become an urgent concern. Research has highlighted far-reaching consequences, particularly in terms of excess mortality and morbidity associated with cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, associated with climate extremes. The burden of these health impacts is not evenly distributed. Socioeconomic, demographic, and geographical factors heavily influence vulnerability, leading to significant disparities in health outcomes across different populations. For example, marginalized and disadvantaged groups, including the elderly, children, individuals with pre-existing health conditions, and residents of low-income or geographically vulnerable regions bear a disproportionate share of the health burden. Intersectionality plays a key role in this disparity; including overlapping social factors such as race, gender, age, and income interact to intensify existing vulnerabilities to climate extremes, climatic factors and health inequalities. This differential vulnerability underscores the critical link between climate justice and population health, emphasizing the need to address inequalities to strengthen resilience and mitigate population health impacts of climate extremes. This session welcomes all contributions that explore the complex impacts of climate extremes on population health, including studies on how intersecting socioeconomic, demographic, and geographical factors shape vulnerability.

The interconnection between climate, environment, and health is evident, with climate change posing significant threats to human welfare. As global temperature rise, extreme weather events such as heatwaves, floods, hurricanes, and droughts, directly and indirectly impact public health, alongside environmental exposures like air pollution. Climate and land use changes can influence the spread of vector-borne diseases such as malaria and increase the risk of waterborne illnesses. Additionally, climate change may result in severe wildfires and episodes of air pollution.
Addressing these complex challenges requires fostering interdisciplinary collaboration among climate researchers, epidemiologists, public health researchers, and social scientists, which is the primary focus of this session. The goal is to create a platform for presenting the latest innovations in using remote sensing and other large datasets to characterize exposures relevant to human health, especially in data-limited regions. The session encompasses various topics, including satellite data applications in human health, planetary epidemiology, risk mapping of infectious diseases, exposure mapping of heat and air pollution to quantify their impacts on human health, health co-benefits of mitigation actions, and the use of machine learning and AI for climate and health applications. The session emphasizes the examination of historical exposure-health outcome relationships, forecasts for the near future, and changes under progressive climate change.

As highlighted by the UN development goals, climate change is a reality to which we need to adapt. However, the many disciplines required to effectively plan and adapt to climate change often work in isolation. For example, physical climate modelling, hydrology, and hazard impact and risk assessment are largely separate disciplines with difficulties interacting due to different terminologies and backgrounds. Moreover, until recently, climate modellers did not have the capability to generate long-term projections at a spatial and temporal resolution useful for impact studies.

With the advent of kilometre-scale atmospheric models, called convection-permitting models CPMs, high resolution remote sensed data sets, and global sub-daily rainfall observations, we are now in a position to bridge the gap between disciplines, sharing knowledge and understanding. With all these tools at our disposal we have substantially improved the representation of sub-daily precipitation characteristics and have model output at a spatial resolution closer to what many impacts modellers, for example hydrologists, need. Now is the time to exploit these high-resolution, consistent datasets as input for impact studies and adaptation strategies; to foster interdisciplinary collaboration to build a common language and understand limitations and needs of the different fields; to learn together how to provide policymakers with information that can be used to design effective measures at to adapt to climate change as well as to inform mitigation decisions.

This interdisciplinary session invites contributions that address the linkages between high-resolution climate scientists, impact modellers, and end users with a special focus on:
- Recent advances in climate modelling for impact studies, particularly using high resolution convection- permitting models.
- Bias correction techniques to overcome bias in climate models affecting impact models.
- Analysis of the uncertainty propagation from climate into impact models.
- Improved understanding of processes that will alter hazards resulting from climate change.
- Novel use of new and existing observational data sets in characterising and quantifying climate change hazards.
- Examples of good practice, storylines and communication to both stakeholders and policymakers.

As climate change causes impacts from weather extremes to increase around the world, decision makers in government and industry are increasingly required to address changes to climate hazards when considering, disclosing, and acting to mitigate risks. Given that risk is the nexus of hazard, vulnerability, and exposure, a complete understanding of risk requires an interdisciplinary approach with input from experts in changes to all three of these pillars. In this session we address specifically those risks related to extreme weather events, including temperature, precipitation, and wind extremes, with a focus on interdisciplinary approaches that bridge the gap between the physical sciences and decision makers. We invite contributions from interdisciplinary teams working to address these challenges, as well as from those working in single disciplines but seeking to make interdisciplinary connections. Topics of interest include storyline approaches in which societal challenges are considered alongside physical climate risks; addressing knowledge gaps in physical hazard understanding when providing information to decision makers; issues related to the financial and insurance sectors’ responses to extreme weather events; impact-based forecasting as a tool for risk understanding; and studies of early-warning systems and associated decision making.

Disturbances, such as extreme weather events, play a key role in shaping ecosystems. Under climate change, extreme weather hazards undergo changes in frequency, intensity and seasonality. While ecosystem-based adaptation and nature-based solutions are gaining traction, it is crucial to elucidate the diverse interactions between extreme weather risk, ecosystems, and their services.

This session seeks to highlight research on the nexus of extreme weather events and ecosystems. This includes: 1) investigations into the key attributes and patterns of extreme weather events which affect ecosystem composition, structure and functioning. 2) studies on how ecosystems respond to and recover from extreme weather events across past, present, and future climates are of interest. 3) Implications of extreme weather impacts on ecosystems for biodiversity and ecosystem service provision. We welcome a diverse array of contributions, including theoretical analyses, modeling approaches, field studies, experimental designs, and remote sensing analysis.

Key topics include:
- Ecosystem (terrestrial, coastal or marine) responses to extreme weather
- Role of extreme weather in shaping ecosystem composition, biodiversity, structure and functioning
- Vulnerability assessments of ecosystems
- Natural hazard risk to ecosystems in past, present and future climates
- Changes in ecosystems service provisions due to extreme weather events
- Resilience and recovery dynamics
- Impact and efficacy of Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) under extreme conditions, risk of maladaptation or disservices
- Regime shift / tipping points in ecosystems due to extreme weather events
- Extreme weather disturbance regimes affecting ecosystems across time
- Identification of extreme weather risk hotspots
- Interactions of natural hazard and anthropogenic disturbances to ecosystems

Climate change disproportionately affects vulnerable populations, with children being the most susceptible to its risks. They face heightened exposure to climate and environmental hazards such as extreme heat, air pollution, and natural disasters. Understanding the current and future risks that these young populations will face due to climate and environmental changes is essential for effective advocacy and informed decision-making. It also supports the development of strategies and operations aimed at reducing the adverse impacts on children's health, safety, and well-being.
Accurate assessment of these risks for children across various geographic locations requires comprehensive, continuous, and high-resolution data. Earth observation (EO) satellites and climate system models provide powerful resources to capture the spatial and temporal dynamics of climate and environmental factors affecting children. They offer insights into trends in temperature changes, land use alterations, pollution levels, and disaster patterns, all of which are critical for understanding the specific vulnerabilities of children to climate change. However, despite their potential, there are challenges in effectively leveraging them for this purpose. Issues such as data accessibility, integration with socio-economic and demographic information, and the technical capacity required to analyze observed and modelled data need to be addressed. Moreover, translating these data insights into actionable policies and interventions for child protection presents additional complexities.
This session will integrate Earth sciences applications that enhance our understanding of the disproportionate impact of climate change on children. We will discuss successful case studies, innovative methodologies, and interdisciplinary approaches that have been employed to utilize multisource data effectively. The session will also highlight the challenges and limitations of observations and modelling data applications, offering perspectives on how to overcome these obstacles. By exploring these aspects, we aim to support efforts in measuring, mitigating, and ultimately reducing the climate-related risks faced by children globally, thus safeguarding their future.

Extreme weather events such as tropical cyclones, heatwaves and floods threaten populations around the world. Climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of many kinds of extreme weather events, which can combine with community exposure, inequalities and vulnerabilities to cause substantial harm. There is growing literature at the intersection of the natural and social sciences studying the impacts of extreme weather events on populations as well as peoples’ behavioral, attitudinal, and emotional responses. For instance, studies have investigated how extreme weather and climatic changes influence food and water security, conflict and security risks, and health outcomes. Additionally, the field of environmental human mobility has witnessed remarkable progress in data collection, analytical methods, and modeling techniques. Further research has examined the responses of individuals and households to these threats, including climate-related emotions, environmental concerns, and climate policy support. These studies have been conducted in interdisciplinary settings, where social scientists closely collaborate with natural scientists to study populations that have been, or will be, impacted by extreme weather events.

Yet only few studies are currently harnessing the full potential of interdisciplinary collaborations in this space and several challenges pertaining to the choice of methods and the scale of analysis (e.g., regional, national) remain underexplored. This session aims to provide a platform for interdisciplinary work on extreme weather events and invites contributions from natural and social scientists interested in interdisciplinary studies on the societal impacts of and responses to extreme weather events. Furthermore, we highlight the topic of human (im)mobility with a perspective on addressing recent advancements, methodological innovations, novel use of data, challenges, or future prospects in modeling human mobility in the past, present, and future.

We invite contributions including but not limited to studies of:

- Environmental attitudes and behaviors influenced by extreme events
- Health and wellbeing effects of climate change and extreme events
- Migration and displacement due to extreme events
- Food production and security in relation to extreme weather
- The interplay between climate change, environment, and conflict
- Methodological challenges to interdisciplinary collaborations

Climate change progresses fastest in Earth’s high latitude regions. As sea ice disappears and temperatures rise, increases in fetch length and heat fluxes strengthen wind and wave strength. At the same time, a combination of permafrost thaw and sea-level rise make the region’s coastal areas particularly vulnerable to these changes in storminess. And some impacts – notably the release of carbon from wave-driven coastal erosion and wind-driven changes in ocean ventilation – are global. But despite these consequences and their societal ramifications, future changes in storminess remain poorly constrained. This session will highlight how coastal archives like lake sediments or beach ridges can fill this critical knowledge gap, by providing long-term baseline data from the past. Emphasis will be placed on reconstructions, but we invite contributions that harness the potential of instrumental and modelling data to validate proxy work. We are particularly keen to showcase the potential of emerging biological (i.e. long-distance transported pollen, diatom transfer functions), geochemical (i.e. wind-driven evaporative isotope enrichment) or sedimentological (i.e. characterization of wind- or wave-blown particles invisible to the naked eye) methods. We furthermore encourage contributions from under-studied areas with global significance like the Southern Ocean or High Arctic, and studies that focus on extreme events like tsunamis. Also welcome are societal impact studies that assess the (economic) consequences of shifts in storminess on – for example – shipping and power generation.

Mountain environments are dynamic systems shaped by interconnected physical, biological, and chemical processes. Recent changes in climate, including elevation-dependent warming, shifting precipitation patterns, retreating glaciers, degrading permafrost and intensifying storms are reshaping these critical landscapes. These changes have a direct impact on ~35% of the global population, who live and work within or downstream of these regions. To address this complex, global challenge, this session aims to explore the diverse problems and approaches to monitoring, modelling, and predicting environmental change. It is essential to draw upon perspectives across the physical sciences to reduce uncertainties around future compounding hazard and risk. We welcome contributions focused on mountain system dynamics through, for example, remote sensing, numerical modelling, laboratory techniques, and field observations. This session is closely related to the objectives of the ‘Sediment Cascades and Climate Change (1)’ initiative and encourages an interdisciplinary dialogue between and beyond the fields of climatology, hydrology, sedimentology, and geomorphology.
(1) https://sedimentcascades.webspace.durham.ac.uk/

Atmosphere and Cryosphere are closely linked and need to be investigated as an interdisciplinary subject. Most of the cryospheric areas have undergone severe changes in last decades while such areas have been more fragile and less adaptable to global climate changes. This AS-CR session invites observational-, model- and remote sensing-based investigations on any aspects of linkages between atmospheric processes and snow and ice on local, regional and global scales. Emphasis is given on the Arctic, high latitudes and altitudes, mountains, sea ice, Antarctic-, and Alpine regions. In particular, we encourage studies that address aerosols (such as Black Carbon, Organic Carbon, dust, volcanic ash, diatoms, bioaerosols, bacteria, microplastics, etc.) and changes in the cryosphere, e.g., effects on snow/ice melt and albedo. The session also focus on dust transport, aeolian deposition, and volcanic dust, including health, environmental or climate impacts at high latitudes, high altitudes and cold Polar Regions. We include contributions on biological and ecological sciences including dust-organisms interactions, cryoconites, bio-albedo, eco-physiological, biogeochemical and genomic studies. Related topics are light absorbing impurities, cold deserts, dust storms, long-range transport, glaciers darkening, polar ecology, and more. The scientific understanding of the AS-CR interaction needs to be addressed better and linked to the global climate predictions scenarios.

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.

Extreme climate and weather events, associated disasters and emergent risks are becoming increasingly critical in the context of global environmental change and interact with other stressors. They are a potential major threat to reaching the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and are one of the most pressing challenges for future human well-being.
This session explores the linkages between extreme climate and weather events, associated disasters, societal dynamics and resilience. Emphasis is laid on 1) Which impacts on ecosystems and societies are caused by extreme events (including risks emerging from compound events)? 2) Which feedbacks and cascades exist across ecosystems, infrastructures and societies? 3) Where do these societal and environmental dynamics threaten to cross critical thresholds and tipping points? 4) Can we learn from past experiences? 5) What are key obstacles towards societal resilience and reaching the SDGs and Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR) targets, while facing climate extremes and compound events?

We welcome empirical, theoretical and modelling studies from local to global scale from the fields of natural sciences, social sciences, humanities and related disciplines.

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/uploads/HELPING/WG%20Proposal%20Co-Creating%20Water%20Knowledge%20v2.pdf

Recent research highlights key challenges and opportunities in citizen and community science for biodiversity research. The "science of citizen science" requires further exploration of core research questions, methodologies, and supporting technologies. Citizen science data are increasingly important for scientific studies, particularly in biodiversity and pollution research and for monitoring Sustainable Development Goals. However, improvements in data stewardship practices are needed to maximise the benefits for science and society. Frontiers for future research include sampling underrepresented taxa and regions, estimating species abundance from presence data, and understanding ecological and species interactions. Outstanding challenges involve observer behaviour, non-structured but opportunistic sampling, statistical models, and communication with the local and underrepresented communities –with potential solutions including collecting additional metadata, combining datasets, refining analytical methods, and reevaluating research goals. The session welcomes anyone involved in connecting citizen or community science with biodiversity research, at any scale—from community-driven local projects to large crowd-sourced data initiatives. We aim to highlight the scope, challenges, and potentials of citizen science contributions to biodiversity research, conservation efforts, and how these incorporate and benefit the communities directly involved.

This session aims to (re)introduce biodiversity, an essential component of many aspects of life on Earth, as a notion that offers a wide array of multidisciplinary work from numerous fields of research, including but not limited to the geosciences and ecology. 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. Biodiversity is also intrinsically linked with the Earth’s processes, geomorphology, formation, and development. The United Nation’s definition of biodiversity, or biological diversity, is: the variety of life on Earth and the natural patterns it forms. A wide range of studies on biological diversity also encompass ecological diversity and ecosystem diversity, since the diversity of ecosystems also affects the diversity of organisms that inhabit them. Earth Science recognizes the role of biotic factors in governing geophysical processes, and feedback mechanisms, across a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. Studies show that the control of biota might be part of a longer-term cycle, in which the dominance of biotic and abiotic processes not only switch, but depend on each other. Biota and abiotic processes may have co-evolved over both longer and shorter timescales. Scientific evidence from the geoscience community is therefore valuable in many political decisions for restoration, or rewilding, including the recent EU Nature Restoration Law. Also, research in these fields may contribute to policy on preparation for and/or prevention from geohazards, including those that may be triggered by anthropogenic interference and/or climate change, acting as stressors which affect diversity within a system.
Thus, in this session we aim to recognize the wide range of geoscience research projects that focus on or highlight aspects of biodiversity, while welcoming those that favor inter- and/or transdisciplinary approaches. Through these presentations, we hope to demonstrate the broad spectrum of biodiversity-related areas in which the geosciences contribute and where geoscience research gaps need to be addressed.

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 past, present, and future 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 scenarios studies of mountain climate, cryosphere, ecology, hazards, and hydrology, which also incorporate studies on intersecting socio-economic dimensions and risks. Mountains as complex terrain can be difficult to adequately parameterize in (climate) models and many areas of the world lack high-elevation monitoring infrastructure that can record data at the relevant locations, densities, scales, frequencies, and resolutions needed. 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.
We particularly welcome contributions that describe how steps are being taken to address such knowledge gaps, including high-elevation integrated monitoring efforts, observations along elevational gradients, climate downscaling strategies and remote sensing innovations, 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 take a multi-disciplinary perspective and approach to addressing the challenges and opportunities posed by a changing cryosphere in mountain regions, with particular attention to the human dimensions associated with adaptation and resilience.
This session is endorsed and supported by the Mountain Research Initiative and the Institute for Interdisciplinary Mountain Research of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

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.

Marine geological processes cover a range of different disciplines and their understanding usually requires an interdisciplinary approach. The interaction of tectono-sedimentary, physical oceanographic, chemical and biological mechanisms in marine geological processes are important. These range from sediment erosion and deposition, to hydrothermal and fluid flow systems, early diagenesis and geomicrobiology, and long-term evolution of ocean-basins. Such processes may take place in shallow or deep, in tropical and glacial environments, and they may be natural or partly human-influenced. Climate-ecosystem and material cycling induced perturbations in marine geological processes have occurred in present and past, and potentially will also occur in the future. Several of these processes may also have a profound impact on human society, including Geohazards such as tsunamis generated by tectonic or mass-wasting events, coastal land and habitat loss in response to changed currents or river discharge, and sediment gravity flow in deep waters affecting human infrastructures. Moreover, marine geological archives contain records of climate change occurring in the past, that are relevant for present and potentially future changes. We encourage comprehensive and interdisciplinary abstracts within the broad field of marine geological processes or marine deposits that provide comprehensive evidence for present or past geo-physical and geo-(bio)chemical processes.

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. 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.

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 or global and regional climate policies, needs to be addressed from a holistic perspective that evaluates the economy, energy, land, and water systems in an integrated manner. The dominant tools to assess these policies and their multisector implications - integrated assessment models (IAMs) - have contributed to ground-breaking science and policymaking, but suffer from limited subnational information. Gender, within-region income distribution, and other social and spatiotemporal heterogeneity are not represented well, even if we know their absence reduces insights on dynamics including the implementation of policies and consumer demand projections, and limits the analysis of equity outcomes. This session highlights subregional distributional and inequality impacts as one the most crucial aspects in the design and implementation of transformative policies. This includes exploring different variables that are key for human development and welfare, including the implications for the labour market and supply chains, or impacts for human health attributable to air pollution or heat exposure. The connection of different multi-level models to widen the scope of the analysis is one way to provide more comprehensive and robust scientific evidence. This transdisciplinary session encourages submissions that explore the incorporation of subnational dynamics, such as gender, education, and income inequalities, into global scenario analysis, and potential multimodel or multidisciplinary exercises that move beyond existing research paradigms and develop flexible, multiscale, and multisector frameworks that move the research focus from system-level to include human well-being.

The continuous increase of world’s cities sprawl, in a context of global change, makes it urgent to promote the sustainability of these areas. But an integrated and systemic approach is required to face with simultaneous environmental, economic and social challenges. The concept of critical zone offers an adapted framework to develop integrated approach, but it needs to be adapted to the specificities of the zones where humans live and work. The critical zone is defined initially as the thin and heterogeneous and near surface environment in which occur interactions involving rock, soil, water, air, and terrestrial ecosystems. In urban areas, the critical zone is strongly transformed by the infrastructure, facilities and buildings, and impacted by human activities and usages which heavily affect the fluxes and balances of water, energy, and chemicals including pollutants….In this session, we will address the question of the biophysical processes specificities of the urban critical zone that interact with anthropic processes controlled by human activities and stakeholders. Most of the urban geophysical processes are studied are very local and small levels, it is necessary to produce interdisciplinary knowledge are more global scales.

We invite contributions of experience on urban critical zones and especially those including observations, measurements of fluxes, description of biogeochemical, physical and human resilience processes and development of models to respond to these crosscutting issues. Proposals coming from diverse urban contexts (size, growth patterns, geographical, social) at different spatial and temporal scales will be appreciated. We aim at forstering interdisciplinary dialogue to make the Urban Critical Zone a unifying concept.

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

This inter- and transdisciplinary session examines the relationship between the scientific concept of the Anthropocene epoch, based on analysis of stratigraphic archives, with our societies and the issues they face. The Anthropocene epoch, as a unifying concept, helps us (1) understand the transformed bioclimatic conditions in which we live, (2) appreciate how fragile they are, how rapidly they are shifting, and their implications for humanity, and (3) explain the importance of containing climatic, biological, and attendant societal runaway effects, through deeper understanding of the Earth System. The Anthropocene epoch, as represented by the AWG’s proposal, is characterised by a sharply expressed and lasting change in the habitability of the Earth that is now human-driven but in which planetary feedbacks and tipping points will likely become increasingly important. In detail, it is a complex concept. However, in broad terms it is straightforward to communicate to a wide audience, given that many of the component phenomena (e.g. the rises in greenhouse gases) are clearly, even dramatically, expressed. This Anthropocene concept, in its many guises, provides links between the global climate, the biosphere and societies and their respective dominant processes that include runaway effects and tipping points, collapse and acceleration.
Stratigraphic evidence-based and systemic in scope, the Anthropocene epoch also carries an ethical responsibility for conveying the concerns of scientific communities about the worsening of bioclimatic living conditions. Here the questions studied during the presentations become innumerable: (1) How can we pass on the knowledge of the Anthropocene (stratigraphic, systemic and from the human and social sciences) to young people without undermining their ability to envisage their future? (2) What use can we make of the Anthropocene to challenge public policy? (3) How can we make the systemic power of the Anthropocene concept not eradicate all hope for the sustainability of human life in society? How can we combine the power of the diagnosis of this new geological epoch with an intellectually honest hope that will mobilise people to transform societies? Studies from any continent will be considered.

With the rapid development of modern society and economy, 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 include ingredients of PPCPs, pesticides, hormones, industrial ingredients (such as flame retardants, PFASs, and plasticizers), and by-products. They are collectively termed emerging organic contaminants (EOCs).
The extensive application and presence of EOCs in our daily consumer products and the nature of these substances results in their widespread distribution with many being discharged 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.
There has been wide ranging discussion about possible adverse effects of EOCs, such as emergence of antibacterial resistance, endocrine disrupting effects and toxicity. However, to the best of our knowledge, the risk assessment and pollution control for EOCs is challenging owing to the limited understanding of their transport, interactions and biogeochemical process among surface water, soil and groundwater interfaces/systems.
The session objective is 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 and for pollution control implement. Potential topics include, but are not restricted to, the following:
• Sampling approaches for EOCs in surface water, soil and groundwater interfaces/ systems, which would include novel active sampling strategies and passive sampling techniques. Such techniques would provide important insights into process-based understanding of fate as well as for measurement campaigns on a range of spatial scales.
• Important experimental/lab scale, field and modelling studies on transport, interactions and biogeochemical process of emerging organic contaminants in sole surface water, groundwater and soil systems, and surface water-groundwater interfaces/systems, water-soil interfaces/systems surface water, and soil and groundwater interfaces/ systems.

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.

Several subsystems of the Earth have been suggested to possibly react abruptly at critical levels of anthropogenic forcing. Examples of such potential Tipping Elements include the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, the polar ice sheets, tropical and boreal forests, as well as the tropical monsoon systems. Interactions between the different Tipping Elements may either have stabilizing or destabilizing effects on the other subsystems, potentially leading to cascades of abrupt transitions. The critical forcing levels at which abrupt transitions occur have recently been associated with Tipping Points.

It is paramount to determine the critical forcing levels (and the associated uncertainties) beyond which the systems in question will abruptly change their state, with potentially devastating climatic, ecological, and societal impacts. For this purpose, we need to substantially enhance our understanding of the dynamics of the Tipping Elements and their interactions, on the basis of paleoclimatic evidence, present-day observations, and models spanning the entire hierarchy of complexity. Moreover, to be able to mitigate - or prepare for - potential future transitions, early warning signals have to be identified and monitored in both observations and models.

This multidisciplinary session invites contributions that address Tipping Points in the Earth system from the different perspectives of all relevant disciplines, including

- the mathematical theory of abrupt transitions in (random) dynamical systems,
- paleoclimatic studies of past abrupt transitions,
- data-driven and process-based modelling of past and future transitions,
- methods to anticipate critical transitions from data
- the implications of abrupt transitions for climate sensitivity and response,
- ecological and socioeconomic impacts
- decision theory in the presence of uncertain Tipping Point estimates and uncertain impacts

Recent evaluations on the current states of the Earth system (e.g. the latest assessment of the nine Planetary Boundaries) and the integrity of the Earth system emphasize the alarming decline in Earth’s resilience, stability, and life support systems. Human activities are driving us beyond critical planetary boundaries, marking the onset of the Anthropocene—the current era in which humanity has become a geological force, significantly altering Earth's system processes and environments on a global scale. Earth’s resilience, stability, and life support systems are shaped by complex, non-linear interactions between biophysical processes and human influences. Such interactions encompass the carbon cycle, atmospheric systems, oceans, large-scale ecosystems, the cryosphere, and the increasing disruptions caused by socio-economic dynamics. In addition, as human pressures escalate, the risk of breaching key self-regulating feedbacks in the Earth system grows—potentially pushing critical components like the large ice sheets, the AMOC, and biomes such as the Amazon rainforest beyond tipping points. Crossing these thresholds could trigger abrupt, large-scale, and often irreversible changes that threaten ecosystems and human societies alike. Thus, a comprehensive understanding of the current state of planetary boundaries on a frequent basis is required. Owing to current technological advancements in Earth observation systems, as well as advanced AI-based solutions (e.g., large language models (LLMs) and Vision LLMs), such objectives can be attained. However, achieving this requires bringing together expertise from various disciplines, including geosciences, ecology, remote sensing, data science, socio-environmental sciences, and beyond.
In this session, we invite contributions from geoscientists, remote sensing specialists, data scientists, ecologists, climate modelers, and other relevant fields to explore how we can better measure and assess the planetary boundaries in the Earth system. We aim to foster interdisciplinary collaboration on identifying critical thresholds, understanding feedback mechanisms, and developing methods to quantify resilience at planetary scales. We are particularly interested in research utilizing diverse methodological approaches—ranging from Earth system modeling and remote sensing to data-driven analyses and conceptual frameworks—focused on stability and health indicators, as well as the cascading effects of system-wide shifts.

Between 1980 and 2022, weather- and climate-related extremes caused economic losses of assets estimated at EUR 650 billion in the EU. To face this challenge, increasing with ongoing warming and the continuous rise of the number, value and interconnexion of assets, it is necessary to stimulate and coordinate the European effort on disaster risk reduction (DRR), explicitly accounting for the changing socio-environmental conditions. To this aim, innovative holistic and integrative approaches are required including reinforced collaborations between -among others- geosciences, climate sciences, engineering, data and digital sciences, and human and social sciences (in particular geography, history, economic and financial sciences, behavioral sciences). These different disciplines are now heavily involved in DRR, but still work too much in silos and / or, sometimes, without direct interaction with society. Grounding on the approach developed in the France 2030 Risks-IRIMA program, we propose a session that emphasizes inter and transdisciplinary methodological approaches of DRR, so as to better detect, quantify and anticipate risks due to weather extremes and climate change. The aim is to understand their impact resulting from extreme events, multiple risks, cascading effects, multi-scale dynamics, etc. in an explicit non–stationary framework able to account for the full complexity at play. Challenges include the improvement of the coupling between human and socio-economic issues and the physical components of risks, the development of adapted risk measures and quantification tools, better use of data and citizen knowledge, and of new technologies, particularly those of information science, as well as the development of risk projections at different temporal horizons. Also, the seamless chain between data acquisition and assimilation to modelling, decision support and policy implementation for crisis management and anticipation of future risks related to climate change and anthropization should be reinforced. Through this renewed effort, research on risk science should strongly contribute to the sustainable transformation of society, improving altogether societal well-being, risk awareness, and reduction of the social and economic impacts of crises, and fostering innovation at the science-society interface.

As global concerns grow over the depletion of finite natural resources and the escalating impacts of climate change, addressing the complex challenges of interdependencies between water and food security becomes increasingly urgent for present and future generations. Our session seeks to explore the nexus of water and food security in greater detail, investigating how their definitions and strategies for achievement may vary across various spatial scales, ranging from local to global.

Through interdisciplinary dialogue, our session aims to bridge the gap between science, policy, and community action, inviting scientists, decision-makers, practitioners, and communities to share insights, experiences, challenges and bottlenecks, and their innovative solutions. We welcome abstract submissions that explore the multifaceted dimensions of water and food security interlinkages, including but not limited to:

1- critical analysis of water security and food security definitions and their relevance to sustainable future
2- assess interdependencies of water and food security
3- assess policy frameworks and governance structures at regional, national and global scales in respect to water-food security nexus
4- explore community-driven initiatives and partnerships that enhance resilience to water-food insecurities in vulnerable regions.

This session addresses the escalating challenges posed by climate change in diverse arid regions worldwide, including the Middle East, Northern Africa, Eastern and South Western Africa, Southwest United States, Northern Mexico, Atacama and Patagonia regions in South America, Turkestan and Gobi regions in Central Asia, and the Australian Outback. These regions face intensifying droughts, heatwaves, fires, and occasional unexpected flood events, as recently observed in the Arabian Peninsula. This session welcomes contributions exploring comprehensive strategies focusing on future climate forecasts and innovative practices for both mitigation and adaptation to climatic extremes. Central to the discussion are climate variability and climate change impacts specific to arid environments, emphasizing water-vegetation-climate interactions and their implications for the resilience of ecosystems and society. Participants will delve into the potential and the foreseen impacts of water management practices such as irrigation from rainwater harvesting, groundwater and desalination, land management practices such as agriculture, afforestation and reforestation as well as climate change mitigation practices such as carbon capturing and intensification of renewable energy in arid regions. This session underscores the critical role of drought monitoring systems, weather forecasts and climate projections in supporting the aforementioned practices as well as in predicting and preparing for extreme events that could jeopardize them, informing proactive risk reduction policies. Case studies from global regions facing similar challenges will illustrate successful applications of these strategies, sharing lessons learned and best practices for effective adaptation and resilience-building.

Climate change and environmental degradation constitute a growing threat to the stability of societal and economical systems. The observed and anticipated escalation in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events under future emission scenarios, combined with the projected long-term shifts in climate patterns and consequential impacts on biodiversity, have the potential to significantly affect specific sectors such as insurance and finance leading to significant economic damages on a local to global scale.

In recognition of this challenge climate risk assessments have experienced amplified attention in both the academic and private spheres, leading to initiatives such as the ‘Network for Greening the Financial Sector’ (NGFS) and the ‘Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosure’ (TCFD) and a growth in climate risk services aiming at setting standards and frameworks as well as the provision of comprehensive climate impact information for the private sector and financial institutions.

The need for more adequate risk assessment poses new academic challenges: the accurate representing extreme events and their compounding and cascading effects on high spatial resolution and the integration of non-linearities associated with tipping elements in the climate system to avoid an underestimation of physical climate risks.

Therefore, providing a platform to foster interactions between scientists, economists and financial experts is urgently needed. With the goal of facilitating such dialogue, this session aims at providing a platform for actors from academia and the private sector to exchange information on strategies for assessing climate risk.

The session is organised under three main pillars:
-Physical Climate Risks: Trends, Processes and Modelling
-Identifying and Managing Climate Risks
-Quantifying Damages and Impacts from Climate Risks

We encourage submissions on:
Innovative climate risk modeling for
-Chronic and Acute Climate Risks
-Compound Events and Cascading Impacts
-Model Evaluation of Extreme weather events
AI and Machine learning frameworks for
-Bias adjustment Methods
-Downscaling Methods
-Fast climate models and emulators
Climate hazard indicators and their projections for specific sectors:
-Food, Energy, Insurance, Real Estate
-Supply chains
Impact data collection and empirical damage assessments
Global and local damage functions
Climate – Nature nexus

Climate change impacts, environmental hazards, and natural disasters have become pervasive and drastic. Communities across the globe require tailored tools and solutions that improve their unique capacity to mitigate, respond, and rebuild from devastating events and maintain life with quality. Their success relies on the initiative, collaboration, and input from and with communities and experts across disciplines – including the technical and social sciences. These tools and solutions may be technology driven (e.g., low-cost sensor deployment to assess air and water quality) or policy driven (e.g., climate action plans) – they are by necessity iterative, interconnected, and evolving –, but ultimately reside in community priorities. This community-led, interdisciplinary approach pushes beyond the traditional participatory framework of citizen science and puts community priorities first.

This session aims to showcase ongoing and upcoming community-led science efforts and discuss how science-based approaches can be leveraged to help build resilience to climate and environmental crises. This interdisciplinary forum will bring together community leaders, scientists, technology developers, and policy professionals and drive discussion on how to best i) identify regional and local environmental priorities, ii) equitably bring community regional and local knowledge and context to the table, and iii) inclusively equip communities with diverse socioeconomic backgrounds with science-based tools.

Submissions related to community-science project development, technology design, development, or deployment for environmental/climate monitoring (e.g., optical sensors, weather stations, and data aggregation tools), and communicating environmental data in an educational or policy context are welcome. Topics focused on air and water quality, climate (e.g., greenhouse gas emissions and urban heat islands), environmental contaminants (e.g., microplastics, pathogens, and toxins), and resource management (e.g., water scarcity) are particularly encouraged.

Early Warning Systems (EWS) are critical tools for safeguarding societies against the growing threat of natural hazards, particularly as climate change increases the frequency and intensity of extreme events. However, as risks become more complex—driven by multi-hazard events, compound risks, and broader systemic challenges — conventional EWS approaches must evolve. This session will focus on cutting-edge developments and novel methodologies that enhance the effectiveness and reach of EWS, with an emphasis on integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) and fostering transdisciplinary collaboration.
This session invites contributions that explore innovative approaches to EWS across the entire warning chain, from observations, to hazard and impact forecasting, warning production, communication and decision-making. Special attention will be given to multi-hazard, compound, and complex systemic risks, and the integration of both cutting-edge technological advancements and trans-disciplinary approaches. Thus, we welcome contributions related to artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, remote sensing, and big data analytics for the development and implementation of EWS as well as contributions that examine the integration of physical and social science, including community-based warning systems, risk perception, and communication strategies towards the goal of the UN led “Early Warnings for All” initiative. This session seeks to enhance preparedness and response by reviewing case studies, methodological advancements, and theoretical contributions, that address observational innovations for early detection of hazards, advanced weather and hazard forecasting systems, and impact-based forecasting.
By addressing both the technical and societal aspects of EWS, this session aims to foster dialogue between disciplines, ensuring that future systems are more inclusive, equitable, and effective at reducing risks in the face of a changing climate. We seek abstracts from a diverse range of fields, including climate science, meteorology, hydrology, geoscience, engineering, and social sciences including policy studies, psychology, or communication science, to explore how novel approaches can enhance the resilience of communities to multi-hazard risks.

Recent research results highlight the importance of rapid and non-linear social change processes, in which certain social norms, behaviors, and technologies spread rapidly from a minority group to the majority of a society. This process is described in the literature by terms such as social tipping points and positive socio-ecological tipping points. In both natural and social systems, a tipping point occurs when change in part of a system becomes self-perpetuating beyond a threshold, leading to substantial, widespread, frequently abrupt and often irreversible impact. Tipping points and tipping interactions are essential for understanding the co-evolution of the global World-Earth system, understood as the system of interacting human societies and the environment.
An emerging research question is how rapid social change dynamics could be used to navigate human societies to the net-zero emissions system, that is a part of the broader transformation needed for a sustainable future. Building resilience - the capacity to absorb disturbances, reorganize, and continue functioning in the face of change - in social-ecological systems is particularly important as we face increasing climate-related challenges and uncertainties. Regenerative systems go a step further by not only sustaining but actively improving and renewing the resources they use. In the context of World-Earth systems, this could mean restoring ecosystems, enhancing biodiversity, and creating positive feedback loops that support both human and planetary health. The integration of net zero goals, resilience-building strategies, and regenerative approaches could lead to transformative changes in how human societies interact with the Earth system.
Social tipping points can play a crucial role in accelerating the necessary global transformation towards a resilient and regenerative future. For instance, rapid shifts in public opinion or policy could trigger widespread implementation of regenerative agricultural practices, circular economy principles, or community-based resilience initiatives.
We welcome contributions presenting empirical evidence and case studies of positive tipping dynamics as well as conceptual and methodological contributions advancing the understanding of tipping points and tipping interactions. We also welcome policy and stakeholder-oriented contributions on leverage points and tipping interventions navigating the transition to regenerative and resilient world-Earth systems.

The current climate change has been shown to exacerbate extreme weather events, such as storms with exceptionally strong winds, hurricanes and medicanes, prolonged temperature extremes, heavy rainfall and flooding. Climate scenarios predict an intensification and increased frequency of these extremes that, in addition to endangering people's health and lives, can have destructive impacts on human activities. Not surprisingly, the United Nations states that 'extreme weather events have come to dominate the disaster landscape of the 21st century' (McClean, 2020). In this context, disaster prevention, risk reduction, and adaptation to climate change impacts have become imperative requirements for our society.
Among the most impacted consequences are the deterioration, loss of functionality, or even structural damage to buildings and infrastructures crucial to society, such as health centers, transport infrastructure, energy production and distribution, manufacturing sites, and government buildings. These infrastructures play a crucial role in socio-economic activities and are particularly susceptible to weather stress as they are built to have a long lifespan; damage to these infrastructures has a particularly important impact on society as a whole. Still, the progress in adaptation planning of such critical assets remains low. This can be ascribed also to the lack of reliable numerical models to determine meteorological stressors from extreme events, and tools that actionably predict structural damage.
Addressing these complex challenges necessarily requires interdisciplinary work between experts from climate and atmospheric science, materials and structural analysts, social and economic science, who are the primary focus of this session. The aim is to bring together and present in an integrated manner the latest research advances in the assessment, mitigation and adaptation of risk associated with extreme events for assets. The session encompasses various topics including modelling and quantification of meteorological stresses with numerical or experimental techniques; risk assessment of extreme events; assessment of social, cultural and economic impacts on society. The session emphasizes methodologies for determining meteorological exposures of assets, forecasts of near future extreme events impacts, operational models for damage and structural stability of infrastructures, and analysis of direct and indirect socio-economic cascading damages.

As the impacts of climate change become more pronounced, urban areas face significant challenges. With the increasing frequency of extreme weather events, rising sea levels, heat waves, and other climate-related challenges, cities must find ways to protect their populations, infrastructure, and ecosystems. Furthermore, future risks from the changing climate and associated systemic risks challenge existing assessments, and demand holistic future-oriented investigations that generative methods provide. Urban simulation tools like agent-based models, and cellular automata have emerged as essential instruments in this endeavor, offering a means to visualize, predict, assess, and respond to climate change's complex and multifaceted impacts. Therefore, our session aims to delve deeply into the transformative role of urban simulation models in enabling cities to understand, plan for, and respond to these climate challenges. The session will showcase the latest advancements in simulation technology and explore integrating these tools into holistic urban planning and policy-making processes, through which cities can develop robust strategies to mitigate climate risks and enhance resilience.
Contributions are welcome on:
● New urban simulation methods that support risk, exposure, and vulnerability assessments in urban environments, including urban growth, urban morphology, infrastructure, population dynamics, and ecosystems.
● Explore the challenges associated with developing and implementing urban simulation models within the context of climate change adaptation.
● Discuss opportunities for improving simulation accuracy and relevance through emerging technologies integration, such as artificial intelligence, big data analytics, and IoT.
● Case studies from cities that have effectively used simulation models to guide their climate adaptation efforts

Nature-based Solutions (NbS) are actions to protect, conserve, restore, sustainably use and manage natural or modified ecosystems, that address socio-economic and environmental challenges, while simultaneously providing human well-being, resilience and biodiversity benefits (UNEA, 2022). Within the framework of a global ecosystem approach, NbS must encompass ecological, societal, political, economic and cultural issues at all levels, from the individual to the collective, from local to national, from the public or private sphere.

As recently highlighted by IPCC and IPBES, climate change and biodiversity degradation cannot be separated, and must be considered together. For this reason, this session is especially focused on the way NbS can act as climate change adaptation solutions. Considering various ecosystems (marine and coastal, urban, cropland, mountainous, forest, rivers and lakes,.,), NbS as interventions for climate adaptation includes the adaptation to: sea level rise (flooding and erosion), changes of the water regime (floods, droughts, water quality and availability), rise in temperatures (heat waves, forest fires, drought, energy consumption), plant stress and increase of pests (variation of yields, forest dieback), to minimize their associated social and economic negative impacts.

Therefore, this session aims to promote interdisciplinary research related to ecosystem restoration, preservation and management, to put forward the complexity that is often hidden by simplifying hypotheses and approaches (sector-based silo approach, homogeneity of environments, ...).

Specific topics of interest are the followings:
- Complexity: nature of ecosystems and the risk of oversimplification, interconnection between NbS and complementary areas, consideration of uncertainties (future climate and associated impacts...)
- Scales: spatial scales with the integration of NbS in their environment, and temporal scales considering sustainability over time, variability of bio-physical processes and climate change effects
- Ecosystem services: understanding the bio-geophysical processes, spatial shift between the location of NbS and the location of beneficiaries, modification under climate change (threshold, inflection point), co-benefits or on the contrary degradation and negative effects
- Assessment and indicators: measurement and modelling protocols to evaluate NbS performances, capacity to measure the complexity, resilience and stability of the solutions.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) highlight the need for better management of water and land resources, which are increasingly subject to conflicts due to rising demographic pressures, advancing economic development, and climate change. Nature-based Solutions (NBS) are recognized as an approach that can reconcile sustainable soil and water management with the provision of various ecosystem services, such as erosion control, flood and drought mitigation, coastal protection, pollution reduction, habitat creation, recreational opportunities, and heat protection. This calls for a critical evaluation of how the NBS approach is translated into practice. Aligned with these objectives and supported by the IAHS Helping Decade, this session will explore an inter- and transdisciplinary approach to further developing NBS, including co-development with stakeholders, engaging civil society, and translating NBS into education and school curricula.
Within the scope of this session, we invite:
• Studies investigating the application of NBS in mitigating environmental extremes, such as floods or droughts;
• Studies combining NBS with social studies, including public perception surveys and the use of citizen science to assess the effectiveness of NBS;
• Studies exploring the use of NBS and related concepts in (higher) education;
• Studies combining NBS with cross-sectoral collaboration, stakeholder engagement, and transdisciplinary approaches;
• Studies investigating NBS and other sustainable management practices for soil and water conservation;
• Discussions on integrating multiple disciplines in the development of NBS, including challenges and benefits.

Nature based Solutions to address growing risk of Urban Heat Islands interacting with Climate Change

Convenors:
Shalini Dhyani (SD, Female, India), Jagdish Krishnaswamy (JK, Male, India), Soojeong Myeong (SM, Female, S. Korea) and Sharon Onyango (SO, Female, Kenya)


Institutional affiliations:

SD: Environmental Impact Assessment, Audit and Policy, National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, Nagpur India
JK: School of Environment and Sustainability, Indian Institute for Human Settlements, Bengaluru India
SM: Korea Environment Institute, Sejong, S. Korea
SO: Department of Landscape and Environmental Sciences, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Nairobi, Kenya
This session on Nature based solutions to address growing risk of urban heat islands interacting with climate change aims to foster interdisciplinary research related to restoring green-blue infrastructure across cities in different continents, using of remote sensing and geo-spatial approaches, modeling, socio-ecological studies to put forward the complexity that is often hidden by simplifying hypotheses and approaches (sector-based silo approach, homogeneity of environments, etc). In this session we welcome interdisciplinary papers which explore the risk, and challenges related to UHI effects and the potential cases of implementing NbS as a mitigation approach.

The complexity of natural hazards and their impacts on society calls for a comprehensive approach to disaster risk reduction and resilience. This scientific session will present cutting-edge research and insights from transdisciplinary projects that address multi-risk challenges. Focused on the Disaster-Resilient Societies (DRS) and Multi-Risk Thematic Areas, the session will showcase innovative methodologies and findings from European-funded projects such as The HuT (https://thehut-nexus.eu), PARATUS (https://www.paratus-project.eu), MYRIAD (https://www.myriadproject.eu), and DIRECTED (https://directedproject.eu). We also welcome contributions from other projects and organisations to enrich the discussion. Attendees will gain a deeper understanding of how integrating diverse technical and social science perspectives can enhance our ability to mitigate and adapt to complex disaster risks. Participants are encouraged to join the short course and splinter meeting that complement this session, creating a unified path that allows for engaging in the entire programme or specific parts based on individual interests.

Despite extensive efforts, losses from natural hazards are still on the rise. While climate change plays a crucial role in increasing the frequency and magnitude of many hazards, other factors such as changes in exposure and vulnerability remain poorly understood. This session will delve into the reasons behind and seek to identify the key risk drivers responsible. Addressing these challenges is vital for developing sustainable risk reduction strategies and providing societies with long-term adaptation plans to effectively manage climate risks.
The frequency and magnitude of many natural hazards are evolving, with climate change exacerbating these changes. However, the dynamic nature of hazard triggers and cascading effects is often overlooked in current mitigation and adaptation strategies. Most existing mitigation and adaptation measures, including technical interventions and land-use planning, rely on static concepts, whereas the effects of hazards are inherently dynamic.
Exposure is a critical component of risk assessment, and it is likely to increase in the future as human settlements expand and industrial activities intensify. However, there is limited information on the spatio-temporal dynamics of exposure at different scales. To accurately quantify the evolution of risk, this information must be analysed alongside the effectiveness of existing technical mitigation measures. This analysis is also essential for contributing to discussions on the impacts of climate change on exposed communities, particularly in the context of shared socio-economic pathways (SSPs).
Understanding the vulnerability of elements at risk is another key objective in reducing future losses. Current models used to describe vulnerability require further validation through empirical data, laboratory experiments, and alternative assessment methods. Integrating observational methods other techniques and incorporating additional dimensions of vulnerability, particularly institutional vulnerability, is essential.
We invite submissions that integrate these topics, including hazard and exposure analysis, vulnerability assessment, adaptation strategies, and disaster risk reduction tools. The session will focus on the interactions between landscape processes and human activities, promoting transferable and adaptive approaches to risk management. Contributions should aim to identify the key risk drivers behind natural hazard losses through a holistic examination of risk components.

In the face of increasing climate change impacts, environmental stresses, limitations on natural resource, along with socio-economic pressures, safeguarding the resilience of agricultural systems is a critical policy imperative. Resilience can be defined in various ways and typically includes elements of preparedness, absorbing and recovering from shocks, adaptation as well as transformation. This session aims to address key challenges of agricultural resilience, including the need for a unified conceptual monitoring and modelling framework, to facilitate the development of coherent policies across regions, countries and sectors. More specifically, the session will provide an overview of current research (methods and knowledge), identify gaps, and propose applicable strategies for enhancing resilience evaluation. Hereby, we aim to bridge natural and socio-economic sciences by addressing links and synergies with food security and sustainability.

We welcome contributions on defining and quantifying resilience from landscape to national scales with innovative methods (e.g. multicriteria analysis, machine learning, integrated assessment modelling). We invite interdisciplinary resilience studies that integrate observational and model perspectives, and address both biophysical and socio-economic aspects.

Studies ideally assess key resilience drivers and effects ranging from climatic, environmental, economic and social factors that together sketch a comprehensive picture of the resilience of agricultural systems.

We suggest that contributions address the following questions: Which system and shocks/threats are considered and should be prioritized? Where, and on which timescale do we need to increase resilience? Which properties reinforce agricultural resilience? Over which time scale should resilience be assessed?

Infrastructure delivers essential services to communities, underpins economic activities, and acts as a first line of defence against shocks and disasters. With the increasing intensity and frequency of hazards, infrastructure disruptions are occurring more often, leading to substantial economic and societal impacts. The increasing unpredictability of natural hazards and geopolitical events poses a serious threat to the stability of these systems that facilitate the movement of people and resources. Rapid population growth, dynamic socio-political scenarios and unplanned development only exacerbate these risks, heightening the likelihood of widespread disruption. To enhance the resilience of these network systems, it is essential to identify and protect critical components whose failure could lead to significant disruptions. Strengthening resilience through robust mitigation measures and recovery strategies is essential to ensuring the continuity and sustainability of critical services in the face of an evolving, uncertain world.

We invite submissions of theoretical, methodological, and empirical studies that enhance our understanding of future risks and explore innovative, resilient strategies for transportation, trade ( i.e., food and water), and ecological systems. We welcome contributions spanning local case studies, regional analyses, and global perspectives, particularly from multi- and transdisciplinary research efforts. Special interest is given to studies focused on:-

i) Identifying regional and global stressors impacting infrastructural systems.
ii) Impact of external stressors on interdependent infrastructure systems.
iii) Quantifying the resilience of built and natural infrastructure systems.
iv) Designing effective recovery and restoration strategies.
v) Influence of climate change and shifting geopolitical landscapes on infrastructure resilience.
vi) Implementation of resilience policy from isolated or multi-hazard perspective.

Embedding climate resilient development principles (IPCC, 2022) in the regional and local context means ensuring that any sectoral (e.g. agriculture) or cross-sectoral (e.g. built environment) transformation contributes to achieve simultaneously carbon neutrality, adaptation and well-being for people and nature. It is a complex and systemic challenge that requires new integrative models of research and practice that can accelerate the pace of change with respect to conventional approaches.
Policymakers, practitioners and communities who aim to achieve a just climate transition must pursue systemic change across sectors by integrating different methods and co-creation practices to support science- and community-driven transformative approaches. This critical inter-disciplinary and multi-dimensional dialogue is aimed at integrating carbon neutrality and adaptation with a focus on context-specific climate change impacts (to expand local priorities for risk adaptation) and systems transformation (energy, mobility, land use, construction, agriculture, etc.) while creating value for local stakeholders and assessing the full range of social, economic and environmental co-benefits of local development processes across sectors.
The session will bring together representative from relevant Horizon Europe projects exploring inter-disciplinary methods and tools to support climate resiliet development at regional and local level.

Why ITS?
Achieving climate resilience in a timeframe compatible with major international agendas requires no “demonstrators” but a radical change in the “business as usual”, bringing equity and environmental justice hand in hand with measurable impacts on climate and environmental goals.
Inter-disciplinary approaches and methods presented in this session are aimed at overcoming both the limits of conventional scientific approaches (e.g. Siloed VS Collaborative; Complicated VS Complex; Patended VS Open), and those of conventional community-driven approaches (e.g. Isolated VS Widespread; Small scale VS Scalable and Replicable; Discussion VS Co-production).

Climate change affects ecosystems worldwide by disrupting the balance between biotic communities and the abiotic factors that sustain them. These changes in environmental conditions alter the hierarchy of ecosystem-shaping mechanisms, driving the spatial reorganisation of vegetation and resources. Vegetation pattern formation refers to the self-organisation of plant communities into distinct spatial arrangements, arising from interactions among plants and environmental factors such as resource availability and ecosystem feedback. These patterns play a crucial role in improving the management of resources such as water and soil nutrients, particularly in vulnerable regions such as arid and semi-arid landscapes. Understanding these patterns is thus vital to gaining insights into ecosystem functioning, feedback mechanisms, and how drylands will respond to ongoing climate change. However, the ecological significance of vegetation patterns in water-limited ecosystems remains unclear. For several years theoretical models suggested that vegetation patterns could serve as indicators of ongoing desertification processes, with vegetation spots preceding tipping into a desert state. More recent theoretical progress, however, has hypothesised that patterns could provide ecosystems with a route to prevent tipping by limiting the impact of external stresses to a spatially local scale. This session invites contributions that study vegetation pattern formation using a range of approaches, including mathematical modelling, data-driven and machine learning techniques, as well as ground-based or remote sensing observations. The aim is to foster dialogue and collaboration between theoretical and empirical research, facilitating a deeper integration of theory with measurement and working towards resolving existing discrepancies in the theoretical literature.

Human actions increasingly dominate hydrological processes worldwide, putting significant pressure on the interactions between freshwater systems, ecosystems, the Earth system and societies. The concept of system resilience is a useful but underutilised tool to address questions related to broad and varied systemic consequences of hydrological change across scales. Integrating biophysical and social-ecological system dynamics with freshwater systems under a framing of freshwater resilience advances beyond conventional approaches that characterise freshwater systems and their change in isolation. This opens pathways towards an increasingly holistic, system-of-systems conceptualization and analysis of the freshwater cycle, which is essential to understand and safeguard freshwater’s role in biosphere functioning and social well-being.

This session will incorporate studies on two overarching aspects of freshwater system resilience science. First, we are interested in how biophysical and social-ecological systems are conceptualised under the broad context of “freshwater system resilience”. We seek methodologically diverse insights on how freshwater scientists (across hydrological, environmental and social science, policy science and practitioner communities) define their systems of study and quantify the state and change of freshwater system resilience. Adding to common approaches such as hydrological modelling and Earth observation, we seek to incorporate diverse methodologies that advance, challenge, and complement these traditional methods. Studies that expand beyond scientific dimensions of freshwater resilience assessments by translating these insights into management-relevant decision support tools are equally welcomed.

The multi-scalar nature of freshwater resilience underpins both of these research themes. We invite studies that investigate freshwater resilience across local to global scales, and especially studies that consider cross-scale interactions and the scalability of functional change in integrated freshwater, social, ecological, and Earth systems.

The session aims to foster a welcoming forum to discuss the diverse and accelerating field of freshwater resilience science. We hope the session empowers the field to generate new insights on integrated hydrological, social, ecological, and Earth systems, and aids improved management of freshwater systems across scales to support social well-being and to safeguard the health of the biosphere.

Scientific drilling in the ocean and on continents continues to provide unique opportunities to investigate the workings of the interior of our planet, Earth’s cycles, natural hazards and the distribution of subsurface microbial life. The past and current scientific drilling programs of the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP), the International Ocean Drilling Programme (IODP3) and the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP) bring major advances in many interdisciplinary fields of socio-economic relevance, such as climate and ecosystem evolution, palaeoceanography, the deep biosphere, sustainable georesources, deep crustal and tectonic processes, geodynamics and geohazards. This session invites contributions that present and/or review recent scientific results from deep Earth sampling and monitoring through ocean and continental drilling projects. Furthermore, we encourage contributions that outline perspectives and visions for future drilling projects, in particular projects using a multi-platform approach, and present research originated from the use of scientific drilling legacy data.

The global grand challenges such as climate change, air pollution and biodiversity loss are not occurring in isolation in time or space – they are closely interconnected and have potential to amplify each other, create nonlinear feedbacks and result in significant loss of ecosystem services that eventually affect societal well-being and humanity. While immediate impacts sometimes receive considerable attention, little is known about their long-term and systemic effects often resulting from cross-scale interactions. Closing these knowledge gaps requires an improved, transdisciplinary understanding of the multifaceted environmental system - a prerequisite for the development of appropriate mitigation and adaptation measures. It also requires advanced tools and concerted efforts for integration of the data originating from diverse sources.

European-scale research infrastructures and networks, e.g., ESFRI RIs like ACTRIS, AnaEE, Danubius, eLTER, ICOS, and other observation systems like WMO-GAW and ICP-IM, support the delivery of consistent, standardized data based on harmonized methodologies. The more RI networks are integrated through co-location of individual observation sites, the better understanding can be achieved on ecosystem state (e.g., terrestrial carbon storage), biogeochemical constraints (e.g., macronutrient cycles), societal drivers (e.g., land use change) and tradeoffs (e.g. biodiversity). This session will call upon presentations addressing the benefits and challenges of co-located in-situ observations, enabling researchers to address the systemic changes in a holistic manner and to advise the policymakers on cost-efficient tools for mitigation of environmental change.

This session aims to facilitate collaboration and knowledge exchange among projects, networks, and partnerships within the field of underground bioscience research. Serving as an entry point for more specialized sessions on specific aspects such as life in extreme environments, astrobiology, planetary exploration, and beyond-Earth human habitation, the session promotes a cross-disciplinary perspective. By fostering communication between initiatives, it ensures that the outcomes of diverse research efforts are widely disseminated within the EGU community, encouraging a holistic approach to advancing bioscience research in underground laboratories. The session will also explore the infrastructure requirements necessary to support future scientific developments in this unique environment.

Research in space and planetary sciences is progressing rapidly with the help of emerging technologies. To tackle the complex challenges of space, and planetary exploration, it is essential to integrate various disciplines. Collaborative efforts are also necessary for the design and operation of spacecraft, satellites, and robotic missions. The session aims to showcase recent advancements in space exploration and novel technologies, relying on synergies between engineering, physics, satellite operation, material and computer science. It will also address the space infrastructures and services, workforce and capacity building needed to support space exploration. The session will be co-sponsored by COSPAR PEX (Panel on Exploration), IAF and IAA and we will solicit contributions from various space agenceis and key industry and technologies stakeholders. It is important that all contributions in this session highlight an inter- and transdisciplinary character of the presented R&D work, going beyond the scope of a single discipline. Clear demonstration of interconnections and cross-fertilization of the engaged brunches is crucial feature of the envisaged presentations and session discussions. The basic R&D topics include, but are not limited to, Astrophysics, Space Science, Spacecraft Design, Satellite Operation, System Engineering, Advanced material technologies, Computational Modelling and Simulation, Data Science, and Analytics. By convening experts from across the globe, this session offers brainstorming in addressing pivotal scientific inquiries and fosters interdisciplinary collaboration by highlighting the synergistic potential of space exploration technologies

This session, organized by the Carbon Removal Forum of Sciences in Israel, will bring together scientists, entrepreneurs, and carbon removal organizations to explore pathways for turning scientific research into real-world, scalable solutions. With a focus on carbon capture technologies from air, land, and sea, the discussion will emphasize the importance of collaboration between academia and the private sector in driving innovative, impactful carbon removal strategies.

Modern observations reveal that the narrow and shallow Atlantic and Pacific gateways connecting the Arctic Ocean to adjacent seas are undergoing substantial physical and biological changes due to sea ice loss and warming temperatures. Model projections suggest that these changes will intensify under future climate scenarios, while paleoclimate records demonstrate that the Arctic Ocean has experienced similar transformations in the past, emphasizing the need to contextualize modern climate change within a longer-term perspective. This session aims to convene the broad scientific community investigating the "Atlantification" and "Pacification" of the Arctic Ocean from diverse perspectives, including physical oceanography, marine ecology, paleoclimatology, and modeling. We welcome contributions encompassing in-situ physical and ecological observations, satellite remote sensing, proxy-based and model-based paleo-reconstructions, and future model projections. This session aims to foster interdisciplinary exchange among scientists with diverse backgrounds to collectively address the complex mechanisms and feedbacks driving changes at the Arctic Ocean gateways.

Polar regions are experiencing rapid environmental changes that have profound impacts on global climate. Aerosols, clouds, and biogeochemical processes within the sea ice and ocean in these regions play a critical role in regulating the Earth’s energy balance, influencing weather patterns, and driving feedback mechanisms that affect global climate dynamics. This session aims to bring together researchers investigating the complex interactions between aerosols, clouds, and sea ice/ocean biogeochemistry in the Arctic and Antarctic.

We invite contributions that explore sources, transport, and transformation of aerosols; the formation, properties, and impacts of polar clouds; the impact of atmospheric physics and boundary layer dynamics on aerosols and clouds; and the biogeochemical processes in sea ice and ocean that influence and are influenced by these atmospheric components.

Key topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
- Aerosol-cloud interactions and their influence on cloud microphysics, radiative properties, and precipitation in polar environments
- The impact of natural and anthropogenic aerosols, including sea salt, mineral dust, biological particles, black carbon, and organic aerosols, on polar climate and ecosystem processes
- The influence of atmospheric physics and boundary layer dynamics on polar aerosol and cloud properties
- Sea ice and ocean biogeochemical cycling in polar regions, including the roles of marine and terrestrial sources, and the feedbacks between aerosols, clouds, and surface processes
- Advances in observational and modeling techniques to improve our understanding of aerosol and cloud dynamics in polar regions
- The implications of polar aerosol-cloud interactions for global climate models and predictions

By fostering interdisciplinary dialogue, this session aims to advance our understanding of the interconnectedness of aerosols, clouds, and biogeochemistry in polar regions and their broader climate implications. We welcome submissions from researchers at all career stages and encourage collaboration across disciplines to address these critical scientific challenges. Studies utilizing field observations (especially from observations from recent field campaigns, such as MOSAiC and ARTofMELT in the Arctic and MISO in the Southern Ocean), remote sensing, laboratory experiments, and numerical modeling (on a process, regional or climate level) are invited.