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.

We welcome Julie Deshayes as a solicited speaker, presenting 'Ocean models for climate applications: progress expected from Machine Learning'

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.

Earth System Models (ESMs), climate forcing, and Earth system reconstructions are crucial for understanding climate dynamics. However, disparities in responses to forcing agents, system coupling - particularly across CMIP - as well as the integration of reconstructions, present significant challenges. This session combines insights from deep-time Earth system reconstructions with cutting-edge climate modeling to enhance our understanding of past, present, and future climate change. We highlight the role of anthropogenic and natural forcings, the importance of addressing model uncertainties in CMIP and beyond, opportunities to develop next-generation digital twins of our planet, and present CMIP7 forcings. This session features contributions that span the following themes:

1. Earth System Reconstructions and Digital Twins
- Integrating paleogeographic data and advanced modeling (e.g., machine learning) to reveal past environmental changes and major Earth system transitions.
- Building digital twins of the planet by fusing diverse datasets and numerical models, emphasizing open, community-driven approaches.

2. Anthropogenic and Natural Forcing for CMIP6, CMIP7, and beyond
- Developing and evaluating historical and future time series of climate drivers (e.g., greenhouse gases, aerosols, land-use changes).
- Investigating how changes in forcing propagate through the climate system, using both observational data and idealized or multi-model experiments (CMIP6, CMIP7, etc.).

3. Model Disparities and Uncertainty
- Identifying the causes of divergent outcomes within CMIP ensembles, including internal variability, parameterization, external forcings, and ESM architectures.
- Employing reduced-complexity models and emulators to capture underexplored regions of uncertainty and guide more robust climate projections.

4. Critical Model Development and Impact Research
- Refining ESMs to reduce uncertainties and improve model performance, with emphasis on interdisciplinary approaches.
- Addressing regional-scale challenges in using CMIP outputs for impact studies, ensuring that policymakers and non-experts can effectively interpret climate projections.

We encourage submissions that bridge these topics, highlight open research and interdisciplinary collaboration, and showcase the work of early career researchers.

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.

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.
At the same time, large language models (LLMs) are revolutionising the field by enabling researchers to process and interpret complex geological, climatological, environmental, hydrological, and other earth systems data with unprecedented speed and accuracy, leading to new discoveries and insights.
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.
This session will provide a platform for geoscientists to discuss the integration of LLMs and novel data types into their workflows, enhancing both efficiency and discovery while addressing challenges such as model accuracy and data bias. We invite presentations that explore the transformative potential of large language models and text data in the geosciences. Join us in contributing to this cutting-edge dialogue and helping shape the future of geosciences through AI.

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 diverse 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.
But while data-driven science is ripe with opportunity to groundbreaking 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 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, oceanography 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/oceanic 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, 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.

The increasing frequency and severity of natural hazards, including floods, landslides, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, droughts, wildfires, and ground subsidence, pose significant risks to the environment, infrastructure, and human societies. This trend is expected to continue, influenced by climate change and extreme weather events, underscoring the urgent need for improved disaster preparedness, environmental management, and resilient urban planning.

This session focuses on the use of advanced Geoinformatics technologies—such as Geographical Information Systems (GIS), Remote Sensing, and Artificial Intelligence (AI)—to understand and mitigate the impact of natural hazards. Emphasis will be placed on the application of explainable AI techniques (e.g., Shapley Additive Explanations, Local Interpretable Model-agnostic Explanations, and Explainable Boosting Machines) to enhance decision-making in disaster management. We invite contributions that explore the integration of new and historical data, remote sensing technologies, and innovative analytical methodologies aimed at understanding the manifestation and evolution of catastrophic events. Special attention will be given to successful case studies from diverse environments and climate scenarios, leveraging cutting-edge technologies to foster safer, more resilient societies.

In addition, the session will delve into the dynamic relationship between natural hazards and human activities—such as migration, construction, urban planning, and resource management—which influence and are influenced by environmental risks. Understanding these complex, spatiotemporal relationships is crucial for improving disaster risk reduction and building sustainable resilience. We encourage interdisciplinary contributions that combine Earth observation data (e.g., optical, hyperspectral, RADAR, GNSS, LiDAR) with historical, social, and demographic datasets to investigate these interconnections. The session seeks to bring together a broad range of experts, including geodesists, natural and social scientists, historians, anthropologists, engineers, urban planners, policymakers, and community workers, to promote transdisciplinary discussions on the integration of Earth observation data for disaster risk reduction 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 is a contribution to the Swedish centre for impacts of climate extremes (climes), and 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

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

Understanding the scale-dependent interactions of the atmosphere and the mountain cryosphere are critical for estimating the response of snow and ice to ongoing climate change. A lack of observational data and/or process understanding in high mountain regions creates substantial uncertainties with respect to future cryospheric change and how it may react to climatic variability, climatic extremes and long-term warming. 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 joint cryosphere-atmosphere 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.

This session aims to address the current challenges, methodological approaches and wider relevance of observing and modelling cryosphere-atmosphere interactions at varying scales in mountain and high latitude environments. A significant focus is also given to the role of aerosols and dust transportation in determining changes in the cryosphere. We welcome contributions including, but not limited to, the characterisation and quantification of glacier/snow boundary layer exchanges, observations and modelling of katabatic winds and turbulent structures over the mountain cryosphere, dust-organisms interactions, cryoconite, bio-albedo, eco-physiological studies, the role of glaciers in valley circulation systems, the cryosphere and elevation-dependent warming, light absorbing impurities and the darkening of glaciers, advances in atmospheric modelling and/or meteorological downscaling over high elevation snow and ice or the representation of glacier meteorology in numerical weather models or models of snow/glacier energy/mass. The scientific understanding of the atmosphere-cryosphere interactions needs to be addressed better and linked to the global climate prediction 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

BG3.20 Borealization of tundra ecosystems

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 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. 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.
This session also addresses the escalating challenges posed by climate change in arid areas. 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 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.

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

The current climate change has been shown to exacerbate extreme weather events, such as storms with exceptionally strong winds, temperature extremes, heavy rainfall, and flooding. Climate scenarios predict an intensification and increased frequency of these extremes that 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, multi-hazard and multi-risk modelling and data collection of climate extremes are key to enhancing disaster prevention, risk reduction, and adaptation to climate change impacts; thus, they have become imperative requirements for our society.

Modelling hazard and risk is a challenging problem because of the complexity of the environmental system and the different temporal and spatial scales under analysis (e.g. regional, local and building scales). In addition, multiple weather hazards need to be considered at the same time for an effective assessment of the risks (and the enhancement of resilience) of different assets. Among the most impacted consequences of climate extremes are the deterioration, loss of functionality, or even structural damage to buildings and infrastructures crucial to society. These infrastructures play a crucial role in socio-economic activities. Still, the progress in adaptation planning of such critical assets remains low. This can also be ascribed to the lack of actionable tools for multi-risk analysis.

Addressing these complex challenges necessarily requires interdisciplinary work between experts from climate and atmospheric science, materials and structural analysts, and social and economic science. The aim is to bring together and present in an integrated manner the latest research advances in the assessment, mitigation, and adaptation of hazards and risks 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; and 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.

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 discussion integrating multiple disciplines 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.
- Co-development with stakeholders, engaging civil society, and translating NBS into education and school curricula, which alignes with objectives and supported by the IAHS Helping Decade

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), Dilip Naidu (DN, 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.

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 and land-use changes are reshaping ecosystems by disrupting interactions between vegetation, soils, and abiotic factors. These changes influence ecosystem stability, resource distribution, and resilience to disturbances. Vegetation pattern formation—emerging from plant-environment interactions—plays a key role in regulating water, nutrients, and soil conservation, particularly in vulnerable landscapes such as drylands, wetlands, forests, and rangelands. While some theories suggest vegetation patterns signal impending desertification, others propose they enhance resilience by localizing external stresses. Similarly, landform-soil-vegetation feedbacks contribute to ecosystem stability, influencing carbon capture, soil erosion, and landscape connectivity.

Understanding the origin and role of these patterns in ecosystem resilience against environmental stresses represents a significant endeavor that only multidisciplinary research can achieve. This session invites theoretical, empirical, and modeling studies on vegetation-soil interactions, ecogeomorphology, ecohydrology, and the implications of spatial organization for ecosystem resilience. We aim to bridge theory and observation, fostering collaboration across disciplines to better understand landscape responses to climatic and anthropogenic pressures.

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 polar regions are undergoing unprecedented environmental changes with significant implications for global climate systems. Understanding the complex interactions between boundary layer processes, atmospheric physics, aerosols, clouds, and sea ice/ocean biogeochemistry is essential for improving predictions of future changes in these sensitive regions. This interdisciplinary session aims to unite researchers investigating exchange processes mediating interactions between the atmosphere, snow, sea ice, ocean, and land surfaces in both the Arctic and Antarctic.

The session focuses on boundary layer dynamics, surface-atmosphere exchanges, and the coupling between local and large-scale influences on polar climates. Key topics include the impacts of aerosols and clouds on radiative processes, precipitation, and energy budgets, as well as biogeochemical feedbacks within sea ice and ocean systems that interact with atmospheric components.

Topics of interest include:

- Boundary layer controls on heat, momentum, and mass exchanges, modulated by clouds and aerosols.
- Aerosol-cloud interactions and their effects on cloud microphysics, radiative properties, and polar precipitation.
- The influence of natural and anthropogenic aerosols, including sea salt, dust, biological particles, black carbon, and organics, on polar ecosystems and climate.
- Biogeochemical cycling in sea ice and oceans, feedbacks with aerosols and clouds, and climate implications.
- Observational and modeling approaches to better understand high-latitude atmospheric, oceanic, and cryospheric coupling.
- Insights from field campaigns (e.g., MOSAiC, ALPACA, ARTofMELT, POLAR CHANGE, MISO), observing networks, laboratory studies, and reanalysis efforts.
- The role of boundary layers in polar climate change, including the implications of decreasing sea ice, snow cover changes, and the increasing extent of first-year ice.
- Advances in modeling to represent polar processes and their interactions across scales.

This session fosters collaboration across atmospheric sciences, oceanography, biogeochemistry, and climate modeling, advancing understanding of interconnected polar processes and their teleconnections with mid-latitude weather and climate systems.