Climate change intensifies hydro-geological hazards by altering precipitation and temperature patterns, affecting soil moisture, vegetation, groundwater, and surface runoff. These changes generate spatially and temporally variable triggers for floods, landslides, and droughts, challenging traditional methods based on historical records. Artificial intelligence (AI) offers a promising pathway by integrating multi-source observations with physics-informed learning to capture complex processes and incorporating future climate scenarios to enhance community resilience. This session explores AI integration for hydro-geological hazards under a climate-driven context, focusing on modeling, evaluation, and decision support. Key questions include: How can AI models account for complex physical processes and dynamically update triggering thresholds? How can multi-timescale climate variability and CMIP6 scenarios be embedded while preserving physical consistency? How can predictions remain robust under nonstationarity and inform early warning and climate-resilient planning?
We invite contributions addressing these challenges, with interest in AI, climate scenarios, and multi-scale process coupling. Topics include: 1) AI for hydro-geological hazards:
• Prediction and early warning of floods, landslides, and droughts using machine/deep learning for susceptibility mapping, monitoring, and real-time alerts.
• AI-driven coupled hazard modeling integrating rainfall, surface water, groundwater, and geological processes using multi-source data.
• Remote sensing and big data applications for hazard detection, evolution tracking, and mapping from satellite, UAV, or radar data.
• Assessing impacts of climate variability and extreme events on hazard occurrence.
• AI methods integrating CMIP6 scenarios with bias correction and downscaling for training and inference.
• Modeling physical processes, e.g., hydrological interactions among atmosphere, vegetation, and soil.
• Explainable AI and decision support systems for transparent hazard management, urban planning, and engineering measures.
2) Evaluation and decision support under climate change:
• AI-driven or GIS-based decision support platforms for adaptive management, policy-making, and disaster risk reduction.
• Assessing socio-economic vulnerability, resilience, and adaptation trade-offs under climate change.
• Evaluating nature-based and sustainable solutions as strategies for climate-resilient planning.

Recent advances in computational science and data-intensive methods are significantly improving our ability to detect, model, and respond to natural hazards in real/near-real time. From earthquakes, tsunamis and floods to wildfires, volcanic eruptions, and extreme weather events, the integration of high-performance computing, predictive modeling, and intelligent systems is enabling more effective and timely emergency response and operational frameworks and services, as illustrated from the outcomes of several EU-funded projects (e.g. ChEESE, doi: 10.3030/101093038; DT-GEO, doi:10.3030/101058129; or the EU-India partnership GANANA, doi:10.3030/101196247).
This session focuses on the role of scalable, adaptive, and AI-enhanced computing approaches in supporting the entire natural hazard management cycle: from early detection and warning to modelling, impact forecasting and decision support. We invite contributions that explore but not limited to innovative methods and real-world applications across the areas such as:
(i) Early detection and rapid warning systems, leveraging sensor networks, remote sensing, and predictive analytics, (ii)Time-critical simulations and forecasting models, (iii) AI applications in natural hazard contexts, including real-time/near real-time earthquake signal analysis, landslide and wildfire risk mapping, flood extent detection, and uncertainty-aware forecasting using ML-based ensemble models, (iv) Operational platforms and decision-support tools, integrating real-time data streams with adaptive modeling and, (v) Case studies demonstrating the application of such methods etc.
We invite contributions that showcase novel approaches in computational science, AI / machine learning, modeling systems, or hybrid workflows that improve readiness and responsiveness during natural disasters. We particularly encourage interdisciplinary submissions that highlight collaborative work across geoscience, computer science, and emergency management. This session aims to bring together researchers, practitioners, and system developers working at the intersection of geoscience and urgent computing to advance the state of natural hazard mitigation and civil protection.

Artificial intelligence has become central to Earth system science, yet a core challenge remains: how can we move from models that learn correlations to those that capture and reason with structure, especially under hazards and compound extremes? Many current methods swing between flexible learners that overfit and complex explainers that rationalise black boxes. This limits both understanding and robustness as system complexity, data diversity, and societal stakes grow.

This session focuses on interactions between atmosphere and hydrosphere, highlighting applications to extremes and related water–ecosystem impacts.

We invite contributions that address the transition from learners to knowers, asking for example:
- How can AI models reflect the organising logic of nature, not just the statistical shape of data?
- What happens when predictive skill is high but reasoning is flawed?
- How can models generalise across regions, scales, and regimes while remaining interpretable and trustworthy?

We particularly welcome studies that:
- Embed physical, hydrological, or causal structure into AI models
- Diagnose why current methods fail and what this reveals about their assumptions
- Introduce inductive biases and constraints that promote generalisation under distribution shift
- Move beyond post-hoc explanation toward structurally grounded modelling
- Share FAIR datasets, benchmarks, or reusable tools and workflows
- Explore the role of causal ML, physics-informed networks, or foundation models in linking data and knowledge

Who should submit?
Earth and environmental scientists, hydrologists, hazards researchers, and AI specialists interested in structuring machine learning for process understanding. We welcome both theoretical and applied work; from those developing hybrid or interpretable models to those testing their limits in complex environmental systems. Case studies may span regions or scales but should highlight what makes a model explain rather than merely predict.

Our goal is to redefine how AI advances Earth system science by turning learners into knowers: models that reason with structure, are accountable, and generalise under change.

Machine Learning (ML) is increasingly integrated into weather and climate science workflows, from emulating complex dynamical systems to enhancing predictive capabilities and uncertainty quantification. However, the opaque nature of many ML models poses challenges for scientific credibility, operational deployment, and stakeholder trust. Explainable AI (XAI) offers a suite of methodologies to interrogate, interpret, and validate ML models, enabling more transparent and accountable use of data-driven approaches in Earth system science.

This session invites contributions that advance the use of XAI to improve trust, interpretability, and robustness in ML applications across weather and climate domains — not only to validate and constrain models, but also to enable scientific discovery and insight. We welcome submissions that address:

• Development and application of XAI techniques for interpreting ML-based forecasts, reanalyses, and climate projections
• Integration of physical constraints and domain knowledge into interpretable ML frameworks
• Use of XAI to diagnose model biases, failure modes, and uncertainty propagation
• Explainability-driven approaches to support causal inference, feature attribution, process understanding, and knowledge discovery, including the identification of emergent patterns or physical insights from ML models
• Human-in-the-loop and stakeholder-informed validation of ML models in climate and weather services
• Tooling challenges in applying XAI to high-dimensional, regression-based climate and weather problems where current methods are often limited in scalability, generality, and interpretive power
• Operational and policy-relevant applications of XAI in climate adaptation, mitigation, and risk assessment

We encourage interdisciplinary submissions that bridge ML, weather and climate science, software engineering, and human-computer interaction, and that demonstrate real-world impact or translational potential.

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

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

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

Hybrid intelligence refers to integrated systems of human and machine intelligence, combining the adaptive, contextual, and ethical reasoning of humans (individually and collectively) with the computational power and scalability of AI. This session will explore practical applications of hybrid intelligence in geosciences – covering areas such as knowledge curation, decision support, data analytics, science communication, and actionable science. We will also address the ethical and societal dimensions of human‐centred AI, ensuring that scientists remain at the core of innovation. For geoscientists, hybrid intelligence means fusing deep Earth science expertise with AI-driven insights to tackle complex environmental and societal challenges. The emphasis is on AI, including generative AI, as a tool to empower and extend human insight in geoscience workflows, not to supplant it. We welcome contributions that advance the discussion on harnessing AI responsibly for the benefit of both humanity and the progress of geosciences.

Contributions may address, but are not limited to, the following topics:
-AI tools for geoscientific analysis and outreach
-AI-enhanced decision support systems
-Leveraging knowledge graphs
-Generative AI and Deep Learning in geosciences
-Geoscience-specific AI agents
-Ethical considerations of applying AI in geosciences

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, numerical weather prediction, 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, consistency, and conservation laws
- ensuring numerical stability,
- coupling of numerical models to ML frameworks and language interoperation,
- development and usage of differentiable models and model components,
- handling computer architectures and data transfer,
- adaptation/generalisation to different models, resolutions, or climates,
- 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.

Following success over the past two years at EGU, we again 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.

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
- ML-based super-resolution and bias-correction 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 also welcomes 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.

Carbon monitoring is becoming ever more critical as climate change accelerates and society turns to carbon management strategies, ranging from carbon credits to the preservation and restoration of natural carbon sinks. Yet the success of these approaches depends on robust science: measurements must be accurate, verification must be rigorous, and promises must be grounded in evidence. Machine learning (ML) is rapidly transforming carbon cycle research, offering new opportunities to integrate diverse data streams, harness remote sensing, and connect multiple lines of evidence across scales. This session will highlight recent advances in ML applications for investigating, monitoring, and managing the carbon cycle, spanning satellite-based greenhouse gas estimation, biomass and forest monitoring, soil and peatland carbon dynamics, wetland and ecosystem restoration, and the mapping of terrestrial and oceanic carbon storage. We particularly encourage contributions that address hybrid modeling, uncertainty quantification, ecological mapping, knowledge-guided and trustworthy ML in carbon markets and policy contexts. By bringing together advances from Earth observation, process modeling, and policy-relevant applications, this session aims to explore both the promises and challenges of ML in delivering actionable insights for carbon management and climate mitigation.

Digital Twins (DTs) are dynamic virtual representations of physical processes, already applied in engineering and industry. Their main strength lies in the continuous assimilation and visualisation of large, spatially distributed datasets, integrating different sources and types of data with numerical simulation models. This enables replication of system behaviour, provides an up-to-date status of ongoing physical processes, and supports informed decision-making. DTs represent powerful frameworks that bridge physics-based models, observational data, and AI to improve our understanding, forecasting and management of the subsurface. While a digital twin is often designed to address a specific question or topic, there is still no standardised workflow or consensus on the methodology to be used. Given the growing number of emerging projects, the complexity of workflows, and the wide range of disciplines involved, this remains an important topic for discussion.

This session invites contributions on methodologies, (semi)automated workflows, and applications of digital twins for the subsurface, with a special focus on uncertainty quantification, data assimilation, multi-source data streams, automated data cleaning, and decision support. We particularly welcome studies addressing subsurface workflows from multi-type data to decision-making, including advanced optimisation methods, Bayesian approaches, machine learning, hybrid modeling, as well as economic, social components and policy considerations. Case studies from groundwater, geothermal energy, energy storage, hydrogen, carbon storage, geomodelling, natural risks and other subsurface-related systems are also encouraged. The session aims to foster dialogue on methods across disciplines and highlight both challenges and opportunities in building reliable subsurface digital twins.

Rural communities and nature-based tourism destinations are facing growing uncertainties related to climate change, natural hazards and pressures on natural environments stemming from tourism and outdoor recreation on both biodiversity and geodiversity. Industry, government and stakeholders must make decisions now to secure a sustainable and resilient future. This session, brings together transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary research which leverages data-driven approaches to support decision-makers in strategy development. The focus is on the protection geo- and biodiversity along with recreational landscapes, addressing climate change and fostering trust in data to ensure informed and impactful decision-making for regions characterized by nature-based tourism and outdoor recreation. Topics of interest include:
• Linking Geoscience and social science methods in tourism and recreation research, studies and development
• Importance of geodiversity, biodiversity and ecosystem services in nature-based tourism
• Natural hazards, visitors’ perception and preparedness planning in nature-based tourism management
• Climate change adaptation and resilience in tourism destinations
• Resilient communities through sustainable tourism development
• Strategic decision-making
• Citizen and participatory approaches
• Using local knowledge for sustainable development and climate change mitigation
• Sustainable land use for touristic purposes
• Environmental and tourism policy and governance aspects
This inter- and transdisciplinary session brings together research on climate change, tourism and landscape development to form stronger links between geosciences and social sciences in order to foster an environment of data-driven decision-making and transdisciplinary collaboration.

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 new services and products. While the refinement of downscaling techniques proceeds at an unprecedented pace, users of climate information are facing the novel challenge of how to select amongst the choice of available datasets or how to assess their credibility with respect to a particular application. In this context, model evaluation and verification is growing in relevance and advances in the field will likely require close collaboration between various disciplines.

Recent developments, including the integration of AI and machine learning applications, the emergence of kilometre-scale simulations, and the widespread availability of open-source downscaling products, add new dimensions to this challenge. These advances raise important questions about the ‘added value’ of downscaling, especially in light of the cascade of uncertainty and the need for robust evaluation frameworks.

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 stimulate our discussion about the novel challenges that arise from evaluating complex models and modelling chains in the face of the increasingly heterogeneous needs of the growing user communities.

Contributions to this session may address, but are not limited to:
- newly available downscaling products,
- applications relying on downscaled data and impact assessments,
- downscaling method development and 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.

Understanding where people live, how populations are distributed, and how these patterns change over time is central to many of nowadays most pressing research and policy questions. This session focuses on new developments in gridded population and socio-demographic datasets to help characterize human-environment interactions in relation to the complex world. We invite presentations that present latest research in building and validating these datasets, as well as studies that put them into practice in areas such as climate change adaptation, urban growth, disaster risk management, and public health. Additionally, we encourage interested authors to submit innovative approaches on investigating spatial accuracy and data fusion approaches for future projections under alternative scenarios. The session seeks to showcase both the practical applications and technical advances in demographic data products that can support decision making in an uncertain future.

Recent advances in Large Language Models (LLMs) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) are rapidly changing geosciences research, offering new opportunities for knowledge discovery, data analysis, and real-time monitoring. At the same time, the increasing availability of digital text and image data—from scientific literature and newspaper articles to social media and historical archives—offers unprecedented opportunities to explore new data sources in geosciences research.

This session examines how geoscientists are using LLMs, NLP, and text-as-data approaches across various hydrology, natural hazards research, and the broader earth system sciences research fields. We invite contributions that showcase innovative uses of LLMs and NLP, discuss methodological challenges, or integrate text mining techniques into geoscientific workflows.

We particularly welcome submissions on topics including, but not limited to:
- Chatbots and AI assistants in geosciences
- Assessment of natural hazard impacts (e.g., floods, droughts, landslides, heatwaves, windstorms)
- Real-time disaster monitoring and early warning systems
- Evidence synthesis and literature mapping
- Public sentiment and perception analysis
- Policy tracking and narrative analysis
- Social media analyses
- Enhancement of metadata and data descriptions
- Automation of historical data rescue
- Integration of LLMs with remote sensing or image data
- Methodological challenges in using LLMs and NLP-based analyses, including bias, reproducibility, and interpretability

By sharing case studies, technical developments, and lessons learned, we aim to promote the effective use of these tools while also highlighting the challenges that newcomers may encounter, including issues with data coverage, quality control, and concerns about reproducibility. By sharing best practices, this session aims to inspire collaboration and innovation in harnessing LLMs, NLP, and text-as-data in geosciences.

The global community is vastly off track to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goal 6 on “clean water and sanitation for all” and urgent action is needed to correct this course. However, informed decision making requires sufficient and reliable long-term data and yet, large in situ data gaps still exist on almost all aspects of the hydrological cycle. This was clearly evident in the WMO Status of the Global Water Resources Report for 2023 and is reinforced in this year’s report for 2024.
This session aims to highlight studies that help to close this data gap. This includes the initiation or development of long-term in-situ monitoring programmes, the enhancement of monitoring programmes with novel methodology, or quality improvement of existing data. This session supports a wide range of United Nations programmes, notably the UN Early Warning for All Initiative with its pillar 2 on Detection, Observations, Monitoring, Analysis and Forecasting, output 3.3 of the UNESCO IHP IX (2022 - 2029) which promotes the availability of validated open access water data for sustainable water management, and the WMO Unified Data Policy that aims to implement free and unrestricted data exchange between member states. We invite contributions on the following topics:
1. Developing long-term monitoring:
- Initiation of long-term monitoring programmes emphasizing benefits and challenges
- Extension of existing long-term monitoring programmes, e.g. by combining different components of the hydrological cycle
2. Innovative methods to support long-term monitoring programmes
- Enhancing in-situ monitoring using remote sensing and modelling – reinforcing current monitoring and filling data gaps in the past
- Using citizen science and/or indigenous data sources to strengthen long-term monitoring programmes
- Digitizing written monitoring records applying machine learning and/or crowdsourcing

Earth Observation (EO) offers a powerful means of monitoring changes in climate, ecosystems, and human environments at both global and local scales. These observations generate a wide array of climate and environmental variables, and they are delivered as Analysis-Ready Data (ARD). While ARD is globally accessible and scientifically robust, it might lack the specificity and contextual relevance required to effectively address local challenges. To bridge this gap, ARD must be transformed into Action-Ready Information (ARI): tailored data products and insights that support local decision-making and reflect community priorities. This transformation depends on co-creation, a collaborative process involving local communities, scientists, engineers, policymakers, and private sector stakeholders. For example, by integrating satellite EO with locally collected data from ground, water, and airborne platforms, we can enhance data granularity, validate satellite outputs, and generate customized, equitable, and actionable solutions. This session will explore how data can be harnessed to support environmental monitoring, local climate mitigation and adaptation, and sustainable development. It will emphasize the importance of identifying gaps between global datasets and local needs, and present strategies to close these gaps through innovation (e.g. new technologies and open FAIR science), inclusive engagement, and capacity building. Economic and policy dimensions will also be addressed, including the sustainability of community-led initiatives, the role of citizen science, funding mechanisms, and scalable technologies that enhance data utility for local solutions. The practical implementation challenges confronting policymakers when seeking to engage with EO data, particularly in the context of constrained policy capacities, will also be discussed. We invite participants from across/around the EO ecosystem: researchers in both physical and social sciences, community leaders, and stakeholders from policy and business sectors. We do not limit us only to satellite EO. We do consider non-EO observations and data, and their applications. We will share case studies, identify synergies between global and local efforts, and co-create knowledge that informs both local action and global strategies. By synthesizing diverse experiences, this session aims to advance EO as a tool for addressing the interconnected climate and environmental challenges we face locally and globally.

Earth system dynamics are strongly influenced by land‑surface processes that operate across a wide range of temporal and spatial scales. Sub‑daily land‑atmosphere coupling shapes cloud formation and radiation transfer; seasonal vegetation dynamics modulate evapotranspiration on weekly‑to‑monthly scales and shape the hydrologic cycle; and decade‑to‑century changes in ecosystem composition and soil carbon dynamics affect the global carbon cycle and atmospheric  CO₂. Human activities, such as land‑cover change, land‑management practices, and fossil‑fuel or biomass burning are the most impactful direct and indirect perturbations of the land surface. This session explores how these diverse changes, their impacts, and potential feedbacks operate from the global scale to regional hotspots. It focuses on four interlinked themes (remaining open to related topics), exploring the effects of land changes:

1. Radiative balance, including albedo changes and their effect on the planetary energy budget; modulation of land‑atmosphere coupling and low‑cloud formation; influence of biogenic volatile organic compound emissions on clouds.
2. Water cycle, including moisture recycling over land; trends in soil moisture and lower‑tropospheric humidity; CO₂-driven stomatal conductance and plant water‑stress dynamics; shifts in surface turbulent‑flux partitioning.
3. Carbon cycle, including changes in land carbon uptake and release fluxes, long‑term vegetation shifts, soil and vegetation carbon turnover, CO₂ fertilization, and nutrient dynamics.
4. Human‑societal impacts, including effects on ecosystem services such as water and food security, links between land degradation and societal vulnerability, and potential societal feedbacks.

Contributions should adopt a coupled Earth‑system perspective, investigating processes in interaction rather than isolation. We encourage submissions which (i) quantify the magnitude and direction of biogeophysical and biogeochemical feedbacks, (ii) identify key uncertainties in current CMIP‑style Earth‑system models, and (iii) propose concrete pathways to constrain these uncertainties. Innovative approaches that integrate multi‑stream observational datasets and hybrid or machine‑learning‑enhanced modeling are especially welcome. Join us in this session, hosted in partnership with the Max‑Planck‑Caltech‑Columbia‑Carnegie Center for Earth (mc‑3.org), which emphasizes this holistic view of land processes within the Earth system.

Environmental challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, water scarcity, and ocean degradation demand new ways of observing, monitoring, and understanding the Earth system. Research Infrastructures (RIs) in the ENVRI community—spanning atmospheric, marine, terrestrial, and solid earth sciences—provide the backbone of European environmental observation and long-term data stewardship. Yet, the growing complexity of environmental change requires innovative technologies and services to enhance monitoring, strengthen interoperability, and accelerate the translation of knowledge into actionable insights.

This session brings together researchers, technologists, and stakeholders to showcase advances illustrating (1) the role of emerging technologies and (2) service-oriented approaches in shaping the future of environmental monitoring.

Emerging technologies include advanced instrumentation, miniaturized and autonomous sensors for atmospheric, hydrological, soil, and marine processes, as well as unmanned aerial systems, drones, satellite constellations, and IoT networks that link in-situ with remote sensing. Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming how environmental data are processed, harmonized, and applied in predictive modelling.

The ocean, a key climate regulator, remains critically under-observed for carbon fluxes, particularly beyond shipping routes. Addressing this gap, the GEORGE project—a collaboration between EMSO ERIC, EURO-ARGO ERIC, ICOS ERIC, research institutions, universities, and industry—develops novel tools and methods to measure carbonate chemistry (e.g., pH, alkalinity, dissolved inorganic carbon, pCO₂) across diverse marine environments.

Services are equally vital. Trans-National Access (TNA) schemes offered by ENVRIs provide opportunities for researchers to use state-of-the-art facilities, advanced instrumentation, and high-quality data services beyond national systems. These services foster collaboration, accelerate innovation, and support co-created solutions to pressing challenges. The convergence of cloud-based infrastructures, FAIR data principles, interoperability frameworks, and user-centered service design ensures that resources are not only technically robust but also widely accessible and impactful for science, policy, and society.

The proliferation of Essential Climate Variables (ECVs), Essential Ocean Variables (EOVs), and Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs) highlights a paradigm shift towards data-driven environmental monitoring and policy. These Essential Variables (EVs) are central to global frameworks including GCOS, WMO, GEO, Copernicus, IPCC assessments, and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). For science, they are a powerful mechanism to track Earth system changes and enable evidence-based decision-making.
Yet, despite broad recognition, the scientific potential of EVs remains underrealised. Persistent gaps in how they are defined, described, managed, and exchanged across domains and infrastructures hamper progress. A lack of semantic and technical interoperability, inconsistent metadata practices, and fragmented governance limit their integration and reduce their impact on policy and action. Without a coherent, interoperable infrastructure, the transformative potential of EVs—to enable cross-domain science, support climate agreements, and monitor sustainability targets—remains out of reach.
This session will explore the technical, infrastructural, and policy advancements required to make EVs the foundational language for global environmental cooperation. We welcome contributions addressing scientific use cases, technical barriers, and emerging solutions under the following themes:
1. Semantic Interoperability: Shared frameworks and vocabularies (e.g., iADOPT, W3C SSN/SOSA) ensuring EVs form a consistent, machine-actionable common language across disciplines and infrastructures.
2. Cross-Domain Data Synergy: Approaches and case studies demonstrating seamless data flow and integration across atmospheric, oceanic, terrestrial, biodiversity, and socio-economic domains, breaking down silos.
3. Infrastructure Integration: Lessons from research infrastructures (e.g., ENVRI, AuScope, US CRDCs, China’s Earth Lab, GERI) in implementing EVs and achieving interoperability with global programmes like GCOS, WMO, GEO, Copernicus, RDA, and CODATA.
4. From Data to Policy: Examples of how FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) EVs contribute to policy needs, climate reporting, and monitoring of SDG indicators.
We invite scientists, data architects, and policymakers to share insights for building a coherent, actionable, and interoperable global observation system.

The advancement of Open Science and the democratization of computing services allow for the discovery and processing of large amounts of information, blurring traditional discipline boundaries. Being data heterogeneous in format and provenance, the ability to combine them and extract new knowledge to address complex challenges relies on standardisation, integration and interoperability.
Thanks to decades of work in this field, Research infrastructures (RI) worldwide, such as EPOS, Europe's RI for solid Earth science, are key enablers of this paradigm. By providing access to quality-vetted, curated open data, they enable scientists to combine data from different disciplines and data sources into innovative research and apply novel approaches such as Large Language Models (LLM) and AI/ML tools to obtain new insights and solve complex scientific and societal questions.
However, while data-driven science creates enormous opportunities to generate groundbreaking inter- and transdisciplinary results, many challenges and barriers remain.
This session aims to foster cross-fertilization by showcasing real-life scientific studies and research experiences in geosphere studies, especially from Early Career Scientists (ECS) worldwide. We also welcome contributions on challenges and user needs when establishing multi-disciplinary studies, including, e.g., need for reliable and trustworthy AI and the availability of training datasets. The session will not only focus on results, but also on challenges and solutions in connection to data availability, collection, processing, and inter-disciplinary methods.
A non-exhaustive list of topics includes:
- multi-disciplinary studies, involving data from different disciplines (e.g. combining seismology, geodesy, and petrology to understand subduction zone dynamics);
- inter-disciplinary research integrating two or more disciplines into new approaches (e.g. merging geophysics and geochemistry to probe mantle plumes);
- activities that advance 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);
- experiences that cross disciplinary boundaries, integrate paradigms and engage diverse stakeholders (e.g. bringing together geologists, social scientists, civil engineers and urban planners to define risk maps and prevention measures in urban planning).

This session invites contributions that advance the theory, development, and application of digital solutions, such as digital twins, in water resources research and management. Hydrologic digital twins are virtual representations of water systems that are continuously updated with real-time observations, allowing for simulation, analysis, and automatic and autonomous management. These, and other digital solutions are crucial in advancing the application and impact of scientific technical and theoretical findings by end user stake holders. Under changing environmental conditions and risk of regional and global natural hazards, advanced two-ways data transfer and scientific information solutions are more crucial than ever. We welcome presentations on multi-scale digital solutions, such as: physical modelling frameworks; fusion of next-generation hydrologic observations into modelling frameworks, including remote sensing, in-situ, and crowd-sourced data; automated data networking, processing, and assimilation systems; machine learning and hybrid approaches in model-data integration; uncertainty quantification and propagation in data assimilation workflows; real-time forecasting and decision support systems for water resources and disaster management; autonomous processes and embedded devices in water resources management; and case studies of digital twins in water resources research and applications. We are particularly interested in work that supports scale translation in hydrologic systems modelling (both spatial and temporal), and enables the coupling of physical and data-driven models. Submissions from the Digital Waters Flagship and Pilot (https://digitalwaters.fi) are strongly encouraged.

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 analyzing high-impact events under present and future conditions. This session aims to address several challenges and topics.
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 to better shape the definition and classification of compound events, i.e. legitimate the ‘cut-offs’ in the considered number of hazard types or variables 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 (attribution); (6) Employing novel Single Model Initial-condition Large Ensemble simulations, which provide hundreds to thousands of years of plausible weather, to better study compound events. (7) Developing novel statistical methods (e.g., machine learning, artificial intelligence, and climate model emulators) for studying 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 constraining/reducing uncertainties (e.g., multivariate bias correction and observational 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.

The growth and decay of large ice sheets on the Earth's surface during the past, present and future leads to Glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) triggered by the redistribution of surface ice and ocean masses, and the flow of mantle rocks. It involves radial and tangential motion, changes in sea levels, the Earth's gravity field and rotational motion, lithospheric bending and the state of stress inside the Earth. Although this process is primarily driven by ice-sheet dynamics and Earth's structure, it impacts other Earth systems like the cryosphere and hydrosphere. GIA controls relative sea-level change through vertical land motion and gravitational–rotational effects, making it fundamental for ocean sciences, hydrological sciences, and climate investigations. Furthermore, differential uplift and tilting due to GIA reshapes landscapes and drainage networks, while emergent land and basin connections drive ecosystem succession and carbon burial. GIA-related stress redistribution influences a region’s seismicity and its seismic hazard, which must be considered in nuclear waste storage safety assessments. Similarly, such stress changes can alter volcanic activity even thousands of kilometres away from the glaciated area. GIA effects are present in a wealth of standardized observational data, such as GNSS measurements, tide gauges, relative sea levels, and terrestrial and satellite gravimetry. These data help refine GIA models, which enhance our understanding of ice-sheet history, sea-level changes, Earth's rheology and near-surface processes. The GIA theory can also be applied to study other planets such as Mars.

We welcome contributions on GIA's effects across various scales, including geodetic measurements, complex GIA modelling, GIA-induced sea-level changes, the Earth's response to current ice-mass changes, and overview on emerging GIA data collections. We also invite abstracts on GIA's impact on nuclear waste sites, volcanism, groundwater, permafrost, and carbon resources. We especially appreciate new model developments in local, high spatial and temporal resolution for GIA assessments, results of fully coupled ice dynamics-GIA models, studies of broader environmental relevance, and improved GIA corrections for other geoscientific fields.

Mountain and snow-dominated regions, including the poles, are global hotspots of rapid environmental change, but our ability to accurately predict water availability and ecosystem resilience in these systems is challenged by rapid shifts in snow dynamics, permafrost thawing, vegetation growth, and natural hazards including hydroclimatic extremes. To predict how these regions will respond to short-term events such as droughts, as well as long-term changes in climate or land use, it is crucial to understand how distinct processes, such as snow melt, groundwater movement, evapotranspiration, and vegetation demography interact. While individual processes have been intensely investigated in the past, large uncertainties still exist in their synoptic understanding which requires the concurrent analysis of atmospheric, cryospheric, hydrological, ecological, and social systems. This session invites contributions that advance integrative studies of landscape dynamics. We welcome work based on field observations, remote sensing, and modelling, ranging from process-based to machine-learning approaches, that address interactions among processes and system components. Contributions exploring extreme events, cross-scale feedbacks, surface-atmosphere interactions, comparative systems, and the societal relevance of water resources are particularly encouraged. By fostering dialogue across disciplines and regions, this session aims to build an integrated understanding of ecohydrological change in places where snow accumulation or topography play dominant roles in regulating water availability, boundary-layer fluxes, and vegetation productivity.

Climate change is reshaping the conditions that sustain human health. Rising temperatures, shifting precipitation patterns, and intensifying extremes are linked to diverse risks, from heat-related illness, kidney disease, and suicide to mortality from wildfires, tropical cyclones, and infectious diseases. These impacts extend beyond health to affect labor capacity, energy demand, and economic productivity, underscoring the interconnectedness of climate and society.

This session invites contributions that investigate the different pathways linking climate extremes to human health and well-being worldwide. We particularly encourage studies that leverage diverse data sources, including observations, health and socio-economic data, reanalyses, climate models, large ensembles, and AI-based models, to deepen our understanding and improve prediction and projection across various time scales.

Works addressing vulnerability, inequality, early warning systems, and strategies for adaptation and resilience are especially welcome, as well as interdisciplinary approaches bridging climate science, epidemiology, economics, and public health.

The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) plays a critical role in regulating Earth’s climate. Therefore, a potential future weakening or even collapse of the AMOC could have major climatic and societal impacts. While some of these impacts have been investigated, their wide-ranging nature has led to scattered knowledge with limited intercomparisons between different lines of evidence. In this session, we bridge multiple disciplines and bring together the latest knowledge on AMOC impacts.

We welcome all contributions that investigate Earth System impacts resulting from changes in the AMOC. These can include direct physical impacts, such as atmospheric, oceanic, or cryospheric; biogeochemical as well as marine and terrestrial ecosystem responses; and socioeconomic impacts, such as health, agricultural, and economic repercussions. Contributions can cover any timescale, from paleoclimate and the recent past to future projections, from seasonal and decadal changes to long-term (centennial to millennial) impacts in the past and future. In addition, the AMOC's impact can be studied in a range of scenarios, from internal variability to forced trends or abrupt/tipping behaviour, affecting both mean and extreme variables.

We call for contributions employing a broad range of tools, from Earth System, regional, and simple models to reanalyses and observations/proxies, as well as socioeconomic and impact-related models. Finally, as the Atlantic subpolar gyre (SPG) is an ocean system whose strength, stability, and impact on the climate are strongly connected to the AMOC, we also welcome contributions discussing the impacts of SPG changes on the Earth System.

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 weather and climate-related extreme events and ecosystems. We encourage submissions on: 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, 3) Implications of extreme weather impacts on ecosystems for biodiversity and ecosystem service provision. We welcome a diverse array of contributions, including theoretical analyses, modelling approaches, field studies, experimental designs, and remote sensing analysis.

Key topics include:
- Identification of extreme weather risk hotspots, and subsequent ecosystem responses (terrestrial, coastal, or marine) in past, present and future climates
- Role of extreme weather in shaping ecosystem composition, biodiversity, structure and functioning, and its impact on ecosystems service provisions across temporal and spatial scales
- Interactions of natural hazard, anthropogenic and biogenic disturbances with ecosystems (including compounding events)
- Ecosystem vulnerability, resilience and recovery dynamics under weather extremes, including regime shifts / tipping points in ecosystems
- Impact and efficacy of nature-based solutions under extreme conditions, risk of maladaptation or disservices

Climate hazards consistently expose and often intensify socioeconomic inequalities. Vulnerability to extreme events is not evenly distributed within or across societies; rather, it is shaped by existing social, economic, and political conditions. As such, inequality, defined as the uneven distribution of resources, opportunities, and power has been recognised by the United Nations and other global policy frameworks as a central factor influencing progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

This session invites interdisciplinary contributions, bringing together geoscientists, social scientists, economists, and policy experts to examine the complex and often compounding interactions between social inequalities and climate hazards such as floods, heatwaves, droughts, storms, landslides, and wildfires across different scales, including within countries, between countries, and across continents.

Topics of interest include (but are not limited to):

-Case studies illustrating how environmental and social inequalities intersect.

-Types of inequality: social, gender-based, infrastructural, recovery time, education, income source, wealth distribution, climate justice, food security

-Impacts of climate hazards: displacement, fatalities, psychological and physical health, developmental setbacks.

-Long-term recovery challenges: absence of recovery, prolonged recovery periods, slower developmental trajectories.

-Historical and political-ecological perspectives on disasters and their long-term societal impacts.

-Innovations in data, metrics, or methods (e.g., AI, remote sensing, socio-environmental modelling) for assessing inequality and disaster risk across spatial and temporal scales.

Extreme weather events such as tropical cyclones, heatwaves and floods threaten populations around the world. Climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, which can combine with community exposure, inequalities and vulnerabilities to cause substantial harm, including forced migration, human displacement, and other societal impacts. There is a 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 events influence food and water security, conflict and security risks, climate action, and health outcomes. Additionally, the field of environmental human mobility has witnessed remarkable progress in data collection, analytical methods, and modeling techniques, advancing scientific understanding of the impacts of extreme weather on mobility and displacement.

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:

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

The Antarctic ice sheet is the largest source of uncertainty in projections of global mean sea-level change. This is due to our limited understanding of key physical processes at the interface between the ice sheet, the atmosphere, the ocean and the solid Earth. Both West and East Antarctic ice sheets are projected to retreat rapidly with substantial ice loss, potentially contributing several meters to global sea level rise within centuries under a warming climate. Geological evidence shows that past sea level variations involved Greenland, West Antarctic ice sheets, and also some sectors of East Antarctic ice sheet. Our understanding of the missing processes is improving with time, and identifying the drivers of tipping points from past to future requires a multi-disciplinary approach. It is critical to integrate the knowledge across time and spatial scales to provide reliable actionable science, to help decision makers and practitioners co-design adaptation strategies to mitigate risk and damages, and to inform the public. This session welcomes contributions from both observation and modeling perspectives, and from paleo to future, from earth science to policy, that focus on (i) the drivers of Antarctic ice sheet instabilities and tipping points, i.e., ice sheet, ocean, atmosphere and solid earth interactions, (ii) integration between sea level projections and damages, new decision making scenarios, (iii) societal impacts.

In this session, we focus on the impact of abrupt and short-term climate and environmental changes on past societies and ecosystems during the Late Glacial and Holocene (~ last 14 600 years) across Europe and the Mediterranean regions. More specifically, we aim to understand how these changes affected environments and populations in pre-complex and early-complex societies, exploring resilience and adaptation.
We encourage contributions that bring together new data, interdisciplinary methods, and/or statistical modelling approaches to help disentangle the complex interactions between climate, environment, and human populations. Especially appreciated are high-resolution temporal studies that enable the detection of changes across time and space, and explore leads/lags in relation to climate change events.
Past-present comparisons on human resilience to environmental stress, as well as linking past dynamics to current and future regional climate changes are also welcome. This includes discussions on implications for current societies, contributing to the transdisciplinary debate.

We are transitioning towards a climate state on Earth featuring rapid changes in response to anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and land-use change, with severe observable and projected impacts on the occurrence of extreme weather events and increasing risk of crossing large-scale tipping points. Neither the transition nor the long-term climate state has been observed by (human-made) measurements before, making information on past climatic states increasingly more important to help anticipate future Earth System change. Paleoclimate records have enormously expanded over the past decades, and provide extremely rich information about physical, cryospheric, biological, and ecological processes on many spatial and temporal scales. Yet, it has been difficult so far to directly transform this knowledge on past processes into a more confident evaluation of future projections for the Earth system.
Being able to reconstruct past climate evolution is a necessary step for enhancing our capacity to look into the future and, therefore, extensive improvements of state-of-the-art Earth System Models (ESMs) are needed. So far, ESMs are mainly calibrated and validated with respect to the instrumental records of the last ~170 years of relatively stable climate, while the Earth’s longer-term history is characterised by an interplay of gradual climate change, variability and critical transitions between competing states, with profound impacts on climate subsystems, ecosystems, and civilisations.
Understanding the leading dynamical processes and feedbacks and in particular improving our ability to model and anticipate critical transitions in the climate and ecosystems is key to project future climate change on spatio-temporal scales relevant for societies, ecosystems and the planet.

We invite contributions that
-     use knowledge of past climates to advance our understanding of climate variability, abrupt changes and climate response to greenhouse gas changes and other forcing on spatio-temporal scales relevant for societies, ecosystems and the planet as a whole;
-     make use of information from paleoenvironmental proxy data, from past civilisations, from ESMs, and from rigorous theoretical approaches - individually or combined;
-     explore modern approaches to incorporate palaeoclimate information into the development processes of ESMs of varying complexity;

Paleogeography exerts a fundamental control on Earth’s climate system and the evolution of life. Throughout Earth’s history, the shifting positions of landmasses, the opening and closing of seaways and ocean basins, and the rise of mountain ranges, have shaped ocean and atmospheric circulation, global biogeochemical cycles, and patterns of biological evolution.
This session invites contributions that reconstruct paleogeography and explore its impacts, from the reconstruction of ancient supercontinents to the controls of ocean gateways on climate and biotic dispersals. We particularly encourage submissions that use new approaches to unravel the interplay between paleogeography, paleoclimate, and biological evolution across Earth’s history, from the Precambrian to the Neogene, at regional to global scales. Approaches may include, but are not limited to, paleomagnetism, marine geophysics, field geology, stratigraphy, paleontology, geochemistry, geodynamics, and climate modelling. We also welcome integrative studies that combine diverse datasets, as well as modelling studies that link deep-earth processes, such as mantle convection and true polar wander, with their surface expressions.
By bringing together a diverse community of geoscientists, this session aims to promote cross-disciplinary interactions and establish new directions to advance our understanding of how Earth’s changing geography shaped the evolution of climate and life.

The Anthropocene is the time in which humanity has a greater influence and impact on our planet than all natural forces combined. Itself a contested term, the Anthropocene has been used not only to designate a geological epoch, but also as a means of framing a number of significant environmental, social, and cultural challenges that this period has brought with it. In this short course, you will draw on a number of disciplinary perspectives to open up problems that attend the Anthropocene, both conceptually and as a marker for more complex and urgent material/ real-world impacts that humans continue to shape and encounter. The impact of humans on Earth measured and experienced in what is commonly referred to as the Anthropocene, brings us the questions: how and to what extent has human impact surpassed that of natural forces? How do we imagine and envision the Anthropocene? What are its experiential dimensions? What are the problems relating to the Anthropocene?

In this short course Big Questions in the Anthropocene, you will critically evaluate your relationship with the planet and study new ways and the cultures and practices that it sustains. Together, we will explore questions such as: how do our economies impact waste disposal and energy sources? In addition, we will examine technological innovations, debate ethical issues, and perform social analyses. As we interrogate the idea of the Anthropocene, we will also discuss and challenge related concepts and oppositions. These include the presumptive binary division between ‘nature’ and ‘humankind’; the myth of human domination over nature; and naturalized conceptualizations of time and history.

To tackle these questions, the short course is divided into three main sections, introduction, discussion and solutions/navigation tools, with interactive teaching, in-class assignments as well as a take-home Big Question message.

This multidisciplinary session examines the relationship between the scientific concept of the Anthropocene epoch, based on analysis of stratigraphic archives, with societal issues such as "justice," "migration," "education," "work," "health" or "food," all of which raise (geo-)ethical issues on our now unpredictable planet. The Anthropocene epoch, as a unifying concept, helps us (1) understand the transformed bioclimatic conditions in which we live, (2) appreciate how fragile they are, how rapidly they are shifting, and their implications for humanity, and (3) explain the importance of containing climatic, biological, and attendant societal runaway effects, through deeper understanding of the Earth and human social systems. The Anthropocene epoch, as represented by the AWG’s (rejected) proposal, is characterised by a sharply expressed and lasting change in the habitability of the Earth that is now human-driven but in which planetary feedbacks and tipping points will likely become increasingly important. In detail, it is a complex concept. However, in broad terms it is straightforward to communicate to a wide audience, given that many of the component phenomena (e.g. the rises in greenhouse gases, sharp biodiversity decline and catastrophic natural hazards) are clearly, even dramatically, expressed in such processes as runaway effects and tipping points, collapse and acceleration. Stratigraphic evidence-based and systemic in scope, the Anthropocene epoch also entails a(n) (geo-) ethical responsibility for conveying the concerns of scientific communities about the worsening of bioclimatic living conditions. (1) How can we pass on the knowledge of the Anthropocene (stratigraphic, systemic and from the human and social sciences) to young people without undermining their ability to envisage their future? (2) What use can we make of the Anthropocene to challenge public policy without suggesting that science can or should dictate that policy? (3) How can we make the systemic power of the Anthropocene concept not eradicate all hope for the habitability of humans and all other life forms on the planet (4) How can we combine the power of the diagnosis of this new geological epoch with an intellectually honest hope that will mobilise people to transform their communities and societies? Studies and contributions from any continent or discipline from a broad and diverse ranges of studies will be considered.

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

This session explores mythogenic landscapes as environments that generate and shape the creation, form, and content of myths, imaginaries, beliefs, and local narratives. In doing so, they exert a profound influence on communities and cultures. Within this context, one can refer to an abiotic cultural factor – the impact of geodiversity on humans and their cultural expressions. This factor often gives rise to distinctive forms of relationships between humans and the environment, operating at both symbolic and utilitarian levels. Mythogenic landscapes have shaped imaginaries and beliefs expressed in both verbal and non-verbal forms. Interpretations of extreme events and ideas about the origins of geomorphological features have contributed to the development of local geofolklore, including geomyths. Such cultural expressions form an important part of the intangible dimension of geoheritage, which should be evaluated not only in terms of scientific values but also for their cultural and culture-shaping significance. Traditional interpretations of the origins of landforms and geomorphological processes, geohazards and the causes of hydrometeorological events – together with the myths and legends associated with them – create a network of interrelations that vividly illustrate human and environment interactions. This synergy has strengthened the once-overlooked, but now increasingly recognized, need to protect geoheritage. Incorporating a humanities perspective into the study of geological processes, landforms, and hydrometeorological phenomena enhances the value of geosites as elements of the geo-cultural heritage of civilization. Such an approach not only supports the development of geotourism but also holds significant potential for geoeducation.
Proposed session topics
1. Meteor impacts, earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions in myths and oral traditions.
2. Local knowledge of landforms, hydrographic features, geological processes, and hydrometeorological phenomena.
3. Oral traditions as empirical evidence for dating geomorphological processes (e.g. rockfalls, landslides, extreme floods, karst phenomena, hailstorms).
4. Geomythical perspectives in oral traditions and cultural narratives.
5. From geomythology to geoheritage: exploring the symbolic meanings of geosites.
6. Geo-mytho-tourism: developing new local and regional geo-brands.
7. The potential of geomyths for geoeducation and public engagement.

Fire, once a vital tool for early human survival and landscape management, has become one of today’s most significant natural hazards, especially in fire-prone regions. With climate change increasing the frequency and intensity of wildfires, understanding the long-term relationship between humans and fire is more critical than ever. This session explores cultural pyroscapes: landscapes shaped by the interactions between societies and fire over time. We invite transdisciplinary contributions that use palaeoecological, archaeological, and environmental records to investigate past fire regimes and human responses. Relevant approaches include charcoal and pollen analysis, biochemical proxies, and palaeodemographic data. We particularly welcome studies on Indigenous cultural burning and traditional fire practices that contributed to historical and pre-historical fuel management. Contributions led by or co-designed with Indigenous communities are also encouraged. By highlighting methodological innovations and theoretical advances, this session aims to deepen our understanding of past fire stewardship and its relevance for developing sustainable wildfire mitigation and landscape resilience strategies today.

Social-science and humanities (SSH) research is crucial for informing ambitious, effective, just or societally acceptable climate action. This session highlights how SSH insights on social metabolism, labor transitions, perceptions and societal readiness, institutional dynamics, justice, needs/capabilities, and power relations can enrich and reshape diverse modeling approaches. We aim to provide a platform for interdisciplinary work that broadens the scope of what models and scenarios can represent, clarifies their limits, and fosters connections across methods.

We welcome contributions that:

Integrate SSH concepts and methods into integrated assessment models (IAMs), energy–economy–environment models, or other analytical frameworks

Use empirical and participatory approaches to inform model assumptions, structures, and constraints

Engage with normative dimensions such as fairness, feasibility, and societal acceptance

Connect justice issues to marginalized or disadvantaged communities, especially in the Global South

Address the role of governance, institutions, finance, and critically evaluate material and human needs in shaping transition pathways

Investigate social impacts of modeled scenarios (e.g., income, labor, or demand modeling)

We particularly encourage work that incorporates procedural, recognitional, transitional and other forms of justice, identifies how data gaps map onto justice gaps, and provides bi-directional feedback between social science and modeling communities. By convening these perspectives, the session seeks to advance interdisciplinary approaches that make climate and energy scenarios more relevant, inclusive, and impactful.

This session calls for contributions from all disciplines and inter- and trans-disciplinary collaborations that are addressing complex problems of effects of climate change and environmental degradation on human, animal, and ecosystems health. These may include, but are not limited to, data analysis and modelling approaches and data- and model-based solutions, indicators development, nature-based solutions, wellbeing-centered and other planetary health interventions. Likewise, the contributions can provide better understanding of or insights into wide range of problems, from air or water pollution or biodiversity loss, to human, animal, and environmental health issues like infectious and zoonotic diseases, or plastic pollution and antimicrobial resistance, driven by climate change or environmental degradation.

Forests and surrounding landscapes are interconnected, and any human activities are integral elements of the socio-ecological system. Forest landscape management usually involves multi-stakeholder interventions to negotiate and implement management actions for local livelihoods, health and well-being. In this context integrated Decision Support Systems (DSS) are needed that help to address ecosystem services at the landscape scale by linking forest, agricultural and landscape interactions. The main aim of this inter- and transdisciplinary session is to identify solutions that use new and innovative methodological approaches in decision support, focusing on holistic planning to enhance sustainable ecosystem management and address ecosystem services, risks, and uncertainties. Computerized decision support systems (DSS) are know to support planning and decision making in semi- and unstructured decision problems. In that context database systems are often linked with analytical models and expert knowledge to take informed and data-driven decisions and allow managers visualizations by various graphical and tabular means. The first generation of DSSs was typically designed to address relatively narrow, well-defined problems for only one ecosystem service (e.g. timber production or increasing the resistance against storms). There has been a trend towards the development of more integrated DSS that simultaneously cover a broader range of ES such as habitat for biodiversity conservation and water provision, but there are still few examples for landscape management. This session invites contributions that bring together the scientific advances in this direction by presenting frameworks off integrated DSS and advandced combinations of methods, models and data to support decison making.

Mountains are the planet’s water towers, supplying fresh water to downstream lowlands, deltas, and coastal regions. Climate change and intensifying human pressures are modifying water availability, quality, and timing along the mountain-to-ocean continuum. These changes affect not only biodiversity, agriculture, hydropower, and drinking water supply, but also the habitability of our environments and the resilience of the socio-ecosystems we live in.

Addressing these interconnected challenges requires going beyond disciplinary boundaries. This session invites contributions that integrate hydrology, soil science, ecology, geochemistry, economics, and governance to co-design knowledge and solutions for sustainable water management across the continuum mountain-ocean. We especially welcome inter- and transdisciplinary approaches that:

- Link physical and ecological processes from headwaters to aquifers, rivers, wetlands, and coastal zones.
- Leverage opportunities in modeling, monitoring, and digital tools to assess vulnerabilities and guide adaptive management.
- Co-develop strategies with stakeholders, communities, and policymakers to strengthen resilience of water resources, ecosystems, and societies.
- Explore governance frameworks and participatory approaches that connect science to practice at multiple scales.

The session will showcase insights from European regional initiatives, including WATERWISE, which focuses on Alpine headwaters, and Blue Transition, which promotes integrated water management in the North Sea Region.

It is widely claimed that transdisciplinarity is essential for addressing complex, interconnected challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and social justice. Transdisciplinary approaches bring together multiple academic disciplines and non-academic forms of knowledge to reshape how we define problems, make decisions, and design more effective, inclusive, and responsive solutions.

Yet, while the benefits of transdisciplinarity are well recognized, doing transdisciplinary work can be deeply challenging. It demands new working practices that build trust, foster inclusive and caring environments, and provide positive and meaningful experiences for all participants. These are not innate skills, they must be learned and practiced, and research shows that creative methodologies have a key role to play. Creative methodologies can serve as a mode of inquiry, eliciting insights and ways of knowing that are grounded in lived experience, affect, culture, and the senses.

This session invites contributions that explore the space where arts and research meet, and where creative methodologies based on these modes of interaction become a tool for knowledge production beyond communication or outreach (Loroño and Olazabal 2025) . We are particularly interested in examples where art (including but not limited to visual arts, textile, performing, digital, painting, theatre, sound, sculpture, photography, music, etc.) has helped reshape the contours of environmental social science research, and where artistic methodologies have: (1) participated in and improved knowledge co-production processes, (2) enabled participatory, inclusive, and just research processes, (3) brought forward emotional, experiential, and embodied understandings often sidelined in conventional science.

We welcome theoretical reflections, case studies, collaborative projects, and experimental formats that argue for the arts as central, not peripheral, to the work of social environmental research for it to more effectively address current planetary challenges. We are looking for evidence and examples of how the combination of scientific and arts research has helped redefine scientific challenges, horizons and broken through traditional business and usual thinking. Join us in expanding this crucial conversation. Let’s explore how creative methodologies can help reimagine not only what knowledge is, but who holds it and how it’s made.

Clean-energy transitions and net-zero goals depend on materials and technologies that comprise complex and often fragile chains that stretch from mines and refineries to ports and project sites. The idealism of a rapid transition now collides with the realities of geopolitical tensions; disruptions cascading across chokepoints, with uneven social and environmental burdens along the way. On the one hand, in a fragmented world of tariffs, export controls, buyer clubs, and subsidy races, shocks at a few nodes can delay projects and shift costs and harm particular regions, workers, and communities, as well as the environment and ecosystem services. On the other hand, the rise of green industrial policies that aim to onshore or reshore value chains for clean energy transitions could create new opportunities if carefully designed and implemented. We invite interdisciplinary submissions across a range of these interconnected fields to confront the questions:
how resilient are these value chains,
who bears the risks and benefits, which risks in the value chains pose challenges to an equitable and nature-positive transition, and
what kind of opportunities exist that can help climate & sustainability goals while strengthening these value chains?

We welcome studies on just transitions and equity analyses linked to clean energy value-chain data, practical approaches across extraction and processing, recycling and circular design, or the design and implementation of green industrial policy. Contributions may examine who carries risks and who captures value; how technology and policy choices affect suppliers and communities; how governance and finance shape outcomes; and how impacts travel across scales. Adaptation insights are welcome when they clarify disruption risks or recovery times relevant to energy transitions.

We aim to surface where evidence is strong, where methods are missing, and what to measure next to make resilience and justice actionable.

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.

The session will focus on blue-green infrastructure and other nature-based solutions that can contribute to sustainable water management in urban areas. Modern cities are facing rapid expansion, and water systems are becoming increasingly important from an environmental perspective, also from the environmental engineering point of view. An interdisciplinary debate would help raise awareness of urban planning and the design of public spaces for a better future development.

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.

Mountains are complex social-ecological systems and natural laboratories in which to tangibly explore and understand how drivers and processes of global change manifest, and the impacts (or effects these have for specific places and beyond. In this session, we invite inter- and transdisciplinary contributions that examine past, present, and future environmental change, their associated impacts for ecosystems and people in mountain environments, and measures taken to address these impacts. This session is open to conceptual as well as empirical research on observations, modelling or scenarios studies of mountain climate, cryosphere, ecology, hazards, and hydrology, and their interactions, which could also incorporate intersecting socio-economic dimensions and risks. Mountains as complex terrain can be difficult to adequately parameterize in (climate) models and many areas of the world lack high-elevation monitoring infrastructure that can record data at the relevant locations, densities, scales, frequencies, and resolutions needed. Likewise, there is a need to capture and account for socio-economic changes such as demographic and land-use change and their projections, thereby enhancing our understanding of how hazards, vulnerability, and exposure interact in terms of impacts and risks.
We particularly welcome contributions that describe how steps are being taken to address such knowledge gaps, including high-elevation integrated monitoring efforts, observations along elevational gradients, climate downscaling strategies and remote sensing innovations, and integration methods that include societal data and information to characterise and represent a more comprehensive systems approach to global change.
This session is endorsed and supported by the Mountain Research Initiative and the Institute for Interdisciplinary Mountain Research of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

Climate services are instrumental for translating scientific and local knowledge insights into practical applications empowering communities to efficiently tackle climate change challenges. This interactive session will explore co-creation of climate services, which are based on inclusive and novel methodologies and integration of multiple knowledge systems - researchers, policy makers, industry stakeholders, and local communities. We invite contributions on innovative data, methodologies and case studies of successful partnerships, and lessons learned from transdisciplinary projects.
Key topics include:
(1)Bottom-up engagement strategies for co-creating services that address specific requirements, such as climate risk assessments and adaptation solutions.
(2)Harnessing data from Earth observations, modelling, and socio-economic analyses to develop affordable and accessible tools, platforms and work practices
(3)Overcoming challenges like data accessibility, transdisciplinary knowledge exchange and communication, and scalability across varying contexts, ranging from urban planning to agriculture.
(4)Assessing the societal impact of co-created services through usability, equity, and policy adoption parameters.
The session aims to advance climate services that empower a broad array of stakeholders, ensuring science is not only robust but also relevant and transformative for real-world applications. We encourage submissions from early-career researchers and practitioners to highlight emerging practices and future directions. We encourage idea-sharing and contributions that can create a ripple effect of climate action across different socio-ecological contexts

The ongoing and rapid change of the Earth system is attributable primarily to pressures of society, thus being characteristic for the Anthropocene. In response, research activities in the earth, environmental and social sciences have expanded. However, the interplay of the multiple phenomena requires a deeper integration of the different research strands, combined with an additional focus on sustainability transformations. The session will explore major gaps in current research on the Anthropocene and the potentials of a more explicit Integrative and Transformative Research on Earth and Societies. It addresses the following research areas: (i) systems approaches for the earth and societies to deal with the heterogeneity and dynamics of the main interlinkages across spatial and temporal scales and societal levels; (ii) scientific rationales for societal agreement on planetary boundaries and societal goals for basic needs as well as institutional arrangements for negotiation, implementation and monitoring of these boundaries and goals; and (iii) innovations fostering transformation of societal and environmental pressures and resilience to Earth system impacts and risks according to planetary boundaries and societal goals, taking into account levers, perceptions and capacities. The intended outcomes are supposed to facilitate opening a newly approaching chapter in Anthropocene research.

During the last decades research in geosciences has become increasingly interdisciplinary. This is due to the fact that fundamental questions in science like “Which role did geological processes play in the origin of life on Earth?”, “How did the geosphere, biosphere and atmosphere interplay during the emergence and evolution of terrestrial life” and “Which geological and geophysical conditions ae necessary for the appearance of life on other celestial bodies” will not be answered by one discipline alone but require a concerted and coordinated approach involving many researchers with seemingly unrelated scientific backgrounds. Thus, boundaries between disciplines disappear and new cross-disciplinary fields like geochemistry, geobiology and astrobiology emerge. To be successful in such interdisciplinary fields the European research community needs to

• foster interdisciplinary research projects
• train the next generation of scientists in multidisciplinary research
• convince decision makers about the necessary of interdisciplinary research and training
• alert the general public to highlights of interdisciplinary research

Research in interdisciplinary fields opens a multitude of perspectives for researchers. Also, many of them meet lively interest of the general public. However, there are also challenges to be met: Firstly, researchers have to learn the language of fields seemingly unrelated to their own. Secondly, traditional curricular at universities might not always be open to or include interdisciplinary fields. Thirdly, there is always the chance of pseudoscience gaining ground.
In the proposed session following items could be discussed:

• Training in interdisciplinary fields like astrobiology: Experiences, chances, challenges and pitfalls
• Which channels and methods are apt to engage the general public (e.g. How can science fiction be used to interest people in research)
• How can we use interdisciplinary research areas to motivate young people to embark on a career in science?
• How to create efficient and sustainable European structures to coordinate and promote research in interdisciplinary fields

The experience of new structures like the European Astrobiology Institute in those areas could be of great value for other emerging interdisciplinary subjects. To our minds, such a session would be timely in a changing European science landscape.

Soils and subsoils support our land uses such as agriculture, forestry, nature, urban and industrial land use and provides them with essential ecosystem services. However, soil health is currently highly under pressure in Europe, and the soil’s ability to deliver these ecosystem services must be improved to cope with urban challenges such as land take, pollution, erosion and climate change, and meet societal needs such as a healthy living environment, food production and clean water provision.

Mission Soil (EC,2021) recognizes spatial planning as one of the promising practices to support land degradation neutrality. Yet, (sub)soils are literally hidden and unseen in the current practice of and education about planning and design. Policy and decision makers, landowners, and the planning community are often not aware of the opportunities (benefits) and boundary conditions (costs) of (sub)soils.

Spatial planning and design are practices that, when enriched by soil care, can enhance the current status of soils and support societal challenges and needs, while avoiding unwanted trade-offs of towards other areas, generations or functions. To be able to make a transition in spatial planning and design towards healthy soils, a fundamental understanding of both the interaction between the natural system and land use, as well as the current mechanisms, is key.

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 tipping points
- methods to anticipate critical transitions from data
- tipping points in climate models across the hierarchy, including comprehensive Earth system models
- climatic, ecological and socioeconomic impacts of tipping events
- decision theory in the presence of uncertain tipping point estimates and uncertain impacts

Recent assessments of Earth system integrity highlight the deteriorating resilience of our planet, with planetary-scale human pressures pushing the Earth system into the uncharted territory of the Anthropocene. Earth resilience – the capacity of the system to resist, recover, and regenerate – is increasingly under pressure by global warming, weakening land and ocean carbon sinks and nonlinear dynamics across the Earth system. Of particular concern are tipping elements: large-scale components of the Earth system that can undergo abrupt, often irreversible state shifts once critical thresholds are crossed.

Examples include the Greenland ice sheets, the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, monsoon systems, and major ecosystems such as the Amazon rainforest or boreal forests. Rising anthropogenic pressures, such as greenhouse gas emissions and land-use change, increase the likelihood of crossing such thresholds. Their interactions may trigger tipping cascades, where the destabilization of one element increases the risk of others tipping, thereby amplifying Earth system change and undermining long-term Earth resilience.

Importantly, the Earth system is now co-shaped by human–Earth system feedbacks, where human activities both drive and respond to biophysical change. Fossil fuel use, deforestation, and land-use intensification contribute to destabilizing Earth system dynamics, while societal responses—such as mitigation policies, technological innovation, or behavioral shifts—can either reinforce unsustainable trajectories or create stabilizing strong feedbacks. These feedbacks can act nonlinearly, with the potential to delay, accelerate, or even redirect entire Earth system trajectories. In this context, research is increasingly uncovering the potential for rapid social tipping points, which could accelerate decarbonization and foster transformative pathways towards global sustainability to revitalize and regenerate Earth resilience.

In this session, we invite contributions on all topics relating to Earth resilience, tipping points in the Earth system, positive (social) tipping, as well as their interactions and potential cascading domino effects. We particularly welcome studies that use Earth system modelling, conceptual approaches, or data-driven analysis to investigate nonlinear dynamics, abrupt shifts, and tipping points, as well as contributions exploring social tipping processes and their role in shaping a more sustainable future.

Recent evaluations of the current state of the Earth system (e.g., the latest assessment of the nine Planetary Boundaries) emphasize the alarming decline in Earth’s resilience, stability, and life-support systems. Human activities are driving us beyond critical planetary boundaries, marking the onset of the Anthropocene, in which humanity has become a geological force that is significantly altering global processes and environments. Earth’s stability depends on complex, non-linear interactions between biophysical processes and human influences. These include the carbon cycle, atmospheric dynamics, oceans, large ecosystems, the cryosphere, and disruptions driven by socio-economic pressures. As these pressures grow, the risk of breaching self-regulating feedbacks in the Earth system increases, raising the likelihood that critical components such as large ice sheets, the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, and biomes like the Amazon rainforest could be pushed beyond tipping points. Such shifts may trigger abrupt, large-scale, and potentially irreversible changes that threaten ecosystems and human societies alike. To address this challenge, frequent and comprehensive assessments of planetary boundaries are needed. For this, we could leverage recent technological advances in Earth observation and AI-based solutions, such as large language models and geospatial foundation models. However, efficiently and effectively deploying these techniques requires expertise across various domains, including geosciences, remote sensing, data science, socio-environmental sciences, and related disciplines. This session invites contributions from geoscientists, climate modelers, remote sensing specialists, ecologists, and data scientists to explore how planetary boundaries can be more effectively measured and assessed. We aim to foster interdisciplinary collaboration to identify critical thresholds, understand feedback mechanisms, and quantify resilience at planetary scales. We welcome diverse methods, from Earth system modeling and remote sensing to data-driven analyses and conceptual frameworks, with particular interest in work on stability indicators, non-linear feedbacks, and cascading system-wide effects.

Decision-makers are increasingly required to address climate hazards related to extreme weather events when considering, disclosing, and acting to mitigate complex risks. An interdisciplinary approach is required to increase understanding and forge possible adaptation and mitigation solutions. In this session we address extreme weather events and their changes with an interdisciplinary lens. These events may include temperature, precipitation, wind, and compound extremes, and their impacts on humans, the built environment, or the natural world. We welcome contributions from interdisciplinary teams as well as those seeking to connect with such teams. Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

- early warning systems and their evaluation
- physical climate science knowledge gaps that affect decision making
- risk management in the financial and insurance sectors
- impact-based forecasting of weather extremes
- cross-boundary and trans-lateral effects
- assessment of dynamically varying vulnerabilities
- data-driven approaches using machine learning, and
- storyline approaches to risk understanding.

The focus of this session is on interdisciplinary approaches to translating physical science into decision-relevant information.

As climate change impacts are intensifying, the need for comprehensive adaptation is strongly increasing to withstand current climate hazard intensities, while it is becoming more evident that mitigation is key to ensure a sustainable future. Therefore, measures for climate adaptation and mitigation have to be tackled by cities, regions and countries in parallel. However, measures are often set-up, planned and implemented within one specific sector without regarding potential interdependencies with other sectors, or other areas. For instance, measures for decreased individual traffic reduce CO2 emissions while giving space for increased greening, therefore positively impacting both mitigation and adaptation.
Within this session we are looking forward to receiving contributions displaying possible processes, methods and tools to increase the awareness, considerations and assessment of interdependencies between mitigation and adaptation. These can be qualitatively and span from linking specific models to complex system dynamics approaches. Further, we encourage applications that describe potential formats to engage with stakeholders for an increased consideration of these interdependencies in local policies and regulations.

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.

Measuring progress in climate adaptation is essential to track resilience-building, guide investments, and inform policy. Yet, adaptation measurement remains fragmented and contested: while some frameworks focus on process indicators (e.g., planning, governance, capacity), others emphasize outputs (e.g., implemented measures), or outcomes and impacts (e.g., reduced vulnerability, enhanced resilience). Each approach has strengths and limitations, and their combination is critical to capturing the complexity of adaptation and informing adaptation action.

This session invites contributions that advance understanding and practice in measuring and evaluating progress in climate adaptation across scales, hazards and sectors. We welcome research that develops or applies frameworks, methods, and tools for adaptation monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL), as well as critical reflections on their usability, comparability, and policy relevance.

Topics of interest include (but are not limited to):
Development and application of process, output, outcome, and impact indicators for adaptation, with a focus on outcomes and impacts.
Approaches to integrating multiple indicator types for holistic assessment.
Use of novel data sources and methods (Earth observation, citizen science, AI, participatory surveys) for MEL.
Cross-scale measurement: from local initiatives to national reporting and global stocktake.
Addressing uncertainty, attribution, and time horizons in adaptation measurement within the MEL process.
Considerations of equity, justice, and governance in defining and applying adaptation metrics.
Case studies showcasing practical experiences of tracking adaptation progress across geographies and contexts.

By bringing together conceptual, methodological, and applied perspectives, this session seeks to identify pathways towards robust, inclusive, and actionable adaptation metrics that can guide decision-making and enhance accountability under the EU Mission on Adaptation, the Paris Agreement, and other global frameworks.

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”. 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 underlined by the IPCC and IPBES, climate change and biodiversity loss are deeply interconnected and must be addressed jointly. This session therefore focuses on how NbS can serve as adaptation strategies to climate change, while simultaneously preserving or restoring biodiversity. Considering various ecosystems (marine and coastal, urban, cropland, mountainous, forest, rivers…), NbS as climate change adaptation solutions 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 risk of oversimplification, interconnection between NbS and complementary areas, consideration of uncertainties
- 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: bio-geophysical processes, spatial shift between the location of NbS and the beneficiaries one, modification under climate change (tipping point), co-benefits or negative effects
- Assessment and indicators: measurement and modelling protocols, capacity to measure the complexity, resilience and stability of NbS
- Co-development with stakeholders, engaging civil society, and integrating NBS into education, aligned with IAHS Helping Decade objectives

Nature-based solutions (NBS) are increasingly recognized as transformative strategies for addressing the twin challenges of climate change and environmental degradation while promoting sustainable development. By harnessing the capacity of ecosystems, NBS such as wetlands, restored streams, floodplains, and green infrastructure can mitigate floods and droughts, improve water quality, enhance biodiversity, and support human well-being. Their implementation aligns with the European Green Deal, the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and global climate adaptation commitments. Despite their growing prominence, many questions remain about how to design, implement, assess, and scale up NBS in diverse hydrological and socio-economic contexts. Evidence is still emerging on their long-term performance compared to conventional engineering approaches, the trade-offs and synergies among ecosystem services, and the enabling conditions for mainstreaming NBS in water and land management policies.
This session explicitly aims to foster interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary exchange by bringing together hydrologists, geomorphologists, ecologists, soil scientists, hazard researchers, and social scientists, alongside practitioners and policymakers. The goal is to advance both the scientific basis and the practical governance of NBS for resilience planning, land and water management, and climate adaptation across landscapes.
We welcome contributions that:
- Provide evidence of NBS performance in water storage, flood and drought resilience, sediment and nutrient retention, and ecosystem service delivery.
- Develop or apply innovative tools and frameworks for placement and site selection, designing, and monitoring NBS (e.g., modelling, remote sensing, decision-support systems, participatory approaches).
- Explore co-benefits and trade-offs, particularly in relation to hydrological performance, ecological, and socio-economic effects.
- Present case studies and comparative analyses from different climatic and geographical contexts or applied to specific anthropic elements such as long linear infrastructures.
- Identify governance, policy, and financial mechanisms that enable successful NBS implementation and upscaling.
By bridging science, practice, and policy, this session highlights NBS as key instruments for advancing water and land management, strengthening resilience, and creating sustainable futures.

Water underpins every aspect of life, from healthy ecosystems to economic prosperity and human well-being. People, ecosystems, and all living species depend on it for survival. As climate change intensifies droughts, floods, and water quality degradation, ensuring water resilience has become an urgent priority. The recently adopted EU Water Resilience Strategy (2025) responds to this challenge setting out an ambitious agenda to ensure Europe’s water systems can withstand growing climate-induced pressures, water reuse and preserving ecosystems while supporting human well-being and enabling water-smart economy. It calls for integrated water governance, and systemic and innovative solutions to reduce vulnerabilities, and build adaptive capacity across all sectors. Nature-Based Solutions (NbS) offer transformative means to achieve these objectives. By restoring ecosystems, enhancing natural water retention, and reinforcing the connectivity between terrestrial and aquatic systems, NbS help maintaining hydrological balance while delivering multi-faceted ecosystems services and biodiversity gains. Mainstreaming NbS requires bridging the gap between strategy design and implementation, through replicating and scaling up successful models, aligning policies and financing instruments while fostering participatory governance to ensure solutions are ecologically effective and socially acceptable. This session invites participants to explore how mainstreaming NbS can translate the EU Strategy into action by closing the implementation gap and advancing integrated water management frameworks that align governance, financing, and innovation under a shared ambition: achieving water resilience. Contributions are welcome from real-world NbS case studies, methodological approaches and tools for co-design and stakeholder engagement in water management planning and implementation. In particular, we seek insights into how NbS are valued and implemented as alternative and/or complementary investments to grey infrastructure, and which methods are agile, whilst robust, to undertake such comparative evaluations. Submissions demonstrating innovation and practical applications, monitoring and evaluation strategies, and measurable outcomes showcasing NbS co-benefits would be highly valued, ensuring that the discussion bridges scientific evidence with real-world impact to enhance water availability and quality, reduce disaster risk, while strengthening socio-ecological resilience.

Climate change is one of the pressing issues of our contemporary society with great implications for sustainability and diverse social groups. Moreover, climate change is intensifying risks across interconnected ecological and social systems, creating cascading, yet differentiated impacts that challenge conventional approaches to disaster risk reduction and adaptation. Nature-based and community-led strategies are increasingly recognized as promising pathways, offering opportunities to mitigate hazards such as floods, droughts, heatwaves, and erosion while simultaneously enhancing biodiversity, ecosystem services, and local livelihoods. By grounding adaptation in socio-ecological systems and empowering community leadership, these strategies can deliver solutions that are equitable, context-specific, scalable, and sustainable.

This session invites contributions that critically examine the role of nature-based and community-led approaches in advancing disaster risk reduction and adaptation across diverse ecological and socio-economic settings. We particularly welcome research that:
- Assesses the effectiveness of nature-based and community-led strategies in reducing disaster risk and enhancing climate resilience
- Examines socio-ecological trade-offs and synergies, including impacts on biodiversity and livelihoods
- Evaluates long-term resilience outcomes across varied ecological and socio-economic contexts
- Investigates governance challenges, enabling conditions, and structural barriers to implementation and scaling
- Bridges ecological and social science perspectives to foster integrated, systems-based approaches
- Engages with Indigenous and local knowledge systems, emphasizing culturally grounded and community-driven solutions
- Explores inclusive governance frameworks that promote equity, participation, and sustainability in adaptation planning
- Investigates the synergies and trade-offs of nature-based approaches and non-nature-based/conventional measures
- Explores how AI can complement or optimise nature-based and community-led strategies

This session is supported by the RISK-KAN Working Group “Nature Based and Community Led Climate Risk Strategies“, which promotes interdisciplinary dialogue and exchange across contexts to advance socio-ecological resilience and bridge the science–practice gap in disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation.

Arid and semi-arid landscapes are among the most climate-sensitive ecosystems, facing land degradation, water scarcity, and biodiversity loss. At the same time, they are home to vulnerable human populations relying heavily on ecosystem services. Nature-based solutions (NbS) have gained traction as cost-effective and adaptive approaches to address these challenges, yet their implementation in drylands faces unique ecological, socio-economic, and institutional barriers.
This session aims to:
• Showcase projects that restore degraded land, improve water availability, and enhance biodiversity in arid/semi-arid regions.
• Compare different NbS approaches (e.g., water harvesting, vegetation restoration, managed aquifer recharge, agroforestry) in terms of effectiveness, resilience, and scalability.
• Highlight monitoring tools such as citizen-science, eDNA, remote sensing, and hydrological modelling for assessing NbS outcomes.
• Discuss barriers and enabling conditions, including governance, policy, and cultural contexts.
• Explore pathways for collaboration, cross-site learning, and upscaling of successful practices.
We encourage contributions from a wide geographic range—including Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and other dryland regions—and welcome diverse formats (oral, poster, PICO). Early-career scientists and practitioners from underrepresented regions are especially encouraged to participate.

Nature-based coastal solutions (NBCS) – such as saltmarsh and mangrove restoration, living shorelines, beach and dune rehabilitation, and reef structures (artificial and natural) – are increasingly promoted as sustainable responses to the complex challenges of coastal zone management. These approaches aim to harness natural processes to stabilise coastlines, reduce flood and erosion risk, enhance biodiversity, and provide co-benefits, including carbon storage and improved water quality. While the physical and ecological advantages of NBCS are supported by growing evidence, significant uncertainties remain about their long-term effectiveness, particularly under changing climate and socioeconomic conditions. These knowledge gaps are especially critical for informing policy and investment decisions in coastal infrastructure and adaptation strategies. We invite contributions that integrate coastal geoscience, engineering, and broader system-level thinking to evaluate the long-term performance, risks, and trade-offs of NBCS across diverse environmental and governance contexts. We encourage submissions that include, but are not limited to:

(a) Case studies on NBCS implementation across varied coastal geomorphologies and hydroclimatic regimes, with evidence of long-term outcomes or monitoring data;
(b) Modelling studies that assess NBCS performance under future climate and sea-level rise scenarios;
(c) Innovations in field methods, remote sensing, and data integration for evaluating NBCS impacts on geomorphic and ecological processes;
(d) Systems-based approaches (e.g., coupled human–natural models, scenario planning) that address feedbacks between NBCS, coastal dynamics, and socioeconomic systems;
(e) Studies that focus on advancing the engineering design of NBCS and may include recommendations for types and values of design parameters and criteria;
(f) Perspectives on the institutional, regulatory, and financial frameworks shaping the deployment and long-term maintenance of NBCS.

We particularly (a) welcome interdisciplinary studies that combine geoscientific analysis with insights from ecology, engineering, planning, and policy, and (b) encourage dialogue on how transdisciplinary approaches can help guide the design, implementation, and long-term governance of effective NBCS.

Climate change presents cities with multiple, interacting challenges, from intensifying heat waves and regional droughts to more extreme precipitation and sea level rise. Simultaneously, urban areas also cause persistent issues to their surrounding environments, such as air and water pollution, urban heat islands, expanding impervious areas, and biodiversity loss. Addressing these issues in isolation is neither sustainable nor efficient. Instead, cities need integrated strategies that maximize co-benefits and minimize trade-offs across sectors.

Nature-based solutions (NBS), which can be implemented through both infrastructure (e.g., blue-green infrastructure) and policy instruments, are especially promising in this regard. They deliver a wide range of ecosystem services, including stormwater management that improves water quality and reduces flood risk, climate regulation, enhanced air quality, protection of human health, and biodiversity restoration. However, their design and evaluation must carefully account for synergies and trade-offs across environmental, social, and economic objectives.

This session invites contributions that explore how multifunctional solutions can support urban adaptation while advancing broader sustainability goals. We welcome studies that employ integrated modeling, analyze multiple climate impacts simultaneously, or investigate the co-benefits and trade-offs of NBS in urban contexts. Interdisciplinary perspectives that bridge engineering, planning, ecology, and policy are especially encouraged.
By bringing together researchers and practitioners working across these domains, the session aims to advance understanding of how multifunctional solutions can transform urban adaptation from single-issue responses into holistic, resilient strategies.

Topics of Interest:
• Integrated modeling approaches for urban climate adaptation
• Quantitative assessments of multiple benefits of blue-green infrastructure and other NBS
• Trade-offs or synergies among water, heat, biodiversity, and other urban sustainability objectives
• Cross-cutting analyses of adaptation to multiple climate impacts on cities
• Consequences of policy changes across multiple urban sectors

Acknowledging the rise of flood hazards globally, the proposed session is intended to investigate Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications for scenario planning to enhance urban resilience. There will be a specific focus on exchanging best practices and experiences from diverse geographic contexts from within the European region and beyond, noting New Zealand and the South Pacific region. The proposed session will feature: Oral (discussion block) plus Poster Session from presenters. Proposed outcomes from this session include compilation of a summary reference paper.

As cities face mounting pressures from climate change, pollution, biodiversity loss, environmental degradation, and increasing social inequality, the need for inclusive, data-informed strategies and solutions has never been greater. This session explores how citizen science can support urban climate adaptation, environmental monitoring, and hazard management. We invite contributions that showcase practices in engaging with the public and in the use of citizen science data, whether through technological innovation or methods to strengthen social inclusion in participatory science. This session aims to highlight current integration of citizen science into environmental research and share approaches that expand the scale, scope, and impact of citizen science in urban contexts.

We are particularly interested in work that explores:
• High-spatial density, high-frequency, or high-volume citizen science datasets for environmental monitoring or hazard detection.
• New engagement models involving underrepresented or vulnerable groups in data collection, co-creation, and action.
• Pioneering or mainstreaming the use of sensing technologies for participatory data generation.
• Integration of citizen science with AI for real-time decision-making and scenario modeling.
• Case studies, demonstrating how citizen science can address data gaps, support community-led adaptation and policymaking in resource-constrained settings, especially in low- and middle-income countries.

This session seeks to foster dialogue across disciplines and geographies to better understand both the opportunities and challenges of integrating citizen science data and insights into research and evidence-based governance and planning systems of climate-resilient and inclusive cities. We invite researchers, practitioners, data scientists, technologists and others working at the intersection of citizen science, urban systems, and climate adaptation to contribute oral presentations promoting cross-sector exchange.

The interconnections between climate, environment, and human health are becoming
increasingly apparent, as climate change poses growing threats to public welfare
worldwide. Rising temperatures, more frequent and intense extreme weather events
(e.g., heatwaves, floods, droughts), and environmental stressors such as air
pollution, degraded ecosystems, or shifting land use patterns have direct and indirect
impacts on population health. Climate-related changes also affect the distribution of
vector- and waterborne diseases, contribute to the severity of wildfires, and influence
mental and physical health outcomes.
Addressing these multifaceted challenges requires close collaboration between
disciplines, bringing together climate scientists, epidemiologists, environmental and
public health researchers, as well as social scientists. This session provides a
platform for presenting recent advances in understanding and quantifying
environment- and climate-related health risks through the integration of diverse data
sources, including remote sensing, environmental monitoring, climatological
measurements, health records, and socio-demographic information.
We welcome contributions that explore methods to assess climate-sensitive
exposures (e.g., heat, air pollution, allergens), model health impacts across different
temporal and spatial scales, develop risk maps, and evaluate adaptation or mitigation
strategies. Approaches using machine learning, statistical modelling, scenario
analysis, and other innovative tools are encouraged. Both empirical studies and
methodological advances, whether focused on local, regional, or global scales, are
invited. The session aims to foster cross-sectoral exchange and support the
development of data-driven strategies for climate-resilient and equitable public
health.

Over the past five decades, climate extremes have caused more than two million reported deaths and at least US$4.3 trillion in losses. In 2024, global temperatures reached their highest on record, about 1.55 °C above the pre-industrial baseline, according to recent meteorological. Beyond fatalities, extremes drive substantial morbidity, particularly cardiorespiratory illness, and disrupt access to care. In Europe alone, an estimated 61,672 heat-related deaths occurred in summer 2022. Hazardous heat exposure among workers is associated with approximately 23 million injuries and about 19,000 deaths globally each year.
These impacts are unevenly distributed and are expected to escalate. Socioeconomic position, age, sex/gender, ethnicity, pre-existing conditions, occupation and place intersect to shape exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity. Marginalised groups, including older adults, children, people with chronic conditions, outdoor workers and residents of low-income or geographically exposed areas, bear a disproportionate burden. An intersectional, climate-justice lens is therefore essential across public health, early warning, urban planning and health-system adaptation.
This session, organised in collaboration with the Swedish Centre for Impacts of Climate Extremes (CLIMES), invites contributions that investigate the complex and uneven impacts of climate extremes on population health. We particularly welcome studies that (i) characterise past impacts and future risks from single and compound extremes; (ii) map intersecting socioeconomic, demographic and spatial vulnerabilities; (iii) evaluate adaptation and early-warning interventions (including occupational heat); and (iv) integrate health, climate and social data to inform equitable climate adaptation and public health responses.

This session focuses on the concept of extreme heat events, specifically how high temperature coupled with humidity (wet-bulb temperature extremes) exponentially increases heat-related health impacts and mortality risk. Recent research indicates that oppressive (high-humidity, high-temperature) heatwaves may increase sharply with overshoot, up to five- to eight-fold under 1.5 °C to 2 °C warming. Understanding these trends is critical to adaptation planning, early warning systems, and health policy, especially in vulnerable regions. Presentations are invited on modeling projections of potentially lethal heat events, under future climate scenarios, and on methodologies to quantify associated health impacts, from heat-related mortality to compromised labor productivity and disease vulnerability. The session welcomes rigorous climate modeling studies, epidemiological analyses, and datasets that map extreme heat thresholds or events, especially those grounded in human thermoregulatory physiology. We also encourage contributions that analyze urban–rural differences, compounding effects with air pollution or disease outbreaks, inequities in vulnerability, adaptation limits, and health system implications in overshoot scenarios. By bringing together climate scientists, health researchers, urban planners, and policymakers, this session aims to highlight urgent, interdisciplinary challenges at the intersection of heat extremes and human health in a warming world.

The IPCC highlights climate resilience as key for regions to absorb, anticipate, accommodate or recover from the effects of a hazardous event, clearly communicating the potential of resilience to better withstand climate hazards and reduce their impacts. While individual adaptation measures focus on decreasing the risk related to a specific hazard to a defined object, resilience frameworks and their suggested areas tackle general regional structures, enhancing the region’s ability to withhold any kind of shock – also in the future. In recent years, multiple resilience assessment tools and scorecards have been developed, many of which rely heavily on local stakeholder input and participatory processes. However, objective and quantitative climate resilience indicators remain relatively rare.

Within this section we encourage contributions to present their resilience assessment approaches, both qualitatively and quantitatively, their processes and findings. As well as their interactive formats to engage with local stakeholders and ensure a common understanding of resilience, it’s strengths and potential weaknesses.

Climate change has been an inherent aspect of Earth's history, shaping ecosystems, landscapes, and human societies from ancient times to the present. Since the 19th century, urbanisation has increased climate risk in densely populated areas, but also created new possibilities for shaping resilience through technological improvements, environmental management, and changes in societal structures. Understanding how societies in the past responded to climate-related hazards and how social resilience formed provides valuable insights into today's challenges. These historical perspectives inform strategies for sustainable adaptation amid ongoing global environmental change. Drawing on insights from archaeology, climatology, anthropology, history, and geography, scholars can elucidate the complex interconnections between climate variability, human adaptation, and societal resilience across different temporal and spatial scales.
Data-driven methods—including spatial analysis and statistical modelling of spatiotemporal information—can detect patterns of change over time, informing how resources were allocated and adaptive strategies developed over time. Results from case studies can detect how social, built environment, and infrastructure systems (co-)evolved, contributing to a deeper understanding of systemic change in hazard-prone areas. At the same time, Indigenous perspectives, community-based approaches, and participatory methodologies can enhance the resilience of vulnerable populations and foster sustainable responses to climate change in the twenty-first century.
This session aims to explore the complex interplay between humans and their environment, examining how societies have responded to and coped with the impacts of climate-related hazards in the past. Key themes include, but are not limited to:
• Historical perspectives on climate variability and societal change
• Case studies of resilience in ancient and medieval societies
• The development of adaptive strategies in relation to urbanisation processes
• Indigenous knowledge systems and adaptive strategies
• Technological innovations and agricultural practices change over time
• Adaptive strategies for responding to historical climate-related hazards and their transformation
• Case studies on the (co-)evolution of social and environmental systems in hazard-prone areas
• Lessons learned from past experiences for contemporary climate resilience

Resilience assessments provide critical insights into how societies and ecosystems drive, withstand and adapt to hydrological change. Although freshwater is embedded within social and ecological systems, freshwater resilience is still predominantly studied within disciplinary silos or within pairwise human-water and ecosystem-water frameworks. It is imperative to build on and integrate these disciplinary foundations to develop more comprehensive theories of system change, characterize systemic risks, and identify opportunities for improved governance and management.

This session invites interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary contributions that investigate or support freshwater resilience assessments through the integrated representation of hydrological, social, and ecological processes. Examples of contributions that we hope to receive include, but are not limited to:

[•] Analysis of empirical Earth observations, such as remote sensing, or field-collected social and ecological data to evaluate and track resilience across catchments, regions, and global freshwater systems.
[•] Development or use of process-based models to assess interactions and feedbacks between hydrological, ecological, and societal dynamics.
[•] Applications of machine learning or artificial intelligence techniques to detect, model, and forecast freshwater resilience.
[•] Transdisciplinary case studies that work with practitioners, communities, or policy-makers to define system boundaries, support knowledge co-production, or advance frameworks that strengthen freshwater resilience in practice.
[•] Any other studies that work to build a more holistic and actionable understanding of freshwater resilience with insights that may inform strategies to safeguard freshwater’s role in sustaining ecosystems, societies, and Earth systems.

By bringing together researchers across hydrology, ecology, climate science, governance, and social-ecological systems research, this session is motivated to bridge methods and perspectives that are often fragmented and would benefit from greater integration and collaboration.

A number of countries develop and disseminate ‘National Climate Scenario’ products to inform a range of applications, including climate risk assessments and impacts assessments and the development of adaptation plans.
Different nations have taken a range of approaches to the provision of their National Scenarios to provide decision-relevant information. Common challenges encountered by the providers of National Scenarios include how to capture, quantify and communicate uncertainties, the provision of information at high enough resolution to inform relevant applications, how to update and revise National Projections to capture new and emerging science, and understanding the user landscape to provide information of both the type and format that is relevant and accessible to a wide range of ‘next users’ and ‘end users’ with different levels of technical capacity and different specific requirements.
The session will take an inter-disciplinary view of the landscape of the provision and use of National Projections, and we particularly encourage submissions that consider:
• Latest plans and opportunities for developing new or updated National Projections products and services;
• Challenges in the provision of National climate information – including technical hurdles, information gaps and the challenges in providing information in ways that is relevant and accessible;
• New developments in the science or scenario products drawing from novel types of information that could form part of a National Climate information package – e.g. drawing from event Attribution, exploiting decadal forecasts to provide near-term projection information, provision of ‘High Impact, Low Likelihood’ scenarios, exploitation of convection-permitting downscaling and global high resolution models, the use of storylines approaches;
• Understanding user needs and the co-development of climate information and services;
• The future outlook and opportunities for national climate services, including developments such as CMIP7 and CORDEX, potential to use of AI emulation in projections products, and the implications of wider climate science and or policy developments.

Early Warning Systems (EWS) represent a critical cornerstone of disaster risk reduction as they provide an essential foundation for protecting lives and livelihoods through the timely provision of actionable information. However, the efficacy of EWS is dependent not only on scientific robustness but also on seamless integration across disciplines, from disaster risk knowledge and hazard detection to communication strategies and community response. Subsequently, these systems require innovative advancements across the warning chain to meet the ambitious targets outlined in the Early Warnings for All (EW4ALL) initiative action plan and the Sendai Framework towards multi-hazard, all-vulnerability, and impact-based EWS. This session aims to foster a dialogue on the implementation and methodological innovations surrounding EWS, particularly between researchers working toward more effective, inclusive, and actionable EWS.

This interdisciplinary session invites contributions from a wide range of disciplines and sectors involved with the full spectrum of EWS development and implementation, including but not limited to natural hazards science, atmospheric and hydrologic research, social sciences, and disaster management practice. We encourage submissions addressing the following key themes and sharing of lessons from successes and failures:
● Early warning and anticipatory action: Frameworks and multi-stakeholder implementation in translating early warnings/EWS into effective disaster response and preparedness mechanisms;
● Impact-based approaches: methodologies and approaches for design and implementation of impact-based EWS;
● Technological innovations: advances in AI, machine learning, Earth observation, IoT and other cutting-edge technologies in components of EWS;
● Risk communication and community engagement: strategies that integrate behavioral and psychological insights, building trust, and ensure effective warning communication and dissemination, particularly at the community level;
● Data integration and system interoperability: approaches to integrate diverse data sources that address challenges in cross-agency data sharing and platform integration.

The Aegean Sea is a dynamic convergent-margin exhibiting shallow subduction, back-arc volcanism and a long history of coupled geo-marine extreme events, including earthquakes, volcanic activity, submarine landslides, and tsunamis. These extreme events often occur in a cascading manner, posing a significant hazard to densely populated coastal areas, tourism-focused economies and critical infrastructure. To understand, characterize and mitigate the compounding hazards requires a transdisciplinary approach, integrating marine earth sciences, geophysics, hazard modelling, social sciences, engineering and stakeholder engagement to foster participatory research in the Aegean Sea.
This session invites contributions (particularly from Early Career Scientists), that will broaden and deepen scientific and societal understanding of marine and coastal geohazards in the Aegean Sea, adjacent Mediterranean regions and similar environments worldwide.
Topics of interest include:
• Geohazard processes and cascading events: seismic, volcanic, and submarine mechanisms leading to multi-hazard cascades, such as tsunamis.
• Monitoring and early warning systems: advances in seafloor instrumentation, seismic and geodetic networks, satellite remote sensing, and real-time modeling.
• Scenario development and risk assessment: earthquake, landslides, tsunami and coupled simulations, probabilistic hazard assessments, and uncertainty quantifications.
• Societal integration and resilience: participatory approaches, co-designed risk strategies, innovative communication tools (e.g., Augmented and Virtual Realities), and their applications to tourism, public safety and cultural heritage protection.
• Comparative perspectives from other tectonically active coastal regions.
This session builds on the ongoing MULTI-MAREX consortium of the German Marine Research Alliance’s (DAM) third research mission, which is developing integrated 'living laboratories' in the Aegean Sea to study and communicate risks of cascading marine geohazards. We encourage contributions from other research initiatives and independent studies, providing a platform for transdisciplinary exchange and dialogue between geoscientists, engineers, social scientists, tourism researchers and stakeholders.

The transition to a low-carbon society is both an opportunity for sustainable growth and a source of new conflicts. This is because the changes in industrial structure and daily life required by carbon neutrality are expected to have a significant impact on the distribution of social costs and benefits, amplifying various forms of conflict among stakeholders. How do various stakeholders and citizens perceive climate policies for carbon neutrality, and how are these perceptions changing? What are the characteristics of vulnerable and disadvantaged communities that are relatively more affected by the transition to carbon neutrality, and what are their needs? What policies and governance structures are needed to protect vulnerable groups and realize an 'inclusive carbon neutrality' that is acceptable to various social groups? To answer these questions, this study will identify the causes and structures of social conflicts that arise during the transition to carbon neutrality, and explore social inclusion measures to overcome them.

Losses from natural hazards continue to rise despite extensive efforts. 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 insufficiently understood. This session delves into the the complex dynamic interplay of these factors, explores key drivers of risk, and aims to uncover the underlying mechanisms shaping their evolution.

The dynamic nature of hazard triggers and cascading effects is often overlooked in current
mitigation and adaptation strategies. Many existing 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 expected 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 across different scales. To accurately assess the evolution of risk, these dynamics must be analysed alongside the effectiveness of existing technical mitigation measures. Such insights also inform 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 for a more comprehensive and nuanced understanding of risk.

We invite submissions that integrate these interconnected topics, including hazard and exposure analysis, vulnerability assessment, adaptation strategies, and disaster risk reduction tools. This session will focus on the interactions between landscape processes and human activities, promoting transferable and adaptive approaches to risk management. Contributions should tackle the key risk drivers behind natural hazard impacts through a holistic examination of risk components, ultimately contributing to more sustainable risk reduction strategies and solutions for managing climate risks.

Climate change is significantly reshaping the high mountain landscapes by introducing multiple natural or manmade hazards that affect not only mountain regions but also extend downstream into the plains. Glacier retreat, driven by sustained warming, is altering water resources while simultaneously increasing the risk of hazards such as snow avalanches, flash floods and Glacier Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs)which are becoming more frequent worldwide. Moreover, the permafrost thawing releases greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane and destabilizes the ground, triggering landslides and erosion. Similarly, rock glaciers are being destabilized by warming, leading to accelerated movement, slope failures, and debris flow hazards. In addition, more frequent cloudburst events are leading to destructive floods. Beyond these, numerous other hazards or complex multi-hazard interactions are being accelerated by a warming climate. Overall, the frequency and intensity of such events are escalating under ongoing climate change.
Thus, it is important to investigate the mountainous Geohazards using integration of AI/ML with in-situ observations, remote sensing, and advanced analytical approaches. Moreover, it is also required to develop effective mitigation strategies to minimize future loss of life and property. We welcome contributions on Geohazards studies from high mountain regions worldwide.

Over the past few decades, landslide research has expanded considerably, producing a wealth of scientific insights. Our understanding of slope failure processes has advanced significantly, yet it remains unclear how effectively engineering geologists and geotechnical engineers focused on slope stabilization and landslide risk reduction are translating this knowledge into practice.
This session aims to bring together researchers and practitioners from diverse backgrounds to:
1. Foster collaboration and networking across disciplinary boundaries
2. Encourage the exchange of theoretical insights and practical approaches to landslide investigation and mitigation
3. Promote more efficient use of limited resources for landslide risk reduction

We particularly welcome contributions on topics such as:
• Expanding the affordable use of innovative technologies for landslide detection and mapping (e.g., optical and radar satellite remote sensing)
• Advances in subsurface characterization using customized geophysical methods (e.g., electrical resistivity, seismic tomography)
• Integration of remote sensing and ground-based data for improved landslide monitoring
• Engineering geological models as integrative tools for site-specific landslide risk mitigation
• Data availability, quality issues, and handling geological uncertainty in slope stability modeling
• Approaches to slope stability analysis, from empirical methods to advanced numerical models
• Impacts of climate variability on landslide occurrence and engineered slope performance
• Low-cost, reconnaissance-level hazard assessments in data-scarce or disaster-affected regions (e.g., co- and post-seismic landslide events)
• Case histories of slope stabilization and landslide mitigation - including both successful and unsuccessful interventions - to highlight the limitations of “one-size-fits-all” solutions
• Knowledge transfer between scientists and engineers, and effective communication of landslide risk to civil protection authorities, policymakers, media, and the general public
Session sponsored by the International Association of Engineering Geology and the Environment (IAEG – https://iaeg.info)

Climate change mitigation in forest systems are among the most cost-effective and promoted mitigation measures, and include afforestation, forest restoration, forest protection, and forest management. However, the efficiency of these mitigation measures can vary depending on their specific location and the management strategies employed, and their impact on water, biodiversity, and other ecosystem services can be ambiguous. For instance, the ability of afforestation to continue sequestering carbon under climate change will depend critically on the future risks for fire, droughts, and pests.
Despite a growing body of literature, there are still knowledge gaps concerning the efficiency of forest-based measures in maintaining functionality under shifting hydroclimatic conditions. As forests are social-ecological systems, tackling this issue must be approached through an interdisciplinary lens and with an understanding of the biophysical and social, ecological, economic, and governance implications of these measures.
This session aims to explore and enhance the understanding of forests’ capacity to mitigate the adverse impacts of climate change and examine the ecosystem services forests provide.
We invite contributions that present novel methods and tools, emerging evidence, case studies, policies, and innovative conceptualizations. We particularly encourage studies that link various disciplines to clarify the nuances of forest-based mitigation measures.
This session will cover the following topics, along with other related subjects:
• Modeling climate and environmental influences on forests and the delivery of different ecosystem services under different mitigation measures
• Unraveling the social, ecological, and economic co-benefits and trade-offs of forest-based mitigation measures
• Insights, tools, and practices enabling the successful implementation of mitigation measures and enhancement of social-ecological systems’ resilience
• Governance or agent-based models to improve the societal and environmental benefits of mitigation measures
• Better understanding of opportunities and limitations of mitigation measures
• The implications of forest-based mitigation measures on enhancing forest resilience against disturbances
• Methods and tools for decision and adaptation support in the forestry, considering multiple stakeholders and multifunctional perspectives
• New development and analysis of forest scenarios

Natural flood retention measures (NFRMs) such as buffer strips, reforestation, agroforestry, wetland restoration and soil management practices are increasingly recognised as effective and sustainable tools to reduce flood risks while delivering multiple co-benefits for biodiversity, water quality, and climate adaptation. However, their implementation, particularly on privately owned land, raises challenges at the interface of hydrological science, land management, socio-economics, and governance.
This session, organized by the IWRA Land4Flood Task Force, seeks to explore scientific advances, practical experiences, and policy innovations related to natural flood retention on landscape. We welcome contributions that assess hydrological and geomorphological processes, monitoring and modelling approaches, and the effectiveness of NFRMs under climate and land-use changes. Equally, we invite studies addressing barriers and opportunities for adoption, incentives for landowners, and the integration of flood retention measures into broader water management, agricultural, and policy frameworks. This session aims to foster dialogue on how to scale up and mainstream natural flood retention in ways that are both scientifically robust and socially acceptable. We welcome submissions addressing, but not limited to, the following subjects:
- Hydrological processes that support NFRMs, focusing on how they improve water retention within the landscape;
- Monitoring, modelling, and assessment of flood retention capacity at multiple scales;
- Effectiveness of soil and land management practices in reducing runoff and flood risk;
- Socio-economic drivers, landowner incentives, and barriers to adoption of NFRMs;
- Governance, policy instruments, and cross-sectoral coordination (agriculture, water management, nature conservation);
- Co-benefits of NFRMs, such as those for biodiversity, soil health and carbon sequestration;
- Case studies and lessons learned from local, regional, and transboundary initiatives and measures.

Future pathways that stabilize global mean temperature towards the end of the century below 1.5 or 2 degrees need to increasingly rely on carbon dioxide removal from the atmosphere, followed by subsequent carbon dioxide conversion and storage. In this session we aim to discuss recent advances in understanding fundamental biogeophysical, biogeochemical and societal limitations for the implementation of negative emission strategies or technologies, including those relying on biomass production, such as afforestation, reforestation, or biomass production with carbon capture and storage, enhanced rock weathering, or technologies such as direct air carbon capture and storage with artificial photosynthesis. This session aims to bring together interdisciplinary perspectives on biogeophysical limitations and potentials of carbon dioxide removal for the mitigation of anthropogenic global warming based on surveys, earth system modeling, or direct observations.

Across Africa, failure to adapt to unintended global change processes, are creating urgent environmental challenges that demand scientific attention. Building the capacity for high-quality research in Africa is therefore critical, requiring not only skilled people and scientific infrastructure, but also inclusive opportunities for sustained collaboration across regions, disciplines, and sectors. Over the past years, a variety of European and African initiatives have supported capacity development, ranging from training programmes and research infrastructure to collaborative projects and community engagement. Yet these efforts often remain scattered and unsustainable, limiting their visibility and long-term impact.
This interdisciplinary session invites contributions that strengthen Africa’s research capacity in the environmental, and climate sciences. We welcome initiatives that address all stages of the research cycle: the collection of in situ and remotely sensed data; the development of models and analytical frameworks; the translation of research into practical applications; and the communication of results to stakeholders, policy makers, and communities. Submissions may include co-designed monitoring systems, field and training networks, open science and FAIR data initiatives, cross-continental partnerships, and efforts to embed research within global policy frameworks such as the SDGs, Paris Agreement and Sendai Framework. Submissions across the full range of sub-disciplines are encouraged, including but not limited to global change, natural hazards, land and ecosystem dynamics and sustainable resource use.
We particularly encourage examples that highlight inclusivity, equity, and African leadership - such as programmes empowering early-career researchers, women scientists, and underrepresented institutions. By showcasing diverse initiatives, this session aims to share effective practices, identify common challenges, and inspire new pathways for collaboration within and beyond Africa - Europe partnerships. A follow-up splinter meeting will provide additional space for discussion, networking and exchange among interested participants.

Climate change exacerbates existing inequities, disproportionately impacting marginalized communities who are least responsible for greenhouse gas emissions and most vulnerable to climate impacts. On 28 July 2022, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a landmark resolution recognizing the human right to a healthy environment. This follows the General Assembly's 2010 recognition of the human right to access clean water and sanitation, underscoring the imperative for equitable water resource distribution and environmental protection in the face of climate change.
Current climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts often overlook these dimensions, focusing primarily on technical and economic solutions without adequately addressing the needs and rights of the most vulnerable populations. Moreover, climate solutions typically designed to work on a global scale often generate overlooked local impacts in terms of environmental degradation and water systems alterations. This exacerbates systemic inequalities and undermines the effectiveness and sustainability of climate initiatives. Well-known examples of these mechanisms include the following: the relationship between urban greening for climate-responsive cities and green gentrification, creating socially exclusive urban environments; the hydrological implications of energy transition strategies, such as hydropower and biofuels; and the trade-offs connected to irrigation expansion, between crop productivity under climate change and impacts on downstream water scarcity, local ecosystems, and food security.
This session invites contributions that investigate trade-offs between climate mitigation and adaptation and other environmental and water-related challenges, potentially focusing on societal aspects, as well as research that explores synergistic solutions for water security, environmental preservation, and community driven climate adaptation.
We particularly welcome contributions focusing on:
• Analysis of barriers to achieving environmental and water justice in current climate strategies, policies, and actions
• Multi-dimensional impact assessments of sustainability strategies
• Community-driven initiatives that address both environmental sustainability and social equity
• Design of climate solutions that simultaneously maintain/improve the status of ecosystems and water resources
• Case studies highlighting successful integration of social justice into climate adaptation and mitigation projects

Deltas are perhaps the most complex coastal systems that are also home to concentrated human settlements of half a billion people worldwide. Deltas are subject to various stressors from climate change, agriculture, energy transition, urban development and resource extraction. These stressors manifest themselves in a variety of biophysical hazards (erosion, saltwater intrusion, subsidence and elevation loss, ecosystem decline, changes in flood and drought patterns, water resources decline, etc.) leading to cascading environmental and socioeconomic impacts. Developing a solution space for adaptation in these complex fluvial and coastal systems requires qualitative and quantitative understanding of these various interacting forces in surface and subsurface, in the subaerial and subaqueous delta systems. The impact chains and interplay of these stressors varies greatly between deltas and across scales. This session targets researchers from various disciplines, as well as interdisciplinary and policy-relevant studies that address the interlinkages between drivers and impacts towards sustainable nature-based adaptation strategies. Our objective is to invite researchers from various disciplines that study deltas worldwide, and especially encourage multi-disciplinary studies that aim to provide an integrated perspective on environmental challenges in deltas and low-lying coastal areas.

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.

To accurately understand climate risks, baseline historical understanding of hazard is required and what large-scale factors influence this for different geographic regions. Then as the climate continues to change, an understanding of changes to frequency, severity, exposure, and vulnerability are all required for a multitude of different perils. To avoid an underestimation of future physical climate risks. Further challenges include the accurate representation of extreme events, their compounding and cascading effects, and the integration of non-linearities associated with tipping points in the climate system.

In recognition of this challenge climate risk assessments have experienced amplified attention in both the academic and private spheres 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.

Therefore, providing a platform to foster interactions between scientists, risk modellers and assessors, 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 a wide range of topics including innovative climate risk modeling and model evaluation, damage functions, integrated assessment modelling, bias adjustment and downscaling methods, climate emulators, climate hazard indicators and their projections for specific sectors (e.g. food, energy, insurance, real estate, supply chains), impact data collection and categorization.

In recent years the term “storyline” has been used to describe a range of methods, and storyline approaches are increasingly used in the climate science community to quantify and describe past and future climate events, their impacts and uncertainties.
Storylines, defined as “physically self-consistent unfoldings of past events, or of plausible future events or pathways,” can be used to systematically describe climate-driven trends or extreme events, and the associated risk while accounting for uncertainty. Storylines allow the integration of both quantitative and qualitative data and identify causal, plausible links between both climate and non-climate risk drivers. With this they can be used to study the interplay between hazard, exposure, vulnerability and response, and hence become tools to explore the complexity of multi-risk, stress-test preparedness of civil protection and role of improved early warning systems or adaptation policies. As multiple plausible futures can also be explored, storylines can support decision-making in high-uncertainty conditions, helping prioritize and optimize interventions to reduce negative impacts.

In this session we aim to bring together the growing interdisciplinary community of researchers working with storylines. We want to invite abstracts that highlight a) the range of existing storyline approaches, including studies focusing on storylines for event attribution or assessment of future plausible events, b) innovative methods to integrate quantitative and qualitative knowledge, c) the use of conceptual models for the development of storylines, and d) the use of storylines for stress testing and impact assessment and e)applications of storylines for decision-making.

Scientific drilling in the ocean and on continents provides unique window into the workings of the interior of our planet, Earth surface processes, paleoclimates, 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) continue to foster major advances in many interdisciplinary fields of socio-economic relevance, such as climate and ecosystem evolution, palaeoceanography, the deep biosphere, sustainable georesources, 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 outlining visions for future drilling projects, as well as new research emerging from scientific drilling legacy data.

This Inter- and Transdisciplinary Session will critically re-examine outstanding questions and long-standing paradigms in Earth system science in the context of global climate. Earth system science has developed around the idea of dynamic interactions among atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, geosphere, and cryosphere, through flows of energy, material, and information.
Scientific progress helps us identify which of these flows are most important in different contexts, and the rules and processes —physical, biological, chemical, and ecological—that govern them. Over time, established ideas can be confirmed, challenged, or reshaped by new evidence, leading to gradual shifts or even step changes in understanding. To give some examples across disciplines and spatial-temporal scales:
- The understanding of clouds and their role in the Earth system is rapidly evolving, with major recent advances in mapping out and characterizing the properties of atmospheric aerosol particles and their interactions with clouds.
- The latest high-resolution climate simulations, built on decades on climate modelling, expose previously overlooked complexities in ocean-atmosphere coupling, revealing how fine-scale interactions can affect weather extremes.
- Soil organic matter was once conceptualized as chemically defined compartments with fixed turnover times, a view later revised to emphasize the role of physical protection mechanisms in controlling carbon and nutrient cycling.
- A century-old paradigm of vertical crustal stacking beneath the Himalayan-Tibetan orogen has been challenged by new geodynamical simulations revealing the Asian mantle as an active uplift mechanism and structural support for the region’s topography.
This session invites contributions that revisit and reflect on the foundational literature that has shaped our current understanding of Earth system science. We welcome critical engagement with influential frameworks or seminal papers —whether by questioning, expanding, or reinterpreting them in the light of recent advances. The aim is to explore how scientific knowledge evolves over time and how earlier ideas have informed this evolution and continue to affect or challenge present-day thinking.

Biogeomorphology provides an integrative perspective to study two-way interactions between organisms and landforms, linking ecological processes with erosion, transport, and deposition processes. This integrative lens shows how biotic–abiotic feedbacks shape Earth surface dynamics and landscape patterns across multiple spatial and temporal scales - from single plants to catchments and from events to millennia. Recent advances in biogeomorphic understanding have expanded applications across alpine, fluvial, coastal, and aeolian systems, for example in nature-based solutions. Key concepts such as biogeomorphic succession provide shared ground for cross-system comparison.

Despite a growing number of studies, biogeomorphology is still an emerging field with the conceptual and empirical foundation being under active development. In addition, transferring scientific knowledge of biogeomorphic feedbacks into management-relevant knowledge remains an ongoing challenge. With this session, we aim to advance the conceptual foundation of biogeomorphology and foster its transfer into practice. Contributions may range from alpine and polar environments over riverine landscapes to lowland and coastal systems, highlighting the relevance of biogeomorphology for improving process understanding and informing sustainable management strategies.

We invite contributions spanning fundamental process research, experimental, field-based and remote sensing studies, as well as applied approaches to environmental management and natural hazard mitigation. We particularly encourage work that uses biogeomorphology as a lens to address pressing geoscientific challenges, including ecosystem–landform feedbacks, human impacts on biogeomorphic systems, and the integration of multi-scale observations and models. Contributions from early career scientists are particularly welcome.

The atmosphere and cryosphere are closely linked and should be studied as an interdisciplinary subject. Most cryospheric regions have undergone significant changes in recent decades, as these areas are particularly fragile and less adaptable to global climate change. This AS-CR session invites both modeling- and observation-based studies on all aspects of the interactions between atmospheric processes and snow and ice, at local, regional, and global scales. Special emphasis is placed on the Arctic and Antarctic regions, high latitudes and altitudes, mountainous areas, sea ice, and permafrost regions.
In particular, we encourage studies that investigate the role of aerosols—such as black carbon, organic carbon, dust, volcanic ash, microplastics, pollen, sea salt, diatoms, bioaerosols, bacteria, and others—and their effects on the cryosphere, including snow/ice melt and albedo changes. The session also focuses on dust transport, aeolian deposition, and volcanic dust, with consideration of their health, environmental, and climate impacts in high-latitude, high-altitude, and cold polar regions. We welcome contributions from biological and ecological sciences, including studies on dust-organism interactions, cryoconites, bio-albedo, eco-physiological processes, biogeochemical cycles, and genomic analyses. Related topics include light-absorbing impurities, cold deserts, dust storms, long-range transport, glacier darkening, polar ecology, and more. Improved scientific understanding of atmosphere–cryosphere interactions is essential and should be better integrated into global climate prediction scenarios.

Soils are interdisciplinary materials, characterized by geological, (micro)biological, biogeochemical, hydrological, and geophysical processes, which take place from the surface down to bedrock. Only by considering these processes down the whole soil profile can we fully anticipate how soils will respond to global change. Research into the spatial and temporal variability of properties from the surface to bedrock, as well as the implications on environment and ecosystem interactions, is crucial for advancing our understanding of the whole soil system.

This interdisciplinary session invites contributions that investigate properties, functions, and services down the whole soil profile. Topics may include (but are not limited to):

1. Mapping and characterising soil thickness and structure using geophysical, geospatial, and field-based approaches.
2. Deep soil biology and geobiology, revealing the distribution of microbial communities and processes, particularly across the soil-bedrock continuum.
3. Biogeochemical cycling, mineral weathering, and nutrient availability with depth.
4. Carbon stocks and stabilisation across soil and bedrock, and the role that subsoil geochemical environments play in carbon dynamics.
5. Hydrological processes through the soil profile, interactions with groundwater and surface waters, and issues of deep soil contamination.

We encourage contributions from a wide range of EGU Divisions, including but not limited to Soil System Sciences, Biogeosciences, Energy Resources and the Environment, Geochemistry Mineralogy Petrology and Volcanology, and Hydrological Sciences. This session aims to inspire cross-disciplinary approaches to understand soil systems as central to Earth’s future.

Fluids are an important agent in almost all geologic processes that shape marine geology. Spatial and temporal variations in fluid flow activity modify total fluxes between geo-, cryo-, hydro-, and atmosphere. The natural release of fluids at the seafloor is called seepage, and the corresponding sites are called cold seeps when fluids are expelled at seawater temperature. Natural seepage is mainly associated with elevated greenhouse gases such as methane and carbon dioxide, which can alter the biogeochemical cycles at the seafloor. Cold seeps are characterized by high CH4 and shallow sulphate-methane transition zone in the sediment and lead lead to enhanced benthic anoxia and increased ocean acidification. Released greenhouse gases can directly escape into the water column, potentially reaching to the atmosphere. The release of fluids from subseafloor sediments also poses a major geohazard by decreasing the stability of slopes, fuelling mud volcanoes, or causing massive blowouts. At the same time, the release of methane and associated fluids may enhance primary production ( ‘oases of life’). Fluid flow linked to seepage can sustain highly diverse biological ecosystems or chemosynthetic communities on the seafloor. These habitats sustain active bacterial communities supporting anaerobic oxidation of methane (‘benthic filter’) and can buffer the released methane. However, especially in aquatic environments, a qualitative and quantitative understanding of methane cycling and fluxes across litho-, hydro- and atmospheres is contrained by the inaccessibility of offshore regions and associated difficulties in monitoring over spatial and temporal scales. This results in large uncertainties in quantifying and attributing emissions from offshore aquatic environments. Realistic estimates of aquatic methane emissions require a profound understanding of the involved fluid flow systems, including spatial and temporal variations, internal architecture, and preferential migration pathways through the overburden. Contributions may address natural fluid flow and seepage in marine or lacustrine environments across a large variety of settings. We welcome studies that integrate diverse geophysical, geochemical, biological, microbial, geological, remote sensing, numerical and laboratory approaches. Such interdisciplinary studies provide exciting opportunities to promote a better understanding of past and present fluid-driven systems in sedimentary systems.