Concepts to close the circle between 21st century biogeomorphology, higher education and societal impact

Rivers, deltas and coasts have dynamic patterns of sand, mud and vegetation. These patterns are colourful, energetic, alive, important to, and affected by, societies on Earth. In contrast, the remains of rivers and deltas on planet Mars tell a story of a dry, frozen and probably lifeless planet. For meaningful research, not only novel scientific methods are needed, but also the concepts enabling ourselves and our students to enhance our learning and societal application. We must and can do better in closing the circle between science, diversifying impact activities and educating the students. Our alumni could accomplish so much more if only they knew how.

Replicating and studying the dynamic patterns of river meandering and shallow estuaries in scale experiments (in my tidal flume www.uu.nl/metronome) has been challenging, not only because of the usual scaling problems. Representing such systems in scale experiments requires that we include a minimum set of processes and dynamic boundary conditions that allow a (quasi-)steady state to develop with the target patterns and behaviours. I will show how a complex biogeomorphic systems approach led to beautiful dynamic meandering rivers and estuaries in our lab. Our scale experiments play an unexpectedly large role in education and impact in showing tangibly how the rivers, estuaries and coastal plains developed and what this may mean for their management.

I will then take a step back and critically question what and how we are learning as experimenters and modellers. I learned about how we learn and how we can improve our learning and teaching by using concepts from philosophy of science on causality in complex systems, material modelling and representation of the world. I will focus on some academic thinking skills and societal literacy skills that are often underemphasized in education but fundamental to 21st century geomorphology with societal impact.

Third, societal use of, and interactions with, biogeomorphic systems pose challenges: the combination of accelerating climate crisis, historic land use change and intensifying economic activities deteriorate ecosystems and increase droughts, flooding and land loss. Ideally, societal responses to the climate and biodiversity crises are based on systems understanding on a timescale of years to centuries. Many scientists are hampered by taking either an activist position or an ‘objective’ or at least ‘neutral’ academic position, while there are 50 shades of green in between them. Merely ‘neutrally’ informing public and policymakers, as a sender, is ineffective because they, the receivers, have interests, perspectives and usually a lack of academic knowledge. Being an activist is also not often effective and may raise questions about the legitimacy of our science. How do we navigate these roles? I will show how I, in transdisciplinary teamwork, am learning to navigate the positionality of ‘neutral scientist’, educator, agent of change and political lobbyist, boldly stumbling where others have stumbled before.