EGU General Assembly 2022  

Climate literacy and awareness have greatly deepened over the past few years but how strongly they shape our values and therefore inform our decisions is still a weak link. Inaction today will result in an even heavier burden on today’s youth. How does it feel to be 15 years old in 2021?

As a team of researchers involved in a water-energy nexus project, we felt a compelling responsibility to work with young people to build their knowledge, awareness and skills to tackle climate change through water efficiency. We therefore decided to reach out to young people aged 15-17 to explore the climate action potential of saving water resources in a way that is meaningful and relevant to their circumstances. Looking beyond lecture-style activities but rather focusing on a dialogue that could support their efforts to tackle the climate crisis, we considered the following questions: How can we make our research agenda informative and relevant to young people? What kind of engagement activity can foster youth-centred learning, skills development and innovation processes to take climate action within the water-energy nexus?

A recent global trend of organising hackathons to find solutions to societal issues offered the perfect answer to our needs. In our submission we describe how the rationale behind the choice of a hackathon-style event was informed by pedagogy, social science and management theory. We illustrate the details of the 2-day Climate Action Hackathon we planned, organised and facilitated to a group of 15-17 years old students, members of Irish NGO ECO-UNESCO. Then, we present the outcomes of the hackathon and how we assessed the impacts. To conclude, we describe how the lessons learnt have been incorporated into three further future engagement projects at larger scale in Ireland, Wales and at European Union level.

How to cite: Bellini, R., Bello-Dambatta, A., Coughlan, P., Mc Nabola, A., Dreyer-Gibney, K., and Murali, M.: Dŵr Uisce Climate Action Hackathon – A cool connection, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-618, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-618, 2022.

If you are a geoscientist doing work to achieve impact outside academia or engaging different audiences with the geosciences, are you planning to make this publishable? If so, then plan. Such investigations into how people (academics, practitioners, other publics) respond to geoscience can use pragmatic, simple research methodologies accessible to the non-specialist, or be more complex. To employ a medical analogy, first aid is useful and the best option in some scenarios but calling a medic (i.e. a collaborator with experience of geoscience communication or relevant research methods) provides the contextual knowledge to identify a condition and opens up a diverse, more powerful range of treatment options. Here, we expand upon the brief advice in the first editorial of Geoscience Communication (Illingworth et al., 2018), illustrating what constitutes robust and publishable work in this context, elucidating its key elements. Our aim is to help geoscience communicators plan a route to publication, and to illustrate how good engagement work that is already being done might be developed into publishable research. 

Reference

How to cite: Illingworth, S., Hillier, J., Welsh, K., Stiller-Reeve, M., Priestley, R., Roop, H., and Lanza, T.: Geoscience communication - Planning to make it publishable, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-868, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-868, 2022.

In the past two years webinars on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) proliferated, both as a contingent response to lockdown and travel restrictions, but also as a proactive strategy by diplomats, journalists, and researchers to promote their own views, agenda and representations about the dam. This study aims at contributing to debates on discursive water diplomacy and digital diplomacy, asking under which conditions can these webinars create a space for constructive (dialogic) conversation and conflict transformation. Relying on coding and analysis of a sample of webinars on the GERD organized between July 2020 and October 2021, as well as on semi-structured interviews to webinars’ organizers and speakers, the study sketches a typology of webinars – echo chambers, open offices, dialogic conversations – to elicit a reflection within the academic community on how we should engage in and contribute to these types of events in the “new normal” of a (post)lockdown world.

How to cite: Fantini, E.: The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam Webinar Diplomacy: echo chambers, open offices, or dialogic conversations?, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-933, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-933, 2022.

Understanding and managing wetlands is a matter of great importance, given the fragile nature of its habitats, survival issues under perturbation, and the need for sustainable use of its resources when competing with human print. These are environments particularly sensitive to a number of physical factors and they’re particularly suited to engage with climate change (e.g. sea-level rise and rising temperature), conservation (e.g., biodiversity, land-use management), and ecosystem services (e.g., carbon storage and water purification). Wetlands deserved raising interest in the last two decades by the scientific community, such as the ecogeomorphologic nature of its dynamics, value and resilience to natural and human drivers, and timescales of change. This interest is reflected in the existence of four EGU Assembly 2022 proposed sessions (BG2.3, GM6.2, GM6.3, GM6.4) particularly devoted to wetlands, where both natural and social perspectives can fit. Given both the scientific and the societal relevance of wetlands, how does communication between both spheres is or should be made? What do the experts think about this? Are they aligned with the deficit model and/or the dialogue model of science communication? This is the underlaying rationale for this study.

We propose to enquire the dozens of coastal experts attending EGU 2022 conference about the science communication of wetlands. Questions about wetland communication include, for example (not comprehensively): 1) What are the key topics to communicate about wetland for audiences; with questions discriminating adult, children (8-12 y) and teenagers (13-17y)? 2) Choose the two most important wetlands threatening factors to communicate; And the two least important factors. 3) Is knowing about coastal evolution more relevant than knowing the names of the most emblematic vegetation species? 4) What is the most usual way that you use to communicate about wetlands to the public?

We will collect data on wetland communication via an online questionnaire, with mostly closed-ended questions to allow a quicker analysis. We propose that a group of EGU attendees fill in the online questionnaire two days before and the first two days of the conference. The completion of the questionnaire allows anonymity. Fresh results from the survey will be presented and used as a base ground starting point for a discussion with conference participants about their own opinions.

How to cite: Matias, A., Pinto, B., and Carrasco, A. R.: Communicating about wetlands to the audiences: what do the experts think?, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-1512, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-1512, 2022.

Flood hazard is projected to at least double by 2050 as a consequence of the impacts of climate change, meaning many more societies and communities will need to be able to mitigate and adapt to the resultant increase in flood risk.

One often overlooked aspect of flooding is the experiences of children and young people who also deal with disasters first-hand and who often have a very different viewpoint than adults.  In 2014 researchers (Lloyd Williams et al., 2017) worked with flood-affected children, using creative and participatory methodologies to explore their experiences and tell their story. The research gave the young people the opportunity to express their voice on this issue and take action, including the production of Children’s Flood Manifestos that called for changes in UK flood management. A key feature of these manifestos was the call for all children to receive flood education as part of the school curriculum.

The research reported herein takes up that call by seeking new and innovative ways to engage young people with flood education. As part of the work, the children’s flood stories have been brought to life through the use of immersive storytelling and 360 technologies. In the Help Callum and Help Sali immersive videos, generated via the project, the viewer gets to experience the children’s stories first-hand and develop an understanding of some of the issues that young people face during flood events. As part of the immersive journey the viewer is asked to think about what would have helped the children and how we could all be better prepared for flooding. To complement these films, we have co-created a suite of learning resources with teachers, young people and England’s Environment Agency, including links to the National Curriculum and the Sustainable Development Goals, exploring how the videos can be used to communicate and contribute to better understanding, and subsequent action, in response to flood risk among a new generation of young people.

The paper will show you how it is possible to not only communicate your science but also demonstrate how working with young people can help to build agency, self-esteem and be a means to taking meaningful action.

Lloyd Williams, A., Bingley, A., Walker, M., Mort, M. and Howells, V., 2017. “That’s Where I First Saw the Water”: Mobilizing Children’s Voices in UK Flood Risk Management. Transfers, 7(3), pp.76-93.

How to cite: Parsons, K. J., Lloyd Williams, A., Skinner, C., and Parsons, D. R.: Immersive storytelling and the power of using 360 to amplify the experiences, agency and action of children and young people facing flood risk, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-1529, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-1529, 2022.

Communication and scientific dissemination can be very important if we want people to focus on specific items. This is also why we should question the ways in which we communicate an idea or a particular issue.

Osservatorio Artico is the first Italian online magazine focused on the Arctic region. In issues related to external affairs, economics, migration and climate change Italy usually looks more towards continental Europe, at the Mediterranean area and the Middle East.. However,  the Arctic region, even if it is far from Italian shores, is emerging dramatically into the Italian awareness, due to the relevance of global environmental issues. The Arctis is also important because the Italian Navy and the scientific and academic Italian world are increasingly conducting scientific research in the Arctic about climate change, the environment and hydrography.

Osservatorio Artico also aims to be the  main news channel  for this issue for a wide public. What happens so far away has direct implications for our climateand our economy. Changes in the Northern Sea Route will, in the next few years, change the Mediterranean commercial sea routes, modifying the pivotal role of Italy in the Mediterranean,  In addition, Italian cultural heritage, such as the Venetian Laguna, is under great threat, from sea level rise.

The Arctic is closer to Italy than it appears, and Osservatorio Artico aims to be a helpful tool for Italian speaks. Our collaborators live and work in several countries,  including the Arctic. We want also to reach a wider and different public, so we are navigating between newspaper and academic publishing. Our use of social media channels is very relevant to our aim of  building up a strong international network for information about the Arctic in Italy.

How to cite: parigi, R.: Communicating Arctic issues to the Italian public through a magazine, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-1825, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-1825, 2022.

Tech Scéal, an Irish initiative, exploring algorithmic justice, robotics, and the future of planetary science with migrant and refugee families. The topics and approaches were directly informed by the learners themselves through informal discussions held during the plenary period of the project. From these conversations, a series emerged which focused on creative coding and robotics as cultural tools and ways to imagine, create, and claim a more just and joyful technological future. Grounded in story work and a based on a role playing tabletop gaming format, learners set out to remake relationships with with technology in a way that leveraged and contributed to the cultural practices of their communities. This research project also supported playful intergenerational learning opportunities during the pandemic, where families could gather online to share stories and create new knowledge around subjects of personal interest. Results including the impacts on the identity, attitudes, and learnings of participants will be shared as well as key takeaways of working with participants from diverse migration backgrounds.

How to cite: Brown, A.: Exploring Algorithmic Justice and Planetary Science with Families from Diverse Migration Backgrounds, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-1914, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-1914, 2022.

It may seem strange, but the next generation of geological maps could be produced not for geologists, but for the non-expert public! In Hungary, as in most countries, geological maps were created to help find economically important raw materials. However, updates of outdated maps are becoming increasingly rare. Nowadays, exploration geologists do not even usually produce edited maps, as experts obtain information directly from models. With the changing methods, geologists are struggling to find the proper readership for geological maps.

At the same time, a new trend is beginning to unfold, which means a whole new group of people interested in geology. Mining has left behind plenty of well-explored geological sites in many regions that attract the attention of non-experts, simply because they are beautiful and interesting! These geosites, together with the natural attractions of geomorphology, are being exploited by a new branch of tourism: geotourism. The presentation of the most spectacular geosites for tourism and the linking of geology with natural and cultural heritage has led to the emergence of geoparks, which operate under the auspices of UNESCO since 2001.

Geotourists are typically not scientists, and although maps are the most effective way to guide them to geosites, specialized maps are too complicated for them. By reducing the thematic details and increasing the tourism content we can create a geotourist map for them. The genre of geo-hiking map is the most appropriate form of geotourist maps if outdoor activity is involved. These are hiking maps with simplified geological themes to assist individuals and guided walks. The genre appeared in Hungary as early as 1939, but for a very long time, until 2002, no similar map was produced [1, 2]. Subsequently, geotour atlases and hiking maps were published, indicating the genre’s advance [3]. Since the establishment of Hungary's first geopark in 2010, geotour guides have been trained and the demand for map visualization is growing. In addition to guided walks, individual hikers interested in geosites are increasingly common, tracked by interactive query sheets at some of the most popular sites on the Balaton Uplands [4].

Geotourism creates a market for maps and outlines possible ways of using geological maps in the form of geotourism maps. Geotourism, rather than mining, could be the new sector that creates the need for geological mapping, and since geoparks are not only about protecting geological heritage but also about providing education and activating local businesses, this could be more in line with UNESCO SDGs.

[1] Albert, G., Hegedűs, Á. (2021): A geological hiking map curiosity from 1939, Abstr. Int. Cartogr. Assoc., 3, 2, https://doi.org/10.5194/ica-abs-3-2-2021.

[2] Albert, G. (2004): Geoscientific results in “tangible” format: the geotourist map. Geodézia és kartográfia, 51(7), 27-30.

[3] Albert, G. (2019): The changing use-cases of medium and large-scale geological maps in Hungary, Proc. Int. Cartogr. Assoc., 2, 4, https://doi.org/10.5194/ica-proc-2-4-2019.

[4] Pál, M., Albert, G. (2021): Examining the Spatial Variability of Geosite Assessment and Its Relevance in Geosite Management. Geoheritage 13, 8, https://doi.org/10.1007/s12371-020-00528-6

How to cite: Albert, G. and Pál, M.: Geological maps for geotourism in Hungary, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-2018, 2022.

Just as there is a bias in the fossil record as to which organisms are preserved, there is a bias in who is represented in palaeontology’s history and whose perspective on the cultural significance of fossils is valued. This bias is echoed in the lack of diversity in the palaeontological community today, particularly in terms of racial or ethnic diversity.

A major contributory factor is that palaeontology’s history is entwined with and directly influenced by colonial histories, which have omitted the multifaceted ways in which a range of people and lands have contributed. This bias in the historical development of palaeontology, in particular its alignment to white, western, male privilege, has excluded and marginalised those outside this group in the historical record and today, and continues to impact the perception of fossils, palaeontology and palaeontologists by students, teachers and scientific and non-scientific publics.

We will present interdisciplinary work in progress on an arts-based approach to decolonising palaeontology. We are trialling a variety of practical, creative engagement activities via workshops that bridge art and science, in order to explore and integrate the scientific, cultural and historical significance of fossils.  

We are working with a range of audiences, with a particular focus on those currently under-represented in palaeontology. In doing so, we aim to shift perceptions of fossils and palaeontology and expand the accepted framework of cultural significance that fossils and palaeontology hold, thus contributing to a more inclusive and diverse palaeontological community in the future.

How to cite: Gill, F., Rees Koerner, E., and Andrew, S.: Bias in the Fossil Record: An arts-based approach to decolonising palaeontology, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-2923, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-2923, 2022.

A general challenge of science communication, when addressing complex concepts within e.g. earth science, is to choose an audience and tailor the experience to draw in the specific members of that audience. This can lead to the exclusion of audiences that do not feel spoken to, regardless of their innate interest in the subject. Having been faced with that challenge, I have adopted an alternate approach, by creating visually appealing illustrations to draw the attention of various types of audiences. The members can then choose a path of information from there, ranging from non-interaction with the scientific concept, over elementary-level explanation, up to peer-reviewed scientific publications. This approach can be beneficial in achieving wide engagement and allowing connected groups, e.g. parents and children, to learn together, each at their own level of interest and understanding. 

How to cite: van der Laan, L.: Illustrating Climate Science: the Case for Visual Representations of Complex Concepts, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-4915, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-4915, 2022.

Water quality is a key consideration for both socio-economic and environmental sustainability (UN Sustainable Development Goal 6: Clean Water and Sanitation). However due to both natural and anthropogenic pressures, water quality is known to be threatened in many regions around the world. In this GCRF funded project, Nuestro Rio (“Our River”), we focus on water quality across the Santa River basin in Peru. To gain insights into water quality perspectives in upstream rural regions as well as downstream, urban regions in the Santa Basin, we designed and launched a citizen science app to assess community perceptions and collect images of water quality (April - August 2021). Here we will reflect on the lessons learnt from our interdisciplinary, citizen-led data collection within rural Peruvian communities, with results aimed at improving our understanding and science communication practice within the region.

One key insight we gained throughout the project is that direct interactions with local participants during fieldwork offers invaluable benefits that largely outweigh the monetary and temporal costs and, at the same time, addresses the research fatigue in the region through quality instead of quantity. The Nuestro Rio app and dataset is the result of a year-long interdisciplinary and international collaboration. Whilst the data collection through the app resulted in 350 data entries, the majority of these entries were associated with fieldwork and direct engagement with communities. Uptake of the app by participants who did not directly engage with researchers in the field was poor, demonstrating the importance of relationship building and direct interaction that can help to bridge barriers such as insufficient ability to handle technology or a lack of trust. Furthermore, as a topic for data collection, we found water quality to be a complex concept to gather perceptions on. The term water quality was interpreted differently by various groups of respondents, and often needed clarification during the field-based data collection, especially in rural areas. This issue also confirms the importance of fieldwork to capture this diversity and provide direct communication with participants for better understanding. Our results also indicated a community desire for engagement and openness to the co-design of solutions. The lessons learned from this project offer important considerations for the design of future citizen engagement for data collection and dissemination around environmental issues such as water quality in this region.

How to cite: Rangecroft, S., Dextre, R. M., Richter, I., Kelly, C., Turin, C., Fuentealba, B., Grados Bueno, C. V., Camacho Hernández, M., Morera, S., Martin, J., Guy, A., and Clason, C.: Citizen-led water quality data collection: Experiences from the Santa River basin, Peru, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-5628, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-5628, 2022.

How to cite: Reijnders, D., van Sebille, E., and Bijl, P. and the KlimaatHelpdesk Team: KlimaatHelpdesk.org: Connecting citizens with climate questions to experts with answers, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-5705, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-5705, 2022.

Do we miss something about «traditional” media such as handwritten letters and photography before the digital age? Some of the authors remember this age fondly, and we wanted to see if this fondness could be translated into a science dialogue project with school classes.

We designed and carried out a communication process with 4 classes at different schools across Europe. During this process, each class would interact with a single scientist primarily via hand-written questions & letters, and a Polaroid photo album. The scientists would make this unique, one-of-a-kind album whilst on board a research expedition in the Barents Sea. We asked the question whether this process might show any benefits to the school students involved.

To answer this, we asked the students to write up their thoughts on communicating with a scientist in this way. We analysed the texts and found that most students thought the letters and polaroid albums were a “beautiful experience”. Others commented on how important it is to actually put pen to paper and write, since they use (almost) only digital media these days. Most importantly, the students learnt different elements of the science connected to the research expedition, but also about the scientific process in general. And, equally important, some of the students were surprised and thankful that the scientists took the time to communicate with them in such a personal way.

These results could possibly have been achieved using other media, however the hand-written letters and Polaroids seemed to work very well. They also seemed to conjure up some of the personal memories that we have about communication not so long ago. Maybe there is something to be said for slowing things down with our science communication projects and making them more personal and unique. This is something that snail-mail and making photo albums forces us to do.

How to cite: Stiller-Reeve, M., Panieri, G., Argentino, C., Waghorn, K., Vadakkepuliyambatta, S., and Kalenitchenko, D.: Hand-written letters and polaroid photo albums linking geoscientists with school classes., EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-6412, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-6412, 2022.

A new campus for geosciences will be built in the center of Munich, which will also house an innovative exhibition on geosciences, the Forum der Geowissenschaften. A team of scientists, curators and museum educators began planning the exhibition last year.

Topics from all sub-fields of geoscience and geoscientific research are to be presented in an exciting and informative way for a broad spectrum of visitors. A catalogue of topics and content for the forthcoming permanent exhibition is currently in preparation. Since the topics that the team of experts find most interesting do not always coincide with the interests of the general public, potential visitors should be involved in the planning process, too. For this purpose, an online survey was conducted. The aim of this survey was to obtain an overview of geo-topics that would be considered particularly exciting and relevant by the future public. The survey should reveal which topics visitors would like to see in the future Forum der Geowissenschaften and which information they expect to find in the exhibition.

Existing email distribution lists of museums in Munich, the Bavarian Natural History Collections, the university and other partner institutions were used to call for participation in the survey. The distribution lists used suggest that this survey targeted a field of participants that included the so-called ‘interested layperson’, teachers, and people directly related to geological research.

Participants were asked to rate a wide range of topics according to their interest on a Likert scale from ‘very interested’ to ‘not interested’. In addition, open questions asked participants to name other topics they found interesting.

More than 750 evaluable responses were received. First results, which are presented here, indicate very heterogeneous interests of the different age groups and professions. In addition, the interest in the different topics can be interpreted in relation to the self-assessed prior knowledge in geosciences but also in relation to demographic data such as gender and place of residence.

All in all, the survey provides a comprehensive database that will help to refine the exhibition concept and to design further communication measures. However, the data also stimulates a discussion about whether topics are considered by participants to be of little interest because these topics may have been communicated inadequately and ineffectively to date. If this is the case, the    geosciences need to find new, modern approaches to science communication in order to arouse curiosity about these topics, which are often of great social relevance.

How to cite: Seybold, L., Schneider, S., Junge, M., Kaliwoda, M., Simon, G., Koelbl-Ebert, M., and Baumann, A.: Evaluating Visitor’s Expectations and Interests in the realm of Earth Sciences – Results From an Online Survey, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-9051, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-9051, 2022.

Educational research shows participation issues across Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) are due to whether students see these fields and their potential career opportunities as for “people like me”. These perceptions form early and remain relatively stable with age, which has led to recommendations for increased provision and quality of careers education/engagement at both primary and secondary levels. Space-related roles should be rife for inclusion in careers education resources. However, we find that current UK careers resources concerning the space sector do not perhaps best reflect the diversity of roles present and may in fact perpetuate misconceptions about the usefulness of science. We present the development process of a new space careers resource, detailing how we have attempted to improve the diversity of space-related careers highlighted as well as addressing the key issues and recommendations raised by recent educational research.

How to cite: Archer, M., Waters, C., Dewan, S., Foster, S., and Portas, A.: Developing a new space sector careers resource based on educational research recommendations, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-9729, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-9729, 2022.

The study of ultraviolet (UV) solar radiation is a matter of great interest in countries such as Spain, where the amount of solar radiation received throughout the year is really high.

According to Intersun (WHO’s Global-UV-Project), outreach programmes are urgently needed to raise awareness of the damaging effects of UV radiation. Furthermore, it highlights the inclusion of young people and children in target groups since the overexposure to UV radiation usually occurs before the age of 18. That excessive exposure in the early years can lead to serious effects in adulthood such as skin cancers and cataracts. It is therefore essential to make youngsters aware of the dangers that overexposure to UV radiation entails and the need to follow healthy habits when performing outdoor activities.

The Research Group “Physics of the Atmosphere, Climate and Radiation of Extremadura” (AIRE) from the Universidad de Extremadura (UEx, Spain), is involved in several projects related to the measurement of UV radiation and the study of its effects on human health.

One of their current projects focuses on disseminating information to the general public about the harmful effects of this radiation, as well as providing some behavioural guidelines to prevent them.

The most innovative action taking place to achieve this objective is the implementation of outreach workshops targeted to elementary and secondary school students. In these hands-on workshops, the students participate in the performance of simple experiments that illustrate methods of protection from the UV radiation. By using UV-sensors, filters, low cost UV indicators and 3D-printed devices which are sensitive to UV radiation, the students learn the effectiveness of the different protective measures, such as sunglasses, sunscreen, clothes, umbrellas, etc.

The interactive approach based on visual and simple experiments is very attractive to students and results key for their engagement. This format also stimulates their interest in science and its applications. The structure of the workshops is also original since the instructors are current and former university students from the Physics Degree at UEx. They demonstrate to the undergraduate students how to perform the aforementioned UV experiments. As a result, these students can also pass on this knowledge and healthy guidelines among their peers and relatives in other contexts like summer camps, gatherings, etc. The small age gap between facilitators and participants plays a significant role in conveying this important message more effectively: to avoid the harmful effects of the overexposure to solar radiation showing scientific evidence and increasing interest in science at a young age.

Several of these outreach workshops have taken place in educational centres, as well as on specific events such as the Science Week, the Researcher’s Night and the Day of Women and Girls in Science. This is a way to involve citizens to actively participate in scientific processes.

This work was supported by Junta de Extremadura and European Regional Development Fund (ERDF A Way of Doing Europe) projects IB18092 and GR18097 and by R+D+i grants RTI 2018-097332-B-C21 and RTI 2018-097332-B-C22 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/ and "ERDF A Way of Doing Europe".

How to cite: Cancillo, M. L., Serrano, A., Monserrat, J. F., Piedehierro, A. A., Andreu, S., González, C., Alonso, F. J., and García, J. A.: Activities for the prevention of harmful effects due to overexposure to ultraviolet radiation targeted to youngsters and children, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-10691, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-10691, 2022.

The International Association of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy (IAGA) is one of the associations under the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics and acts as a non-governmental body to serve scientists and decision-makers in research establishments, government agencies, intergovernmental bodies, and private enterprise. IAGA promotes the work of Earth and space scientists studying the magnetic and electrical properties of the Earth, other planets, the Sun and their phenomena, and interplanetary bodies. IAGA encourages free exchange of scientific information, facilitates international collaboration in research, and is committed to supporting education and outreach.

Since December 2019, IAGA has had a dedicated social media group (under the Interdivisional Commission on Education and Outreach - ICEO) to promote the work of the organisation and encourage the building of an online community. The IAGA social media platforms now include Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and a blog. With half the world’s population always online, it has become imperative to shift research to a virtual platform and adapt so the general public can access information about science in new ways. IAGA’s social media platforms started as an alternative version of mailing lists but have expanded into creating original posts, such as interviews with IAGA members. The IAGA Social Media working group was formally formed in January 2021 with the main aims to provide an easily accessible platform for news and an online community for IAGA members; to increase awareness of the varied work of IAGA, both within the community (to support cross-disciplinary research) and to the general public; and to promote the work of early career researchers and under-represented groups in IAGA 

In the time of a global pandemic, this working group is forging international connections, advertising opportunities, sharing news, and continuing to grow. The working group wish to share scientific successes of IAGA members and promote their work to the scientific community and broader audience. We hope to inspire young adults to be involved in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths) community. In this work, we provide some analytics of our social media accounts and examples of techniques that have worked well.

How to cite: Rogers, H., Sharan, S., Di Chiara, A., Kamenikova, T., Leichter, B., Pinheiro, K., and Sanaka, S.: Insights from the work of the International Association of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy (IAGA) Social Media Working Group, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-11381, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-11381, 2022.

Antarctica is a continent distant for many, yet its continuous presence on news broadcasts and social media means the general public often have questions about the latest science, its relevance to individuals, and its uncertainties. However, scientific literature surrounding these questions is often not appropriate for a wider audience beyond academia due to the inaccessibility of journal articles and the complex jargon used. These limitations can hinder the research impact of a particular study. Finding a method of summarising complex, yet important research which may be of interest to a non-scientist is often challenging, however ESRI StoryMap Collections provide an opportunity to share science in an interactive and engaging format.

The AntarcticGalciers.org website was set up in 2012 to promote public understanding of glaciers and climate change. This website is used as an educational resource by teachers, students, and the public globally. However, we noticed that there was a gap in the up-to-date resources available about Antarctica aimed at UK KS3 (ages 11-14) students, despite the curriculum including Antarctica as part of a polar biome module.

The free AntarcticGlaciers StoryMap Series, funded by the Antarctic Science Bursary, is compiled of four StoryMap Collections which summarise the latest scientific research and concepts about Antarctica to a KS3 audience. These are divided into four themes: The Physical Geography of Antarctica, Wildlife of Antarctica, Climate Change and Antarctica and People and Antarctica. We used interactive GIS-based activities to contextualise aspects of the research and supplemented with a running commentary explaining what this research means in a plain language format. In addition to the GIS and written summaries of literature, we included other multimedia content, including talking head videos. This enables more complex research themes to be explored in more detail, without the user being overwhelmed with the written information.

Despite this project being aimed at a KS3 audience, the resources have been manufactured in a way which is accessible for any non-specialist with an interest in learning about up-to-date science of Antarctica.

How to cite: Boyall, L., Davies, B., and Thornton, J.: Exploring Antarctic research through ESRI StoryMap Collections, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-11581, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-11581, 2022.

EGU General Assembly is one of the world’s biggest conferences dedicated to geosciences. It gathers experts from all science fields connected to the study of past, present and future climates. Many of them have an historic perspective on their area of expertise: such knowledge is useful to develop an integrated view of the history of climate sciences.

As our first attempt for EGU2020 was canceled by the COVID-19 due to no in-person meeting, we propose to EGU2022 attendees to help building a collective timeline of the history of climate science. Everyone is invited to come to our poster to add to the printed timeline a scientific breakthrough in her/his field of expertise. This will be an opportunity to chat together on climate science history and to construct together a wider picture of climate sciences.

The final cut of the timeline produced during EGU2022 will be available on our new web page EarthBreath (https://earthbreath.fr), and our Twitter English (@eb_climate_data) and French (@eb_climat_fr) accounts.

EarthBreath is a non-profit initiative that we develop for promoting climate and Earth sciences to diverse publics.

How to cite: Tournadre, B.: Your collective timeline of climate science history, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-11886, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-11886, 2022.

The Royal Meteorological Society is the UK’s Professional and Learned Society for weather and climate. We work to strengthen the science and raise awareness of the importance of meteorology, support meteorological professionals and inspire enthusiasts. In line with our charitable purpose, science communication is fundamental to many of the activities ongoing at the Society. To name just a few relevant initiatives, the Society holds 65+ events each year, runs an enthusiast blog, runs an annual weather photography competition, and publishes several non-academic books.

We will highlight our recent efforts to communicate journal content to a broader audience; primarily research published in one of our own eight journals, but also landmark reports. Activities include: regularly sharing new articles on social media, producing press releases and organising press briefings, creating short plain language ‘research summaries’ for our website, producing freely available back-to-basics style articles in our member journal with accompanying podcast episodes, and hosting a variety of multidisciplinary events around a range of research article types. We have also been able to use the content published in our journals to support and inform our climate change communication training delivered to broadcast meteorologists and journalists at various media organisations. We will evaluate the impact of our engagement and the audience reach for these activities to better inform future projects at the Society.

How to cite: Mallinson, H.: Exploring different routes for communicating scientific research to broader audiences, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-11948, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-11948, 2022.

Imagine, a global climate crisis is happening – but nobody cares! With this presentation I want to take you on a journey into the heads of those people who will probably never be with us in academia, who will never enter university. To these people, climate change is not plausible – and they are right: Climate change is a systemic risk, and as such it is crossing borders, complex, stochastic, and there are tipping points, all of which leads to a general implausibility for those who are not quite into science. And I want to take you on a journey through 100 years of scientists failing to make people understand.
With this presentation I want to contribute to a better general understanding of what went wrong in our communication efforts and how we can improve. This reflection takes place on two levels:

• The level of communication: (Geo-)science communication has to be very clear about the difference between the right and the almost right word. Furthermore, it has to be very clear about the difference between informing people and making people understand.
• The level of the characteristics of climate change: The first level is even more important whenever we are dealing with systemic risks like climate change. In our communication efforts, we will have to pay more attention to the pitfalls and paradoxes of systemic risks than we have done so far. Probably the greatest paradox is that we are simply fearing the wrong: We are afraid of things that are highly unlikely (like getting robbed) whilst underestimating risks that are highly probable (like climate change) but not plausible on first sight.

Imagine, a global climate crisis is happening – and our communication is effective, thus the majority of people understands what is at stake. However, doing more of the same will not bring us to this stage. We might have to change the way we communicate and reach out.

How to cite: von Elverfeldt, K.: Imagine it's climate crisis - and nobody gives a sh**! Some reflections on climate change communication, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-12116, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-12116, 2022.

Social media platforms enable scientists to engage with a range of public audiences from science-oriented professionals to less aware, topic-interested lay publics. Increasingly, short videos, including vlogs, have proven a valuable communication method thanks to their audiovisual nature, which allows their creators to move beyond traditional, written scientific content. In particular, recent work has shown that embedding multimedia storytelling into science communication strategies such as vlogs is a powerful means of conveying the relatable ‘human face’ behind the science. However, creating video content can be daunting for many scientists who are unfamiliar with stepping across the art-science divide. Developing an effective video is an art that one can only learn by making videos and receiving feedback from professional media producers and the intended audience.

Accordingly, to enhance vlog capabilities amongst earth scientists and share EGU abstract content beyond the science community, we have led vlog training short courses with EGU attendees to develop their skills in video-making for science-interested, but not topic-aware, audiences. The objectives of the short course were: to explore the processes of designing, storyboarding, and filming effective vlogs, grounded in science communication theory and practice. Short course attendees used their training to produce a vlog of their EGU abstract to document the motivations, tribulations, and human nature behind the science – a side that conference abstracts rarely convey. Vlogs were promoted via social media platforms to EGU conference participants and science-interested audiences beyond. 

By embedding reflection and discussion throughout, as part of a co-production approach, here we evaluate: 1) the art and guiding principles for producing an effective vlog, 2) the practice of training earth scientists to develop vlogs, including challenges and considerations for further dissemination of this approach.

How to cite: Adamson, K., Cortes, J., Fantini, E., and Postma, R.: Turn your scientific abstract into a vlog: evaluating best-practice in vlog production, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-12367, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-12367, 2022.

In the face of major environmental issues such as climate change, air pollution, and biodiversity loss, communication of relevant expertise and experiences is extremely important. However, we also need to reflect on the scope, biases, limitations, and outright absences of the stories and storytellers. I propose a framework in which we consider four levels of environmental storytelling: (1) what stories are told? (e.g., funding agency priorities, editorial decisions), (2) whose stories are told? (people affected by theme selected, e.g., geography, race, socio-economic factors, gender), (3) who gets to tell the stories? (storytellers: journalists, communicators, scientists; their expertise and lived experience), and (4) what is the audience for the stories? (e.g., language, platform, jargon level, cost). By commission or omission, all these factors are part of the storytelling. All storytelling, including science communication, can become richer by reflecting on these multiple levels of storytelling.

I am developing this storytelling framework by drawing from my experience of hosting the Atmospheric Tales podcast (https://atmospherictales.com/) — a podcast which is now in its third year and features guests and interviewers from around the world with expertise and experiences on diverse themes related to climate change and air pollution including science, policy, advocacy, activism, etc.

How to cite: Gani, S.: The four levels of environmental storytelling, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-13106, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-13106, 2022.

How to cite: Munerol, F., Avanzi, F., Panizza, E., Altamura, M., Gabellani, S., Polo, L., Mantini, M., Alessandri, B., and Ferraris, L.: "Water and Us": tales and hands-on laboratories about water and conflicts to educate on sustainable water resources management, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-13110, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-13110, 2022.

‘Coasts for Kids’ (coastsforkids.com) is a series of animations developed as part of a collaborative experience between children and their families, coastal scientists, teachers, community artists, coastal managers, and illustrators. The videos are targeted at Primary School kids and wider audiences. It was co-ordinated by scientists in the NW of England in partnership with Sefton Council and the Southport Eco Centre (UK). The scientific committee included coastal geomorphologists, physical geographers, coastal ecologists, and human geographers from Universities in the UK, Australia, Canada, Spain, France and Mexico. Educational & community support was an essential part of the project and included teachers, author and community artists, illustrators, and coastal managers.

The episodes were narrated by school children aged 6-8 years old from the Merseyside area (Liverpool City Region, UK). The aim of the project was to empower kids (and adults) to understand some of the complex interactions regulating coastal dynamics at a variety of temporal and spatial scales, and to trigger awareness and interest on coasts from an early age. The episodes have reached hundreds of thousands in online media and have been watched in many countries including the UK, Spain, Australia, Canada, Portugal, Turkey, Ireland, Netherlands, Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Germany, Colombia, South Africa, etc. The series was endorsed by the NW Regional Flood and Coastal Committee in England and became part of KS2 education packages (e.g., the Flooding Education Package at The Flood Hub and the Countryside Classroom). The language of the videos was adapted and carefully selected by our educational committee for its inclusivity, inviting diversity, and representativity, which is something particularly important in STEM disciplines.

This talk will discuss the key elements of the success of C4K, including the steps undertaken by the transdisciplinary team (families, kids, scientists, and teachers) to develop the videos and make the final resource freely available to download and share. Important core elments in the project also included efforts to maximise kids' abilities to link ideas and develop their own understanding of coastal environments.

How to cite: Delgado Fernandez, I.: Coasts for Kids (C4K): a transdisciplinary science communication effort, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-13427, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-13427, 2022.

In November 2014 the Rosetta mission by the European Space Agency (ESA) sent a spacecraft to comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. The data published from the mission inspired me as an artist to create a set of artwork about 67P, including paintings, sculptures and musical collaborations. During this seven-year-long project, I collaborated with scientists from ESA and NASA. Acting as an interpreter from science to non-scientists I implement scientific data into my artwork. Allowing my work to be interactive via Augmented Reality (AR) I invite my viewers to study about the Rosetta mission via art. 

For the return of the comet in 2021 I have created two new paintings. This time I am starting a conversation about the origins of life on Earth, suggesting that comets perhaps played a big role. Colonies of bacteria grown in my art lab have become a part of my paintings.

During the EGU conference in 2022, I would like to display a series of large watermedia paintings. All of the paintings were created with special water that I generated to be close in composition to the water on the comet. 

Work sizes: 70”x52”; 90”x258” (largest piece, if the space allows).

A few of the works could be experienced with AR, instruction to which will be provided to viewers. AR is inspired by the spectroscopic data of an instrument onboard the spacecraft Rosetta. An image with a sound will be visible for viewers via their smart devices. 

If space allows, a music video could be displayed during the exhibition. This video was a collaboration project between myself, a clarinetist from Wales, a composer from Japan and a film editor from New York. This piece is inspired by the sonification of the magnetometry readings of the comet. 

A poster and a public talk can also be provided.

How to cite: Smirnova, E.: Exploring Comet 67P through art and science, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-717, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-717, 2022.

Glacier Gifts is a project designed to bring together scientific researchers in the UK and Peru with author and creative, Diane Samuels, to activate public exploration of current environmental research on the impacts of climate change and glacier retreat in Peru. Through a series of virtual creative writing workshops facilitated by Diane, we have collated and edited a collection of pieces, written by our team of researchers and by Diane, for public dissemination, with an aim of stimulating engagement of diverse audiences beyond the scientific community. During the workshops we practised free-writing and word-collage, inspired by key words, phrases, stories, and images of the environment and culture of the Peruvian Andes, producing raw material which was subsequently crafted to combine individual and collective voices in our book. The collection is also illustrated with personal photographs by team members, and original artwork by Caroline Clason. Glacier Gifts draws upon both lived experience in Peru and scientific engagement with the challenges of glacier change and water security in the Andes, linking to the SIGMA: Peru and Nuestro Rio research projects. Glacier Gifts emotionally, imaginatively, and factually, shares the personal, collective, local, and global impacts of environmental change in this climate-sensitive region of the mountain cryosphere, providing an opportunity for scientific narrative to reach a wider, non-academic audience enveloped within a creative experience.

How to cite: Clason, C., Rangecroft, S., Grados Bueno, C., Dextre, R. M., Hoyos, E., Hurtado Quispe, K., and Samuels, D.: Glacier Gifts: adventures in creative writing in the Peruvian Andes, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-1267, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-1267, 2022.

Everyone, be it scientists, students, teachers, media outlets, or the public, regularly turn to a “google” image search when exploring a scientific concept. Yet, the recovered images are often suboptimal in terms of [1] scientific quality and accuracy, and/or [2] the aesthetics and artistic value. One such common example from the solid Earth sciences, is the (false) impression that the Earth’s mantle is molten, red, and that mantle plume upwellings exclusively coincide with mid-oceanic ridges. Another common issue might be that the labels or content are not sufficient for the users purpose (e.g. axes not indicated, features not labelled). Furthermore, scientists often spend a lot of time and energy in making images (whether for manuscripts, presentations or outreach) and are willing to share their image for anyone to re-use or modify. However, a central, convenient means to share them is lacking and, crucially, them to be readily found by others. To help address this, we have created the online s-Ink collection (s-Ink.org; Crameri et al., in submission). It is a free, community-driven exchange platform for high quality, science-related graphical products. We document several key graphical quality measures to ensure that submissions maximise accessibility (e.g. via scales or colour choices), broaden applicability (e.g. through modifiable vector-based options), and facilitate creativity (e.g. via graphic design principles). Products can include conceptual illustrations, templates, data visualizations, animations, icons, and more. Contributions will be shared with the entire community under a clearly stated license, so that individual efforts will be acknowledged. The content can be downloadable either directly from the s-Ink website or via a link to an external site or repository (for example, in the case of large or pre-existing content). With this abstract we will showcase the website, discuss data and science visualization, encourage feedback and invite contributions all EGU22 attendees.

How to cite: Shephard, G. E., Crameri, F., and Straume, E. O.: Introducing s-Ink.org – a community portal for sharing quality science graphics, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-3292, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-3292, 2022.

The material behaviours that underpin artistic work with glass have striking similarities to those of volcanic glasses, silicate melts, and magmas. This similarity presents a compelling opportunity for collaboration between glass artists and volcanologists to better understand silicate melts, and thereby to elucidate volcanic processes.

Using silicate melts as an experimental material is advantageous, because it allows us to investigate coupled thermorheological effects that are not well captured by the more widely used low-temperature magma analogue materials such as syrups and oils. Here we present work focussed on adapting and refining the artistic, kiln-based process of bubble entrapment and the precision manipulation of gas phases in glass. These techniques have previously been used to create glass art pieces involving complex bespoke figures formed from gas trapped within layers of glass. We expand the use of this technique to investigate bubble rise dynamics in soda-lime-silicate glass under non-isothermal conditions; varying temperature to slow or accelerate the bubble rise.

We present a scaled mathematical model that provides an excellent description of the experimental data even in case of complex changing temperature environments similar to the long, slow annealing stages of glass art production. Scaling analysis is used to show how our experiments using artistic soda-lime-silica glass can be scaled to volcanic environments. This allows a better understanding of bubble motion in magmas under variable temperature conditions, such as those in shallow basaltic lava lakes, flows, or the uppermost parts of magma plumbing systems.

This art-science collaboration used artistic skills and knowledge to validated our model, and tested the limits of the artistic technique: the use of kiln-based heating programs and the glass used by artists. Overall, the advantages of using kiln-based art techniques and skills for volcanology is clear. But we also find that there is a deep mutuality to glass art collaborations, such that the art techniques can be refined via the scientific model development. Ultimately, when working to better understand the behaviours of a complex material such as glass, the approaches of the artist and the scientist are very similar, and our project shows that the presumed disciplinary divide may be less divisive than expected.

How to cite: Jackson, L., Wadsworth, F., and Mitchell, J.: Kilns of the Earth: Glass art collaborations to further understanding in volcanology, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-4070, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-4070, 2022.

The seas and oceans cover 70% of the planet and are critical resources for humanity. Responsibly harnessing the seas and oceans while conserving them for future generations requires a deep understanding of the oceans and, potentially, necessitates major changes in how we (as humanity) interact with them. How do we form a bond between people and the sea? What is the role of maritime education and outreach? Do we need to forge an emotional bond (“a love for the sea”), and what are the roles of scientists, artists and educators in forging this bond? How can we engage different communities, creatively overcoming cultural, technological and financial barriers? These are some of the questions that were posed at the 8th Haifa Conference on Mediterranean Sea Research of the Leon H. Charney School of Marine Sciences at the University of Haifa, Israel (July 14-15^th, 2021) dedicated to the combination of marine research, science education and art. While art is often used as a means for making research accessible to the public, the aim here was to create a dialog and perhaps a joint outcome between the disciplines. To achieve this goal, five groups of three individuals that included a scientist, educator and artist who deal with similar topics in their daily practice, but from very different perspectives, were formed. These joint topics (time, communication, sound, vision and education) formed the core topical sessions of the conference. The conversations between the individuals were filmed, edited and shown during the conference and each group was invited to present their findings during the first day of the conference. A poster session was set up to allow creative, artistic ideas to be submitted by students who were asked to think about how to present their research outside the box. The conference was broadcast live across the globe on social media simultaneously in English, Hebrew and Arabic (many of the talks are available at https://www.seahaifa2021.com/).  The second day of the conference was devoted entirely to community activities that took place across the country and were open to the general public. These ranged from lectures at the Maritime museum to a workshop on how to make bread from seaweed. The methodology developed for this conference, its results and some thoughts for future activities will be presented here.

How to cite: Lazar, M., Sher, D., Tsadka, M., and Charit Yaari, N.: SEA – Science Education and Art – lessons learned from an interdisciplinary conference, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-4255, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-4255, 2022.

Airborne particulate species less than 2.5 micrometers in diameters known as PM_2.5 are considered to be the most deadly form of air pollution, contributing to millions of premature deaths per year globally. However, due to the small size of these damaging airborne particulate species drawing public attention to the issue is challenging. This study aims to increase the public awareness of PM_2.5 through an art-science collaboration. Conceptual artist Nattress uses her bicycle as a performative tool to pedal on low and high infrastructure routes around the city of York, UK. The roads around the circumference of the University of York and York St John University are known highly polluted areas that are often heavily congested. The bicycle was equipped with a MiniVol TAS sampler and a Plume Labs Flow 2 sensor gathering data over the course of three months. The filters collected were extracted and analysed by atmospheric scientist Bryant through an established method used for PM_2.5 filter samples, using ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography, high-resolution mass spectrometry to identify known compounds within the samples. The process of collection and extraction were documented and the filters also photographed and investigated under a microscope.

This arts-science collaboration seeks to uncover if there are any striking differences in air pollution levels on regular bus routes to both campuses as well as alternative rural routes. This study proposes that the data and information gathered will be incorporated onto a digital map of York to reveal collection locations and routes as well as pollution concentrations and compounds present within filter samples. Combining this data with photos and video snapshots of each performance ride will improve the public's ability to see for themselves pollution within their city. This interdisciplinary collaboration would also increase our understanding of environmental hazards facing cyclists and the benefits of a healthier environment through improved infrastructure. This study will help monitor and creatively disseminate exactly what cyclists and the public are exposed to and will help to inform effective solutions.

Despite ongoing evidence that suggests art enhances our understanding of science and data, there is still much to analyse regarding impact and personal realisation for action. This study provides initial evidence that the public engages with creative and visual outcomes that aim to make the invisible, visible. 

How to cite: Bryant, D., Nattress, C., and Hamilton, J.: The art-science interface: making York's air pollution visible, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-5038, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-5038, 2022.

Snow crystals are among the most delicate and aesthetically beautiful things in nature. Looking at their geometrically unique features has inspired photographers and scientists for more than two centuries. However, being made of frozen water, their beauty is usually ephemeral and can usually only be captured in pictures. In this project, we present a system and a procedure to permanently preserve the highly detailed imprints of snow and ice crystals using special kinds of glue and a custom built cooling device. The resolution of the imprints is even high enough to reveal the inner structure of the sometimes only millimeter sized features.  We collected more than 100 snow crystals from Antarctica and the Arctic so far. It should be emphasized that this includes samples from both polar winters, captured during a scientific overwintering stay on Neumayer Station III (Antarctica) and on the MOSAiC cruise (Arctic). This makes the collection truly unique. Additionally we also found a way to preserve imprints of larger glacier ice and ice core samples. This enables to highlight the ancient air bubbles and fine glacier ice microstructure (e.g. sub-millimeter crystal grain boundaries) without the need to keep them frozen. The current focus of this ice core sample preparation is an ice core from Skytrain Ice Rise in West Antarctica, reaching back to ice ages of about 150 000 years before present. The samples we prepare from this core have mainly been used in laser-ablation ion coupled plasma spectrometry for chemical impurity analysis.  We incorporate both the snow crystals and the ice core samples into art objects. The objects not only highlight the delicate beauty of the ice, but also refer to the fragility and delicate balance of the environments they originate from. This is supported by the integration of other materials that have been in use in the polar regions, for example discarded parts of scientific and technical equipment. We consider the artistic presentation as a pathway not only to communicate the fascination of our scientific work and results, but also to bring people closer to the sometimes uncomfortable truths of climate change. We therefore aim to use the artistic presentation of the snow and ice samples to communicate the dramatic impacts of climate change, especially in the polar regions, to a non-scientific audience. 

How to cite: Hoffmann, H. and Hoffmann, T.: The Cryosity project – Artistical preservation of snow crystals and glacier ice samples from Antarctica and the Arctic, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-6156, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-6156, 2022.

Visualizing hydroclimatic data through maps, curves, diagrams or any other graphical means is an integral part of most scientific analyses. While less frequently attempted, it is also possible to listen to the data through the process of sonification; and rather than just making sounds, why not trying to make music out of them?

Overall, the process of transforming a dataset into music involves two main steps. The first one is to define a mapping between data values and sound properties (typically, the volume or the pitch of notes). This is very similar to the approach used to visualize data (think about using the size or the color of a symbol to represent data). The second step is to arrange the raw result of this first sonification step in order to make it 'sound good' and -hopefully- transform it from sound to music. 

This poster will present a few musical pieces created from hydroclimatic data we use as part of our scientific activity, such as:

• the most basic time series used in catchment hydrology (https://vimeo.com/481648928)
• the impact of El Nino on precipitation (https://vimeo.com/440621263)
• an exploration of the Dry Valleys of Antarctica (https://vimeo.com/653705727)
• an ubiquitous statistical tool (https://vimeo.com/532773848)
• and more (https://globxblog.inrae.fr/)

Data sonification can be looked at from many interesting angles. From a scientific perspective, it is another way to extract information from data. From a musical perspective, it is a device to create the backbone of musical pieces. From an education and communication perspective, it is an engaging starting point to present scientific concepts or results. In addition, the process of sonifying data is a great way to learn new skills in many topics, including signal processing, musical theory or computer science, just to name a few.

How to cite: Renard, B. and Le Bescond, C.: The Music of Water, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-9759, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-9759, 2022.

Often scientists think of creating visuals like graphs, tables, and charts to better convey their research or make it more appealing to a broader public. However, some data or scientific concepts are complex and difficult to grasp. Instead, art is a universal language. This has led to a tremendous growth in data visualisation using art in the last decade.

At the University of Reading, a team of scientists are collaborating with environmental scientist and visual artist, Nerea Ferrando, to enliven the important story of deadwood for forest functioning. Deadwood refers to trees, or parts of a tree, that are dying or have died. Research in this field is increasingly showing that deadwood stabilises forests, sustains productivity, stores carbon, and provides food and a home for thousands of species, including invertebrates, fungi, as well as birds and mammals. Yet, despite its enormous ecological significance, deadwood remains one of the most threatened habitats in managed forests. Its amount, quality, and diversity is usually heavily reduced by forestry as a common strategy to control pests or make sites accessible.

The artist is creating a series of works to bring to light this less visible part of the forest and help communicate specific aspects of the research findings, such as its unrecognized role in the carbon cycle, the impact of deadwood on biodiversity, or exposing contradictory views on best management practices.

Ultimately, the science-artwork seeks to promote consciousness and awareness of the value of deadwood and the benefits it provides. Raising awareness is essential because, to date, deadwood continues to receive little attention and the adoption of management strategies that create or maintain a variety of deadwood are needed to protect forest health.

How to cite: Ferrando Jorge, N., Shannon, V., Clark, J., Shaw, L., Vanguelova, E., and Morison, J.: Using art to enliven research on deadwood, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-10135, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-10135, 2022.

“Language [is] absolutely teeming with metaphors that are often invisible to us,” writes Melanie Mitchell, in her book, Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans. “But our understanding of essentially all abstract concepts comes about via metaphors based on core physical knowledge.” As significant work in both geography and the arts demonstrate, our engagement with the physical, material environment shapes our understanding of and our relationship to the world, ourselves, and both human and nonhuman others. Our sense of place is deeply informed by our embodied experiences and our visual surrounds, which are socially constructed and culturally replicated. These concepts are continuously revealed by the pervasiveness of and dependence upon physical metaphor to scaffold language, art, and thought. Rapidly advancing computational technology, however, has irrigated a culture that is profoundly unmoored from these physical and material relationships. While the internet has successfully democratized information, bringing to fruition the knowledge utopia many envisioned at its genesis, and supercomputing has revolutionized the processing and visualizing of immense datasets at incredible speeds, modern computing has also drastically widened the gap between the lay public and the means of knowledge production. The research process, from start to finish, has become so specialized, opaque, reshaped, and repackaged for broad audiences that the average person can no longer connect with its resulting data—can no longer imagine the ice cores, weather balloons, permafrost samples, sea level trackers, or recording devices awaiting the calls of birds long-extinct that lay behind the inhuman line graphs and bar charts spelling our demise. This outsourcing, digitizing, abstracting, and hyper-personal target marketing of information has crippled a system of knowledge-production and communication built on relational trust and a recognition of personal, experience-based truths within larger, institutional messaging. Further, prior work shows that individual belief systems emerge from complex socio-cultural milieus, of which one dominant component is the beliefs of an individual’s immediate community—those they trust as a result of long-standing relationships. Knowledge of and beliefs about the world are fundamentally grounded in physical, personal experience, in place, and in community relationships. In an era of hyper-polarization, digital abstraction, and pressing climate challenges, how might ethical communication practices expand and evolve to more effectively engage with diverse communities already facing the multifarious repercussions of climate change? How can we leverage the physical, the material, and the communal to reestablish the connection between environmental data—and its subsequent insights—with its original source? I propose that a reconceptualization of scientific visualization, based in the fine arts, has the potential to bridge this gap. Here, I explore the potentials of integrating visualization with traditional collectivist art practices—drawing on literature from the arts and from geography, participatory mapping, and communications—with the directed aim of improving conceptual understanding and producing actionable insights in key vulnerable communities for climate resilience.

How to cite: Zeller, S.: Collective Art Practice for Communications-Directed Climate Visualization, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-10638, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-10638, 2022.

Farmers manage 88% of Wales’ land area, maintaining and enhancing the natural environment for aesthetic enjoyment and wellbeing of the wider population. Their provision of ecosystem services ranges from habitat creation and management to water storage to reduce flood impacts and carbon capture. The benefits of sustainable farming in the UK have gained particular relevance as climate change is expected to increase summer storm intensity and temperature, with increased sediment runoff and reduced river water quality. To improve understanding of Welsh farmers’ perspectives on sustainable farming actions and develop targeted information delivery, we discussed decision-making processes towards sustainable farming actions and suggestions for the future of Welsh farming with farmers in three catchments (Monmouthshire, Pembrokeshire, and Anglesey).  Outputs presenting information on sustainable farming actions were revised following participant feedback, with revisions including watercolour drawings of Welsh farmland with sustainable farming actions, which demonstrated implementation in the Welsh landscape without identifying specific sites. A broader understanding of the tensions experienced by farmers coping with climate change and economic pressures as understood through discussion with farmer-participants was communicated through a mosaic sculpture ‘The Farmer’s Voice,’ which was co-designed with farmers and scientists, together with a professional artist, including incorporation of anonymised phrases from participants in Welsh and English. An initial series of possible designs was created following initial interviews, and the final design was chosen after consultation with farmer-participants. Anonymised feedback on sustainable farming and climate change from further workshops was used to inform more detailed technical drawings. In particular, the role of design and management of tree planting schemes and the historic role of farmers in caring for the environment through coppicing and hedgerow maintenance emerged as significant themes during the project. Technical drawings were approved by farmer-participants, who also suggested inclusion of phrases in Welsh and English. The final sculpture, co-designed in partnership with farmers, scientists, and a professional artist, was created from copper wire, recycled glass, and Welsh slate, representing an abstract tree demonstrating farmer resilience through and need for support and nourishment in the face of climate change. The sculpture will be exhibited at the Royal Welsh Show 2022.

How to cite: Follett, E., Turnbull, P., Davis, L., Wilson, C., and Cable, J.: Environmental resilience in rural Wales (UK): the role of art in scientist-artist-farmer engagement, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-11481, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-11481, 2022.

We present an ongoing series of pop-up exhibitions in residential care homes around Windsor, United Kingdom (UK).  Each display was created to give communities access to science and an understanding of research taking place in their local area. The artworks were created by artist Hugo Dalton from a residency with Prof. Sarah L Dance at the University of Reading, UK. They depict areas of her team’s research into mapping urban flooding by the River Thames. To contextualise the research and to spark interest with elderly viewers, historical watercolours of the area were also exhibited in collaboration with the Royal Collection Trust, Windsor. The watercolour genre has origins which coincide with the beginning of the Industrial Revolution: Watercolour and the picturesque movement can be seen as an early form of climate awareness.  

The scientific research that the collaboration builds on includes a method for detecting flooding in urban areas by merging near real-time satellite observations of flooding from Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) with model-derived flood hazard maps. Watercolour, as a painting medium, mirrors that the way that the data are used: Artists, like scientists, layer together different types of raw information to produce a coherent distillation for the viewer. Dalton painted in the exact locations where the scientific case studies were conducted, and developed these sketches in the studio into a series of artworks paired with scientific information.

For the art installation a frameless mobile fixing system was developed, working closely with the care home staff. This allowed artworks to be easily removed from the wall and inspected up close for residents with limited sight, or moved into the rooms of bed-bound residents. The reverse side of each had a short explanatory text.  Members of care home staff visited the artist’s studio to gain a deeper insight into the art and science. They could then recount this knowledge to their communities, becoming citizen advocates. Staff also used the artworks as starting points for activities.

This science-art collaboration empowers communities to understand and feel proud of science in their local area. The project’s wide reach extended beyond the residents to those who visited the homes, including relatives and their children.  Each paired set of artworks formed a talking point and enlivened the visual surroundings. Being geographically linked to their location the artworks provided a way for residents to share their lived experience of climate change. The future aim is to partner with other venues, including public houses and village halls to widen audience engagement.

How to cite: Dance, S. L., Dalton, H., Carolin, C., Clark, J., Ferrando Jorge, N., Hooker, H., and Mason, D.: Assimilated Watercolours: Pop up art exhibitions in Care Homes, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-11694, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-11694, 2022.

As human populations rapidly urbanise and urban ecosystems and geosystems continue to degrade, there is an urgent need to green the greyest parts of our cities for biodiversity and climate change adaptation, as well as to create spaces where humans can interact and engage with nature. Although scientists and ecologists are often asked to inform designers, engineers and manufacturers engaged in integrated greening of grey infrastructures, it is rare for science-design collaborations to lead innovation and implementation in this field. We outline a long-term multidisciplinary project in which proven ecosystems engineering science was used as a starting point for a co-creating a collaborative, innovative multifunctional design; this co-design process can influence ecosystems engineering practices at various scales. 

Working on infrastructure projects involves people who speak very different languages and who have very different priorities and practical agendas working collaboratively. This can bring tensions as well as potentialities, both of which can affect implementation of innovation at scale. Increasingly, calls are being made by ecologists, social scientists and local communities for more reflexive practices in urban ecosystems projects which are working across traditional boundaries, to help steer a way through these complexities. Engaging in these processes is not an optional extra but a necessary part of the changes we need to make together. Responding to urgent demands to improve climate resilience, empower communities, and reduce the "extinction of experience of nature" facing many humans in urban areas, while also alleviating the effects of climate change on humans and built infrastructures, is daunting for practitioners. We reflect on our collaborative practice with academics and practical designers, mould makers and manufacturers, to share our learnings and introduce a visual / technical science-design process guide. We hope this will be valuable to those seeking collaborative ways of working on science-design projects that have practical infrastructure applications. 

How to cite: Naylor, L. A., Clive, R., and Metcalfe, D.: Reflecting on how science-design processes at the interface between ecology-geomorphology-art-design-manufacturing-engineering can lead to important innovations and models of practice., EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-12162, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-12162, 2022.

The challenges of plastic waste-related river pollution in the Brantas River basin in East Java, Indonesia, are the focus of concern for a core group of water managers, scientists, engineers, and environmental activists. But some of the most operable solutions to plastic waste pollution fall largely on the shoulders of citizens, who take on the bulk of solid waste management through community models, influence over allocation of government funding at the village level for waste management, and daily improvisation related to waste disposal from the household. Nevertheless, generally low community interest in solid waste management and river health is a commonly-cited barrier to the scaling up of available community-based waste management models – an issue repeatedly mentioned by social scientists, river activists, and government agents alike. Disinterest is attributed to a low level of knowledge about river health, inability to visualize sources and resultant problems due to river flows, and the absence of effective science communication targeting the communities who are both most affected by and most influencing of plastic waste streams.

The Brantas XOXO project initiated by Ecoton, a river action NGO, couples photography, sculpture, and performative community art with practical waste management solutions in a traveling exhibit. Brantas XOXO aims to inspire interest and action in plastic waste amongst riverine communities and empower citizens to participate in policy deliberation and solution-finding. Within the traveling exhibit, three art installations are coupled with exhibits highlighting community-based solutions for waste reduction, waste management, and river education to create an engaging context for science communication. An immersive plastic bottle tunnel sculpture, constructed from plastic waste taken from the Brantas, demonstrates the average amount of bottle waste produced by one resident of the Brantas basin in a year – much of which ends up in water resources - in order to visually communicate the scale of plastic waste. A photography exhibition includes images of life on the river, river pollution, and impacts of plastic pollution on riverine life. Last, a community problem tree sculpture invites participants to share their concerns and hopes for river health in a collaborative sculpture. These community inputs are to be collated and included in deliberations over a joint problem analysis with government agencies and industry. The three art exhibits are also complemented by additional Brantas XOXO stations focused on river water quality testing and monitoring, community models for waste management, and bulk or non-plastic alternative goods for household consumption (e.g., refillable cooking oil, cloth diapers). 

How to cite: Houser, S., Budiarti, E. C., Azis, A., Afrianto, T., and Rini, D.: Brantas XOXO: Community river art for river community action, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-12755, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-12755, 2022.

QUARTETnary is an educational card game about the geological time scale. Playable by anyone from 9 to 90, the game play follows that of the classic card game ‘quartets’, where players aim to collect sets of four cards belonging to a specific group (in this case, a certain geological time period). At the end of the game, the player with the most complete geological time line (i.e., the most quartets) wins the game! 

QUARTETnary consists of 15 different card quartets, each corresponding to a different geological eon, era, or period, starting in the Hadean and ending in the Quaternary. For each quartet, the cards represent key events, animals, or processes. For example, the Hadean consists of 1) the formation of the Moon; 2) Earth’s magma ocean; 3) the layered Earth; and 4) the first occurrence of liquid water on the planet. The cards specifically focus on geodynamic processes (i.e., the formation of Gondwanaland, Pangea, the Himalayas) and evolutionary developments (i.e., bacteria, land plants, mammals etc.) as well as major global events such as mass extinctions and the Cambrian explosion of life. They are illustrated in accordance with the official colour scheme set by the International Commission on Stratigraphy to ensure easy comparison with the official geological time scale.

Here, we present the first illustrated cards of QUARTETnary and parts of the accompanying booklet that provides more information on each of the time periods and the reasons for the inclusion of specific events on each of the cards. 

In addition, we discuss the launch of our website and twitter account in October 2021 in preparation of a kickstarter campaign to fund the production of the game within the next two years. We review how we prepared our social media campaign and show the resulting online engagement, plus illustrative reactions from the geosciences community. 

How to cite: van Zelst, I. and Perez-Diaz, L.: QUARTETnary - The card game about the geological time scale, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-652, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-652, 2022.

Misinformation about climate change does damage in multiple ways. It causes people to believe wrong things, polarizes the public, and reduces trust in scientists. Climate misinformation reduces support for climate action, delaying policies to mitigate climate change. One of the most insidious aspects of misinformation is that it can cancel out accurate information. When people are presented with fact and myth but don’t know how to resolve the conflict between the two, the risk is they disengage and believe neither. Consequently, an effective way to counter misinformation is to help people resolve the conflict between facts and myths. This can be achieved through inoculation theory, a branch of psychological research that applies the concept of vaccination to knowledge. Just as exposing people to a weakened form of a virus develops resistance to the real virus, similarly, exposing people to a weakened form of misinformation builds immunity to real-world misinformation. In other words, rather than getting lost in particulars, you explain the misleading rhetorical techniques and logical fallacies used in misinformation. Inoculation has been found to be effective in neutralizing misinformation casting doubt on the scientific consensus on human-caused global warming.

However, there are many misinformation techniques and inoculating people against them all is a communication and education challenge. Games offer engaging tools for incentivizing people to repeatedly perform misinformation-spotting tasks in order to build up their critical thinking skills. Games that are fun to engage with while serving a useful educational purpose are known as serious games, and are already being explored as a tool for building resilience against misinformation, using an approach known as active inoculation. Typically, inoculation interventions are passive, with messages received in a one-way direction from communicator to audience. In contrast, active inoculation involves participants in an interactive inoculation process – having them learn the techniques of science denial by ironically learning to use the misleading techniques themselves. The Cranky Uncle game adopts an active inoculation approach, where a “cranky uncle” cartoon character mentors players to learn the techniques of science denial. Cranky Uncle is a free game available on iPhone (sks.to/crankyiphone) and Android (sks.to/crankyandroid) smartphones as well as web browsers (app.crankyuncle.info). The player’s aim is to become a “cranky uncle” who skillfully applies a variety of logically flawed argumentation techniques to reject the conclusions of scientific communities. By adopting the mindset of a cranky uncle, the player develops a deeper understanding of science denial techniques, thus acquiring the knowledge to resist misleading persuasion attempts in the future.

The game is available in several languages and creating the translations involved some creative problem solving to come up with suitable alternatives where the English content couldn’t simply be translated directly. Reasons for these challenges were linked to cultural or legal differences across countries. For example, some terms were ambiguous in one language but not another, actual people mentioned in quiz questions were not known outside of the US, or a fallacy was named differently in another language, requiring a new icon.

How to cite: Winkler, B. and Cook, J.: Cranky Uncle - a multi-lingual critical thinking game to build resilience against climate misinformation, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-1251, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-1251, 2022.

The pandemic has put this technology on the radar of many gamers, educators, and entrepreneurs. The capacity to collaboratively build and share synchronized virtual spaces is opening new avenues for distance education.  In STEM, field-based disciplines benefit the most from investment in VR technologies, as they can be used to build digital replicates of ecological environments and geological landscapes to be used in conjunction with real fieldwork experiences. Building virtual worlds is fast because most of the digital assets embedded into VR worlds are put together in applications supporting 3D formats (Paraview, Sketchup, QGIS or ArcGis, MatLab, Mathematica, etc). These assets can then be embedded into virtual worlds via a simple drag-and-drop process.

Using NEOS metaverse engine (free for non-commercial usage), I have built a digital replicate of the landscape I use for an introduction to geological mapping in sedimentary terrains. The 3D landscape, from central NSW in Australia, was put together in QGIS using a lidar image delivering a pixel footprint of 5 m, and a high-resolution satellite image from GoogleEarth. This 3D landscape was exported in gltf format using the Qgis2threejs plugin, and imported into a NEOS empty world, put to scale, and geographically oriented. To add to the realism, I added a skybox with a sun whose position changes with time, some 3D models of gum trees, bushes, and logs (bought on Sketchfab for a few dollars) and, since this landscape is on a working farm, some royalty-free sounds (cattle, sheep, bird, and bees).  Scans of 3D outcrops, 3D models of fossils, 2D digital photographs, 360 images were then be positioned onto the virtual landscape. These assets can easily be toggled on and off if necessary. The bulk of this geological mapping world took a few days to put together, and the cost was minimal since I used mainly open-source applications, open datasets, and free digital assets. Importantly, once a NEOS VR world is built, a limitless number of sessions can be open concurrently, allowing students to work in small groups without interferences with other groups. Students can be forced to walk on the digital landscape or be allowed to fly and see the landscape from a bird's view perspective to better grasp geological features or regain their bearings should they get lost.

Importantly, I designed and programmed, using NEOS’ scripting language, a fully functional geological compass for structural measurements, as well as a GPS handset since our virtual landscape is properly georeferenced. NEOS has a digital camera with which students can record pictures or movies, that can be easily exported onto their computers. These virtual devices allow students to record geological information the same way they would in the field. Though no virtual experiences can replace real field experience, the technology has evolved to a point where it can be used very effectively, either before going in the field so students get familiar with the geological landscape or after allowing students to revisit key outcrops or visit outcrops they may have missed.

How to cite: Rey, P.: Geological mapping in an immersive virtual world: A proof of concept, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-1386, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-1386, 2022.

A role-playing game (RPG) was experimentally included in the teaching activities of the class “Environmental Impact Assessment” (EIA), which is part of two Master’s Degree programs (namely, “Human and Natural Sciences” and “Geological Sciences and Technologies”) of the University of Firenze.

The aim of the “EIA” class is to provide students with the basic technical elements to manage an environmental assessment procedure. The RPG was conceived with two objectives: putting in practice what was learnt during the class and preparing the students to face also the social and political issues commonly associated to relevant projects.

The RPG was about a public debate concerning the EIA procedure of the project for a geothermal plant. Each participant played the role of a character closely involved in the situation: the investor, the project manager, the mayor, an eco-radical, an environmental association, the winemakers (the main local economic activity), the local citizens’ committee, and so on. Each character had a specific goal to reach during the debate: the businessman had to convince the public of the feasibility of the project while minimizing the costs of environmental mitigation measures, the eco-radical had to try to block the project, the mayor was not interested in the project per-se but had to increase his consensus among the citizens, and so on.

The design of the game was complex, as the characters and their objectives were connected or separated by a complex network of personal interests (or ideological perspectives) that would oppose each player to some of the others, contemporarily providing the basis for potential alliances with some others. The gamers’ ability during the debate would be crucial to move the balance and to determine if the project will be accepted or not.

Experimentally, the game session was played twice (during the 2020-2021 and the 2021-2022 classes) and some preliminary outcomes were drawn.

Concerning the game design, it proved to be robust: the game outcome was totally in the hands of the players as confirmed by the opposite outcomes of the sessions played. The first session ended up with a “draw” between two ideologically opposed blocks that did not prevail on the other, leaving the destiny of the geothermal plant unresolved after the debate. During the second session, the “faction” favorable to the project was very effective to debate and managed to move toward acceptancy of the project some other characters (initially neutral or even moderately negative), mainly using mitigation measures to convince them.

Concerning the teaching experiment, it was considered fully successful. The feedback from the students was very positive, as both classes unanimously agreed on the following points: (i) the game was very useful to put into practice some of the concepts learnt during the theoretical lessons; (ii) the game was useful to understand how difficult is for a scientist/technician to deal with social and political aspects (thus the game represented a valuable complement to the main teaching activities); (iii) they enjoyed the game and recommended to repeat it for the next classes.

How to cite: Segoni, S.: Role-play gaming to teach “Environmental Impact Assessment” in Master’s Degree courses., EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-1548, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-1548, 2022.

In an effort to foster interdisciplinary and innovative teaching via a ‘gamification’ approach, a real-time forecasting challenge was organized during the winter term 2021/2022 at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. The main aim was to teach students about statistical methods, probabilistic forecasting and uncertainty quantification in a practical, real-world problem-oriented setup. Around 20 participants (mostly MSc-level students) from backgrounds in mathematics, economics, computer science and geosciences were tasked to provide probabilistic predictions of several targets, including temperature and wind speed at a local weather station in Karlsruhe, over 14 weeks during the semester. Real-time feedback was provided in the form of automated evaluation and rankings of the participants’ submissions, who were competing for a ‘Student Award’ sponsored by the International Institute of Forecasters. Efforts and problems in building and evaluating models were discussed in weekly virtual meetings.

In this presentation, I will discuss the setup and relevant design choices of the forecasting challenge, along with the main outcomes and lessons learned from the practical implementation in the context of the course. All relevant code and material are available as open educational resources.

How to cite: Lerch, S.: Lessons learned from organizing an in-classroom forecasting challenge for teaching uncertainty quantification, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-1702, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-1702, 2022.

Serious games (SGs) are games developed and designed to inculcate skills, knowledge, competence or change the attitude towards a specific topic. Here we (i) review 58 serious games developed to inform actions and inculcate skills or knowledge on natural hazards or disaster risk; and (ii) propose four serious games for landslides. We, first review nine literature reviews on serious games (post-2002) that list and compare SGs based on different characteristics (for example: their (SG) effectiveness, or their roles for improving decision-making capacity, communication and spurring learning, or their alignment with Sustainability Development Goals). From these reviews, we identify 33 serious games developed to inform actions and inculcate skills or knowledge on natural hazards or disaster risk. We, then, carry out a systematic online-database search in Web of Science to identify 25 more natural hazard-based serious games, bringing the total to 58. For the 58 serious games, we compare the following characteristics: (a) year of game development; (b) game format; (c) player number; (d) target audience; (e) hazard studied; (f) vulnerability; (g) exposure; and (h) methodology followed to identify the game’s effectiveness. Based on our review, we identify 11 gaps in the serious game research area for natural hazards and DRR, of which the most important ones were: (i) limited literature describing how awareness, skills and knowledge are co-created using a serious game, i.e., the effectiveness of the game, and (ii) limited number of games on landslides, either as a standalone hazard or a part of multi-hazards.

Using the learnings from this review, we devise four ideas to develop a computer or board game for landslides in data-poor regions (we will focus on India): (i) a multiplayer game with an aim to explain different roles of stakeholders in landslide hazard management; (ii) a multiplayer game to explain the data collection process, and data flow needed to forecast landslides; (iii) a single or multiplayer game on identifying the interaction between different landslide-related variables; and (iv) a single player game on identifying the landslide risk and future actions. These four ideas involve different stakeholders as target participants, including local inhabitants, academics, government officials and scientists, private contractors, NGO workers, politicians. We further try to integrate these four ideas into one simple serious game and discover a pathway to quantify the effectiveness of this game. We believe that these four ideas also open an avenue for further research and work on serious games on landslides in data-poor regions.

How to cite: Choudhury, S., Malamud, B. D., and Donovan, A.: Serious game for landslides: a review of the literature reviews to fill an existing gap in serious game research, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-1861, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-1861, 2022.

ClimarisQ is a smartphone/web game from a scientific mediation project that highlights the complexity of the climate system and the urgency of collective action to limit climate change. It is an app-game where players must make decisions to limit the frequency and impacts of extreme climate events and their impacts on human societies using real climate models. ClimarisQ has also an educational tool that helps to understand:

• The urgency of collective action to limit the adverse effects of climate change (The importance of limiting greenhouse gas emissions).
• The multiplicity of interacting climate components as well as the nonlinearities of the processes underlying climate dynamics (Delayed effects, amplification, rebound effects).
• The problems of predicting and projecting extreme weather events (Unpredictable locations and timing but predictable frequencies).

Explore the effects of mitigation and adaptation choices to extreme climate events at the local, regional and global levels. Could you achieve a greener trajectory than the IPCC RCP 4.5 emission scenario? Explore the feedback mechanisms (notably physical, but also economic and social) that produce extreme effects on the climate system. Make decisions on a continental scale and see the impact of these decisions on the economy, politics and the environment. Deal with extreme events (heat waves, cold waves, heavy rainfall and drought) generated by a real climate model. Try to balance the “popularity”, “ecology” and “finance” gauges as long as possible. Fullfill all the missions to explore different climates.

The game-over displays both the PPM (parts per million) of CO2 deviation from the intermediate scenario of greenhouse gas emissions established by the IPCC (RCP4.5), as well as the number of survival game turns. These elements stimulate thinking about climate change and motivate the player to do better next time. Thanks to the hazards introduced by the extreme events and cards, every game is different!

Play/Download the game at: https://climarisq.ipsl.fr/en/  

also available in French/English and Italian

How to cite: Faranda, D.: ClimarisQ: a Smartphone game to highlight the complexity of the Climate Systems and the impacts of Extreme Events, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-1944, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-1944, 2022.

The 21^st century is rapidly shaping up to be one in which technology, particularly information technology (IT), dominates nearly every aspect of human life and, as a result, the demand for a digitally literate and IT-skilled labour force is rapidly increasing. Consequently, education and learning institutions are progressively being required to adopt new media and provide new services to keep pace with the exigencies of this new Information Age. Digital games, in particular, are becoming more widely adopted as they offer unique learning environments that can improve student learning commitment, performance, and enjoyment – and have a lower environmental burden.  While most digital games, including those for recreation, offer elements of learning, serious digital games are designed to train or educate.  Similarly to recreational games, serious games employ 3D visualisations, rewards, stimulation, and emotional connection, competition and constraint, immediate feedback, cognitive conflict, and interactivity e.g. user-friendly player interfaces or avatars.  In addition, SEGs offer situated and conceptualised learning and training, tailored study, development of mastery, personal and self-esteem development, and provide a tactile online learning experience that can also take place in virtual environments that are inaccessible, dangerous or impractical for players to experience in the real world.  Serious games fall into several categories from broad training games, such as 3D simulations and digital interactions, to serious educational games (SEGs), which are games designed with specific learning outcomes, target domain-specific K-20 content knowledge, and use real-life environments to educate students by incorporating specific a priori pedagogical frameworks to train and instruct.  SEGs are, arguably, the most complex serious games to develop as they need to incorporate recreational game development factors i.e., fun, as well as include the relevant pedagogical and curriculum elements and ensure students are able to understand and achieve the specific learning objectives and goals.  Reconciling recreational game theory (programming, mechanics, dynamics, aesthetics/technical art, story/flow, technology, testing /player experience, etc.) with SEG development (curriculum, learning objectives, pedagogical design, assessment, and monitoring, etc.) can be complex and fraught with conflicts and barriers e.g. making the learning of difficult concepts or tasks fun.  This article presents the development and use of The Planet Academy programme and associated series of SEGs in Denmark, Austria, Sweden, and Australia and proposes a pathway towards reconciling many of the conflicts between recreational and SEGs; exploring the conceptualisation, production, pedagogical considerations, and offering a practical, how-to, approach for SEG creation. We demonstrate that SEGs offer a unique, unparalleled medium for learning and offer extraordinary opportunities for improving digital literacy, reducing emissions, cultivating an IT-skilled workforce and, more importantly, drastically increasing student engagement, performance, and learning outcomes in the day-to-day classroom.

How to cite: Harker-Schuch, I.: Developing The Planet Academy programme – a practical how-to approach for designing and creating serious educational games (SEGs)., EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-2249, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-2249, 2022.

The goal of scientific dissemination is to reach all levels of age and social origin of the population, simplifying scientific concepts and making them appealing to the general public.A common and understandable language has always been the visual one, for this reason many authors use images as a tool to convey scientific notions and discoveries. From its origins, science has placed images at the center of its communication processes: drawings, diagrams and then, subsequently to scientific discoveries, photographs, films up to satellite images.In this framework, we emphasize the importance of playful-didactic activity and visual language to facilitate learning and, in particular the development of scientific games. Our working group has been collaborating for years in the organization of dissemination events with the aim of increasing knowledge on the major geological issues for the protection of the planet.In this context it is important to highlight the role of scientific dissemination and the different methodologies to be used.One of the most used and appreciated tools has been the creation of scientific-didactic games: to simplify concepts, the game has in fact proved to be a fundamental tool.We present VULCANOPOLI, inserted in a series of science games that started with MAREOPOLI (Locritani et al. 2017) and inspired by Hasbro’s famous MONOPOLY. The main topic is volcanoes, both from a scientific and a historical point of view. Thanks to this game the historical evolution of some of the most important Italian Volcanoes can be reconstructed. The rules are those of the original game with some additional questions and concepts to remember, to conquer cities and accumulate points. The VULCANOPOLY game-board consists of thirty-six spaces containing twenty-one villages and cities on three main italian active volcanoes (Mount Vesuvius, Mount Etna and Stromboli Island) and one quiescent volcano (Colli Albani Volcanic District), four Chance spaces and four Community Chest spaces, a hot water baths space, a geothermal energy space, an underpass space, and the four corner squares: GO, Viewpoint, Magma Chamber and Connecting way. A deck of thirty-two Chance and Community Chest cards (sixteen each) which players draw when they land on the corresponding squares of the track, and follow the instructions and myths, legends and folklore tales  based on real events printed on them.Each time a player's token lands on or passes over GO, whether by throw of the dice or by drawing a card, the Volcanologist gives that player a volcanic rock (basalte, tuff, pozzolana, pumice, obsidian, scoria). The game can be played at secondary schools with the participation of INGV researchers. The game follows the same rules as the MONOPOLY but mediated by the presence of a researcher. 

How to cite: Misiti, V., Di Nezza, M., Riposati, D., Di Laura, F., Battelli, P., and Crescimbene, M.: VULCANOPOLY: playing towards a better future, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-4548, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-4548, 2022.

Since 2014, Science Hunters (1,2) has successfully used the computer game Minecraft to engage children with Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths, and particularly geoscience (3), through a defined approach which allows exploration in line with individual interest within the framework of specific topics. Minecraft offers almost limitless building possibilities within a range of virtual environments. It has huge appeal, with features and processes that can be linked to those in the real world, and is therefore an ideal tool for communication of scientific concepts.

Previous research has indicated that Minecraft successfully acts as a hook to draw children into engaging with topics (4), and that this specific approach is successful in increasing subject knowledge and understanding. For example, 492 children participating in school-based sessions on ‘volcanoes’ and ‘habitats’ showed statistically significant increases in correct answers when asked the same topic-based questions before and after participating (5).

Since April 2020, the Science Hunters project Building to Break Barriers (6), funded by an Ingenious grant from the Royal Academy of Engineering, has been developing methods for engaging children with aspects and applications of engineering that children may not typically associate with the topic through Minecraft. Drawing on the foundations of Science Hunters, this has included environmental-based topics such as how people can mitigate against earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, manage rivers and flooding, store nuclear waste, dry crops in humid environments and design food production solutions.

Sessions were delivered virtually, due to COVID-19 considerations, and mainly in schools; despite this need to adapt to a new delivery format, and lack of face-to-face interaction, feedback remains overwhelmingly positive, with less positive responses focusing on wanting extended opportunities (i.e. for longer than one lesson) on the game.

Aligning with previous observations over years of Science Hunters delivery, preliminary evaluation of natural hazard-based sessions indicate that children enjoy being able to create their own structures in the game, and devise ways to protect them from environmental hazards through engineering solutions. Through this structured, child-led approach, Minecraft offers an effective tool for engaging children with a wide range of topics, including geoscience-based exploration and solution design.

1 https://www.uwe.ac.uk/research/centres-and-groups/scu/projects/science-hunters

2 www.lancaster.ac.uk/sciencehunters

3 Hobbs et al., 2018. Digging Deep into Geosciences with Minecraft. Eos, 99(11), 24-29

4 Hobbs et al., 2019. Using Minecraft to engage children with science at public events. Research for All, 3(2), 142–60

5 Hobbs et al., 2019. Science Hunters: Teaching Science Concepts in Schools Using Minecraft. Action Research and Innovation in Science Education, 2(2), 13-21

6 https://www.uwe.ac.uk/research/centres-and-groups/scu/projects/building-to-break-barriers

This contribution will be presented virtually.

How to cite: Hobbs, L., Bentley, S., Behenna, S., and Stevens, C.: Exploring engineering solutions to environmental hazards through Minecraft, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-7435, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-7435, 2022.

The Pacific Northwest of the United States is subject to devastating earthquakes along the Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ) but lacks a strong “earthquake culture.” Among the least prepared residents are 18-29-year-olds, who are left out of traditional messaging that targets either heads of households or small children. Video games resonate with the media consumption habits of this age group and put earthquake preparedness in an engaging problem-solving context. We conducted an experiment with 125 residents of Portland, Oregon in this age group to compare learning and motivation to prepare for earthquakes following up to 45 minutes of video game play vs. web searching. Our video game was custom-made by undergraduate programmers and informed by consultation with regional emergency managers, playtesting, and two focus group discussions. In the game, the player assumes the identity of three different characters over four levels, dealing with earthquake-related challenges at three different times: the period immediately surrounding the earthquake, one day later, and one week later. Each type of problem – avoiding injury, finding safe shelter, obtaining clean water, and managing human waste – has at least three solutions in the game. Participants in the web search condition were allowed to browse at will and were also offered three starter links to emergency management websites that included, but were not limited to, the information embedded in the game. Surveys were administered before and after the experiment task as well as three months later to assess learning as well as self-reported self-efficacy, intent to act, and  steps taken to prepare for various earthquake-related challenges. Participants in the game condition chose to perform the task significantly longer than those in the web search condition (31 vs. 19 minutes, p = 0.001) and found it significantly more enjoyable but also more challenging and frustrating (p = 0.01, 0.001, and 0.03, respectively). Game players perceived encountering a much higher percentage of new information than did web searchers (64% vs 45%, p = 0.001), with equal levels of trust in, and perceived reliability and applicability of, the information learned. Reported increases in self-efficacy around obtaining clean water and managing bodily waste were significantly higher (p = 0.05, and 0.001 respectively) among game players than web searchers immediately following the task. After three months, self-reported steps taken to prepare increased significantly for six out of eight specific actions among both game players and web searchers. The experiment suggests that video games can be more engaging than relevant web content and also effective at moving young adults toward earthquake preparedness.

How to cite: Safran, E., Drake, P., Nilsen, E., Sebok, B., Ballesteros, B., Paris, A., Parezanin, L., Pencl, E., Wood, S., Kraus, J., Kunz, S., and Udas, M.: Rehearsing Disaster: Can Video Games Help Young Adults Prepare for Earthquakes?, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-10987, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-10987, 2022.

A sustainable future is both dependent on and of the utmost importance for all people living on the planet. In 2015, the United Nations member states adopted the ‘Sustainable Development Goals’ (SDGs) as ‘a blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all’. Higher Education plays a critical role in achieving the SDG agenda as it engages students with the 17 goals both cognitively and affectively through research, teaching, collaboration with stakeholders, and campus practices. Achieving the ambitions described above requires innovative thinking and going beyond standard ways of curriculum development to account for how the goals affect students not just professionally but also personally. Hence, over the past 3 years, we developed a unique location-based, multiplayer mobile serious game: Utrecht2040. This game aims to teach students from all backgrounds and disciplines about key sustainability challenges in a systemic, interdisciplinary, and applied manner. Moreover, it aims to give them the tools to bring in their own personal and disciplinary perspective, and become agents of change. Utrecht2040 focuses on sustainability in urban contexts and can be played in any city.

So far, over 2000 students played the Utrecht2040 game, across different faculties and bachelor programs. Our research team has conducted pre- and post-questionnaires with a total number of 225 participants. The players reported a positive effect on their knowledge and appreciation of the SDGs as a proxy for sustainability, specifically in urban contexts, which was significant for all groups. Students also indicated that playing in a group and interacting with citizens gave them new insights about the future possibilities for the city as well as the motivation to act on these insights. Over the next years, we will extend the game to all bachelor students at Utrecht University, as well as to other universities at the (inter-)national level, e.g. within the European University CHARM-EU, an alliance of the European Universities Initiative, where they will play it in their master’s program ‘Global Challenges in Sustainability’.

How to cite: Rebel, K., Kasch, J., Dotinga, R.-A., Gilissen, H. K., Groenewolt, S., Hessels, P., Smeenk, T., Swart, J., Werning, S., and Vervoort, J.: Gaming towards a sustainable future, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-11893, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-11893, 2022.

Over the last decade, the use of simulation, games and role-play have been gaining ground in ocean and climate literacy.  This session will describe and outline results from a particularly powerful, but underused, form of experiential learning format, called participatory simulation (PS).  It contains (elements of) game, simulation, role-play, experience, human interaction, decision-making, negotiation, stakeholder engagement, etc.  It is often large scale, open ended, goal and results oriented, free form and data driven.  Debriefing is a crucial component.

It is difficult to separate climate and ocean.  Without the ocean, the Earth would be an unliveable hothouse.  Without climate the ocean would hardly exist.  Our overarching goal, therefore, was to help participants understand the oceans-climate nexus and to become better ocean-climate-literate stakeholders.  The Inter- Oceans-Climate School (IOCS), France, has run two sessions so far (the last was three and a half days spread over three weeks, and the results are encouraging).  In our previous sessions, we welcomed participants from Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, India and Europe.  The IOCS is an official event of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO, as part of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development.

Our presentation will describe the event and analyse results obtained from detailed feedback by participants.  Co-authors include both organizers and participants.  We will endeavour to answer your questions and entice you to participate in an upcoming session.

How to cite: Crookall, D., Promduangsri, P., and Promduangsri, P.: The Trilogy of Ocean, Climate and Coast: The Urgency and Exigency of Literacy, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-12144, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-12144, 2022.

PHUSICOS-VR is a virtual reality experience to learn how nature-based solutions (NBS) can be used to mitigate natural hazards, including rock falls, floods, avalanches and agricultural run-off.  The game is set in real locations in Norway, Italy, France and Spain, and is a digital representation of actual demonstration sites in the EU project PHUSICOS (EU contract nr).  The underlying development strategy for PHUSICOS-VR was to create an interesting and fun pedagogical tool to learn about natural hazards, and the effect that NBS can have on both mitigating the hazard but also providing co-benefits such as improving biodiversity and creating public use spaces.  The primary audiences for the VR experience are the general public, politicians, planning authorities and other decision-makers.

Game development is more than programming, and during the fast-track production of PHUSICOS-VR the development team followed a SCRUM project philosophy and transitioned through creative phases and processes including audience/personas definitions, scientific content, pedagogical considerations, visual/audio expression, and of course the technical implementation in the UNITY engine to realize the game for the Oculus VR platform.  Covid19 has been an added complication, resulting in the entire development process running virtually – the core team never met as a complete group, and all development works were coordinated through collaborative platforms such as TEAMS and Miro Board.

This article will present the development phases in detail, describing the challenges encountered and solutions implemented to realize the PHUSICOS-VR game.  PHUSICOS-VR is currently under review for public release and will soon be available on the Oculus app store.  A browser version is also available.

How to cite: Strout, J. M., Kutsen, T. W., Solberg, A. S., and Verhoog, J.: PHUSICOS-VR: Using virtual reality to explore mitigation measures for geohazards, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-12870, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-12870, 2022.

Communicating event-related hazard and risk information can prompt effective public response and consequently, reduce injuries and fatalities caused by these hazards. Due to the technological evolution in recent years, multi-hazard platforms have become common practice to provide real-time information to the public. Multi-hazard platforms allow to disseminate information about cascading effects and eliminate the need for people to download separate apps for the different hazards. However, providing information about multiple hazards on a single platform comes with various challenges: First, multiple messages can overstrain the public, causing confusion or inaction. Second, since hazards are different in their nature, intensity, return period, and the effects they have on society, their comparability is limited, complicating the aim of providing consistent hazard messages. Third, people struggle to understand that they often receive forecasts for weather-related hazards, whereas for earthquakes they mainly receive post-event information. With our study, we addressed these challenges by designing and testing different multi-hazard overviews and specific hazard messages, focusing not only on the actionability of the information but also on providing clear time indications.

For this purpose, we applied a transdisciplinary research approach. We first designed various multi-hazard overviews and hazard messages which were refined during five virtual workshops with scientists and other experts (N=15) from different fields. Second, we conducted a survey (N=601, between-subjects experiment) with the Swiss public to test whether our designs with time and action indications increase people’s intention to take actions and their correct interpretation of the information presented. We further assessed whether the personal factors of the theory of planned behavior also have an influence on people’s action taking and interpretation abilities.

Based on our findings we recommend to design multi-hazarad overviews as followed: a map with a list below containing information about the affected areas, the time and date of the event, and the recommended action (prepare, inform, act). This enhances people’s understanding of the information and intention to access further information. Regarding the hazard messages, we confirm the importance of the information elements: hazard type and level, affected areas, time, behavioral recommendations, possible impacts, and source. Further, we recommend adding a time- and action-related icon since we found that such an icon motivates people to take actions and ensures that they understand whether they should take immediate actions or still have time to prepare for an event. Thus, making sure that they take the right action at the right time. Moreover, a better understanding of the personal factors influencing people’s intention to take actions and their interpretation abilities allows the communication platforms to be tailored to specific needs of various groups.

To conclude, our multi-hazard overviews and specific hazard messages show that making information on multi-hazard platforms more actionable, time-oriented and understandable can prompt effective public response and therewith increases society’s resilience toward disasters.

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 821115.

How to cite: Dallo, I., Stauffacher, M., and Marti, M.: Communicating actionable and understandable event-related information on multi-hazard platforms, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-244, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-244, 2022.

@LastQuake is the official Twitter channel (200k followers) of the Euro-Med Seismological Centre. When an earthquake strikes, real-time information on the seismic event is automatically published via a Twitter-robot. This robot was developed in 2012 and its automatic tweets range from scientific information about earthquake location and magnitude, to accounts of shaking felt by earthquake eyewitnesses and safety guidelines and tsunami warnings. Although efficient and reliable, over the years the robot has shown margins for improvement:

• after a large magnitude event, the tweets related to the aftershocks overshadow the information about the mainshock – how should the robot cluster and prioritize earthquake information?
  
  
• a non-destructive earthquake currently generates interactions on Twitter for only twenty minutes, while a destructive event attracts the interest of various audiences (i.e., the affected population, the seismologists, the media) for a much longer period of time – how should the robot regulate the duration of information depending upon the earthquake?
  
  
• although used world-wide, @LastQuake is still not well-known in certain countries – how could Twitter be used to reach out to a much greater number of earthquake eyewitnesses and better assess the earthquake effects?

We renewed @LastQuake to better tailor the information to our different audiences and to make the most of the EMSC’s most recently-developed services. In order to cluster information on the same event, our new robot uses the Twitter-thread functionality, where information about the same event is gathered in a series of connected tweets. To regulate the duration of information, we classify earthquakes into five categories depending upon their magnitude, the interest they generate among the public, and their destructiveness potential:

• small magnitude earthquakes with and without public interest;
• larger magnitude earthquakes with and without public interest;
• destructive earthquakes.

Each class has different information displayed, and hence a different length of the thread. To increase awareness of the LastQuake service in a region where we are not well-known, and potentially gather a much greater number of felt reports after an earthquake, the robot is now equipped with an ‘invitation tweet’, a feature that allows, in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation, to automatically respond to tweets from potential earthquake eyewitnesses in a specified region and invite them to report their experience in the case of an earthquake. During an earthquake, the affected population process information and act differently than they would do in times of non-crisis: our wording and tone are carefully chosen to provide reliable and empathetic communication, and we improved our illustrations to be accessible to users suffering from color-vision deficiency. To debunk misinformation and fake news, we prepared a series of educational tweets in collaboration with IRIS. The new robot is versatile, targeting not only the affected population, with urgent information, but also the seismologists, with technical information, and the general public and the media, with wrap-up information on what has just happened.

We will present to you the renewed @LastQuake Twitter-bot environment and discuss our strategy for tailoring earthquake crisis communications via Twitter. 

How to cite: Corradini, M., Chény, J.-M., Bossu, R., Roussel, F., Landès, M., Roch, J., Steed, R., Fallou, L., and Souty, V.: @LastQuake: automatic earthquake communications tailored to vulnerable communities, seismologists, the public, and the media., EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-663, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-663, 2022.

Risk perception is a concept of fundamental importance for the resilience of societies. An important effort to raise the level of risk awareness must be made by the scientific community, which must adopt innovative communication techniques to get closer to the local community. A striking example of how crucial scientific communication is to risk perception was and still is Covid 19. Which allowed us to appreciate how important, if not necessary, it is to focus the energies of the scientific community not only on pure research, but also on how its outputs are communicated to the public.

It is therefore of fundamental importance for the scientific and civil community to disseminate information on the subject to create greater individual awareness and sensitivity, and to enable all citizens to make a tangible contribution to environmental protection through virtuous behaviour in everyday life, even outside the school/work context. The possibilities of risk mitigation, in fact, depend not only on the scientific community but also on how well prepared and informed society is about the risk itself. It is, therefore, crucial to train the local population to increase disaster risk preparedness and resilience of the society.

The younger generation plays a key role in the scientific awareness of society, representing both the future of society and a conduit to reach and educate their families.

In this perspective, the use of Serious Games, which is certainly an innovative practice in science communication, is gaining momentum since it favours participants' learning through their active involvement in the activities.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, we developed, using serious games, two didactic experiences, one dedicated to seismic risk (ALARM) and the other dedicated to climate change (Finding Gaia), targeting secondary school students, their families and science enthusiasts. Both experiences are characterised by an approach that is virtual and inclusive, allowing participation to people with motor disabilities, and fully interactive, through a series of quizzes, puzzles, and tasks of different difficulty, to include more and less experts/enthusiasts and exploit not only top-down but also peer-to-peer learning.

Moreover, these experiences encourage the use of certain topics by allowing the basic concepts to be used in everyday life while the guidance of experts throughout the game allow a critical understanding of the topic.

Before the start and at the end of any of these activities, an evaluation phase was carried out to assess the learning experience and the effectiveness of the science communication technique. For both practices, it was also found that, thanks to the introduction of the serious game, the virtual characteristic of the experience was evaluated as not negative, even though all the experiences were carried out during the COVID19 pandemic, with obvious repercussions on the disposition of the participants.

This work has been supported by CORE ("sCience and human factor for Resilient sociEty") project, funded from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 - research and innovation program under grant agreement No 101021746 and by PRIN-MATISSE (20177EPPN2) project funded by Italian Ministry of Education and Research.

How to cite: Gargiulo, M. V., Napolitano, F., Amoroso, O., Russo, R., and Capuano, P.: Risk Perception: make it fun! Examples of serious games to educate risk perception, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-1219, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-1219, 2022.

The identification and communication of potential risks faced by coastal-zone populations is becoming increasingly important to strengthen society’s resilience and enabling people to better handle coastal hazards. Assessing risk and vulnerability is important to inform the public, as well as coastal managers, on sustainable policy and practice. This so-called coastal vulnerability has been assessed, quantified and mapped using a wide variety of approaches, focussing on hazard, risk and resilience. Many studies place emphasis on physical parameters such as geology and topography, and on marine factors such as wave energy and storm frequency. Others also incorporate socio-economic factors such as population, cultural heritage, presence of crucial infrastructure, land use and conservation status.

Our pan-European assessment of coastal vulnerability adds a new layer of information to the existing EMODnet Geology product suite on shoreline change. EMODnet Geology benefits the public sector, civil society, the private sector and the research community through harmonising and integrating existing and new datasets for dissemination via the EMODnet portal. Using the most complete inventory to date of case studies on coastal vulnerability in scientific journals, books and governmental reports, we have developed a detailed database on various vulnerability aspects across Europe and in other countries around the world. By geo-locating the maps from these studies, we are able to assess the extent of coverage of coastal vulnerability assessment around European shorelines. Drawing on the existing literature, we are developing a common legend, indicating low, medium and high levels of vulnerability that can be mapped at a pan-European scale.

Our research indicates incomplete coverage by existing studies. Using data from existing EMODnet products such as shoreline migration, geology and bathymetry, we will develop a basic coastal vulnerability index that can be validated against existing studies and used to fill the gaps. The resulting applied data product will help raise awareness in the general public and facilitate the work of coastal policy makers, planners and practitioners.

How to cite: Moses, C., Butterill, C., Chopra, T., Humphries, A., and van Heteren, S.: Pan-European coastal vulnerability: translating incomplete data and information for communicating situational awareness, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-2029, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-2029, 2022.

During the 2020-2021 eruption of La Soufriere, St. Vincent, the Seismic Research Centre at The University of the West Indies (SRC) played a major role in supporting communication of hazard and risk information to publics and stakeholders across St. Vincent. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the communications campaign was heavily reliant on social media channels and TV and radio broadcasts, rather than in-person community education and communication sessions. Although the communications approach sought to be inclusive of all members of the affected communities where possible, it was considered possible that the more vulnerable residents, such as the elderly, children, and those with low levels of literacy were excluded from the communication efforts.

In order to establish the effectiveness of the crisis communications campaign at engaging communities and stakeholders with relevant information and to identify areas for improvement, a large-scale evaluation campaign was conducted in St Vincent in August 2021. The results demonstrate that radio broadcasts are the most important communication tool for broad community reach, but that person-to-person information sharing was more important in the most exposed communities. Agencies such as the Red Cross and grassroots community disaster preparedness groups were instrumental in the spread of information to those most vulnerable within the most at-risk communities and for evacuation coordination. However, social media was also found to be highly effective at communicating information to the diaspora, which in turn was communicated to family and friends on the island through mediums such as WhatsApp.

Here we present some of the early findings of this research and provide suggestions and considerations to inform future crisis communication campaigns in St. Vincent and the wider Caribbean region.

How to cite: Mani, L., Edwards, S., Juman, A., Thomas, T., and Joseph, E.: Evaluating the crisis communications campaign during the 2020-2021 eruption of La Soufriere, St Vincent., EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-4422, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-4422, 2022.

There remains a gap between the production of scientifically robust forecasts, and the translation of these forecasts into useful information such as daily “bulletins” for institutional decision-makers in early warning systems. There is significant published literature on best practice to communicate risk information, but very little to guide and provide advice on the process of how these bulletins have been, or should be, developed.

This presentation will discuss learning and share best practices of developing such early warning bulletins for institutional decision-makers, providing specific case study examples and drawing on wider experience from Practical Action and the Science for Humanitarian Emergencies And Resilience (SHEAR) programme.

The session will share lessons from two example case studies where bulletins were developed for national and district-level government agencies and humanitarian responders as part of the SHEAR programme: daily reports in response to Cyclones Idai and Kenneth in Mozambique, and prototype landslide forecast bulletins in Nilgiris and Darjeeling Districts of India.

There were significant similarities in the type of content included in the bulletins, such as the layout, choice of words, and use of visualisation that was consistent with published best practices. Both case studies experienced challenges dealing with uncertainty, complexity, and whether to include advice. There were also similarities in the processes and approaches taken to develop the bulletins. Both case studies took an iterative approach, developed feedback mechanisms, benefitted from experienced multi-disciplinary teams, emphasised the need for strong inter-relationships, and the importance and value of preparedness and protocols.

A major challenge was the difficulty of balancing science capabilities with user needs, which did not become significantly easier to deal with given more time availability. The findings indicate that whilst more research is needed into existing or best practice processes to develop content for forecast bulletins, there is an existing body of experiential and intuitive knowledge and learning that already exists but is not yet captured in an appropriate format that could be of significant interest and value to those developing and responsible for providing forecast information.

This presentation will share key learning from translating scientific forecasts into useful information, in particular on both the content and the process of developing forecast bulletins for decision-making.

How to cite: Budimir, M., Sneddon, A., Nelder, I., Brown, S., Donovan, A., and Speight, L.: Developing forecast information for institutional decision-makers, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-5531, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-5531, 2022.

The topic of risks in our climate and geosciences setting is highly emotive. When a sudden and extreme event occurs, the emotional consequences of an absence of any planning or mitigation can be severe to the communities and people involved. There are multiple parts of society that are impacted across these events. Where there is an absence of awareness around the issues of equality, diversity and inclusivity (EDI) then, disappointingly, it is typically the disadvantaged groups in that society that are the most impacted. With the raised awareness around the consequences of anthropogenic heating of the planet, we are now faced with increasing occurrence of sudden extreme events and where the underlying dynamic baseline is changing. The hazard probability of extreme levels for an environmental process can be estimated using methods based on statistical extreme value theory (see for example Bruun and Tawn, 1998, Appl. Statist., 47, 405-423). Also the dynamics of the system can be evaluated using non-linear methods (e.g. see Bruun et al, 2017, JGRO, 122, 6746– 6772 and refs in this). These methods are generic and are applied in seismic, flooding and weather based settings. I’ll show with graphics examples of precipitation hazards for the tropics to explain sudden and long term dynamics. These methods are being deployed more and more in terms of framing climatic hazards, however there are analytical challenges in building in the slow-variation to the methods so that real long term hazards are skilfully assessed. Also the mathematical formulation these methods are typically utilized by analysts, scientists, engineers and mathematicians. It is found that the mathematical formulations present a communication barrier to hazard and resilience practitioners, especially as the contemporary EDI framing of this skill set is often not very diverse. In this talk, to help re-frame this, an open discussion of this topic is invited – please do join – to enable a wider community access.  To help this I will share and  some contemporary thinking developed i) at the University of Exeter: where I am a Mathematics Lecturer, Diversity Champion for our College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences and also ii) from the Institute of Physics (IOP) and its Limit Less campaign. By re-framing – together - how we communicate about these hazards, using an EDI lens, it can help us to better connect through our communication, and so to build more trust in the knowledge. This type of discussion can help hazard practitioners, stakeholders and importantly to help build trust and resilience for all groups how are impacted by such extreme events.

How to cite: Bruun, J.: Talking together about climate risks and dynamics so it enables resilience and trust, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-6631, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-6631, 2022.

Immediately after the shaking of an earthquake has stopped, people want to know what has happened. This concern is not only sensational; those affected seek for advice on what to do next, want additional information they like to share it with their friends and family. This is also true for first responders, who welcome every available insight to plan their emergency response. Rapid impact assessments, automatically generated after an event to locate the affected area and estimate the impact of a specific earthquake in terms of human, infrastructure, and economic losses, can provide such information. Therewith, the information rapid impact assessments contain is of interest for professionals with and without a specific expertise in earthquake risk management, the media, and the interested public. To make use and take meaningful decisions based on this information, rapid impact assessments must be well accessible, clearly structured, useful, and understandable, and meet the needs of different user groups. Based on primary results of the first seismic risk model for Switzerland, we tested rapid impact assessments outputs designed following the state of the art in risk communication. From the feedback of different user groups, we derived recommendations on how to best design useful rapid impact assessments for Switzerland.

How to cite: Marti, M. and Dallo, I.: Designing rapid impact assessments for Switzerland, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-7795, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-7795, 2022.

On January 12th 2010, Haiti was hit by one of the largest seismic disasters known to date. At the time, seismic sensors, knowledge and risk culture were critically lacking. The dramatic social, political and economic consequences of the event revealed the importance of developing seismic risk reduction in Haiti.

We present here the communication components of a citizen-seismology project in Haiti.. The project called OSMOSE propose to contribute to risk reduction by in installing low-cost seismic sensors (Raspberry Shake) at volunteers’ houses to (1) collect seismic data and complement the national seismic network, and (2) engage with the population to understand their risk perception and the usage they could make of these tools. 

An international team of geoscientists, education specialists and social science researchers gathered to build an efficient communication strategy, which aimed at (1) informing the public about seismic risk and felt earthquakes, (2) establish a trust relationship with volunteers who host sensors, educate them about science and risk, (3) support the volunteers in their ambassador roles among their community.

In order to establish a communication strategy that was inclusive and suitable to the local cultural context (including scientific literacy level, vodou culture, risk culture, past trauma, trust in the authorities etc), we first led a quantitative survey among the general public and a series of sociological semi-structured interviews with Raspberry Shake hosts who volunteered for the project. This enabled us to assess information expectations in terms of content and medium. 

Working with geoscientists, we then designed a first set of tools to respond to these needs, when possible. For instance, a website (https://ayiti.unice.fr/ayiti-seismes/) enables the public to know in a few minutes where an earthquake occurs and what its magnitude is, thanks to seismic data collected by the citizen network. It also displays educational information about seismology. The LastQuake app which crowdsources seismic data was translated into Creole for better access in the country. Finally, a WhatsApp group gathering volunteers and scientists has also been created given the importance of the messaging app in daily communication and information practices in Haiti. The group enables them to exchange information about the technical and scientific aspects of the Raspberry Shake they host and data they collect. During the August 14th 2021 earthquake, the group was used to share information about damage and rumors.

Yet, this communication strategy is still incomplete and requires improvements. For instance, volunteers requested pedagogical support to better play their ambassador role among their community. Communication towards the general public also needs to gain visibility and accessibility. As part of an iterative process, additional interviews and assessment will help us improve the communication strategy. We will also include additional partners (such as schools, disaster management institutions, etc.) and test other methods such as a Virtual Reality tool. 

We argue not only that assessing the public needs is essential to build an inclusive and efficient communication strategy but also that the citizen-science approach is a strong asset to achieve this goal.

How to cite: fallou, L., Corbet, A., Calixte, N., Hurbon, L., Calais, E., Theodat, J.-M., Courboulex, F., Bossu, R., Guerrier, K., Etienne, G., Monfret, T., Ampuero, J.-P., Symithe, S., Cheze, J., Peix, F., Paul, S., and Deschamps, A.: Building an efficient and inclusive communication strategy for risk reduction in Haiti through a citizen-seismology approach, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-9942, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-9942, 2022.

Communicating a risk is far more than ‘getting a number across’ – it’s communicating likelihood and impact in such a way as to allow each member of the audience to make decisions based on their understanding of that risk. This means helping put that likelihood and impact into an appropriate context, and helping the audience weigh up in their mind the costs and benefits of different actions. In this presentation we will illustrate some of our work on communicating personalised risks from Covid-19 and Covid vaccinations, and how these findings might apply to the communication of seismic hazard and risk. For example, is it appropriate to compare the likelihood of someone dying from Covid-19 (if they catch it) with the likelihood of that same person dying from another cause? Our research suggests that people don’t find this as helpful as comparing their likelihood of dying from Covid-19 against the likelihoods of other people with different, familiar risk factors (such as older people, younger people, people with a pre-existing health condition etc). Does the same apply for seismic hazard and risk, such as operational earthquake forecasts? Would it help people to show the chances of their local area experiencing a seismic event compared to the chances in a range of other cities that they know (with high and low hazards)?  We will discuss the pros and cons of such an approach in communicating operational earthquake forecasts.

How to cite: Dryhurst, S. and Freeman, A.: Communicating risks: the problem of putting numbers into context, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-13311, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-13311, 2022.

Climate change is the defining crisis of our generation, and it will be the lived reality for generations to come. Yet many people still do not understand the issue or feel able to respond to it adequately, including the very young people whose future will be most affected.

On 15 September 2021, the University of Reading brought together young people, scientists, teachers and educationalists, policymakers and campaigners at a Climate Education Summit to create an action plan for better climate education in schools and colleges in the UK. This is to ensure all young people today and generations to come are equipped with the knowledge and understanding, and are empowered, to respond to and tackle the climate and ecological crisis facing our planet.

No single organisation is able to take this agenda forward alone and so the joint plan will need to be led and contributed to by different groups and by young people themselves, coming together to make real change possible.

Implicit in our plan is that better climate education is needed and that this education should not be solely delivered in a single school subject or groups of subjects, nor confined only to academic study – climate change touches all areas of society and so our plan covers education broadly.

The action plan consists of nine points:

• Everyone involved in the education of children in school and college settings should be encouraged and supported to access accredited continuing professional development (CPD) to improve their personal understanding of up-to-date data and science of our changing climate and the impacts of these changes.

• All teacher trainers and initial teacher trainees should be able to access training that empowers them to effectively incorporate climate education within their teaching across all levels and subjects.

• Teachers and school leaders should be encouraged and empowered, both at a national and local level, to ensure time and space within and beyond the teaching day is included for climate education.

• Every school and college should identify a senior staff member to lead on climate education and provide them with support and funding.

• A structured programme or climate award for schools, colleges and youth organisations should be developed, providing a national focus to a range of extracurricular activities and supporting resources to aid delivery.

• A national scheme of quality assurance of teaching resources for climate education should be developed.

• A regular national meeting of the dynamic, well-supported, national networks of educators, scientists and young people should be held, to share ideas and promote collaboration among representatives of these groups.

• Professionals working in climate research and policy, from science and non-science disciplines, should pledge a proportion of their working time to providing help to teacher-led climate education initiatives.

• A national, guiding framework for all educational providers that outlines compulsory climate education for all young people via schools and colleges should be developed and implemented.

How to cite: Knight, S., Charlton-Perez, A., Aggas, D., and Blair, F.: Developing a National Climate Education Action Plan, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-677, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-677, 2022.

Climate change (CC) and ocean degradation (OD) are major threats to the perpetuation of life on planet Earth.  This makes it important for people of all walks to learn about the problems and about how they may contribute to solutions.  It is our responsibility to ensure that the planet remains habitable for humans and for all species.  One way to learn about CC and OD is through experience and direct interaction with the environment.  Experiential learning (Kolb) allows people to learn with both their heads and their hearts, to become engaged with the issues and with their own learning process.  Experience can be real, as in an internship or living with sea-level rise, or it can be contrived, as in a game or simulation.

Many simulation/games have been designed to teach climate and ocean literacy (e.g., review by Ulrich).  Here we will outline our own experience of two online, large-scale participatory simulations – running over several days.  The broad learning objectives for each participant were as follows:

• to become an even better ocean-climate-coast-literate and geoethical stakeholder and
• to help other people to become literate in the ocean-climate-coast processes,

in other words,

• to learn about the ocean, coasts and climate system, to behave in a responsible manner in that system and to learn how to multiply and convey their knowledge and skills to others,
• to learn how to collaborate effectively with and facilitate the inclusion of a range of stakeholders.

The objective of each online, participatory simulation was to write a collective document, in somewhat similar fashion to drafting an international treaty.  In so doing, participants need to interact, build trust, negotiate, find compromises, listen to others, articulate their own ideas and wishes, draft text, rewrite drafts and so on.  Each simulation is contextualized with a scenario based on real data, but projected into the future.  The interactions are conducted via Discord and Google Drive.  At the end, a structured debrief is conducted.

In this presentation, we will share our experiences and explain the learning processes.  We will outline:

• The content areas of the online participatory simulations.
• The pedagogical principles, such as learner-centred participatory simulation, feedback and debriefing.
• Participants feedback.

We will provide time to answer audience questions, and provide information on how you can participate in the next simulation run.  We hope to see you virtually and in person at the EGU.

How to cite: Promduangsri, P., Promduangsri, P., Alvarez de la Campa, S., Bolouri, F., Mascagni, M., and Parigi, R.: Participatory simulation: Climate and ocean literacy in action, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-1656, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-1656, 2022.

The need for a climate literate public in the face of anthropogenic climate change is an increasingly urgent and necessary task. Defining what it means to be climate literate is situated between divisions of science communication and science education.  On one side, the humanist perspectives of anthropogenic climate change i.e., science risk communication (threats, impacts, and consequences) and, on the other, understanding and sharing in scientific knowledge i.e., science education (the physical and chemical mechanisms that describe Earth’s climate system in equilibrium).  The USGCRP/NOAA defines climate literacy (CL) as "an understanding of your influence on the climate and climate's influence on you and society" and a ‘"climate-literate person understands the essential principles of Earth’s climate system" and, while this CL definition is useful in that it encapsulates the complexity of climate change, drawing in interactions between human actions and the climate system, it positions anthropogenic climate change ahead of the physical science of Earth’s climate.  Prima facie, the initial emphasis on anthropogenic climate change seems inconsequential.  However, efforts in the public education classroom also frequently prioritise or focus on the threat of impacts and consequences, rather than the physical science mechanisms that drive the climate system, and this focus may have serious implications for improving climate literacy in the broader public arena.  Communicating climate change initially as a threat or as a responsibility, especially to children and adolescents, can have undesirable and polarising psychological effects and may negatively influence other mental health disorders. Psychological effects, such as fear or stress, are known to promote apathy, despair, and feelings of helplessness which undermine collective efforts to address climate change. Recent research suggests, however, that providing young people with a solid understanding of the physical science basis of Earth’s climate system prior to teaching them about anthropogenic climate change provides them with a context for coping with climate change as they are better able to construct solutions and perceive the climate dilemma as a ‘system’ rather than as a nebulous, looming threat.  This paper, therefore, proposes a related, but specific, definition for climate science literacy (CSL) that is scoped to the physical processes that are fundamental to, and underpin, the mechanics of anthropogenic climate change that can be utilised in the classroom. In this way, we are anchoring the physical processes of climate change, and – distinct from broader climate literacy – scoping out the complex, dynamic and oftentimes emotive dimension of human influence on the climate system within a knowledge deficit context. We propose, therefore, that the physical science mechanisms that describe Earth’s climate system form the foundation of all climate literacy programmes.  We further propose that the CSL definition for the classroom "is a systematic and integrated understanding of how the natural climate system works in equilibrium, including drivers of natural variation, which forms a foundation for considering the roles of feedback systems and anthropogenic emissions in driving climate change and, therefore, your influence on the climate and climate's influence on you and society".

How to cite: Harker-Schuch, I.: Defining climate literacy: Developing a working definition on what it means to be climate literate, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-2302, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-2302, 2022.

The essential role of education in addressing the causes and consequences of anthropogenic climate change is increasingly being recognised at an international level. The Office for Climate Education (OCE) develops educational resources and proposes professional development opportunities to support teachers, worldwide, to mainstream climate change education.

Drawing upon the IPCC Special Report on the Climate Change and Land, the OCE has produced a set of educational resources that cover the scientific and societal dimensions, at local and global levels, while developing students’ reasoning abilities and guiding them to take action (mitigation and/or adaptation) in their schools or communities. These resources include:

• Ready-to-use teacher handbook that (i) target students from the last years of primary school to the end of lower-secondary school (aged 9 to 15), (ii) include scientific and pedagogical overviews, lesson plans, activities and worksheets, (iii) are interdisciplinary, covering topics in the natural sciences, social sciences, arts and physical education, (iv) promote active pedagogies: inquiry-based science education, role-play, debate, project-based learning, (v) followed by 7 examples of inspiring projects of actions to either mitigate or adapt to climate change impacts, or take part of the science or disseminate climate change knowledge.
• A specific attention is drawn to tackle eco-anxiety with the development of a class activity focused on emotions.
• A Summary for teachers of the IPCC Special Report, presented together with a selection of related activities and exercises that can be implemented in the classroom.
• A set of 10 videos where experts speak about a specific issue related to the link between land and climate change.
• A set of 6 multimedia activities offering students the possibility of working interactively in different topics related to climate change.

An important concern for climate change education is to assess the impact of the required pedagogy for transforming students’ behaviour to face climate challenges. Therefore, the OCE is conducting an evaluation research project on activities around the emotions related to climate change.

How to cite: Klein, S., Pichon, C., Tricoire, M., Lescarmontier, L., Barve, A., Wilgenbus, D., Sadadou, D., and Guilyardi, E.: Resources for teachers on “Climate Change and Land” and research on eco-anxiety, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-4081, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-4081, 2022.

The consequences of climate change present one of the most pressing issues of our time. It is important to have a well-informed population about the consequences of climate change in order to prepare them to make decisions about it. In this sense, along with the contribution of the media, climate change education (climate literacy) is crucial for the development of climate change knowledge and beliefs. A solid knowledge about climate change not only helps teachers to successfully meet the goal of climate literacy, but also influences student's attitudes regarding practical steps to reduce the impacts of anthropogenic climate change.

A sample of seventy-four pre-service teachers (Master’s students – ‘Master's Degree in Secondary Education, Baccalaureate, Vocational Training and Language Teaching’ at the University of Granada, Melilla Campus), and sixty-nine in-service teachers (from Melilla), allowed to analyse: (1) knowledge, (2) beliefs, and (3) attitudes about climate change. Regarding the study of the first concept, the following items were assessed: (a) knowledge about the causes of climate change, (b) knowledge about the greenhouse effect, (c) knowledge concerning the expected consequences of climate change, and (d) action-related knowledge about climate change. The results presented in this study display that most of the pre- and in-service teachers (from both the scientific itinerary and other itineraries) believe in the existence of climate change and recognize its anthropic cause. However, they still respond to different misconceptions as well as distorted knowledge about the consequences of climate change, affecting their willingness to act on it. Consequently, the Secondary School Curriculum needs to be updated, since it is mainly focused on the scientific explanations of the phenomenon rather than on the social or practical aspects of the problem.

How to cite: López-Quirós, A. and Guilarte, V.: Secondary School Teacher’s Awareness of Climate Change: a comparison of pre-service and in-service teachers from the Spanish North African city of Melilla, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-5701, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-5701, 2022.

The 17th International Architecture Exhibition organized by La Biennale di Venezia ran from 22 May to 21 November 2021 with the title “How will we live together?”. Its main were the social and political questions on the rapidly changing social norms, the political polarization between left and right, climate change, and the growing gap between labor and capital. In the context of the exposition the ongoing collaboration between La Biennale and CNR-ISMAR lead to the development of a guided tour in the Central Pavillion and in the Danish pavilion targeted toward primary schools (6-11 years old). The guided visit used the art pieces presented as a starting point to discuss different aspects Ocean Literacy, climate change and human impacts on the environment with on site explanations and activities to be held once back in class. The tour was divided into three sections: 1) how the Earth-system works and what is the Anthropocene; 2) What are the direct impacts of human activities on the oceans; 3) Which are the consequences of those impact on mankind. A total of 41 classes from primary schools in the Veneto region participated the visit and were later monitored for satisfaction and retention of the information provided during the visit.

In the La Biennale CNR-ISMAR collaboration this was a first attempt to create a guided tour on Ocean Literacy using as a starting point an already established architecture exposition.

How to cite: Falcieri, F. M., Ghezzo, M., Castellani, C., and de Manicor, L.: How will we live in the Anthropocene? A scientific guided tour at the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale., EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-7805, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-7805, 2022.

Coastal regions will be highly impacted by climate change due to the rise of sea level and the impacts of warmer sea temperatures on coastal ecosystems. Moreover, for those regions whose economy is highly dependent on coastal activities, such as maritime transport or coastal tourism, the assessment of coastal vulnerability to climate change is crucial to guarantee their economic resilience. Since 2018, the SECOSTA project (https://secosta.wordpress.com/) has launched different citizen science-based programs (SOCLIMPACT, VENOM, DECIMATE) focused on monitoring the impact of climate change on coastal areas. The goal is twofold. On the one side, the SECOSTA project aims to make high school students aware of climate change and of the work developed by scientists. On the other hand, the students contribute to the acquisition of data that will be used in scientific studies afterwards. The SECOSTA project strategy is the following. First, different low cost and open source devices are designed to measure with a reasonable degree of accuracy several parameters (e.g. sea level, atmospheric pressure, beach topobathymetry, sea temperature). Second, high school teachers are trained in dedicated workshops to build those devices with their students. Third, the teachers develop educational multidisciplinary projects in their schools around a particular topic of interest (e.g. sea level rise, ocean warming...) involving the data acquisition. This phase is guided by the scientists who also provide educational resources to help in the development of the educational projects. Finally, the observations obtained by the students are processed by the scientists and incorporated in several research projects as additional datasets.

The project has been successfully implemented creating a robust synergy among researchers, the regional government and secondary schools. To date, close to 20 different secondary schools have taken part in the different initiatives, involving more than 2,000 students per year in the construction of devices, acquisition and processing of data. In light of the success of previous terms, in 2022, the SECOSTA project is going to hold a conference that will serve as a forum for the participating high schools to present the results of their scientific studies. In this presentation we will describe the different steps of the project along with some recommendations about the lessons learned during these years for a successful deployment of citizen-science based projects in secondary schools.

How to cite: Herrada, E. A., Puigdefabregas, J., Agulles, M., Ramos, J., Frank, A., Villalonga, J., Gomis, D., and Jordà, G.: Raising awareness of the impact of climate change on coastal regions. A citizen science-based approach within the SECOSTA project, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-8885, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-8885, 2022.

Environmental education in schools (from child-care to high-school) mostly focuses on teaching features and processes that characterize the local natural environment, so that the geographical context strongly affects what children and older students (and their families) may learn and know about the surroundings and which actions need be taken to protect and conserve it. As a consequence, the community living in a mountain region is less prone to learning about the sea or the ocean, about its main physical, chemical and biological charachteristis, and about the processes that regulate them and how or why day-to-day actions affect the ocean's health and sustainability – the so called “ocean blindness”. Such considerations have led to the organization of a small set of pilot Education and Outreach activities that have been carried out in the schools of the province of Biella, a small-sized city located in the foot-hill of the Alps, 300m above sea-level, and about 200 km away from the nearest coast. These school activities/projects involved a very wide age group, including child care (ages 1-3), kindergarten (ages 3 to 5), elementary (ages 6 to 10) and high-school (ages 14-17) and were aimed at teaching basic marine science concepts learned from more than 10 years of experience as an oceanographer. This contribution presents the results and lessons learned from the first activities carried out in 2021 also providing an example of activities that can be carried out in similar contexts, and of hands-on resources that are available also when operating far away from the coast.

How to cite: Borrione, I.: First steps to countering “ocean blindness” in an alpine region: lessons learned from ocean literacy activities across a wide age group, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-9400, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-9400, 2022.

Professionals in sectors such as urban planning, energy transition, health, need knowledge about climate change for e.g. designing tunnels, urban planning, risk assessments related to climate change, giving policy advice about adaptation measures. The required climate data and information is often not easy to find, needs to be processed, or there is so much climate data available that it is difficult to determine what should be used in a specific situation. In addition, these professionals often have contact with administrators and citizens who ask them questions about climate change, why certain adaptation measures are taken, etc. However, there are a lot of misunderstandings about climate and climate change and there is a lot of polarization.
Both the Dutch Meteorological Institute (KNMI) and the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (HvA) have a lot of contact with professionals working on climate adaptation and mitigation and they both recognize that professionals need more tailoring of climate data and, at the same time, they need help with the communication about climate change. Based on the experiences of the HvA and KNMI in recent years, they decided in the autumn of 2021 to combine their complementary expertises into a lectorate “Climate literacy” to develop new knowledge for professionals: 

• about climate data and climate change for more effective use in design, risk assessment, policy advice and to be able to make well-informed decisions. This concerns technical knowledge about access to climate data, good use of climate data and climate scenarios, dealing with uncertainties, better linking of climate data and information to the purpose of the sector (i.e. based on knowledge of the technical systems) and decision support.
• to effectively increase the “climate literacy” of citizens and administrators (tools, interventions, design methods, communication strategies, policy-making), so they  can act well informed in situations related to climate change. For professional users, reliable and easy to understand climate information is also necessary to create support among stakeholders and the general public. For this, it is necessary to connect with how people experience the environment and to relate causes, consequences and action perspectives to themselves.

During the presentation we will elaborate on why it is important to have a combined focus on the tailoring of climate data and communication for professionals, our experiences in the Netherlands and the ideas for research within this lectorate.

How to cite: Bessembinder, J., Kluck, J., Niederer, S., and Renes, R. J.: Climate literacy for professionals in the Netherlands, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-9472, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-9472, 2022.

This paper argues that to inform climate-ocean literacy the 2015 Planetary Boundaries (PBs) paper (Will Steffen, 2015) as a guide for “human development on a changing planet” by “a safe operating space for humanity”, requires urgent updating with  extension of boundary indicators. This particularly applies to oceans and to climate change, which are linked. Ocean heath is the ultimate determinant of climate and biosphere. The 2009 PBs abstract said their exceedance “could see human activities push the Earth system outside the stable environmental state of the Holocene, with consequences that are detrimental or even catastrophic for large parts of the world. The 2015 paper said “planetary boundary (PB) framework provides a science-based analysis of the risk that human perturbations will destabilize the ES (Earth System) at the planetary scale.” Risk is the product of likelihood and magnitude. By magnitude, ES destabilization is an unprecedented greatest of risks ever, even at low likelihood. The 2015 paper states, “Three of the PBs (climate change, stratospheric ozone depletion, and ocean acidification) remain essentially unchanged from the earlier analysis” of 2009. However, climate and ocean change indicators have increased to an extreme degree, at an extreme rate, since 2009. PBs (2015) does not include rates of change, though crucial to risk. Future climate change is calculated from climate sensitivity, still put at 3°C by the IPCC, but (properly) up to 6°C with slow feedbacks by PBs (2009), a large risk not addressed in PBs (2015). PBs (2015) makes atmospheric CO2 and radiative forcing the only metrics and puts the CO2 safety limit at “350 ppm CO2 (350-450 ppm)” while 2009 put the limit at 350 ppm. 450 ppm is far above today’s level of 417ppm.  These two metrics are not enough to determine climate safety. Today’s CO2 equivalent of 504 ppm is a commitment above 2°C and the danger limit is 1.5°C. Increasing radiative forcing determines ocean heating. The radiative forcing (RF) limit is given as 1W m2 (2009 and 2015). NOAA (2021) puts RF at 3.183. PBs (2015) determines ocean safety only by ocean acidification, though the rapid ocean heating, ocean de-oxygenation, sea surface temperature increase and ocean carbon sink are crucial. The planetary boundary would be Ocean Change. The sole metric limit given for ocean acidification is aragonite saturation, while the actual metric for ocean acidification is pH.  While the global climate emergency is widely recognized since the 2018 IPCC 1.5°C Report, PBs (2015) puts climate change within the safety (green) zone, with a range of uncertainty (yellow zone). Ocean acidification is put inside the green safety zone. Ocean acidification has increased 30% and is accelerating. Since 1980, ocean heat has increased 235 zettajoules, which is about 3900 times all the energy used by the human world per year. Open ocean oxygen has been declining since 1975.  Ocean warming, acidification and deoxygenation are projected to increase at least for decades.  The 2015 PB limits are far from safe for oceans and climate.

How to cite: Carter, P.: Climate and Oceans Planetary Boundaries: for Climate Literacy, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-10874, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-10874, 2022.

While a thorough understanding of the science of climate change is essential, the psycho-social aspect of this phenomenon cannot be ignored. We now know that psychological burdens of climate change are affecting a large number of youth globally (Marks et al., 2021). Research has shown that children tend to manage eco-anxiety through meaning-focussed, problem-focussed or de-emphasizing coping strategies (Ojala, 2012). Effective climate change education (CCE) thus needs to address these affective aspects to enable changes in behaviour, choices, and habits of students. OCE’s pedagogical plan on eco-anxiety provides teachers with a tool to focus on the psychological impact, further building on the cognitive understanding of climate science imparted by other lessons concerning climate science. Taken together, these lessons will build an interdisciplinary and holistic picture and orient students towards positive action to combat climate change.

The proposed research project study will evaluate the effectiveness of OCE’s lesson plan in managing eco-anxiety and provide a better understanding of eco-anxiety in teachers and 9-12 year old.

Hypotheses and research objectives: Currently, the OCE is conducting a pilot evaluation of the lesson plan on emotion. Using a standardised eco-anxiety and anxiety-coping measurement questionnaires, she will collect student and teacher data before and after teachers implement OCE’s activity on emotions regarding climate change,

Research Question and Methods: This study addresses the question whether students and their teachers are able to better manage eco-anxiety and develop an action-oriented attitude upon using OCE’s lesson plan. This will be a randomized controlled trial approach, with up to 80 teachers from France invited to voluntarily participate in the study with their classes. Teachers will be randomly sorted into two groups. Teachers in the treatment group will receive training and conduct two activities in class - one on consequences of global warming, and one on emotions. Those in the control group will conduct only the activity on consequences of global warming. In both cases, propositions of follow-up activities on prospection through artistic expression and project-based activities will be proposed to the participants. Data will be collected from both groups before and after the activities. Standard tools measuring eco-anxiety levels and behavioural approaches will be used for quantitative data ( Hogg et al., 2021; Ojala, 2012). 

Expected Outcome: The study will provide a scientific validation of the education resources created by OCE and help in making our current and future CCE resources more impactful. It will contribute towards a better understanding of eco-anxiety in young children. If found to have a positive impact on eco-anxiety management, this lesson plan will help make CCE more holistic.

How to cite: Pichon, C., Barve, A., Wilgenbus, D., Casati, R., and Klein, S.: Evaluation of OCE’s lesson plan for 9-12 year old students on emotions related to climate change, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-11683, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-11683, 2022.

Six young oceanographers (authors of this article), all working at the science institutions in Split (Croatia), connected closely through their work on SHExtreme and StVar-Adri projects. The members of the group previously had, in total, over 30 years of experience in organization and participation in voluntary popular science and educational activities, e.g., Science Festival, Science Factory, FantaSTikon. However, most of this was done in the large cities and at the mainland.

Partly motivated by the “science to all” idea, during 2021 the group had the vision of bringing ocean science to the inhabitants of the Adriatic Sea islands (hours distant to the large cities, having low number of daily connections, with low-count and prevailingly older population), especially children. Their aim was to offer various educational, science-promotive and fun extracurricular activities (main topic being sea) to the islanders, as these activities were rare even in pre-pandemic times and became almost non-existent during 2020/2021.

Thus, during the summer of 2021 “Oceanographers at the Island” held a series of events at three middle Adriatic Islands (Korčula, Ugljan and Hvar). The events included oceanographic science and art workshops for younger (6-10 years) and older (10-14 years) children, sea-topic boardgame gatherings and public talks at local cafes. During the workshops the children have done experiments and meteorological and oceanographic in-situ measurements, followed by the discussions and conclusions on the phenomena. As a result attendees have broadened their knowledge on the thermohaline properties and processes, sea motion and atmosphere-sea interaction. Highly incentive for the children to attend the workshops, selected (board)games, with topics of sea-ecology-strategy, made them revise their knowledge on the sea ecosystem while having fun and feel they, as humans, have an important impact of the present-and-future of their sea-oriented community and the planet. As a commune final product the attending children made posters and picture plates with the messages they found the most important and these were exhibited at the highest visibility places in their community (school or tourist information centre). To strengthen their remembrance on the events and “promises made to the sea” and motivating future science inclusion children were awarded by “The little oceanographer” diploma. General public talks, different at each location, presented an issue of interest for islanders of that particular island. In Vela Luka on Korčula, the topic was a devastating Great Vela Luka flood of 1978 which brought severe destruction to the island, in Vrboska on Hvar, topic were “schigas” – a local phenomenon of sudden sea level oscillations specific for that village; and in Ugljan on Ugljan topic was climate change – of especial interest to community given the numerous natural disasters which occurred during the summer of 2021.

All events were covered by local media (including newspapers, radio, web portals and social networks), and the entire initiative was presented to public by national media. Being praised by the locals and visitors from all age groups, the “Oceanographers at the islands” are continuing their “The sea talks to us, let’s listen to it!” work at new locations in 2022.

How to cite: Mlinar, M., Dunić, N., Karlović, M., Ruić, K., Šepić, J., and Vojković, M.: “The sea talks to us, let’s listen to it!” – ocean science educational activities for children and general population, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-12332, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-12332, 2022.

Schools by the Sea

Environmental literacy, in the climatic and oceanic context, is a new concept in Brazil, and only a few authors have introduced the topic since the 2000s (Prates et al. 2007 and Hadel, 2010).

According to Smythe (1995) there is a deep disconnect between nature and the daily life of people in urbanized areas. Humanity, through progress and technology, no longer embraces their ability to collaborate with nature, seeking instead to establish dominance over it. It seems as if humanity has lost the sensitivity to associate its behavior as harmful or beneficial to the ecosystem in which it lives.

In order to rescue the interrelationship between humanity and nature, and to make the younger population aware of the importance of their individual actions for a more sustainable planet, a project called Schools by the Sea was developed!

The Schools by the Sea project promoted environmental studies with high school students, so that they could apply the theoretical knowledge learned in the classroom to practical activities directly in coastal communities. For example, knowledge of chemistry was discussed using experiments which compared levels of dissolved oxygen in water from polluted streams, compared to water from coastal marine areas. The concepts of ecology and biological succession were discussed based on the observation of the plant and animal organisms of rocky shores in different rock strata. Concepts of geography and geology were also explored by focusing on a discussion of sedimentary deposits exposed in different coastal environments, and concepts of physics and mathematics were discussed based on the development of simple artifacts for wind and marine energy generation. All theoretical knowledge tested in practice during the study of the environment was discussed in an integrated way, in order to emphasize that physical, biological, chemical and geological processes are connected in nature and that man is an integral part of these processes, both benefiting and impacting these processes.

In this way, regardless of the professional area that the young participants of this project chose in the future, it was expected that they would be able to adopt more sustainable practices in an analytical and critical way in relation to the environment in which they live. The project was recurrent annually between 2006 and 2009, subsidized by the extinct Foundation for Aquatic Studies and Research of the Oceanographic Institute of the University of São Paulo (FUNDESPA-IOUSP).

Bibliographic references

HADEL, V. F. Programa de Visitas ao Centro de Biologia Marinha-USP: o monitor na mediação entre a Academia e o grande público. In: PEDRINI, A. de G. (Org.) Educação Ambiental Marinha e Costeira no Brasil. Rio de Janeiro: Eduerj, 2010. p. 93-114.

PRATES, A.P.L.; DUARTE, A.L.M.; FERREIRA, B.P.; GEORGI, C. LOIOLA, L.; HAZIN, M.C.; REINHART, MH. PEREIRA, P. M. Conduta consciente em ambientes recifais. Brasília: Ministério do Meio Ambiente, 2007. 28 p.

SMYTHE, J.C. Environment and Education: a view of a changing scene. Environment Education Research, v. 1, n. 1, p. 1-20, 1995.

How to cite: Alvarez de la Campa, S. and Mascagni, M.: Schools By The Sea Program, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-12897, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-12897, 2022.

Marine ecosystems are deteriorating worldwide, but scientific monitoring postdates the industrial revolution, leading to a distorted image of the pristine state of the world’s oceans. The Q-MARE working group of PAGES brings together scientists from vastly different disciplines, historians, archaeologists, paleontologists and ecologists to explore pre-industrial baselines and understand the true magnitude and rate of change induced by modern anthropogenic activities, including climate change, specifically biodiversity loss and the sustainability of ecosystems and societies. How did climate and human activities affect marine ecosystems in the pre-industrial Holocene and the Pleistocene? When did humans start having a significant impact on the marine environment? How can data from different sources be combined to inform environmental conservation targets and model marine ecosystems? Through our activities, we aim to determine the state and gaps of knowledge around these questions, but also to inform policy-makers and the public.

How to cite: Agiadi, K.: Shifting baselines revisited: Exploring pre-industrial climate and human impacts on marine ecosystems (Q-MARE, 2022–2025), EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-13171, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-13171, 2022.

Providing students with hands-on experience in emerging technologies, and engaging them in discovering new knowledge are ongoing challenges in undergraduate engineering and science education. CubeSats are playing an increasingly significant role in scientific research and exploration, as demonstrated by NASA’s successful Insight Mission. Challenging students to design, build, and test these small satellites has the potential to increase their problem-solving, computational, and critical thinking skills.  Furthermore, since CubeSats can be built with commercial-off-the shelf (COTS) components, they are relatively inexpensive and accessible to a diversity of programs and students.  This work describes a successful program in which students were challenged to design, build, and test a 1U (unit) COTS CubeSat. CubeSat student projects incorporate both technology demonstrations and sensors as scientific payloads.  Programmatic and technical successes and challenges faced by students especially during the COVID-19 pandemic are discussed, and some strategies are offered on how to implement such a program at different institutions with diverse student populations.

How to cite: Damas, M. C.: Using CubeSats to develop critical thinking skills, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-27, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-27, 2022.

Many issues related to contemporary climate change (e.g. reduced crop yield and diminishing water reservoirs) cannot be effectively addressed without improving the understanding of the climate system in future scientists, communicators and policy makers. Many higher education climate courses, however, are overspecialised, inaccessible and didactically inflexible, making it difficult to transfer them to other learning settings or instructors. INTEGRATE (Integrated Teaching of Atmospheric Science, Technical Skills and Empirical Methods) is an EGU-supported, open-access teaching package that is designed to remove barriers for teaching climate science in a higher education setting. The teaching package is self-contained and covers basic concepts of physical climatology, as well as programming and empirical analysis needed to work with climate datasets. The teaching approach includes hands-on activities for collecting and analysing atmospheric data, such as assembling and operating simple weather stations with affordable hardware. The course material, including source code, instructions, and figures, is available as a git repository (https://github.com/sebastian-mutz/integrate) and compiles into a complete course website (e.g. integrate.mutz.science). While the course was originally designed and tested as a series of lectures and computer exercises for BSc and MSc level university students, it has been revised to allow for adaptation to different teaching and learning levels and strategies in higher education. In this presentation, we introduce the course website and give examples of course content that can be used to instill a deeper understanding of theoretical and practical knowledge of climate science in university students.

How to cite: Mutz, S. G., Boateng, D., and Mohadjer, S.: INTEGRATE: A higher-education teaching package for climate science, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-864, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-864, 2022.

In the last decades we have increasingly seen a shift in higher education away from teaching soil science at the undergraduate level as stand-alone program or as part of more traditional Earth sciences programs. Instead, soil science is increasingly embedded in larger interdisciplinary programs. These can be programs within the realm of the natural sciences, e.g. combining soil science and ecology to study ecosystem functioning. Or they may be broader still, and include elements from the social sciences, economics, political science, etc.. Such broad interdisciplinary sustainability programs offer great opportunities, as they enable students to study soil sciences as part of the complex human-nature interactions that underpin the grand challenges of our time. However, teaching soil science in such in the context of an interdisciplinary sustainability program faces important challenges as well. These include finding a proper balance between broad orientation and specialization, and finding the truly interdisciplinary professors to teach the program.

At the University of Amsterdam, in 2006 we embedding our soil science teaching in the interdisciplinary Bachelor program Future Planet Studies (FPS) that includes natural sciences and social sciences components. In my presentation I aim to share some experiences from the evolution of the FPS program over the last 15 years. I will highlight some of our successes, and some of the challenges that we are still struggling with. With this I hope to initiate a discussion about the role of soil science in interdisciplinary programs, and learn from the experience of others.

How to cite: Jansen, B.: Future Planet Studies: embedding soil science in an interdisciplinary sustainability bachelor program, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-910, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-910, 2022.

It’s been almost 30 years since I started with MATLAB, coming from FORTRAN77, and at a time when Python was still in its infancy and 20 years before Julia was developed. However, I recognize the popularity of Python, including the growing prevalence of Julia, and find that a bilingual and trilingual version of my MATLAB-based books and my courses could be beneficial. I’ve been learning Python for a few months now, with the goal of writing a Python version of my first book, MATLAB Recipes for Earth Sciences, 5th Edition (Springer 2021). In the meantime, almost all chapters of the book, with topics such as time series analysis, signal processing, digital terrain analysis and image processing, have been translated from MATLAB into Python, some also into Julia. Using the trilingual code in a master's course shows an unexpected but extremely positive side effect: students get away from a particular software or programming language, and focus instead on the method they want to implement. In addition, solutions often use mixtures of programming languages, exploiting the advantages of each. This is an advantage, also helps a lot to produce sustainable and reproducible code. Furthermore, this approach makes the students fit for a job in academia or industry, where other software tools are used than the ones we use in class. Here, I will share my experiences with courses on data analysis in earth sciences with 2–3 programming languages and with translating a data analysis book from one to another programming language.

How to cite: Trauth, M. H.: The Recipes for Earth Sciences Go Trilingual: MATLAB, Python and Julia, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-2165, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-2165, 2022.

Students on the geospatial MSc programmes start with very varied levels of maths experience/skills. The students all need to become capable with all the maths concepts needed for the degree programme, but without boring those who can already do them. The Numbas software is freely available, open source and very mathematically capable (https://www.numbas.org.uk/). It facilitates creation of questions and exams which are randomizable, so students can repeat them many times for practice as needed. The randomizable nature of the questions can also be helpful for remote learning, as everyone has a test with different answers. This work describes how the tests and learning material have been arranged within the module to encourage timely self-learning of maths topics linked to geospatial themes, with initial low stakes assessments followed by higher stakes summative assessment, and discusses experiences with integrating Numbas over the last four years.  

How to cite: Petrie, E.: Strategies for building maths skills in a geospatial MSc class using the web based e-assessment software Numbas, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-2403, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-2403, 2022.

GETSI (GEodesy Tools for Societal Issues) is a US National Science Foundation-funded program that develops, tests, and disseminates data-rich and societally relevant curriculum for undergraduate field and classroom teaching. GETSI has published 13 modules (~2-3 weeks of class time each) co-authored by faculty at varied colleges and universities (serc.carleton.edu/getsi). The dissemination plan for the 2020-21 academic year was originally entirely in-person workshops. When the COVID19 pandemic necessitated the postponement and/or cancellation of essentially all face-to-face activities, the project pivoted to an online dissemination model for the 2020-21 academic year and convened a GETSI Virtual Mini Short Course Series and a virtual short course: Teaching in the field with SfM and RTK GPS/GNSS.

The Virtual Mini Short Course Series was October 2020-April 2021 and included 9 mini-courses. Unlike a webinar, the majority of the mini-course consisted of time for participants to work individually and collaboratively through portions of the student exercises, discuss teaching ideas, and develop a plan for implementation. The series attracted a wider range of participants from a broader range of institutions than many in-person events. Participants could choose to attend one or more of the mini-courses, depending on their area(s) of interest. Each 2-hour mini-course, co-led by a GETSI PI and module co-author(s), highlighted a different GETSI module and offered participants a small stipend for completing an implementation plan for using GETSI materials in their classroom. We used a variety of active learning strategies during the mini courses, including think-pair-shares, polling, report-outs, gallery tours, and jigsaws.

The two virtual short courses "Teaching in the Field with SfM and GPS" brought together graduate students and college/university faculty into an online learning cohort. Each institutional team received an RTK GPS receiver pair to practice with for several weeks and the cohort worked through similar field tasks separately, while periodically reconvening online to share challenges and accomplishments.

The lessons learned from this unanticipated shift to virtual professional development have implications moving forward for designing high-quality, interactive professional development for the whole STEM community.

How to cite: Pratt-Sitaula, B., Walker, B., Douglas, B., Crosby, B., and Charlevoix, D.: Finding the Silver Lining: Benefits and lessons learned from pivot to virtual short courses for instructor professional development for classroom and field geoscience, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-3298, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-3298, 2022.

Complex systems incorporating interconnected social, ecological, and technological components are often the subject of analysis and intervention. Such systems frequently give rise to wicked problems [1-4] – problems that “prove to be highly resistant to resolution through any of the currently existing modes of problem-solving” [2-3]. Such problems require a transdisciplinary approach – one where multiple perspectives and realities can inform decisions for intervening in the system. This is well understood in many policy-relevant fields. Inquiry into climate change impacts or water policy, for example, can only proceed effectively with some understanding of the “partiality, plurality and provisionality of knowing” [5]. In working with these types of complex systems, transdisciplinary teams capable of effectively engaging with many worldviews and ways of creating knowledge [2] are increasingly seen as essential for carrying out impactful research-based work. Despite the increasing importance of transdisciplinary practice, educational programs designed to help students effectively carry out this work remain rare, and researchers engaging in this kind of practice often must navigate institutional structures designed to reinforce rather than permeate boundaries between disciplines.

The School of Cybernetics at the Australian National University is one of an increasing number of institutions where transdisciplinary practice is a norm rather than an exception. Staff have been recruited from diverse scholarly and professional backgrounds and career trajectories, and activities encourage engagement in transdisciplinary inquiry. This is in service of the central mission of the School: to identify and develop the knowledges and practices required to take AI-enabled cyber-physical systems safely, responsibly and sustainably to scale in the world.  Experimental transdisciplinary masters and PhD programs have been convened since 2019 to help achieve this mission.

In this presentation, we will draw from the authors’ collective experience as supervisors, instructors, and students in these and other programs to provide guidance on designing and delivering effective transdisciplinary educational programs for higher degree research students. We will address the following aspects of postgraduate education: the student selection process, in which careful cohort selection is essential for identifying students likely to effectively engage in transdisciplinary work; our experience using formal and informal hands-on training in a range of research and relationship-management skills to support transdisciplinary practice; institutional structures and scaffolding to support transdisciplinary cultures and incentives; and ways of supporting students and supervisors to thrive through the creation of diverse and respectful research communities of practice that support collective learning.

[1] C. Andersson and P. Törnberg, Futures, 95, 118–138 (2018).

[2] V.A. Brown, Collective Inquiry and Its Wicked Problems, in Tackling Wicked Problems: Through the Transdisciplinary Imagination, edited by J.A. Harris et al., (Earthscan, New York, Oxon, 2010) pp. 61-83.

[3] H. Rittel and M. Webber, Policy Sciences, 4(2), 155-169 (1973).

[4] J. Mingers, and J. Rosenhead, Rational analysis for a problematic world revisited, Vol. 1 (John Wiley and Sons Ltd. Chichester UK, 2001).

[5] J.Y. Russell, A Philosophical Framework for an Open and Critical Transdisciplinary Inquiry, in Tackling Wicked Problems: Through the Transdisciplinary Imagination, edited by J.A. Harris et al., (Earthscan, New York, Oxon, 2010) pp. 31-60.

How to cite: Williams, E., Berman, G., Reid, K., Daniell, K., and Zafiroglu, A.: Complex systems and interconnected worlds: Crafting transdisciplinary higher degree research programs in an Australian context, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-4089, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-4089, 2022.

The Pyxis project is a sounding rocket developed by Skyward Experimental Rocketry from Politecnico di Milano, with the ultimate goal of participating in the European Rocketry Challenge in October 2022. The rocket, which will be the most advanced Italian sounding rocket ever developed by university students, will give the opportunity to hold a payload of 1U inside the nosecone. After lift-off, the rocket will rapidly reach the apogee at 3000 meters, where the nosecone with the payload bay will be ejected and recovered independently from the rocket thanks to an autonomous guided parafoil. For the payload development the team is collaborating with the students at the Scientific High School “Cigna-Baruffi-Garelli” – Mondovì, as they are creating a sensing platform, through the use of Blebricks sensors (IoT sensors), capable of detecting enviromental data such as pressure, temperature and quality of the air, storing it on board for post-flight analysis. 
The students at “Cigna-Baruffi-Garelli” are already involved also in another STEM experience with hot air/stratospheric balloons called infoBalloons, presented last year at EGU 2021 (Tealdi, P., Innocenti, F., and Aimo, G. (.: infoBalloons: an Italian High School educational self-made budget friendly STEM experience with hot air/stratospheric balloons, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-13420, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-13420, 2021). infoBalloons 2.0 is a selected Sounding Balloon (SB) Experiments in the 2nd HEMERA Call for Proposals (HEMERA H2020. This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and Innovation programme under grant agreement No 730970).
An added value in the Pyxis project is the participation as partners of LB Space with Luciano Battocchio (retired Space Engineer - Exomars Parachute Program Manager), Bleb Technology with Fabrizio Innocenti (CEO),  John Aimo Balloons with Giovanni (John) Aimo. 

How to cite: Tealdi, P., Battocchio, L., Innocenti, F., Aimo, G. (., Corallo, F., Donghi, N., Colombo, M., Florio, N., Nidasio, A., Del Duca, A., Rosato, D., Cucchi, L., Ciuti, L., and Porro, V.: The Pyxis project: a sounding rocket developed by Skyward Experimental Rocketry from Politecnico di Milano in collaboration with the Scientific High School “Cigna-Baruffi-Garelli” – Mondovì, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-6422, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-6422, 2022.

Volcanic ash presents a challenge for the aviation industry. Volcanic ash is semi-transparent, absorbing in the 8-12 micron window. 3D information is needed to be able to back-calculate dose – this is a key parameter in managing airspace. To recreate the ash cloud, multiangle observations are required – making a nadir-pointing satellite ideal to perform observations for this purpose. Other mission objectives using the same instruments can also be realised, for example, as volcanic ash clouds are the primary target, there is the possibility to map new magma extrusions, lava and pyroclastic flow movements. Thermal infrared data has also previously been used to observe volcanic cycles and better understand their behaviour. There is also the possibility of including forest fires as targets of opportunity. The images required for 3D construction of ash clouds can also be used to create digital elevation models of terrain around volcanos which have application in disaster management and planning.

A CubeSat mission - Pointable Radiometer for Observing Volcanic Emissions (PROVE) - is proposed to monitor the ash cloud using both thermal infrared and visual cameras. All requirements and components were determined by students through trade-off studies. Each work package was undertaken by undergraduate and postgraduate students (both as part of research projects and on a voluntary extracurricular basis) supervised by academics. The resulting 1U+ payload consists of a thermal infrared camera (FLIR Tau 2 with a 50mm lens), and 2 visual cameras (a narrow field of view Basler ace ac5472-5gc with a Kowa LM75HC lens, and a 5MP Arducam with a 40 degree lens as a wide field of view instrument). Alongside this, a payload computer to communicate with the cameras and store data was selected (the Beaglebone Black Industrial) with a custom PCB providing connections to the instruments and bus. The software to operate the payload takes the form of a custom scheduler for an imaging pass, sending commands to the camera systems (and to the bus) to take the required multiangle images for ash cloud reconstruction.

The payload is currently in the final design and testing stage, with vibration and vacuum testing, as well as FlatSat testing before the final manufacture and integration of the payload. There is the possibility of a UK launch later this year.

How to cite: Reid, D., Timperley, L., Pike, O., Etchells, T., Hollingdale, J., Goodwin, T., Exton, D., Labia, F., Stonkus, V., O'Donnell, M., Leach, C., Aadhithya Ravikumar, V., Proud, W., Sutlieff, G., Aplin, K., Berthoud, L., Sarua, A., Schenk, M., and Watson, M.: A Student-Led Project for the Design of an Imaging CubeSat Payload, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-9492, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-9492, 2022.

The analysis of hydro-morphodynamic processes in river ecosystems involves modeling complex natural processes based on continuously growing data sets. Typical tools involved in such analyses embrace numerical models, GIS software, and high-level programming languages. Teaching the application of these tools is part of many environmental and geoscience-oriented study courses though the tool development partly roots in other disciplines, such as civil or software engineering. Thus, the holistic understanding of tools for hydro-morphological modeling and assessment of river ecosystems is an interdisciplinary challenge that is often solved in practice through multi-institutional collaboration. Yet, even public academic institutions tend to teach the usage of proprietary software that is embedded in a chain of even more, often expensive, proprietary software applications. In addition, the teaching of software refers to a presently up-to-date version, and its application can quickly become outdated.

To address the challenge of teaching interdisciplinary tools for modeling and analyzing river ecosystems, we have created an online eBook (available at https://hydro-informatics.com) that exclusively explains the use of open-source and open-access software. The eBook goes beyond our institutional teaching, and we do our best to keep the descriptions of software applications up-to-date. In addition, we offer more than IT assistance through detailed explanations of physical processes and mathematical equations involved in river ecosystem modeling. For instance, we explain geomorphological principles and the development of equations for calculating fluvial sediment transport. In cross-disciplinary application examples, we also feature ecohydraulic principles of river landscape analysis, for example, to calculate habitat suitability based on two-dimensional numerical model outputs. To this end, we explain and demonstrate the installation and use of the high-level programming language Python, the numerical modeling software BASEMENT and TELEMAC, the usage of git and Markdown, and the geospatial software QGIS on common operating systems (including and with preference: Linux). Ultimately, we also offer sample data sets, self-learning checks, exercises, and troubleshooting solutions to keep the barrier to free teaching as low as possible.

How to cite: Schwindt, S. and Scolari, F.: A new Educational Open-source eBook for Modeling River Hydro-morphodynamics, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-9526, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-9526, 2022.

Since the 1980s the number of stations reporting quality weather data across Africa has been in decline. Weather data is critical for meeting climate challenges that the world will face in the 21^st century. Unfortunately, along with the paucity of climatological data, Africa faces some of the largest vulnerabilities to a changing climate, including changes to local precipitation and temperature regimes upon which farmers rely for rainfed agriculture, which makes up 98% of the agriculture in Côte d’Ivoire. In this project students and scientists in Côte d’Ivoire and the United States are leveraging the Trans African Hydrometeorology Network (TAHMO) University to University (U2U) program to build a network of youth scientists in the region of Université Jean Lorougnon Guédé de Daloa (UJLG). In order to carry out this work we have identified ten locations at primary and secondary schools where manual rainfall and temperature gauges are being installed. The partner locations are schools in Gonaté, Brizeboua, Kibouo, Tahiragué, Zahia, Bla and Zéréfla. At these sites students will learn about weather and climate measurement and read daily rainfall amounts and temperatures from manual recorders. University students at UJLG and San José State University will collect, compile, and check the weather data in order to post it to a shared website where it can be viewed publicly. In addition, we plan to install one of the automated TAHMO weather stations at UJLD which is a robust station that records air temperature, wind speed, solar radiation, relative humidity, barometric pressure, wind speed and direction, lightning strike, and lightning strike distance and communicates them directly to the TAHMO network where they are available for viewing on the web. Using the manually recorded data as well as the automated data from the TAHMO station we plan to further develop teaching materials for earth system and agro-meteorology courses at UJLG and SJSU. The objectives of this project are to (1) provide opportunities for youth to learn about climate and weather data using a hands-on approach in their local area  (2) strengthen ties between US and Ivorian students and scientists and (3) to contribute to increasing the amount and quality of climate data across the African continent.

How to cite: Bogie, N. and Bayala, R.: Youth Citizen Science and Agro-Climatology in Côte d’Ivoire, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-10990, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-10990, 2022.

Increasing temperatures in the Arctic are thawing permafrost, changing vegetation, and increasing wildfires at unprecedented rates. Climate change is also affecting other regions in the United States and in the world. This presentation describes a climate change research immersive program born from a partnership between an international climate research center and a science, technology engineering and mathematics (STEM) program in a Southern California community college. For four years, the Santa Ana College Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement (MESA) program and the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) International Arctic Research Center brought groups of science and engineering students North to witness climate change in the Arctic and conduct original research on an aspect of the changes. The COVID 19 pandemic posed a challenge and halted this collaborative work; however in 2021 gave us the impetus to creatively continue in providing a research intensive experience to first generation college students from groups underrepresented in STEM fields, through a blended on-line and in-person Summer Climate Research Intensive Course that examines the ecological impacts of climate change through hands-on field research. Student groups in Santa Ana, California and Fairbanks, Alaska met for instruction, training and collaborative work online through video conference, and completed comparative field work in their two different forest ecosystems with the help of local scientist mentors at location. Students gained science skills and experience in research question framing, ecological fieldwork, laboratory procedures, collaboration, data analysis and communication, as they designed and conducted their research projects alongside professional climate change scientists. All students completed a research project and developed a project poster which they presented at a blended science symposium and plan to present at other professional conferences. The Course was jointly sponsored by the Arctic and Earth STEM Integrating GLOBE and NASA program (UAF International Arctic Research Center), the Santa Ana College Math, Engineering and Science Achievement (MESA) Program, and the UAF Climate Scholars Program (UAF Honors College). Lessons learned and evaluation results will also be shared.

How to cite: Sparrow, E. B., Spellman, K., Fochesatto, G. J., Castillo, C., Coyne, C., Cutkomp, J., Ornelas, C., and Ramirez, A.: A Climate Research Intensive Undergraduate Program Pivot During a Pandemic, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-12587, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-12587, 2022.

Field research is an integral part of the educational process in the Earth sciences. Сovid-19 restricted our movement on the territory of Ukraine. Our team decided to create virtual geological objects. We present the results of creating a virtual route along the Cheremosh River.

The results of this road will be used for one of the educational courses at the Institute of Geodesy. In the summer, we organized several field trips to create virtual geological objects. The digital models created by us will become the main source of information for students. During the pandemic, we did not have the opportunity to make trips for groups of students and we forsee it. Thanks to the visualization of the outcrops, we skip the field stage for students and we emphasize the cameral stage in our course. In the first lecture we will tell about the idea and history of our creation of this course, give examples of programs and show the processing of data collected by us.

The geological outcrops we study are located in the Skyba and Boryslav-Pokuttia nappes of the Outer Ukrainian Carpathians. The stratigraphic section is represented by a flysch complex ranging in age from Cretaceous to Neogene. The second important complex is the lower molasses of the Neogene age. In outcrops we observe a number of structures that are important for structural geology, sedimentology and others.

To create our objects, we used two methods – terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) and digital photogrammetry (SfM). Both of these methods allow to gather collection of geological data on outcrops rapidly and these data have usually high quality. Information about the structure of outcrops is presented in the form of a cloud of points that allows you to build three-dimensional models of outcrops (DOM).

How to cite: Oliinyk, M., Bubniak, I., Bubniak, A., and Bihun, M.: Virtual geological road in Cheremosh river valley, Outer Ukrainian Carpathians, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-197, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-197, 2022.

The National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics – OGS is engaged in a wide range of educational and training activities for more than a decade, mainly focused on seismic risk mitigation through data acquisition in the field and practical stages. To by-pass the restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2021 OGS started a new project, deployed in fully remote mode, to involve high-school students and increase their risk awareness and preparedness. The Project, named “CEDAS: building CEnsus for seismic Damage Assessment”, consists in the collection and elaboration of data which is included in the exposure database. Knowing the type and distribution of exposed assets, in particular buildings, is thus paramount for effective mitigation of disasters. The students classified and georeferenced the main residential buildings typologies of northeastern Italy, a seismically active area which suffered consequences from strong past earthquakes. During the project, 170 high school students collected reports on more than 3200 buildings, performing a statistical analysis of their results.

The project activities consisted of two main phases: plenary virtual training meetings and individual data collection and processing. Tutors held intermediate meetings with students for verification and discussion and brainstorming sessions with their professors to discuss the efficacy of their actions. All the meetings, including those for direct training of students, were delivered in virtual mode. The training material (including the meeting recordings) was then shared remotely with students and teachers through cloud solutions, and remained available during the whole project. In this way the students were able to both collect basic data for exposure assessment, and carry out their preliminary analysis using standard statistical tools available online. The comparative data analysis, performed for selected sub-areas and for the overall dataset, allowed them for some basic interpretation and a better understanding of the exposed assets situation in sub-areas. The CEDAS project, though motivated by the need to provide a practical solution to the COVID-19-related restrictions, went well beyond the emergency situation, as it demonstrated that training activities can contribute to both enhancing the available exposure dataset and to increasing risk awareness among young students in the region.

How to cite: Barnaba, C., Peresan, A., Scaini, C., Poggi, V., and Tamaro, A.: Lessons learned from high-school students contribute to exposure database, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-2744, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-2744, 2022.

The last two years of global pandemic forced many traditional classes to be cancelled and alternative teaching solutions to be sought, which triggered development of substantial virtual resources for training in geological field work. Virtual geology has proven to have significant advantages over traditional field work in aspects such as: 1) ability to include people with physical limitations, 2) reduction of costs for students, 3) flexible working hours, 4) independence of weather conditions. Nevertheless, most geoscience lecturers would agree that virtual classes are unable to entirely replace on-site classes, because they do not allow development of certain observational skills and 3D perception, field hardiness, or in-person team communications. We therefore propose a hybrid course design within the European Universities “FORTHEM” framework, which integrates virtual and on-site teaching techniques. This course not only demonstrates novel teaching methodology but also trains students to integrate variable sources of information; such capabilities are critical to allow graduate geoscientists to thrive in our current information age.

The field area is located in Molinos, Teruel province of eastern Spain, where a fossil-rich Jurassic-Cretaceous sedimentary sequence is exposed. The record mainly comprises marine units, which reveal changes in depositional environment that reflect paleoclimate changes. However, the area is extensively folded and faulted, and thus the tectonic deformation needs to be unraveled in order to determine the original depositional sequences. Students participating on-site will therefore study the fossil record of the rocks, measure faults and folds and create a geological map of the area. A second group of students will work from their home, examining the microfossils in thin section images and use 3D models of outcrops to describe the geometry of folds and faults, and perform digital geological mapping with the aid of satellite images. The two groups of students will be working on the same challenges but on different scales and thus an exchange of field and digital observations between students will be encouraged and required to obtain a holistic understanding of the local geology. As an outcome of this course students will reconstruct a timeline of environmental changes through the Jurassic-Cretaceous period. All data will be collected in database driven applications, allowing swift exchange of data, and its longer term preservation in a uniform format.

How to cite: Hawemann, F., Kirilova, M., Toy, V., Fenske, S., and Seelos, P.: A hybrid online/on-site field trip: Reconstructing Earth’s Past Climate from the sedimentary record., EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-5209, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-5209, 2022.

The master’s degree programmes Earth Structure and Dynamics and Earth Life and Climate at Utrecht University, The Netherlands, include the option to join a research-oriented fieldwork in the Betic Cordillera, SE-Spain. The fieldwork is a 200-hour course where the students learn how to set up and develop a field project with a specific research question, and write a report on the results in a publication format. Students work in teams of two with their own research questions and working area. The focus is diverse and ranges from tectonics, basin development, structural geology or metamorphic geology, to environmental and climate related topics in terms of sedimentology, stratigraphy, paleontology and biogeology.

Covid-19 restrictions have prevented conducting this fieldwork in the last two years. To avoid study delays, the field course has been converted into a virtual fieldwork that that took place in the same academic time slot as the usual field study. This conversion has also allowed the creation of new working methods and virtual resources to benefit in the future.

The virtual fieldwork was focussed in the same subareas as the real fieldwork; in the Sierra de los Filabres metamorphic range (structures and deformation history, petrology and metamorphic history) and the adjacent Sorbas basin (kinematic and depositional evolution). We compiled data sets with measurements of bedding and sediment transport directions, foliations, fold axes, (stretching) lineations and shear senses along shear zones, and faults in both areas. We also collected field photographs, including panoramas of key outcrops. For the metamorphic range, full-scanned thin-sections were available by using the ZEISS ZEN lite as a Digital Microscope for Thin Section Analysis. Detailed sedimentological columns were also available in the Sorbas Basin, as well as geo-referenced geological and topographic maps for all areas.

The students studied and worked with the fully geo-referenced material by making use of Google Earth or their converted equivalent in shape files. They analysed the outcrops in the same way as they would do in the field, had to decide on what exact data to use and how to combine observations to answer their research questions, in combination with existing relevant literature.

In our presentation, we will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of our virtual field work. The combination of prefab data sets and extensive use of literature resulted in more in-depth insight in the evolution of the studied area than has been reached in the past in a normal fieldwork. In contrast, the students learned less on how to filter the right observations form the overload of data available in the field, and they got less experience in dealing with uncertainties. And, not unimportantly, they had less fun. We believe that an optimal combination of preparing student fieldwork with virtual datasets and onsite fieldwork is the future way to advance fieldwork learning.

How to cite: de Bresser, H. and Matenco, L.: Virtual fieldwork in the Betic Cordillera, SE-Spain, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-6148, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-6148, 2022.

The pandemic has changed teaching dramatically. Similar to many other university teachers, we were faced with an unprecedented situation when the university closed in spring 2020, a few weeks after the start of the semester. In this presentation, we report and discuss our experiences from teaching a first-year Bachelor level introductory course in Hydrology with almost 200 students. In particular, we focus on the excursion for this course. We were in the fortunate position that we had started to develop a new smartphone-based self-guided excursion on the topic of ‘Water in the city’. We accelerated this development and used it to replace the traditional group excursion, which had to be cancelled. We used the self-guided excursion again in 2021.The student feedback was overall very positive, and therefore we plan to continue to use the excursion in the coming years. In this presentation, we describe the excursion, discuss the experiences of the students, and present materials and ideas that could be useful for similar excursions at other universities.

How to cite: Seibert, J., Schwarzenbach, F., and van Meerveld, I.: Self-guided smartphone excursions in university teaching – experiences from exploring ‘Water in the City’, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-6343, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-6343, 2022.

Field work is one of the fundamental tools for teaching structural geology. Remote teaching conditions over the past two years have represented a major challenge to in-person field trips with students. Whereas online and outdoor teaching are completely different in nature, online activities can be used to reach many of the objectives typically associated with in-person teaching.

In this presentation I will discuss the example of a 2-hour virtual field-trip organized for a specialist audience composed of experienced structural geologists and experienced geologists from other disciplines. The field trip was run to the Northern Calcareous Alps (Austria) and deals with brittle tectonics (mainly salt tectonics). The same field trip has later been modified (simplified) and offered to a mixed background of geoscientists. Both experienced structural geologists and a mixed audience were surveyed after the end of the field trip.

Feedback indicates that the virtual field trip proved to be a time- and resource-effective way of delivering overview content and fostering targeted discussion. Of particular value was the fact that the virtual environment made it possible for attendees to individually explore information in a georeferenced setting (in Google Earth) and key outcrops that had been generated in 3D and loaded to an open website (www.sketchfab.com).

Attendees also noted that the main drawbacks of the virtual setting were being at the usual workplace and the lack of the opportunity to think and discuss during field stops. They also highlighted that the single most critical factor in making a virtual field trip a success is the instructor (over other factors such as length or format of the field trip material). Finally, attendees mostly indicated that the virtual field trip would not replace an in-person experience, but rather acts as a complement.

Although the experience obtained with this field trip is limited and lacks a comparison to the equivalent in-person field-trip, it supports the idea that virtual field-trips can be used as: 1) complementary activities to in-person field-trips, particularly to deliver pre-trip background; 2) a cost- and time-effective way of delivering project results and enabling peer-to-peer discussions.

How to cite: Fernández, O.: Thoughts on cooking up a virtual field-trip in Google Earth and its digestion, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-7158, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-7158, 2022.

The Covid-19 pandemic has severely affected possibilities for students to do field work and thereby train their team work skills. Under the uncertain conditions of the pandemic, teachers might be reluctant to plan field courses months ahead, and students and teachers might not feel comfortable or are simply not allowed to travel in larger groups. This calls for approaches that allow students to do field work in small groups in their own time and to integrate individual group results into a course-wide learning goal. In this contribution, we will share our experiences with the Nitrate App developed by Deltares, which enables students to do water quality measurements with minimal prior instructions and without supervision by teachers. The Nitrate App is a smartphone application that reads nitrate concentrations from test strips and stores them in a shared database. The app has been originally developed to support farmers in measuring nitrate concentrations and derive best management practices from these. While farmers make great use of this application, the Nitrate App has been increasingly employed for educational purposes. At the same time, educational use of this app can also feed back into water management, as this allows collecting nitrate concentration data at much finer spatial resolution than possible in regional water quality monitoring networks. The directly available measurement results allow for ad hoc decisions about measurement strategies for example to identify the source of high nitrate concentrations. We will illustrate recent examples of how the Nitrate App has been employed in field work assignments of Bachelor’s and Master’s geoscience courses as well as in elementary school education.

How to cite: Lutz, S., Rozemeijer, J., Buijs, S., and Ekkelenkamp, R.: Water quality is exciting even during a pandemic: students measure and interpret nitrate concentrations using the Nitrate App, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-7640, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-7640, 2022.

Fieldwork features prominently in national subject benchmark statements for geography, earth and environmental sciences. Field learning tends to involve a problem-centred approach, often with more open-ended questions, which fosters greater motivation in the students and encourages acceptance of uncertainty and context-dependent outcomes. The current Covid-19 pandemic has meant a move to online teaching, especially for field work learning. Academics have had to offer virtual fieldtrips as alternatives to in-person field teaching as a rapid response to the pandemic, often without prior experience of the relevant IT and pedagogy.

Whilst some premade fieldtrips are available for purchase, they can be expensive, with some having limited applicability for the region of interest for individual modules, thereby not meeting students learning outcome requirements. Therefore, during the pandemic there has been a need for individual academics to develop their own virtual fieldtrips which are tailored to the specific needs of their students. 

ThingLink is an education platform which allows users to undertake virtual ‘walk throughs’ and 360 immersive experiences. Thinglink is fully Microsoft compliant and has options to link to external resources, embedded audio, video and still photographs.  In this talk, we will introduce you to ThingLink (with comparisons to other options e.g., ESRI StoryMaps and Google Explore) and its use for creating custom fieldtrips. We will also reflect on examples, from our three universities, of how we have used it for different undergraduate virtual fieldtrips. The fieldtrips focused on sampling techniques across a variety of habitats, including sampling design and assessing typical sampling errors, fluvial geomorphology and analysing cross sectional hydraulics, and geology and landform interpretation.

How to cite: Ockelford, A., Pattison, Z., Hutchinson, S., and Evans, A.: Exploring the use of ‘ThingLink’ in delivering online virtual fieldtrips, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-10061, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-10061, 2022.

This paper deals with the creation of a virtual excursion in the Rheinisches Schiefergebirge between Rüdesheim and Lorch. The virtual excursion serves as a supplementary teaching method for students of geosciences. The challenges posed by the Corona pandemic also require a rethinking of how excursions are conducted. These are highly relevant in the field of geosciences, as the study programme is very practice-oriented and thus the theoretical basics can be applied practically. Furthermore, excursions involve not only spatial but also physical challenges. With the help of the digital excursion, the students have the opportunity to explore the area on their own, without the presence of the supervising lecturer, and to evaluate the information provided about the rock. In addition to an overview of the location and size of the rock, detailed representations of the structure of the rock are also available. In order to be able to present this depth of information in digital form, Google-KMZ files (https://seafile.rlp.net/d/f2e4fc83a52b4a749f2d/) and 3D models of the area to be explored were created using a digital camera, a GPS device and photogrammetry software. 

Even though the digital excursion offers a wealth of data about the rock to be explored, they are not intended to replace classical excursions, but rather to complement them. In addition, they offer meaningful support for the teaching of geosciences.

How to cite: Owin, J.: Virtual excursion in the "Rheinisches Schiefergebirge" between Rüdesheim and Lorch, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-11339, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-11339, 2022.

Field-based classes in geological sciences are crucial components of geoscience education and research. Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, such activities became problematic due to limitations such as travel restrictions and lockdown periods: this motivated the geoeducational community to tailor new ways to engage people in field activities. As a result, we adopted Immersive Virtual Reality as a tool to involve students, academics, and the lay public in field exploration, thus making geological exploration accessible also to people affected by permanent or temporary motor disabilities. In particular, we evaluated how users perceive the usefulness of this approach as applied to Earth Science learning and teaching, through nine outreach events, where a total of 459 participants were involved, with different ages and cultural backgrounds. The participants explored, in an immersive mode, four geological landscapes, defined as virtual geological environments, which have been reconstructed by cutting-edge, unmanned aerial system-based photogrammetry techniques. They include: Santorini (Greece), the North Volcanic Zone (Iceland), and Mt. Etna (Italy). After the exploration, each participant filled in an anonymous questionnaire. The results show that the majority would be willing to repeat the experience, and, most importantly, the majority of the students and Earth Science academics who took part in the navigation confirmed the usefulness of this technique for geo-education purposes. Our approach can be considered as a groundbreaking tool and an innovative democratic way to access information and experiences, as well as to promote inclusivity and accessibility in geo-education, while reducing travel costs, saving time, and decreasing the carbon footprint. This work has been carried out in the framework of the following projects: i) ACPR15T4_ 00098 “Agreement between the University of Milan Bicocca and the Cometa Consortium for the experimentation of cutting-edge interactive technologies for the improvement of science teaching and dissemination” of Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (ARGO3D - https://argo3d.unimib.it/); ii) Erasmus+ Key Action 2 2017-1-UK01-KA203- 036719 “3DTeLC – Bringing the 3D-world into the classroom: a new approach to Teaching, Learning and Communicating the science of geohazards in terrestrial and marine environments” (http://3dtelc.lmv.uca.fr/; https://www.3dtelc.com/); iii) 2018 EGU Public Engagement Grants (https://www.egu.eu/outreach/peg/).

How to cite: Bonali, F. L., Russo, E., Vitello, F., Antoniou, V., Tibaldi, A., Fallati, L., Bracchi, V., Savini, A., Whitworth, M., Drymoni, K., Pasquaré Mariotto, F., Nomikou, P., Sciacca, ‬., Bressan, S., Falsaperla, S., Reitano, D., van Wyk de Vries, B., Panieri, G., Stiller-Reeve, M. A., and Becciani, U. and the others: Immersive Virtual Reality for Geo-education: feedback from students, academics and the lay public, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-11553, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-11553, 2022.

The Erasmus+ Capacity Building program, created in 2014, aims at incentivizing the European universities to share knowledge with higher education institutions from other continents. The project “SUGERE” (Sustainable Sustainability and Wise Use of Geological Resources) aims at developing degree programs at different levels, from bachelors, to master and doctorate, in the field of earth sciences (Geology, Geological Engineering, and Mining Engineering) in universities from Africa. The main goal is to develop and implement programs focusing on three key areas: knowledge about earth sciences and natural resources, skills related to sustainable environmental development, and ethics and social economics. The purpose is to motivate both students and teaching staff to play a decisive role in the development of their countries through sustainable mining. Partners are working to integrate innovative ways to share knowledge and good training practices

How to cite: Nuvunga, F. O., Miguel, I., Vitória, S., Holden, E., Dino, G., and Pereira, M. D.: Linking continents through their educational programs, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-406, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-406, 2022.

South Africa has an almost unparalled geological record, spanning from the early Archaean and the first traces to life on earth, right through to the Quaternary and the evolution of our own prehuman relatives. The University of Cape Town (UCT) is consistently recognised as the top university in African. Recent articles highlight issues of race and racism in the Geological Sciences[i] and harassment in the field[ii]. Given that our undergraduate cohort reflects the diverse demographics of South Africa, and our long history of excellence, as a department and institution, we are well placed to tackle both issues.

2021 brought the return of some normality to undergraduate teaching, and our department advocated to run in person field trips, organising COVID tests for all participants. We ran a three-day residential field training course for our first-year undergraduates. This trip has the potential to make or break future geologists – a good experience can influence their decision to major in geology. We modified the field guide to include precise locations and timings for all coach journeys and stops, as students commonly report feeling a lack of control on field trips, which can be disorientating, particularly for students who are anxious or have little travel experience. We included stops with toilet facilities at regular intervals and ensured students were aware of when the next rest break would be. This is important for female students who, worldwide, report finding the absence of facilities in the field distressing, sometimes forcing them to make unhealthy decisions  (not changing menstrual products or intentionally becoming dehydrated[iii]). We provided free menstrual products and informed students that they could help themselves discretely as needed. We provided all meals, including lunch, to relieve financial stress for students living in catered residences, for whom field trips constitute an additional expense.

We made pedagogical changes to encourage student engagement and empowerment. Students were asked to research key topics in advance, and then present them in the field. We also reduced the number of stops and spent longer at each one, giving students time to make their own observations and interpretations before a group discussion. This improved student engagement and encouraged peer-to-peer learning. It also helped to empower the students and break down the model of field trip leaders (who are mostly White) being a fountain of knowledge and students being the “sponges”. Overall, even the COVID adjusted version of the excursion was highly successful, as gauged by anonymous student feedback. By the time this meeting takes place, we will have a sense of how many of these students choose to continue into second year.

How to cite: Pickering, R., Hasbibi, S., and Tostevin, R.: Redesigning field training to provide an informative, safe, and even fun experience for first year students at the University of Cape Town, South Africa., EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-522, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-522, 2022.

Many geomorphologists who are mothers find it challenging to balance field research alongside pregnancy and early motherhood. The barriers presented by carrying out fieldwork during pregnancy or as a mother of preschool-aged children can adversely affect the career progress of women and Early Career Scientists at a point that is critical for their retention in scientific research. We offer perspectives on the challenges of fieldwork as mothers and discuss possible solutions that have worked (or not) for us, as a means of promoting conversations and highlighting issues that are less commonly considered in field-based geomorphological research. Although every mother’s experience and needs are different, we discuss strategies for conducting fieldwork, addressing childcare issues, maintaining a research career through this life stage, and dealing with financial considerations such as additional childcare costs. We highlight funders that support mothers in carrying out fieldwork and the problem of institutional restrictions on such spending. We call for our community to support geomorphologists who are pregnant or caring for young children in carrying out fieldwork to help enhance the diversity of voices and perspectives within our discipline. 

How to cite: Lininger, K., Rowan, A. V., Livers, B., Kramer, N., Ruiz-Villanueva, V., Sendrowski, A., and Burrough, S.: Promoting and supporting field-based geomorphologists during pregnancy and early motherhood, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-726, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-726, 2022.

Young Women of Geosciences (YWOG) is a group at Utrecht University (the Netherlands) which aims to create an equal and inclusive working environment for all employees in the faculty of Geosciences. Now in our fourth year, with an expanding committee and increasing support from the faculty, we share some details and insights from events held during the pandemic. After several years of having primarily the same small group of people attending our events (i.e. “preaching to the choir”) our aim was to engage with more people in our faculty. We wanted to pull up new chairs to the table and hear new opinions and thoughts and so, our events were planned with this primary goal in mind. However, under changing and variable conditions due to the pandemic, the planning of events to promote diversity and inclusion became more of a challenge. We had to devise strategies to keep people engaged in diversity and inclusion topics while people became tired of online events, and were busy just dealing with the pandemic.

Our primary success was a book giveaway and discussion where three books related to diversity and inclusion (some also with climate and environmental aspects) were given for free to 30 staff members. This was followed by an open online discussion about topics that arose in the books and how these issues were experienced in our own faculty. This session had the greatest number of male participants we have ever had at one of our events (despite all sessions always being open to all genders) and this led to great information sharing and discussions. We also organised two Wikipedia hackathons which aimed to improve information on Wikipedia about female and minority scientists. This event required a great deal of time and skill development which unfortunately many people were not able to commit to, which led to smaller numbers and less engagement than our book event.

Overall, we managed to introduce new groups of people to our discussions and engage with a broader audience than in previous years, within a virtual environment. We attribute this in large part to attractive events and hard work on our communication strategy. We found that engagement in activities, particularly for new attendees, was highly dependent on time availability and concrete communication of details of the event. We frequently used social media to communicate about our events and significant growth of these channels in the virtual-only environment of lockdowns led to overall increased engagement. This was particularly the case on Twitter, where we have found active and supportive fellow networks to engage with, be inspired by, and inspire.

How to cite: Cox, J., Thorslund, J., Roelofs, L., Ebner, R., Dunn, F., van Rijsingen, N., Baxter, A., Dhaubanjar, S., and Postma, M.: Pulling up new chairs to the table: experiences of organising diversity and inclusion events during a pandemic, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-739, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-739, 2022.

Choosing academia as a career path is a luxury and privilege of the few. The place where you are born and the citizenship you hold can determine whether an academic career is possible as a life goal. Here, I will detail my own personal experiences and explain how I arrived to geosciences and seismology as a woman of color from a developing country (Nicaragua). These experiences have been shaped by me living in Mexico, Germany and the Netherlands, as well as by key personal choices and important mentors that have taken me from an industry job as an engineer to a postdoc.

How to cite: Talavera-Soza, S. and Deuss, A.: Choosing academia: an outsider's perspective, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-950, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-950, 2022.

EGU, the European Geosciences Union, is Europe’s premier geosciences union, dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in the Earth, planetary, and space sciences for the benefit of humanity, worldwide. Every year, the EGU awards and medals programme recognises eminent scientists for their outstanding research contribution in the Earth, planetary and space sciences. In addition, it identifies the awardees as role models for the next generation of early career scientists to foster geoscience research.

Nominations for all the medals and awards are submitted every year online by 15 June by the members of the EGU scientific community. Any person can be nominated except the EGU president, vice-president council members (not including ex- officio members) and chairs of the EGU committees. The EGU Council, the medal and award committees’ members and the Union and division officers are committed to soliciting nominations of deserving individuals by avoiding conflicts of interest. Each EGU medal or award is selected through a rigorous assessment of the candidates and their merits through the respective committee. The procedures for nomination, selection of candidates and the time schedule are described in detail on EGU websites.

It is a strict necessity when recognizing scientific excellence by any scientific association providing equal opportunities and ensuring balance. The processes and procedures that lead to the recognition of excellence has to be transparent and free of gender biases. However, establishment of clear and transparent evaluation criteria and performance metrics in order to provide equal opportunities to researchers across gender, continents and ethnic groups can be challenging since the definition of scientific excellence is often elusive.

This presentation aims to present the experience and the efforts of the European Geosciences Union to ensure equal opportunities. Data and statistics will be presented in the attempt to provide constructive indications to get to the target of giving equal opportunities to researchers across gender, continents and ethnic groups.

How to cite: Blunier, T.: Equality of opportunities in geosciences: The EGU Awards Committee experience, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-1087, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-1087, 2022.

The STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) faculties in Denmark suffer from a dearth of women in tenured positions. This is particularly the case for the geosciences in spite of a seemingly equal distribution of men and women graduating in geoscience.

In this presentation, we highlight the disparities and processes that hinder women from progressing in an academic career in the geosciences in Denmark. We have collected data from Geocenter Denmark that comprises three institutions, Institute for Geoscience, University of Aarhus, Institute for Geoscience and Natural Resources, University of Copenhagen and the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland. The data include information on all publications from 2018-2020 including number of publications per researcher, number of (female) authors per publication, impact factor etc. A detailed study has been performed tracking the publication records of all PhD students employed at Geocenter Denmark from
2010-2017. Our data also detail the uptake and graduation of undergraduate, masters and PhD students.

Our results show that for the last 15 years, an equal number of men and women have graduated with a geoscience degree in Denmark. Similarly, on average an equal number of men and women have been awarded a geoscientific PhD degree.

Analysis of publications from PhD students reveals disparities between genders. Regardless of gender, PhD students publish on average the same number of first author publications during the early years of their career* but male PhD students have more co-authorships. This suggests that female PhD students are not provided with the same opportunities for networking and co-authorship as their male colleagues.

This disparity continues on all levels, where more than 1/3 of all publications from Geocenter Denmark have no women on the author list. If the first author is male, the number of publications without any female co-authors further increases. Statistically, the chances of obtaining such a high number of publications without female co-authors by random is practically nil. We argue that mechanisms are in place that exclude women from contributing to and co-authoring studies.

Number of publications is a key factor in academic hireability and can determine success with career progression, funding applications etc. Our data highlight a structural problem in placing a high emphasis on the number of publications.

Disclaimer: Due to lack of data, we consider only binary gender and thus we cannot represent the true
non-binary gender diversity.
*here defined as up to and including 3 years after PhD graduation.

How to cite: Skytt-Larsen, C. B., Karlsson, N. B., Andresen, K. J., Breck, A., Sørensen, T. K., and Wedel, M. T.: Mapping the gender inequality of publishing in the Danish geosciences, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-1429, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-1429, 2022.

The persistent lack in diversity and gender equality amongst the recipients of academic awards and recognitions such as scientific prizes and medals is widely recognised. It is not only still very rare for women to receive the highest research awards (representing for instance only 3% of the Nobel laureates, including only one woman of colour) but female scientists are also severely underrepresented as recipients of the awards of many of our scientific societies. The increasing efforts for award distributions to be more representative of the diversity of our scientific community, start with stimulating inclusivity and broad recognition of talent diversity from the nomination stage. Given the continued lack in female award recipients, the question arises what role the current titles and names of existing awards, and the history of their previous recipients may play for the identification of potential nominations and whether they qualify to inspire more diverse nominations and prize awards.

We therefore examine the origins of the names given to ~300 academic awards of major scientific societies (including in the Earth and Environmental sciences and European Geoscience Union) and compare award names to the history of their recipients. The results of our analysis reveal an astonishing dominance of awards that are named after male scientists. Less than 10% of all awards were named after women, with almost all awards named after female scientist only being established in the last two years. It therefore must be questioned if such lack of recognition qualifies to inspire nominations for awards that reflect the diversity of achievements (and achievers) in our scientific communities. In fact, women were persistently under-represented as recipients of the analysed awards, with ~15% of awards held by female scientists, including awards that have been running for 40 years without a single female recipient. Not different to other scientific fields, women were slightly better represented in some of the service awards and early career awards. An analysis of the more recent history of awards made since 2000 reveals a diverse picture with differences in the progress towards more equality and diversity between research areas. Some promising developments include the establishment of awards named after outstanding female researchers by several EGU subdivisions that will hopefully provide broader recognition of the diverse talent base in the future.

This leaves the question how to deal with such legacy of gender bias and unequal representation of talent in the naming of awards as well as their recipients. We recognise that there are no simple quick fixes and, that the gender inequality highlighted in this analysis represents only one aspect of the lack of diversity in our recognition of scientific excellence, with also other groups of scientists being underrepresented. We discuss potential explanations for the observed underrepresentation, including unconscious bias (of the proposer), importance of role models, ability to identify with awards, gender differences in defining a successful career and present some initial suggestions aiming to stimulate a discussion for how we can improve inclusivity and thus, equality and diversity in academic awards.

How to cite: Krause, S. and Gehmlich, K.: Does the persistent lack of female recipients of academic awards have to surprise us if few scientific prizes and medals are named after women?, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-2562, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-2562, 2022.

Our comics are based on real events experienced by real people, but should never have happened. Some events are blatant, others are subtle, but all leave you wondering “did this really happen?!”. Sadly the answer is yes, and they continue to happen, with testimonies on everyday sexism, sexist biases, aggressions and microaggressions regularly received by our team.

Started in 2016, the Did This Really Happen?! project was created from the shared experiences of a group of largely female scientists who found themselves in a male-dominated environment. By 2018 the project had progressed to collecting anonymous accounts of sexism in science from across the world, turning them into comics to share and spark a conversation. In 2020, in reflecting on the project so far, it was clear sexism in science was not confined to one career level in academia, with around half of testimonies coming from PhD and Early Career Researchers, with the other half coming from mid to senior level scientists. Several themes also emerged which were documented in Bocher et al., 2020 and identified the following;

• treating women as objects (in 70% of testimonies)
• questioning female competencies (in 61% of testimonies)
• confining males to stereotypical roles (in 41% of testimonies)

In 2021, the DTRH?! project was relaunched with new team members and a new illustrator as the career and life paths of the original team changed and evolved. Here we present how we aim to document and illustrate the widespread sexist attitudes that affect both women (and men) in science today, challenging this behaviour with humour and to inspire discussion.

How to cite: Perez Diaz, L., Wright, K., Arnould, M., Coltice, N., Gerault, M., and Mallard, C.: Sexism in Science: Changing the conversation with comics, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-3875, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-3875, 2022.

In recent years, the traditional scientific publication system which operates with subscriptions for readers, and sometimes charges for authors, has been challenged. Open access journals have been funded, and subscription journals offer options for open access publications. Open access is an essential approach for lowering barriers in science, for supporting equal access to information, and for encouraging scientifically-based decisions by providing the newest findings and data to a large and diverse audience.

However, common open access options come with Article Processing Charges (APCs), which can vary from a few hundred to several thousand euros, to publish a paper. In contrast to the idea of inclusivity that is initiated by the open access process, these charges create exclusivity in terms of publishing possibilities - limiting equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI). Several funding bodies and universities in Northern and Western Europe encourage the open access process by dedicating funds to cover publication costs for research staff. In contrast, many researchers from institutions in developing countries, small universities or private research organisations must include these costs in sometimes limited research budgets. Moreover, researchers on temporary contracts with limited access to research funds due to the nature of their employment also face barriers to publishing in open access outlets. As a result, inclusivity toward readers often comes at the cost of exclusivity toward authors. 

In the last three years, an initiative has grown in the geoscientific community to create diamond open access journals, which are free to access, free to read, and free to publish, for all. This started with Volcanica, and now, Seismica, Tektonika and Sedimentologika have launched their own community-led, field-specific journals. One key component of these initiatives is their inherent relation to the concepts of equity, diversity, and inclusion, which underlay and guide their every aspect.

Here, we discuss ideas on how to build a future geomorphology diamond open access journal - Geomorphic(k)a - around EDI values. Our effort is grounded in EDI principles from the start, not as an afterthought; EDI guides our actions. 

We welcome input from all sectors of the geoscientific community to help us continually improve the initiative. We will share our plans to integrate EDI in the journal development. We would welcome feedback, comments, ideas and a stimulating discussion.

How to cite: Lefebvre, A., Stammler, M., Goodwin, G., Bosch, R., Fernández, R., and Grieve, S. W. D.: The initiative for a diamond open access journal in the field of geomorphology: an effort grounded on and guided by EDI concepts, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-3910, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-3910, 2022.

The equality and work well-being group at the Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research (INAR) has comprised a list of everyday behavior patterns that we should

pay attention to when striving to make the workplace culture welcoming to people with diverse backgrounds. The examples in the list are  broadly categorized  as 1) Accept and be interested in people as multidimensional beings, restricting manifestation of fear of differences 2) Be aware of the space and time different people are taking in workplace meetings and social situations 3) Support a balance between work and private life and recovery from work equally for different genders as well as for people with different ages and family situations 4) Be aware that discussions focusing in competition, status, hierarchies, and comparing the achievements of people (those present or not present) make many people uncomfortable  5) Be aware that discussing people in terms of being ‘smart’, ‘intelligent’, ‘brilliant’, ‘genius’ is not gender and culture neutral 6) Avoid boss-centric atmosphere where the role of the boss is to decide alone and be revered by the rest

 5) Avoid discussing the physical appearance or capabilities of other people even if they are not present 6) In both work related discussions and when telling jokes, stories and anecdotes in social situations, keep in mind you position with respect to people present when  choosing the content or style  7) Don’t use  gender specific words etc as a compliment: ‘real man’, ‘has got balls’, ‘strong for a woman’ 8) Remember to consider the language barrier(s) when a multinational set of people is present

We recommend that the list is discussed, for example, in a departmental seminar: our approach was to have three members of the equality and work well being group perform some of the examples in the list as a dialogue, after which the audience discussed whether they have encountered something similar and how that has affected them. Afterwards, the complete list was distributed to the staff on the unit. We received encouraging feedback on the session with requests to organize similar events in the meetings of the individual INAR research groups. We want to remind that non-one is perfect, and our vision is not to construct strict foolproof rules to avoid all situations leading to feelings of discomfort. However, a little change goes a long way in making the working environment better for everyone. Opening the eyes to how other people might experience common encounters can be aided by using an externally constructed list of examples as a starting point.

How to cite: Vehkamäki, H., Beck, L., Demakova, A., Lauri, K. A., Li, X., Lintunen, A., Mazon, S. B., Neitola, K., Rajewicz, P., Karppinen, L., Nieminen, T., Schiestl-Aalto, P., and Vesala, T.: Everyday tips for making the workplace culture welcoming for diverse staff, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-3915, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-3915, 2022.

The European Research Council (ERC), Europe’s premiere funding agency for frontier research, views equality of opportunities as an essential priority and a vital mission to ensure credibility in the review process. The ERC monitors closely various demographic data yearly on every call and has taken actions to tackle imbalances and potential implicit and explicit biases.

This presentation is focused on gender data for the three main funding schemes: Starting Grant, Consolidator Grant and Advanced Grant. After more than 12 years of existence, and various specific actions to tackle societal imbalances, ERC data provides an insight on the impact of various actions.

In the first framework programme (FP7, 2007-2013), 25% of applicants were women. In the last years (Horizon 2020, 2014-2020), this percentage increased by 4%, with 29% of women applying for ERC grants. In the same periods of time, the share of women as grantees has also increased from 20% to 29%. In the last years, men and women enjoy equal success rates.

The ERC knows that work to ensure equality of opportunities is never-ending. This presentation analyses the institutional efforts critically and considers possible steps to consolidate the accomplished results.

How to cite: Jesus-Rydin, C., Fariña-Busto, L., and Romanowicz, B.: Gender equity actions at the ERC: results of sustained measures, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-4838, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-4838, 2022.

The first step for institutions committed to equality, diversity and inclusion is to know their demographics. This presentation includes descriptive statistics for 7 consecutive years (2015–2021) based on presentations and convenorship at the EGU General Assemblies.

In the years 2015-2019, when the meeting was a physical meeting in Vienna, around 90% of the participants gave presentations. In 2020 the meeting was held online at short notice and the registration for participation was free of charge. In 2021 the entire meeting was planned online already at the time of submission of abstracts and the participant fee was lower than for the previous physical meetings. We cannot completely compare the participant data from the online meetings with the previous years, therefore this presentation will focus on the gender, career stage, and geographical distribution among presenters and convenors.

The total number of presenters has increased over the time period 2015-2021, and this increase was observed throughout all career stages. The proportion of women presenters have increased from 32% in 2015 to 39% in 2021, with a leap from 36 to 39% between 2020 and 2021. A similar trend was observed for the convenors, an increase in total numbers over the years and a higher proportion (39%) of women in 2021 than in 2015 (26%). This trend of increasing numbers of conveners was observed independent of career stage until 2018. Since then, the number of senior scientist conveners increased, whereas the number of Early Career Scientist conveners has dropped to a number lower than 2015. The gender difference between “presenters per convenors”-ratio has been shrinking since 2015 and was similar for women and men in 2021.

Since EGU General Assembly is the largest geosciences conference in Europe and still growing, understanding the demographic evolution and their participation to EGU activities, including the GA, of various groups is an important tool for EGU governing body to draw targeted actions to ensure that the current procedures are fair and that all in the community are being and feeling included. We therefore aim to analyse the changes in demographics with regards to gender, career stage as well as to geographical distribution of the presenters and convenors also in coming years to better understand the potential impacts of meetings organized online or physically, or as a combination of both these modes. 

How to cite: Stadmark, J., Beniest, A., and Alves de Jesus-Rydin, C.: Who presented and convened at EGU General Assemblies 2015-2021?, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-5125, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-5125, 2022.

Scientific research vessels are highly specialist resources in constant demand, often scheduled many years in advance of a research cruise and typically awarded to a narrow selection of permanently employed eligible investigators. The ability to access vessels is essential for a wide range of geoscientific research from paleoenvironmental sedimentary studies through to understanding modern day marine biodiversity. The high demand and low supply problem of accessing cruises means that participation can often be limited to small networks within the awarded discipline. This can present a barrier to marine scientists who wish to gain offshore experience, despite the fact that research vessels may have greater capacity than is required by any one scientific party. This is particularly true for early career scientists who usually work on timelines shorter than those required for cruise planning, and those from non-traditional academic backgrounds who may be less well connected to funded networks.

FindAScienceBerth is a project aiming to match those who wish to partake in a scientific cruise with spare capacity through identifying available berths on scheduled cruises. The long term goal of FindAScienceBerth is to provide opportunities to those who would otherwise be excluded from conducting offshore research to gain experience essential for career development, and in turn better utilise available ship capacity. Here, we will present our background research, quantifying unused berths on UK research vessels, demonstrating the potential of our initiative. Additionally, we will introduce the interface of FindAScienceBerth, showing how we have adapted the existing pan-European Marine Facilities Planning tool for cruise scheduling in order to identify and advertise spare capacity. We will demonstrate how principal scientific officers can advertise spare berths and how prospective participants can identify and apply for these roles. Finally, we will give an overview of the process we have developed to ensure an EDI compliant recruitment practice for filling ship berth vacancies and our EDI monitoring work throughout the application process. Such a process could be applicable to similar schemes across the geosciences which seek to increase equality, diversity and inclusivity by creating opportunities for the development of practical skills.

For further information please see our project site: findascienceberth.wordpress.com

How to cite: Fisher, B. J., McGregor, A., Hendry, K. R., Van Ladeghem, K. J. J., Marzocchi, A., Fielding, S., Darlington, E., Anderson, M., Joshi, S., and Sieradzan, K.: FindAScienceBerth: connecting underrepresented groups in marine science with available berths on scientific research vessels, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-5267, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-5267, 2022.

'A Touch of Space Weather' is a project that brings space weather science into the hands of blind and visually impaired (B&VI) high-school students. This project was awarded an EGU Public Engagement Grant in 2021.

The goal of our project is to offer B&VI teachers a new approach to teaching complex STEM topics in a creative way. One of the main activities is the creation of audio booklets, a type of media in high demand by B&VI teachers. These audio booklets address various scientific topics that are taught in science classes in general high schools, such as the Sun, Earth's magnetic field, Moon exploration, and more.

This project wants to highlight the importance of space weather, as it influences nearly every aspect of our modern life ranging from banking, navigation, telecommunications to the power supply. It is an interdisciplinary subject and therefore ideal for explaining complex scientific topics to students while at the same time teaching them space- and geo-sciences. That is why each audio booklet includes a description of a space weather phenomenon or effect relevant to the topic.

3D printed models and a tactile image provide hands-on activities to complement the audio lessons. The EGU Public Engagement Grant is covering the physical costs of creating a minimum of 30 ‘A Touch of Space Weather’ boxes that will be distributed to the schools and organizations that are providing education to B&VI people. Each box will include material for one tactile image, one USB stick with all audio booklets, assignments for students, and 3D printed models to accompany audio booklets.

How to cite: Zychova, L., Lefever, K., and Crosby, N.: A Touch of Space Weather - Outreach project for visually impaired students, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-5555, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-5555, 2022.

Participation in offshore fieldwork is a frequent pathway into a successful career in marine science due to the unique opportunities for practical skills development provided by such field experiences. However, the ability to participate in scientific research cruises can be hindered for those from certain backgrounds, such as physically disabled scientists with mobility limitations, those with caring responsibilities who cannot spend extended periods of time away from home, and early career researchers from minority groups who may perceive the limited confines of a research ship as a hostile or unwelcoming environment. 

Digital twinning is a new and rapidly developing area that describes how technologies and capabilities, including modelling, remote sensing, and linking shipboard equipment to shore visually in real-time, can be intertwined with traditional offshore operations to promote inclusivity and broaden the diversity of people involved in marine sciences. Here we will present preliminary results from our project that explores whether perceptions of fieldwork as a requirement for a career in marine science exist and whether jobs in marine science explicitly require these skills and experiences. Perceptions of fieldwork were evaluated through a series of questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with prospective marine scientists at undergraduate and PhD level. Additionally, we also conducted a systematic review of advertised vacancies in marine science to determine how perceived requirements for a career in marine science differed from the advertised required skills and experience.  Finally, we collated several case studies of effective use of digital twinning as a tool to enable those who cannot access offshore fieldwork to participate in scientific cruises. We aim to use these case studies to highlight the potential for digital twinning to act as a complimentary route into the field and act as an evidence base for continued investment in, and development of, new technologies to facilitate equitable and inclusive marine science.

How to cite: McGregor, A., Fisher, B., Baker, C. A., Robinson, C., Damerell, G. M., Liszka, C. M., Simmonds, N., Fielding, S., and Muschitiello, P.: Is first-hand fieldwork still the best way into a career in marine sciences? Highlighting digital twinning of the oceans as a complementary and more inclusive pathway into a career in the marine sciences, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-5569, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-5569, 2022.

Representation of BIPOC (black, indigenous people of colour) people in geoscience is severely lacking, and is most apparent in polar sciences. Despite representing 16% of the UK population, only 3% of polar scientist are BIPOC¹. Polar sciences have a poor history of inclusivity, with examples of research being dominated by white males until as late as 1960, when the first British female scientist conducted research in Antarctica. Underrepresentation is apparent from undergraduate level to research staff. In the UK, black people account for 1.2% of research staff, despite making up 3.4% of the UK population². Similar statistics appear for research students, where 6.5% of black people who begin research, discontinue before graduating, compared with only 3.8% of white students². A 2018 study by Bernard and Cooperdock suggests that increased diversity benefits scientific advancements greatly, as different life experiences often spark unique approaches to research³. If we want to broaden the ethnic and racial range in polar science, we need to increase involvement in polar sciences from school age students by encouraging them to pursue further education on polar and environmental sciences.  

This free event, taking place on31^st March, is firmly grounded in widening participation and engaging with school children who may not have considered a career in polar science. We will be working with diverse schools in Surrey and West London to bring 13-14 and 16-17 year old students to discuss careers in polar science. These two age groups were selected as they represent pivotal points in education where students select option courses, and begin to consider further study and future careers. The day will involve talks from various diverse polar scientists, including speakers from BAS, SPRI, University of Reading and Cambridge. Having a role model to identify with is key to fostering a sense of belonging in the science community. Therefore, we have invited speakers from a range of ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds, which we hope the students will identify with and will be able to envisage themselves having a career in polar science. This will be followed by a computer based exercise working through Antarctica focused StoryMaps developed both by AntarcticGlaciers.org and specifically for this event.

The event is a part of the Diversity in Polar Science initiative funded by UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) Polar Regions Department, and will be hosted by Royal Holloway, University of London’s geography department.

References

1.   British Antarctic Survey. 2022. Diversity in UK Polar Science Initiative - British Antarctic Survey. [online] Available at: <https://www.bas.ac.uk/project/diversity-in-uk-polar-science-initiative/> [Accessed 11 January 2022].

2.   BBC News. 2022. Black scientists say UK research is institutionally racist. [online] Available at: <https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-58795079> [Accessed 11 January 2022].

3.   Bernard, R.E. and Cooperdock, E.H., 2018. No progress on diversity in 40 years. Nature Geoscience, 11(5), pp.292-295.

How to cite: Jenkins, H., Davies, B., and Boyall, L.: Widening participation and diversity in polar environments: taster day for school students, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-5754, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-5754, 2022.

Evaluating Diversity and Inclusion within the (geochemistry) Academic Ladder (E-DIAL), funded by the UK’s Natural Environment Research Council, provides a snapshot of diversity and identifies barriers resulting in underrepresentation among intersectional identity groups across the UK geochemistry community. The project emphasis is on the academic ladder within UK higher education institutions (HEIs). As a multi-faceted discipline, geochemistry is central to Earth, environmental and planetary sciences, yet the first specific geochemistry workforce data is only now being collected (e.g., through the 2022 Global Geochemistry Community Survey launched by the European Association of Geochemistry and Geochemical Society). In complement to this timely society-led effort serving the international geochemistry community, our project collects original data and evidence through a UK-wide survey that captures coupled diversity and academic progression and retention data. These data are vital to catalyse policies that actively improve geochemistry career prospects for diverse talents, given that a community’s scientific potential can only be reached by including everyone. Specifically, the UK-wide survey data examines information on past and recent rates of appointment, progression and retention of both majority and under-represented groups across all levels of seniority, including research students, within UK HEIs.

In profiling geochemists’ career pathways and evidencing lived experiences (e.g., among postdocs), exclusionary obstacles are identified with resultant understanding driving revision of prevailing policies, attitudes and practices while assessing implementation effectiveness at HEIs with, for example, differing diversity certifications (e.g., Athena Swan or Race Equality Charters). Findings will test the hypothesis that “there is an erosion of diversity within geochemistry careers.” To accelerate widespread change, E-DIAL will engage in diplomacy and action at institutional, funding agency and parliamentary levels. Our approach optimises study effectiveness by ensuring that project findings and recommendations for reform within UK HEIs reach communities and decision makers at all levels, with the intention of influencing UK system change to improve diversity and inclusion while establishing practice for continued monitoring. As a national-level project linked to society efforts on the global stage, E-DIAL provides a starting model for similar studies to be carried out among other nations. We therefore urge wider funding agencies to engage in and sustain financial support of such collaborative cross-disciplinary research because this work and its impact on STEM governance is critical to advancing justice, diversity, inclusion, equity and excellence in and beyond academia.

How to cite: Maters, E., Appiah, F., Lawrence, A., Bots, P., Gagnon, J., Riches, A., Bhagwat, S., Chi Fru, E., Little, S., Ngwenya, B., and Anand, P.: Are diverse geochemists retained and thriving on the UK academic ladder?, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-5926, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-5926, 2022.

The EDI (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion) and ECS (Early Career Scientist) logos has been introduced since the EGU General Assembly 2021 held in19^th-39^th April 2021. Following to this initiative, JpGU decided to introduce EDI logos on a trial basis starting with the Japan Geosicence UNion Meeting 2021 (JpGU 2021) held in 30^th May to 6^th June 2021to promote diversity in the session organization and to recognize the degree of diversity. The Geological Society of Japan (JGS), which is one of the oldest geoscience academic societies in Japan established in1893, also tried to introduce both EDI and ECS logos at the 128th Annual Meeting of the society (128th JGS) held in 4^th ‒ 6^th September 2021. Although there was some negative reaction from male JGS members about this pilot introduction, we got about 10% sessions awarded the EDI logos in the both meetings. The JpGU 2021 also awarded the EDI logo to about 10% sessions. The JpGU have already decided to introduce EDI logo officially in the next 2022 meeting, and 20 per 230 sessions got EDI logos at present for the next annual meeting.

There are problems on female ratios of award or prize among Japanese geoscience societies, such as, 1) the ratio of female awardees or prize holders to whole awardees is predominantly lower in average than female ratios (ex. JpGU:15-27%, JGS:10%) to whole members, 2) female ratio of JpGU fellows is 0-15%, 3) there are no female honorary members in the long history of the JGS until 2020.

Awareness and diversified readership are essential and effective to improve the status of EDI among geoscience academic societies in Japan. For example, after the first female vice-president of JpGU elected at 2020, JpGU fellows increased from 0-15% to 25% and the Nishida Prize, which honor internationally recognized Mid-career researchers under the age of 45, named after Prof. Atsuhiro Nishida (JpGU fellow), winners increased to 40% in 2021. This change in diversity is just beginning and ongoing. 

The improvements in EDI issues among geoscience societies in Japan are also the result of strong networking or collaboration between EGU, AGU, GSA, JpGU and other societies related to geoscience. It is essential for further progress to share good practice and to keep pointing out and improve problems through global collaboration.  

How to cite: Hori, S., R. and Oguchi, T, C. and the Kazuyo Sakanoi (Chair): The EDI and ECS logos and female ratios of awards in geoscience academic societies of Japan, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-6612, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-6612, 2022.

The C⁴U Project, funded by the European Union H2020 programme, advances carbon capture for steel industries integrated in Carbon Capture, Utilisation, and Storage (CCUS) clusters. Besides working on the scientific and technological challenges, the project members are committed to integrate social aspects not only as part of their work but also by promoting an inclusive work ethics within the consortium itself. In this respect, actions have been taken on all levels and roles of the project as well as during all its steps to mitigate the imbalance in representation without negatively impacting aptitude or expertise.  In addition to raising awareness and furthering discussions among the C⁴U members, providing options for hiring processes, or adjusting speaker lists and the distribution of board roles, a novel approach was conceptualised in the form of an international workshop, as an initiative from within the CCUS community for the community, and hopefully beyond.

This first C⁴U workshop on gender dimension called "Woman in CCUS – Inspire and be inspired" was open to all associated with the field of CCUS and was held in fall 2021. As the free event took place virtually on two half days due to COVID restrictions, scientists, including students and managers, originating from or with affiliation of all continents, registered. Talks and breakout room sessions covered topics such as raise awareness of gender imbalance and ethical concerns, identify reasons behind the still existing inequality, search for countermeasures, the importance and consequence of confidence, as well as private and professional life experience, all with numerous opportunities for discussions. By expressively embracing all genders, career phases, ethnical or scientific backgrounds, we were able to achieve participation with a large diversity also in regard to work environment, e.g. academia, governmental agencies, and industry. Bringing people together using a virtual format and in numerous time zones naturally has its own challenges, especially when communicating on sensitive and personal topics. However, the overwhelming engagement of the participants during, but also already prior to the workshop, revealed that there is a significant need in the CCUS community for an open, personal exchange on gender related topics, by all genders. On this basis, the C⁴U initiative aims to be a seed for an inclusive platform, for a diverse network to get to know role models and at the same time be one oneself, to inspire and be inspired.

How to cite: Rebscher, D., Catalanotti, E., and Mahgerefteh, H.: Promoting and supporting gender dimension in the CCUS community – A novel approach by the C4U Project, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-6774, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-6774, 2022.

In EU project (being H2020 or ERC), we are asked to do a “Gender Equality Plan” and to take care about gender issues. I think that this is very important. We definitely need to take care about gender at recruitment level and to take care about gender balance. However, to care about gender inequality does not only refer to gender balance in the teams in charge of carrying out the projects but also to plan research and innovation activities with the goal of inspiring a new generation of women in space.  Gender dimension brings a vision that goes beyond the line of sight. It is not only about statistics on the number of male and female researchers in a specific field or gender balance in the Consortium but here are some paths to follow: (1) becoming gender-sensitive, (2) integrating an in-depth understanding of both genders’ needs, behaviours, and attitudes, (3) promoting our sector to young girls at the level of schools or universities, and (4) being aware about unconscious gender biases. Gender bias is the tendency to prefer one gender over another gender. Several studies found that both men and women prefer male job candidates. So much so that, in general, I have found on the web that a man is 1.5 times more likely to be hired than a woman when both are equal-performing candidates. Bias is a systemic prejudice for, or against something or someone, based on for instance stereotypes. When preparing newsletters for my EU project about that, I came through several examples about ways in which women and men are often held to different standards in the workplace. I think that this is interesting to know. This is what I propose to share with you.

How to cite: Dehant, V.: Gender in EU project., EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-7535, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-7535, 2022.

Geochemistry is applied across Earth, environmental and planetary geoscience research. Yet, the first specific workforce diversity data for geochemistry is only now being collected (e.g. EAG-GS led 2022 Global Geochemistry Community Survey). Additionally, national effort is underway to scrutinise detailed and intersectional diversity data (e.g., race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, socioeconmic background, career path) for UK geochemists via ‘Evaluating Diversity and Inclusion within the (geochemistry) Academic Ladder (E-DIAL)’, a project funded by the UK’s Natural Environmental Research Council. This project will also collect data to evidence workplace structures and policies specific to the UK’s geochemists.

We will present key findings linked to the geochemistry workforce, including laboratory support staff, from among our survey results to provide a snapshot of the demographics and intersectional representation among the UK geochemistry community within Higher Education Institutes (HEIs). An important facet of this work is our focus on how the allocation, accessibility, and support of geochemistry laboratories are distributed and experienced by all members of the UK community. Furthermore, the study will report on salient aspects of COVID-19 generated impacts and inequities within the geochemistry community. We also present specific findings for experiences that capture evidence of some persisting barriers to individuals and/or geochemistry groups. These exclusionary hurdles include cultural and other obstacles for which we suggest remedies that will advance the representation and further the success of people of minoritised identities within and across the academic ladder. 

We aim to use our project findings to develop recommendations for policy and structural reforms among UK HEIs. These actions will ensure sustained progress for accessibility in geochemistry, improved career experiences and representation among geochemists, and shall help people of all identities to realise equitable career progression in the short and long-term. These policy developments and reforms are critical to improving diversity and inclusion not only within UK geosciences, but in wider STEM.

How to cite: Anand, P., Appiah, F., Lawrence, A., Bots, P., Gagnon, J., Bhagwat, S., Riches, A., Little, S., Maters, E., ChiFru, E., and Ngwenya, B.: Assessing diversity and inclusion within the UK’s geochemistry academic workforce, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-8410, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-8410, 2022.

The European Geosciences Union (EGU) is Europe’s leading community-lead organization for Earth, planetary and space science research. The EGU organizes its General Assembly (GA), the largest, most prominent geosciences event in Europe, annually. Until 2019, the event was only organized in-person, but in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic, the event became completely virtual in 2020 and 2021. The in-person meeting attracted over 16,000 scientists from all over the world, whereas over 17,500 people participated in the virtual events. This rise in the number of participating scientists implies that online meetings are more accessible than in-person meetings.

Early Career Scientist (ECS) account for about half of the total EGU membership. An ‘Early Career Scientist’ is defined by EGU as ‘a student, a PhD candidate or a practicing scientist who received their highest degree (e.g. BSc, MSc or PhD) within the past seven years’, with some exceptions to this time-frame that account for research career breaks. ECS are often in a particular stage of their career where networking and showcasing scientific output are essential for success. We have analyzed self-declared data provided by ECS participants during the registration phase of the annual general assembly to investigate the impact of virtual meetings on the participation of Early Career Scientists to the GA between 2015 and 2021. We analyzed if there were any shifts in the diversity of ECS with respect to gender and geographical location and to what extend ECS were involved in convening scientific sessions.

We observed a general increase (5-30%) in ECS participation from 2015 until 2021 irrespective of gender. In 2019, the total increase of all participants stalled, but 2020 saw a 10% increase of participants. In 2021, ECS attendance fell, equaling the numbers of 2019. The large majority of ECS that participate in the GA are from the western parts of the EU (including the UK and Norway, 60-65%) and the eastern parts of Europe (6-7%) followed by China (6-10%). During the free virtual meeting in 2020, ECS from Central Asia, India and Central America saw the largest increase compared to 2019 (> 65%). During the paid virtual meeting in 2021, the participation of ECS from northern (72%) and western Africa (42%) increased the most. ECS from India, Oceania and the Pacific regions, North America and from countries in eastern Europe also showed an increase in numbers between 15-20% compared to 2020. About 10-12% of ECS participate in convening scientific sessions, this number remained stable during the physical events, but during the virtual events, participation dropped significantly, with only 8% of ECS participating in the organization of scientific sessions in 2019 and 6% in 2021.

Our results show that the participation of ECS from EU countries remains stable, regardless if the meeting is in-person or virtual. ECS participation from ECS from eastern parts of Europe and countries outside of the EU, decreases during virtual meetings. ECS participation from ECS outside of Europe, especially northern and western Africa, India and Oceania and the Pacific region increases when a virtual component is provided.

How to cite: Beniest, A., Stadmark, J., and Jesus-Rydin, C.: Early Career Scientist (ECS) attendance and participation at the annual EGU General Assembly: are online meetings more accessible than in-person meetings for ECS?, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-9117, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-9117, 2022.

Geoscientists identifying as LGBTQIA+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer, Intersexual, Asexual, plus) are currently likely to face several more obstacles throughout their career compared to their cisgender/heterosexual colleagues. Additionally, they could experience the cumulative effect of an intersection of sexism, racism, and colonialism, if coming from one or more under-represented communities. With the aim to gather an EGU-based LGBTQIA+ group to coordinate and encourage a positive change within EGU and the broader geoscience community, a first social event was organized during the General Assembly (GA) in 2019, followed by a similar event during the GA in 2020 and 2021. Last year, the working group (WG) created a Discord forum to meet more frequently online and have a place for mutual support. The series of bottom-up initiatives - all community-driven -  aimed at raising awareness or promoting initiatives for changes. These have included thus far: gathering feedback, promoting initiatives toward the inclusion of LGBTQIA+ scientists in the EGU community, and doing research in general (i.e., conducting fieldwork as LGBTQIA+ individuals in locations where it can be considered more dangerous, due to the illegality of belonging to the LGBTQIA+ community). An additional task the WG has undertaken is to engage with the wider community via webinars and represent the WG in meetings with other stakeholders. The WG also works closely with the Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Committee of EGU for improving the representation and inclusion of their members at EGU and across the scientific organizations. In this presentation, we summarise our work since the last General Assembly and highlight areas where we hope to attract further support for institutional and cultural changes that will foster an inclusive culture for LGBTQIA+ geoscientists.

How to cite: Bellomo, K., Di Chiara, A., Rutter, W. A. J., Davies, H. S., Prior-Jones, M., Piispa, E. J., Muchow, M., and Beard, D. B.: Insights from the LGBTQIA+ working group at EGU 2022, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-9149, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-9149, 2022.

Workplace aggression, including workplace bullying and mobbing, can have tremendous impacts on both the professional and the personal well-being of the target. The experience is an immense source of distress and can lead to physical health issues such as high blood pressure and increased risk for strokes, and to mental health issues, such as anxiety, depression and suicidal tendencies. The negative effects of workplace aggression go beyond those on the target. For instance potential bystanders and the overall work performance of teams and collaborations may suffer, leading to failed projects, loss of research funding and prematurely terminated careers. The latter also adds to the continued loss of a diverse workforce in the Geosciences, since historically marginalised groups are more affected by workplace discrimination than the current majority of geoscientists in senior positions. Creating healthy and safe working environments should therefore be the top priority of academic institutions, and thus also the Geosciences community. 

To raise awareness and provide clarity around some terminology and dynamics, we previously shared the blog post "Mind your Head - An introduction to workplace bullying in academia" (1). It includes references to other resources, such as a 10-step practical guideline (2) which scientists can follow to counteract the detrimental effects of abusive academic work environments. The blog post also served as a stimulus for "Great Debate 5" (GDB5) during vEGU21, which allowed early career scientists in the Geosciences to engage in a discussion on "Bullying in Academia – towards creating healthy and safe working environments" (3). During GDB5, 86% of the participants confirmed to have witnessed a bullying or harassment situation at work and ~65% of the session attendees estimated that the academic community is unaware of or uninformed about bullying and harassment. GDB5 participants stated that, amongst others, they a) would like to learn how to become better allies/bystanders, b) would like to know what to do as an ally/bystander, c) want to find systematic and structural solutions on an institutional level for safe working environments, d) would like to learn how to deal with bullying and harassment on a personal level and e) would like to create more awareness about bullying and harassment. The Great Debate helped people to feel supported and trusted, become aware of the problems at an institutional level, and to connect and talk about appropriate and not-appropriate behaviour.

Following the GDB5, we created a list of bottom up, lateral and top down actions to foster safe and healthy work environments within the Geosciences, which serves as a basis for our current work to tackle workplace bullying and mobbing in the Geosciences. This includes, for instance, an in-depth survey around this topic to obtain more quantitative information and data. By creating visibility for our efforts during EGU22, we hope to broaden our initiative and receive new input from the scientific community.  

References:

(1) Pieber, van Rijsingen, Gürer, Beniest (2021) https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/ts/2021/03/24/mind-your-head-an-introduction-to-workplace-bullying-in-academia/

(2) Popp, Hall, Yılmaz (2020) https://doi.org/10.1029/2020EO151914.

(3) Beniest, Gürer, Pieber, van Rijsingen (2021) https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU21/session/39992

How to cite: Pieber, S. M., Beniest, A., Di Chiara, A., Guerer, D., Li, M., Popp, A. L., and van Rijsingen, E.: How to combat workplace bullying in academia: insights from previous initiatives and ideas to move forward, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-9309, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-9309, 2022.

Soapbox Science is an outreach platform dedicated to the promotion of women and non-binary people in science through the organisation of events mimicking Hide Park’s famous Speaker’s Corner. This platform was created in London in 2011, spread gradually worldwide and finally started in Belgium in 2019, where it was initiated by a group of researchers and science communicators from two Belgian Federal Scientific Institutes. It came to life as Soapbox Science Brussels, for the events were to take place in the capital.

While the start of Soapbox Science Brussels was challenged by the COVID pandemic, a first virtual event was organised in the fall of 2020 via the YouTube and Facebook platforms. Despite the difficulties related to the sanitary conditions, the first real-life edition of Soapbox Science Brussels finally took place in the heart of the Belgian capital in June 2021, following the standard format prescribed by the international Soapbox Science initiative. This event was a success, both with respect to the response of the scientific community and with regard to the interest of the public during the event. The third edition of Soapbox Science Brussels is currently in preparation, and the campaign for the recruitment of speakers has been launched early 2022.

In this presentation, on the basis of different indicators and of feedback from the public, we will show how Soapbox Science Brussels gradually finds its place in the Belgian scientific communication community and in the promotion of women and non-binary people in science, in a context where the promotion of gender equality encounters a growing importance in scientific research institutions.

Links:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SoapboxScienceBrussels

Twitter account: @SoapboxscienceB

References:

Pham, L. B. S., et al., Soapbox Brussels, une première en Belgique, Science connection nr. 65, August-september 2021;

in French: http://www.belspo.be/belspo/organisation/publ/pub_ostc/sciencecon/65sci_fr.pdf;

in Dutch: http://www.belspo.be/belspo/organisation/publ/pub_ostc/sciencecon/65sci_nl.pdf

How to cite: Bingen, C., Pham, L. B. S., Lamort, L., Lefever, K., Piccialli, A., and Yseboodt, M.: Soapbox Science Brussels: A Growing Outreach Platform for the Promotion of Women in Sciences in Belgium, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-11516, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-11516, 2022.

“ENGIE - Encouraging Girls to Study Geosciences and Engineering” is an EIT Raw Materials funded project aimed to raise the interest of girls aged 13-18 for studying geosciences and related engineering disciplines. The final objective of the Project is to achieve gender equality in the future of geosciences as well as understanding the reasons for the gender imbalance and early female disinterest in geosciences and creating best practices for the future.

In EGU 2021, ENGIE presented the objectives and key messages from the project. Since then, the project has organized actions in 25 countries counting with a total of 11.117 participants, 64% of them girls.  During the implementation of the actions the participants and partners have been part of the Impact Assessment carried out during said activities. Out of 11.117 participants only 939 answered the questionnaire to its completion. The variations in countries, demographics and, most often, the type of activity they participated is noticeable and could point out to the reasons for this low participation.

There has been a double approach into ensuring the assessment is correct and the results are pertinent by gathering feedback both from participants and organisers of the actions. For the participants, a short questionnaire in their national language created specifically for the targeted age and expertise that allows for quantitative and qualitative analysis and is in the process of being reformulated taking into account the lessons learnt this year.

As for the organisers, ENGIE’s Impact Assessment is based on ensuring coherence with the objectives and the communication the three key messages of the project:

• Changing circumstances not individuals
• Challenging rather than reproducing inequalities
• Taking variations into account

The double analysis carried out through these questionnaires and the wide extension of the ENGIE actions can show a glimpse of the most interesting actions for girls, as well as creating a baseline for tackling gender inequality in geosciences during COVID-19 times. The reformulation of the questions and adding of new feedback measures (wordclouds, forum questions…) by applying lessons learnt and comments from the collaborating stakeholders in more than 20 countries has been considered..

In 2021, ENGIE presented the main concepts and objectives of the project as well as the actions planned. In 2022, the implementations and assessment of the project during the present running time is to be presented as well as evaluated and analysed in order to disseminate ENGIE’s recommendations to organize and assess actions targeted at improving gender equality in geosciences.

How to cite: Ortega Rodríguez, A., Cseko, A., Hartai, É., and Johansson, K. and the The ENGIE Team: ENGIE: Encouraging girls to study geociences and engineering. Lessons learnt., EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-11600, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-11600, 2022.

Geoscience research is inequitably distributed within the UK and worldwide due to a lack of access to analytical facilities and associated funding. This disproportionately affects minority and marginalised researchers. Geoscience research relies on access to analytical facilities to create fundamental datasets; however, lack of analytical facilities access negatively affects success and retention in research, impacting diversity in geoscience. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) issues in analytical geoscience were investigated through participating in a recent NERC’s Digital Technologies to Open Up Environmental Sciences Digital Sprint hackathon, including an online survey to understand how different groups access analytical facilities globally. Analysis of the survey data revealed a lack of funding to cover analytical costs and prohibitively competitive national schemes as barriers to accessing analytical facilities. The analysis also suggests that a lack of access or perceived lack of access to facilities has stopped 77% of respondents from pursuing an avenue of research, and 71% have switched research topics. To address the access gap, we are developing an app - GeoColab, a digital technology platform to break down barriers in analytical geoscience. The GeoCoLab App funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) aims to solve the lack of access by ‘match–making’ underserved geoscience researchers who need analytical services, with collaborating laboratory facilities that have agreed to offer a quota of pro-bono services.

How to cite: Raji, M., Bond, C., Carter, E., Davies-Vollum, S., Butcher, G., Lewis, E., Thomas, B., and Williams, R.: Leveraging Digital Technology to Improve EDI in Geosciences: GeoCoLab, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-12869, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-12869, 2022.

AGU LANDInG (Leadership Academy and Network for Diversity and Inclusion in the Geosciences) is a multi-faceted project that aims to foster a more inclusive geosciences’ culture by cultivating and elevating DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) champions within the discipline. Since initiation of NSF funding in late 2020, a DEI Community of Practice (CoP) Network was launched, and the inaugural LANDInG Academy was held. Participation, participant outcomes, and program impact are externally and professionally evaluated.

The LANDInG CoP is an open access, virtual platform providing opportunities for current and aspiring DEI champions to engage in conversation, share resources, build networks, and participate in professional development. A cohort of expert CoP Ambassadors moderates affinity groups created by CoP members and facilitates the CoP’s growth and evolution. The LANDInG CoP is rooted in research indicating that DEI champions and leaders in the geosciences can benefit from a central community for networking and professional development that supports broadening the impact of their efforts.

AGU LANDInG’s DEI Leader Academy commenced at AGU’s Fall Meeting 2021 with a three-day workshop. Workshop programming focused on evidence-based understanding of barriers and solutions to inclusion in geosciences derived from theory, research, and practice. Fellows’ selection and participation in LANDInG Academy was highlighted and promoted at Fall Meeting 2021 to raise their visibility and recognition.

The first year of AGU LANDInG is also marked by the initiation of LANDInG-PRFP, a new LANDInG program for postdoctoral research fellows. LANDInG-PRFP will capitalize on LANDInG’s CoP resources and provide an intentional and impactful DEI professional development experience for cohorts of post-doctoral scholars.

How to cite: Fraiser, M., Williams, B., Goodwin, S., Asher, P., and Hanson, B.: AGU LANDInG (Leadership Academy and Network for Diversity & Inclusion in Geosciences): Reviewing the First Year of AGU’s NSF-Funded Initiative to Promote and Support Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in the Geosciences, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-12915, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-12915, 2022.

Geoethics’ programmatic essence is “research and reflection on the values which underpin appropriate behaviours and practices, wherever human activities interact with the Earth system” [1] (p.30). Although values, behaviours and practices are mainly geographically local, culturally constrained, and individual-specific, they are also subject to hegemonic traditions. Regarding the latter, European cultures [2, 3] merged engineering, economy, and sciences, including early studies of Earth [4, 5]. Subsequently, they shaped societal practices on a planetary scale [6–8]. Geoethics is also formed through these socio-historical features. As a result, geoethical practices are caught in the dialectic of local versus hegemonic traditions, like any European tradition of thought and practices. Therefore exchanges with these and other traditions are desirable for mutual learning.

As literature studies show, the interaction of geoethics and other schools of thought and practices is limited, although with some valuable exceptions, e.g. [9]. Recently a publication [10], written mainly by political sciences and humanities scholars, broadens the exchanges. Although this collection of essays may mark a shift, regular interactions of geoethics with other traditions of thought and practices is much desirable. Frequent interactions between various schools of thought permit scrutinizing thinking and strengthening geoethics.

Illustrating which kind of interaction might be beneficial: In The Idea of Justice [11], the Indian Economist and Philosopher Armatya Sen investigated the Rawlsian theory of justice as fairness,  showing (also) why ethically just choices “taken in a specific social and cultural setting, that respect the ethical norms of this setting, may appear unethical elsewhere” (p.30) [1]. Hence, Armatya Sen's study supports an essential insight that geoethics promotes as a central tenet.

• [1] Peppoloni S, Bilham N, Di Capua G (2019) Contemporary Geoethics Within the Geosciences. In: Exploring Geoethics. Springer International Publishing, Cham, pp 25–70
• [2] Reinhard W (2016) Die Unterwerfung der Welt - Globalgeschichte der Europäischen Expansion 1415-2015. Verlag C.H. Beck oHG, München
• [3] Mokyr J (2016) A Culture of Growth - The Origins of the Modern Economy. Princeton University Press, Princeton
• [4] Hall DH (1976) History of the Earth Sciences during the Scientific and Industrial Revolutions with Special Emphasis on the Physical Geosciences. Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company, Amsterdam
• [5] Meiske M (2021) Die Geburt des Geoengineerings : Großbauprojekte in der Frühphase des Anthropozäns. Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen
• [6] Head MJ, Steffen W, Fagerlind D, et al. (2021) The Great Acceleration is real and provides a quantitative basis for the proposed Anthropocene Series/Epoch. Episodes 1–18. https://doi.org/10.18814/epiiugs/2021/021031
• [7] Dyer-Witheford N (2018) Struggles in the Planet Factory: Class Composition and Global Warming. In: Interrogating the Anthropocene. Springer International Publishing, Cham, pp 75–103
• [8] Rosol C, Nelson S, Renn J (2017) Introduction: In the machine room of the Anthropocene. Anthr Rev 4:2–8. https://doi.org/10.1177/2053019617701165
• [9] Potthast T (2015) Toward an Inclusive Geoethics—Commonalities of Ethics in Technology, Science, Business, and Environment. In: Peppoloni MW (ed) Geoethics. Elsevier, pp 49–56
• [10] Bohle M, Marone E (2021) Geo-societal Narratives - Contextualsing Geosciences. Springer International Publishing, Cham
• [11] Sen A (2010) The idea of Justice. Penguin Books, London, UK

How to cite: Bohle, M. and Marone, E.: Geoethics, emerging from splendid segregation?, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-664, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-664, 2022.

If the geosciences demand to be taken more seriously and to play a greater role in political and societal decision-making, they must take on great responsibility.

If we are to act ethically, we must define values against which decisions about ethical behavior can be made. These values are often summarized as shared geoethical values (see Peppoloni & di Capua, 2017).

These values can be found on  

• an Ethical dimension: for example, honesty, integrity, awareness, accuracy, collaboration, inclusiveness, civility, and fairness,
• a Social dimension: addressing the grand challenges (sustainability, prevention, education),
• a Cultural dimension: values such as geological diversity, diversity of geological-geographical landscapes or geological heritage.

Although these values are well founded and can be considered shared values, we need to be aware that they represent a strongly academic (Western) perspective and to some extent disregard other knowledge systems, such as indigenous or traditional ecological knowledge, as well as stressful socioeconomic contexts.

This creates fundamentally new challenges, for example, when the evaluation criteria of different sustainability goals are not compatible with local or regional socio-cultural values. Even different prioritizations can lead to difficulties here, which have an impact not only on research and development but even more so on recommendations for action resulting from the research. Examples of this can be found in the context of the current global Grand Challenges. The increasing demand for highly specialized raw materials, emerging conflicts over resources such as drinking water or soil, or the developments regarding coastal protection caused by climate change are some examples.

With this presentation we want to raise awareness of socio-cultural differences. In order to act geoethically, we need to consider the sociocultural context. Therefore, we want to initiate a discussion on whether and how a contextual model can be integrated into the concept of geoethics. This contextual model (in analogy with Neuliep's Contextual Model of Science Communication, 2021) seems to be able to solve the problems that arise when the geosciences claim the important role in global decision making mentioned above.

How to cite: Schneider, S.: Geoethics – an new approach to include awareness for sociocultural context, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-1697, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-1697, 2022.

Environmental problems and the ways in which humanity must ensure its well-being on planet Earth are fundamental issues for today's ethics. Ethics must be rethought in the light of the modern ecological crisis to give answers that hold together environmental, economic and social issues. Geoethics, which has been defined as “research and reflection on the values that underpin appropriate behaviors and practices, wherever human activities interact with the Earth system” (Peppoloni et al. 2019: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12010-8_2), can implement an ecological humanism, integrating some principles of human ethics (dignity, freedom and responsibility) with the necessary duties that each human being must have towards the Earth system (Peppoloni and Di Capua 2021: https://doi.org /10.3390/su131810024). So, human progress is at the same time an economic, social, cultural, political development process which is carried out in compliance with human rights and the delicate ecosystemic balances of which the human being is an integral part.

In the vision of geoethics, the human being becomes aware of its action as a modifying agent of the environment, but also of its non-centrality within the natural ecosystem. In this sense, ecological humanism allows to overcome the contrasts present in the different positions of environmental ethics regarding the human-nature connection (weak and strong anthropocentrism, biocentrism, ecocentrism with its geocentric extension). These positions, despite the progressive attempt to overcome the rigidities present in each of them, however taken individually do not seem to respond to human complexity and overcome the dichotomy between the human being and nature, and in fact are creating obstacles on the operational level, which if not solved, risk slowing down the search for solutions to anthropogenic global problems.

We argue that human beings living in the Anthropocene must recompose in their naturalness the different visions that have been provided on the human-nature nexus.

This recomposition has to consider that the human being is:

• intrinsically and perceptively anthropocentric, as it cannot escape its specific nature, the forms of its way of thinking, the biological, emotional, spiritual, and rational complexity through which it constructs its vision of the world on the basis of its species peculiarities;
• dynamically anthropogenic, since it builds its ecological niche to create its own operational space, which it modifies if necessary to try to improve one's living conditions.

And in the geoethical perspective, the human being must evolve to become also:

• relationally biocentric (in the recognition of the value of life of any living being) and ecocentric (in the attitude of respect towards the Earth system in its entirety);
• geocentric in its identity (when it develops a sense of supranational belonging to a terrestrial citizenship and takes care of its dwelling place).

Therefore, geoethics seeks to go beyond the oppositions and to make a synthesis, by saving the best intuitions of the categories of environmental ethics and using them to develop a new vision of human being, through which implementing an operational logic that can drive the human progress.

How to cite: Di Capua, G. and Peppoloni, S.: Geoethics to redefine the human-Earth system nexus, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-1747, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-1747, 2022.

Geoheritage and geodiversity visually and symbolically express the link between the physical and biological environment and cultural world. In the geoethical vision, their protection is fundamental, since they are irreplaceable components of a non-renewable social and natural "capital" (Peppoloni et al. 2019: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12010-8_2). They become points of reference to redefine the intimate connection between human beings and Earth, thus assuming a value meaning to be placed at the basis of a new way of experiencing the territory. Initiatives such as geoparks or geotourism represent their concrete implementation, as activities capable of enhancing the environment and its geological landscape. Furthermore, their learning and enjoyment also foster a broader understanding of the significance of geosciences and their importance for the functioning of societies, as well as promoting interactions with local human communities, and the expansion of one’s spiritual and aesthetical dimension while living the interaction with nature.

Newsome and Dowling (2010: https://doi.org/10.23912/978-1-906884-09-3-21) define geotourism as follows: “a form of natural area tourism that specifically focuses on geology and landscape. It promotes tourism to geosites and the conservation of geodiversity and an understanding of Earth sciences through appreciation and learning. This is achieved through independent visits to geological features, use of geo-trails, and viewpoints, guided tours, geo-activities and patronage of geo-visitor centres”.

Responsible geotourism enhances sites and landscapes of geological significance, assuring their protection and the sustainable development of surrounding areas. Moreover, the use of those sites by citizens can increase their awareness and understanding of key issues to be faced by society, such as the sustainable use of geo-resources, the mitigation of and adaptation to climate change effects, and the reduction of risks related to natural and anthropogenic phenomena. Geotourism, therefore, also represents the common ground on which geosciences and social sciences can interact, offering undoubted advantages. It makes multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary work and cross-boundaries national and international collaboration visual and tangible; it produces an increase in public awareness and scientific knowledge; it improves the quality of life of the local population by creating incentives for economic development; finally, it drives society to behave and act more responsibly towards geodiversity and biodiversity.

This paper frames geotourism within geoethical thought, emphasising its formative contribution for the human being living in the Anthropocene. In the vision of geoethics, geotourism helps to understand that Earth is a system, that reality can be reduced to its constituent parts only for rational convenience, but its deep meaning can only be grasped through the relationships that bind the parts to the whole. In the same way, the human being is an individual immersed in a continuum in transformation and the relationships that bind the individual to the whole are the essence of its specificity.

How to cite: Peppoloni, S. and Di Capua, G.: The significance of geotourism through the lens of geoethics, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-1756, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-1756, 2022.

Ethics are built on values.  Values underly ethics.  How are they related?  Can we talk about ethics without reference to values?  Do values necessarily imply ethics?  Do they form a unit, as in ‘ethical values’?  Are values and ethics driven by beliefs, or should values remain unchanged despite changing beliefs?  Those are some of the questions that people will ask when confronted with the idea of ethics in life and in the geosciences.  Values include honesty, compassion, nature, learning, quality, patience, truth, respect, individualism, creativity, wealth, justice, fame, humour, harmony, power, peace and beauty.  How are these related to ethics?  How are they related to geoethics?  Often an ethical dilemma stems from two or more underlying value conflicts, such as individual identity and social value.

It is not easy to understand the principles and dynamics of such relations.  Reading can of course help.  However, for newcomers to the area, as well as those already familiar with concepts and dilemmas, one way into this quagmire is by using a values clarification exercise or game (VCE or VCG).  A VCE can be a useful geoethics literacy tool to help people explore the complexities of the above relationships, to allow them to express their own ideas, to confront their ideas with those of others and to gain a rich understanding of the values that underly geoethics.

We have designed and used VCEs and VCGs in a variety of settings, such as:

• A workshop for farmers in Costa Rica, organized by CIRAD and CATIE.
• A session on sustainability in an international conference on simulation/games.
• In an online conference organized by the Earth Action Hub, a global, online community dedicated to supporting one another in taking climate and environmental action.
• An online workshop for the Eastern Mediterranean University (EMUNI) on the topic of blue economy values.

Our EGU Geoethics session will summarise our previous experience of this kind of methodology, indicating that it is relatively easy to implement, show some sample materials (such as values cards and debriefing forms) and outline a blueprint for such an exercise to be used for geoethics literacy.  We will also answer audience questions.

How to cite: Crookall, D. and Promduangsri, P.: Geoethics literacy: Values clarification as an initial step into geoethical issues, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-2060, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-2060, 2022.

The International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) www.iugs60.org  is the global champion for what is variously referred to as Earth sciences, Solid Earth Science or Geological Sciences. It is part of the International Science Council (ISC) https://council.science/ and works with several related ISC Unions and UNESCO.  Our Earth is faced with mounting challenges related to the climate crisis, which are largely due to the extraction and burning of fossil fuels. The geological sciences have in past decades paved the way in understanding how to locate these fuels for industry to extract and society to use. The geological sciences also underpin mineral extraction, provision of building materials, groundwater, quality of soils and many other issues all of which are essential for human life on Earth.

The transition is underway and geoscientists will lead on several issues, most of which will raise ethical issues: subsurface energy systems in terms of ground stability, seismicity, extent of the resource the safety of the process; mining and the need for critical metals to satisfy new energy technologies – this includes more mining locally and ethically, thus affecting global mining regions and ethically, but also mining in extreme conditions e.g., on the seafloor or the moon; intensive farming and food production and the impacts on water supply and soil quality; the continued need for gold to underpin cryptocurrency; the need for sustainable investment and the move away from oil and gas investments.

There are many more examples and all require a reasoned approach involving a delicate interplay of engineering, business, scientists including social and economic experts, and the public. The geological sciences will continue to be the part of the Earth systems science domains that drive economic growth.  International Unions and meetings such as EGU are fora in which these debates can happen, however all too often they fail to bring together all the stakeholder in the debate.

We as geoscientists need to create the space to engage with the wider communities in the next industrial revolution.

How to cite: Ludden, J.: Geoscience for the next decade: how can geoscientists engage with communities in creating the next industrial revolution?, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-2998, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-2998, 2022.

For early career researchers (ECRs), it is of utmost importance to acquire various skills including the application of different methods under the umbrella of data science. However, curricula of scientific degrees do not necessarily always include all relevant methods in the field, and there are also new methodologies emerging. Besides organized training schools, self-organized learning groups are common in universities  for collaboratively acquiring new skills. Here, we present a concept that goes beyond in-person meetings and a prescribed curriculum to learn collaboratively, implemented for learning Machine Learning (ML) methods.

There is growing interest in ML methods applied to Earth system science. These tools are being incorporated rapidly in the curricula of many scientific degrees, however, there is a generation of ECRs who did not learn to apply or work with ML while obtaining their masters or doctorate degrees and are now interested in filling this hiatus. The Young Earth System Scientists (YESS) Community, a network of ECRs working in Earth system sciences, has organized a learning activity to bring together members of our community who want to apply these methods to their own data and scientific problems and have little or no knowledge on ML. 

The main goal of this activity was to provide ECRs of our community the opportunity and platform to engage in a guided and collaborative learning process via the participation in small learning groups. The activity was implemented fully virtual. Additionally, the purpose of working in groups was to allow group discussions on how to interpret the results in combination with traditional physics-based methods/knowledge. 

Each group had a  group leader which was in turn exchanging closely with other group leaders about the progress made and challenges encountered while keeping track of their group. The main challenges were working across time-zones, collaborative coding while learning, task distribution that ensured everyone learned from the activity. The activity not only proved to be useful for learning ML concepts, it was also a seedbed for projects which participants wish to continue working on. The skills and lessons learned from the organization included managing different time commitments among group members, working across time zones, learning-tasks distribution, ways to divide people into groups according to their research interests, advancing in knowledge coming from different backgrounds, writing a short proposal, literature review, providing a research project and reading material to stimulate an active learning mindset for students.  Here, we show what tools and learning strategies were most successful, results from the research projects and lessons learned that can be useful for other groups, networks or even teachers when designing such learning activities.  

How to cite: Mindlin, J., Yadav, P., Volosciuk, C., Rabanal, V., Attig Bahar, F., Koren, G., Ali, J., and Nzotungicimpaye, C.-M.: Fully virtual learning groups - pilot project on Machine Learning for early career researchers, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-3713, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-3713, 2022.

During the last decades, especially the last one, the importance of geoethics has been highlighted by the major consciousness about the role of geoscience, and  geoscientists, on environmental and social challenges that the world has to face.This awareness has been raised in accordance with the 17 sustainable development goals of the UNESCO 2030 Agenda. This document led to the wider popularity of the concept of education for sustainability (EfS) as an evolution of what was formerly known as environmental education (EE) or education for sustainable development (ESD). The main purpose of EfS is to promote an inter and trans-disciplinary knowledge, capable of framing the complexity of the current crisis.In one of the last publications about geoethics (Di Capua, Peppoloni 2019) the authors encourage geoscientists to be aware of the geological community role and to reflect on the ethical responsibility that this implies. Moving from this call for engagement, this study focuses on the Italian situation.Does the Italian Earth Sciences community have enough knowledge and a real shared interest on sustainability, in order to shift to a geoethical perspective? This study shows the results of a survey conducted between the participants of BeGeo21, the first Italian national congress dedicated to young geoscientists (MSc and PhD), held in Napoli in October 2021. The data analysis shows that the majority of respondents has scarce knowledge about sustainability and the 17 SDGs and only a few had the possibility to attend courses and seminars about these topics in their department. Nonetheless, the importance of the sustainability, and thus geoethic, point of view for the future of Geosciences is well recognized and there’s a wide request for our higher education institutions to increase the number of activities connected to EfS.

How to cite: Egidio, E., Gerbaudo, A., Lasagna, M., Lozar, F., and Tonon, M. D.: Are we ready for an ecological transition? A survey between young geoscientists in Italy, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-5485, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-5485, 2022.

The inclusion of geoethics in the curricula contributes to young people's reflection on personal and social values and responsibilities, in order to raise awareness and develop appropriate behavior regarding the interaction of human activities with the Earth system (Georgousis et al., 2021; 2022). In modern societies, educational policy is implemented with the curricula being the mainspring. Recently, the new educational curricula that reflect the directions of educational policy in Greece for the next decade were prepared and announced. These curricula have received and are subject to various criticisms from scientific reviews of academic committees and educational institutions. In the midst of these, the question of whether they incorporate values of the natural world related to Geology and geoethical thought was developed, namely whether in an indirect and direct way they contribute to the sensitization and empowerment of students to the values of geoethics and consequently to the formation of environmentally and socially aware citizens. In order to answer this concern, research questions were posed regarding the presence of conceptual patterns, which refer to obvious or latent meanings for the promotion of geoethical values through the educational process. The methodology followed is the qualitative strategics with the technique of sensitizing content analysis, aimed to explore the thematic units and the expected learning outcomes of the new curricula of compulsory education of the Greek educational system. The texts were examined with the paragraph as the thematic unit. The characterization of the quantity was based on linguistic scales of related studies, according to which the results were characterized, identified and documented as they were estimated by the authors of the study. Computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS) was used for the content analysis, specifically the quantification of the meaning patterns. Sixteen (16) new curricula were investigated. The investigation identifies a relatively small number of obvious conceptual patterns (codes) and a greater number of latent meanings in both social and natural sciences, revealing the limited potential for the development of geoethical thinking and geoethical values. Therefore, the lack of integration of geoethical values in the curricula of the next decade is noted, although recent researches document the lack of understanding of the geological heritage and the necessity for developing geoethical awareness of young people through the educational process.

How to cite: Georgousis, E., Savelidi, M., Savelides, S., Mosios, S., Holokolos, M.-V., and Drinia, H.: The inclusion of Geoethical Values in the Design of Educational Policy for the Next Decade: The Case of the Greek Educational System, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-5915, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-5915, 2022.

The compounding effects of climate change are inextricably linked to social vulnerabilities, poverty, race, and systemic injustices. The intersection between climate change and risk manifests as geospatial environmental hazards such as flooding, which have been projected to increase over the next 30 years in the continental United states. These climate-driven increases suggest that even modest increases in flood hazards have the potential to impact traditionally marginalized communities vulnerable to flooding. Compositional characteristics such as social status and identity have been shown to be linked to increased mortality, and slower economic and physical recovery after flooding (e.g., Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Ida). These patterns demonstrate that higher clustering of minorities and low socioeconomic status people face unequal social consequences of climate-related disasters. While continental-scale flood models have shown heightened hazard susceptibility, multiple dimensions of social characteristics—including spatial and temporal scales of social class and status—are needed to understand the granular differences between zip codes. To examine the relationship between spatial and temporal social and geographic scales, we compared the spatial clustering from 2010 to 2019 for two different indices of social vulnerability: Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Environment Justice Index (EJ) of the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affair. Between 2010 and 2019 in Massachusetts, we evaluate whether greater flood protections exist in urban communities (average 2019 population: 244,422) vs rural communities (average population: 8,310) and if flood risks change over time for minority populations. The results of this study demonstrate that current hydrologic extremes are disproportionately contained within block groups of vulnerable populations (e.g., 40.5% of vulnerable block groups intersect with the 500-year flood area and 20.7% for the 100-year flood area for Lawrence for example) and that social vulnerability to flood risk is increasing in rural areas with higher amounts of EJ block groups, while decreasing in urban areas with diversifying EJ block groups. Furthermore, the increased detail provided in EJI census block group scale (as compared to SVI census tract scale) demonstrated distinct zones that would require increased disaster management planning and prioritization.

How to cite: Sharkus, C., Givens, J., Saia, S., Knighton, J., and Guzman, C.: Spatial and Temporal Variation of Hydrological Risk in Rural and Urban Environmental Justice Communities, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-6241, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-6241, 2022.

The American Geophysical Union (AGU), a scientific society of >60,000 members worldwide, has established a set of scientific integrity and professional ethics guidelines for the actions of its members, the governance of the union in its internal activities, and the operations and participation in its publications and scientific meetings.  The actions around the AGU Ethics policy have in recent years focused on establishing and reinforcing professional conduct standards, including professional conduct during field research.  However, the recently updated AGU Strategic plan has a strong focus on applied transdisciplinary science; growing respect for Indigenous data, cultural heritages, and Knowledges; and emphasis on geoscientists’ responsibility to support traditionally underserved communities with respect to environmental justice, issues of equity and inclusion, and the impact of global anthropogenic change. Additional emerging ethics issues for the geosciences include a need to establish ethical AI frameworks for effective decision-making without misuse of data, and a need for ethical guidance around testing proposed climate intervention technologies.

These combined foci have heightened AGU’s attention to global Geoethics and have led to a re-examination of the partnerships necessary to deliver important education and impacts on such pressing issues. This presentation will highlight a few of the Geoethics issues currently being addressed by the AGU Ethics and Equity Center, including results to date and actions underway to secure and support the necessary broad partnerships. 

How to cite: Williams, B., Davidson, E., Fraiser, M., Pandya, R., and Hanson, B.: Geoethics Issues for the 21st Century: Perspectives from the AGU Ethics and Equity Center - A Call for Education and Action     , EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-6385, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-6385, 2022.

The applications of geoscience knowledge to complex interdisciplinary socioenvironmental challenges, including climate change and sustainability, are broadly acknowledged. The ways we educate geoscience professionals to make ethical decisions in how geological knowledge is applied to these existential challenges can have profound impacts on the Earth system. Proponents of improving ethical applications of geoscience knowledge and ethical decision-making for geoscientists have identified post-secondary educational settings as essential sites of exposure to geoethical thinking. However, discussions of geoethical pedagogy may not address the ways geoscience knowledge production continues to further exacerbate these problems. Post-secondary geoscience educators, with little ethical or interdisciplinary training themselves, may be ill-equipped to navigate the potentially uncomfortable norm-challenging classroom conversations that can arise.

This research applies arts-integrated methodologies to analyze events from my professional roles a geologist and reflections from my current position as a post-secondary geoscience educator, working in a Canadian context. Results of this work offered counter-perspectives to some of the normalized narratives about professional roles of geoscientists, especially: 1) Geoscientists as environmental stewards, 2) Geoscientists as providers of raw materials essential to society, and 3) Geoscientists on a journey of scientific discovery. Questioning these stories proved to be uncomfortable, opening conversations in which both students and educators may feel implicated in ongoing harms. Proposals to improve geoethical education for post-secondary geoscience students may need to better account for the challenging experiences that arise for both students and teachers as difficult knowledge is engaged in the classroom.

Here, visual art is used as a tool to bring together perspectives across dissonant knowledge paradigms, and in the process to open up new questions about geoethical education. Though arts-integration is common in educational research, this methodology remains extremely rare for research focused on post-secondary technoscientific training. I contend that this novel application offers the opportunity to open up different conversations about both ethical applications of geoscience knowledge and the challenges of geoethical training.

How to cite: Johnstone, S.: Generating conversations on geoethical education through arts-integrated research, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-6828, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-6828, 2022.

Global change has economic, environmental, and social impacts on water, energy, and food resources that threaten the ways of living of several communities across the globe. Moreover, the identification of those impacts at the local level constitutes a fundamental step in the process of designing and implementing proposals for the sustainable management of natural resources. The definition of what sustainability means is another key step in that direction. Within theoretical debates, three concepts have been identified: weak, strong, and super-strong sustainability. The first proposes to understand nature as “natural capital”, which should be treated as any other factor of production and can be exchanged with other forms of capital. The second highlights the existence of “critical natural capitals” that need to be conserved no matter the economic cost. The third, finally, introduces cultural, religious, historical, and ethical considerations, proposing the concept of “natural heritage” as an alternative to “natural capital”.

We propose an analytical framework that integrates those different approaches to sustainability, combining spatial data analysis and participatory dialog with actors from local communities. With this methodology, we aim to identify strategies towards the sustainable management of water, energy, and food resources, in the Pacific-Andes-Amazon altitudinal transects of two transboundary catchments of Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, and Brazil (Mira-Mataje - 11,791km², and Putumayo - 125,563km²). We used remotely-sensed and globally available datasets alongside the spatially distributed assessment model Co$tingNature, to evaluate the natural capital. Then we quantified the interactions between natural capital, protected areas, and indigenous territories to identify critical areas for protection. Finally, we included the knowledge from leaders of Indigenous (Cofán, Awá, and Kamenzat), Mestizo-peasant, and Afro-descendant communities distributed along the altitudinal transects, regarding their natural heritage, and their perception of the challenges for its sustainable management.

We found a significant overlapping between critical natural capital and ancestral territories of ethnic communities and recognized some key anthropic intensive activities that challenge the conservation of those areas. We also identified the significant role that culture plays in the local communities’ efforts both to defend their territory and to find sustainable practices oriented towards the securing of collective welfare and the conservation of the environmental integrity of their natural heritage.

How to cite: Correa, A., Forero, J., Mulligan, M., and Codato, D.: Towards a “multi-level” sustainability analysis in Pacific-Andes-Amazon transboundary catchments., EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-8539, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-8539, 2022.

In the early 2000s, the reproducibility crisis began to ‘shake’ the scientific community¹ and continues nowadays². The scientific method (SM) relies on the empirical confirmation of hypotheses³. Reproducibility of results is at the core of the SM, although it is possible, stricto sensu, only in some configurations⁴. Many phenomena studied in Earth Sciences cannot be empirically replicated. Thus, Earth Sciences face an intrinsic ‘reproducibility crisis’. How to confront this dilemma? In 2018, an Editorial in Science⁵ suggested that “…improving reproducibility will require…the best possible practices.” What are these best possible practices? Some clues can be found in Bunge’s work. He proposed that SM’s classical correspondence thesis of truth (CTT) can be replaced by the synthetic thesis of truth (STT)⁶. STT requires considering a hypothesis corroborated by empirical confirmation and consistency with the bulk of existing background knowledge (systemicity)⁷. STT relies on multiple empirical and theoretical approaches: a scientific test is adequate to the extent that it is neither purely empirical nor viewed in isolation. Pattern consistency (empirical control) and an understanding of causal relations (rational and empirical control) make confirmed hypotheses more reliable. The history of sciences shows this approach was followed on multiple occasions⁸, for example, to develop the theory of special and general relativity. The STT combines empirical evidence, stochasticity (combining deterministic and probabilistic approaches), heuristic approaches, mental experiments, computer modelling, among other rational instruments. When the Covid-19 crisis hit, several successful practices were based on this approach⁹. Considering epistemology, the knowledge-building process of the STT approach is an excellent practice to overcome the reproducibility crisis on Earth Sciences. The intersection of different knowledge domains is a two-way road and implies a knowledge overlap among different epistemic domains. Epistemology is the domain of philosophy of sciences that is fundamental for developing geoethics considering how the reproducibility crisis on Earth Sciences can be handled.  

1.       Ioannidis, J. P. A. (2005a). Why most published research findings are false. PLoS Medicine, 2 (art. e124). 

2.       Saltelli, A., Funtowicz, S. (2017). What is science’s crisis really about? Futures, Volume 91, 2017, Pages 5-11, ISSN 0016-3287, 

3.       Staddon, John (2017). Scientific Method: How Science Works, Fails to Work or Pretends to Work. Taylor and Francis.

4.       Baker, Monya (2016). 1,500 scientists lift the lid on reproducibility. Nature. Springer Nature. 533 (7604): 452–454. 

5.       Berg, J. (2018) Progress on reproducibility. SCIENCE 5 Jan 2018 Vol 359, Issue 6371 p. 9 

6.       Bunge, M. (2012). The correspondence theory of truth. Semiotica, 188: 65-75. 

7.       Marone, L., Lopez de Casenave, J., & González del Solar, R. (2019). The synthetic thesis of truth helps mitigate the reproducibility crisis and is an inspiration for predictive ecology. Revista De Humanidades De Valparaíso, (14), 363–376. 

8.       Renn, J. (2020). The Evolution of Knowledge - Rethinking Science for the Anthropocene. Oxford, UK: Princeton University Press.

9.       Marone, E., and Bohle, M. (2020). Geoethics for Nudging Human Practices in Times of Pandemics. Sustainability 12, 7271. 

How to cite: Marone, E. and Bohle, M.: About reproducibility. The advantages of the synthetic thesis of truth., EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-9010, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-9010, 2022.

The complexity of show caves and the problems arising through human interaction with them, require interdisciplinary approaches capable of synthesizing a range of parameters such as knowledge, methods and provided tools to promote geo-ethical thinking and geoscientists contribution for sustainable management. Show caves are tourist/commercial caves which have been accessible to the public with artificial lighting, shaped paths, guided tours, open hours and they are considered as heritage sites. The concept of heritage is a complex idea, controversial and culturally constructed, depending on the personal and collective background and experiences of the members of a society. Heritage is often artificially divided into natural and cultural, but regarding the “show caves” as entities, the boundaries are indistinguishable. Moreover, show caves suffer successive degradation for several interconnected reasons. This work analyzes proposals for compilation of protocols and general management that may involve educational institutes, management agencies, policy makers and stakeholders based on remotely monitored parameters and scientific data collection, for feeding assessment and evaluation tools. The main scope is to arouse a wider dialogue of the interested parts with the aim to form the basis for the creation of a European legislation for protecting these sensitive but also complex environments through geo-conservation and geo-ethics approaches.

How to cite: Kontostavlos, G., Vassilakis, E., Triantafyllou, M., and Konsolaki, A.: Showcaves: A modern geo-conservation approach utilizing geo-ethics and heritage management principles through sustainable monitoring technology, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-10296, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-10296, 2022.

An analysis of the perceived image of science, scientists and inventions was conducted over  drawings made in 2010 by children for a calendar competition promoted by INGV in Italian primary schools. A similar competition was proposed in 2020 with a related purpose of analyzing the image children have of the world of science, its potential and future perspective.

The title of the 2010 competition was "Scienziato anche io! La Scienza e gli scienziati visti dai bambini” - I'm a scientist too! Science and scientists from the children point of view-

Children were asked to realize a drawing regarding: 1) How do you imagine a scientist? How do you imagine the daily activities of a researcher? 2) What is the invention you consider the most important among all those you know? 3) What would you invent?

We collected 986 drawings, realized by 6 - 10 years old children  from 48 schools distributed throughout the Italian territory.

For the 2020 competition we proposed: “La Scienza in crescita, immaginare la scienza del Futuro” - Growing Science, let’s imagine the science of the Future!-

We asked children to develop the following topics: 1) How do you figure a scientist life? 2) How do you imagine the daily research activities in the future? 3) and what tools will research work with? 4) if you were a scientist what would you invent?

In this case, the collection of drawings took place mainly during the months in which Italian schools were forced to distance learning because of the Covid pandemic crisis. Despite the difficulties, 28 primary schools participated by sending 350 drawings.

Drawings were coded and values stored in data sheets. A similar classification scheme was designed in order to be able to synthetically describe these sets of images and analyze it.  A coarse-grained, quantitative analysis were conducted on both sets of data in order to test and tune the classification scheme, as well as to infer some considerations which may would be comparable with studies in literature.

Work we present and compare the results of the two datasets set apart by ten years, highlighting differences, similarities, convergences. Do boys and girls image a scientist in the same way? and what are their relationships with science and technology? Do stereotypical images of science and scientists persist, or something is changing? Is there a gap between children’s perceptions and scientists’ reality? and how can this gap be filled? Has something changed in ten years?

From the data, a generally positive picture of the work of scientists emerge as well as a great level of confidence in the potential of science, capable to respond to needs and problems of the humanity and of the environment in which we live.

What arises from children's drawings has ethical, societal and social implications on global problems investing issues at the intersection between science, humanities, and social sciences, and provides us a direct and unconventional approach to analyze how we convey our science - a strategic topic for a suitable future of the humanity - to the players of the world of tomorrow.

How to cite: D'Addezio, G., Besker, N., Riposati, D., and Di Laura, F.: A comparison between 2010 and 2020 primary school student drawings on science and  scientists: what ethical and social implication emerge for future generations?, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-11795, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-11795, 2022.

The geological record of earth history is a fragile document, which enables us to extract information on past planetary processes, e.g. natural hazard events or fluctuations of the earth's climate, which are increasingly used as the basis for future regulatory frameworks in modern societies. However, due to an intense interference of humans with the earth surface in the Anthropocene, this unique document of earth history is endangered. It is crucial to consider that the geological record is not continuous and primarily incomplete, although the exact extent is still elusive. Human activities such as mining and construction works heavily alter, disturb or even entirely destroy parts of the earth history. Also, inadequate sampling strategies of earth scientists can contribute to a loss of earth-historical information at key sites for understanding the earth's past. Most societies are well aware of the conservation of the human history indicated by standardized archaeological surveys. At the same time, such procedures are hardly formalized for earth history archives, revealing an anthropocentric narrowing of the perception of pasts. Humans are seen as a major geological agent during the Anthropocene – but how does the destructive facet of anthropogenic activities compare to natural destructive processes throughout the earth history and what are implications for the protection of geo-archives? I argue that anthropogenic disturbance is distinctively different from natural processes regarding the rates and the final fate of manipulated earth materials. Pushing the spatio-temporal assessment of the completeness of the geological record, e.g. by hiatus mapping, would help to identify a baseline for the protection of earth history records during the Anthropocene. Promoting Geoethics, in particular the sustainable knowledge exchange with society to create awareness for planetary history as a basis for a responsible handling of nature, is a key for an effective protection of earth history records. In particular, understanding psychological aspects of landscapes and the environment plays a vital role. Therefore, post-normal science approaches and the consideration of extended spheres of knowledge bear a great potential for future perspectives.

How to cite: Hildebrandt, D.: Fragile earth history ­– geological, societal and ethical perspectives on the planetary memory, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-12724, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-12724, 2022.

Science provides society with information that helps solve the ethical, societal and social implications of climate change, the most urgent and far-reaching global problem of our time. Owing to the complexity of the problems that arise, they are not solved with knowledge or one responsible goodwill alone, but often require value judgements, for example, decisions on the relative importance of different stakeholders. Interdisciplinary scholarship, first of all, philosophy of science, argues that some of these and other value judgements can already play a role in the scientific process that both produces such information and that develops more foundational scientific tools, methods, and results underlying it.

Here, it is argued that it is time for the scientific community itself to become more aware of, acknowledge, and discuss the role of values, to enable their effective management and thus make science observe its responsibility to society even better.The state of the debate in climate science as represented by the latest assessment report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is summarised. Examples from the recent philosophical literature are given that illustrate value influence beyond that acknowledged in the report. Key messages are suggestedto the scientific community as to how the topic of values could be progressed, including strategies such as transparency and diversity, cross-disciplinary cooperation and education besides, and aiding, the fostering of awareness by individual scientists in their research.

As an attempt to advance and illustrate this awareness and acknowledgement of values from a scientist perspective, a case study is further presented. There, value judgements are identified that are relevant to multi-model based assessments such as those performed until recently for climate sensitivity and still in use for various other climate metrics. The whole series of assessment steps is considered, from choosing the research question over model building, deriving the metric of interest, and combining model results to publishing and communicating the findings. It is discussed that neither sensitivity studies nor the use of multiple, other lines of evidence instead of model estimates provide a way to avoid value judgements, hence not diminishing the need for reflection on values. While especially timely now in climate science, the question of value acknowledgement and management more generally applies to any science, including other areas of geosciences that are similarly addressing questions of high societal relevance.

How to cite: Undorf, S., Pulkkinen, K., Wikman Svahn, P., and Bender, F.: The role of values in climate science, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-12732, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-12732, 2022.

Climate change, volcanic eruptions, pandemics, financial crises, or large earthquakes; the problems societies must deal with nowadays are often complex and multifaceted. In a data-driven world, providing access to comprehensive, multidisciplinary data repositories to tackle such wicked problems is indispensable. Frameworks allowing such data access are therefore of particular importance. EPOS, the European research infrastructure for the solid Earth domain, is such a framework. It is a multidisciplinary, distributed research infrastructure that facilitates the integrated use of data, data products and services, and facilities from the European solid Earth science community. Although the importance of this undertaking is obvious, its implementation bears many challenges. We focus in our contribution at the most pressing issues from when data, products, and services are made accessible, to access principles, ethical issues related to its collection and use as well as with respect to their promotion.

How to cite: Marti, M., Haslinger, F., Silvia, P., Giuseppe, D. C., Glaves, H., and Dallo, I.: Addressing the challenges of making data, products, and services accessible: an EPOS perspective, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-13119, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-13119, 2022.

Chains of computer models translate emissions into climate signals and subsequent into impacts regarding floods, droughts, heatwaves, and other perils. While the need for computational geoscience is significant, recent publications across the geo- and environmental sciences suggest that reproducibility of computational geoscience might be limited. So far, the focus of reproducibility largely remained on discussions of this problem in the social sciencesor medicine; in this talk, we take a peek behind the curtain of everyday geoscientific research and unveil how we need to foster reproducibility in computational geoscience and what is required to do that. A poll among more than 300 geoscientists reveals that geoscientific research is currently not reproducible enough. 61% say that a lack of reproducible research is putting trust in our results at stake, and only 3% strongly agree that computational geoscientific research is reproducible. Leading causes, contrasting previous polls, are not only a lack of resources and willingness to share code and data but also a lack of knowledge about state-of-the-art software development methods and licenses among the geoscientific community. To lay a path for a future where Open Science is the norm, we let the voices of the community speak on what they think is necessary and paint a picture of a future that fosters reproducible geoscience and thus trust.

How to cite: Reinecke, R., Trautmann, T., and Wagener, T.: The Critical Need to Foster Reproducibility in Computational Geoscience, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-2139, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-2139, 2022.

How to cite: Rigon, R., Formetta, G., Bancheri, M., Tubini, N., D'Amato, C., David, O., and Massari, C.: Participatory Digital Earth Twin Hydrology systems (DARTHs) for everyone: a blueprint for hydrologists, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-2612, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-2612, 2022.

Our current era is often referred to as the 'age of data'. Increasing amounts of data and models are generated, often without being used sustainably - because they are not accessible, difficult to understand or difficult to transfer to other data sets. With https://envsci.fastresearch.io/, we aim to improve collaboration on data sets and analyses to make them usable and reproducible for everyone. With our innovative platform, we want to enable researchers to work together on data and data analysis by giving them a tool to collaborate and to make their data and analyses open access. On our platform, large amounts of data can be combined with extensive analyses and used either privately, partially publicly or completely publicly. With FastResearch.io, data and models will be easily accessible and usable even for non-specialists, as data are modularly exchangeable and users do not need to build their own environments to use the models. While a curated software environment is offered for R and Python, users can also use customized environments (docker images) due to the modular and containerized infrastructure, which allows coding in any programming language. The great advantage of FastResearch.io compared to other platform solutions is that data and analyses connected to these data are stored together within a working software environment, which ends consistency problems in collaborative projects forever.

How to cite: Waldschläger, K. and von Papen, M.: A tool for scientific collaboration, reproducible analyses and interactive publications: FastResearch.io, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-3700, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-3700, 2022.

Directly measuring GHG gas emissions, carbon sequestration, evapotranspiration and heat fluxes via the Eddy Covariance method has been widely used by expert micrometeorologists for over 30 years, covering 2155 stationary locations globally, and numerous mobile campaigns over land and water surfaces. Latest measurement technologies and automated processing software are rapidly expanding the use of the method to non-micrometeorological research. Regulatory and commercial uses of the method also increase year-by-year.

Despite the widening adoption of the method, academic investigators outside the area of micrometeorology and the majority of non-academic investigators are still not familiar enough with the proper implementation of the method required for conducting high-quality, reliable, traceable, and defensible measurements in their respective areas of interest.

Although data collection and processing are now automated, the method still requires significant care to correctly design the experiment, set up the site, organize and analyze a large amount of data. Efforts of the flux networks (e.g., FluxNet, AmeriFlux, Asiaflux, ICOS, NEON, OzFlux, etc.) have led to major progress in the standardization of the method. The project-specific workflow, however, is difficult to unify because various experimental sites and purposes of studies demand different treatments, and site-, measurement- and purpose-specific approaches.

To address this situation, step-by-step simple instructions were created to introduce a novice to general principles, requirements, applications, processing, and analysis steps of the conventional Eddy Covariance technique in the form of the free electronic resource, a 660-page textbook titled "Eddy Covariance Method for Scientific, Regulatory, and Commercial Applications". The explanations are provided using easy-to-understand illustrations and real-life examples, and the text is written in a non-technical language to be practically useful to those new to this field.

Information is provided on the theory of the method (including the state of methodology, basic derivations, practical formulations, major assumptions, sources of errors, error treatments, etc.), practical workflow ow (e.g., experiment design, implementation, data processing, quality control, and analysis), data sharing and flux stations networking, key alternative methods, and the most frequently overlooked details.

The book is organized by topic for ease of access to specific information. Each topic is presented in a three-tier structure: an illustration and summary, more in-depth information, and references to more advanced textbooks, networking guidelines, and journal papers for further exploration.

How to cite: Burba, G.: Writing a New Free Book on Using Direct GHG Measurements in Disciplines beyond Micrometeorology, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-6206, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-6206, 2022.

The amount and diversity of digitally available environmental data is continuously increasing.  However, they are often hardly accessible or scientifically usable. The virtual research environment V-FOR-WaTer aims at simplifying data access for environmental sciences, fostering data publications and facilitating data analyses.

V-FOR-WaTer already contains many of the necessary functionalities to provide and display data from various sources and disciplines. The detailed metadata scheme is adapted to water and terrestrial environmental data. Present datasets in the web portal originate from university projects and state offices. We are also finalising the connection of V-FOR-WaTer to GFZ Data Services, an established repository for geoscientific data. This will ease publication of data from the portal and in turn give access to datasets stored in this repository. Key to being compatible with GFZ Data Services and other systems is the compliance of the metadata scheme with international standards (INSPIRE, ISO19115).

The web portal is designed to facilitate typical workflows in environmental sciences. Map operations and filter options ensure easy selection of the data, while the workspace area provides tools for data pre-processing, scaling, and common hydrological applications. The toolbox also contains more specific tools, e.g. for geostatistics and for evapotranspiration. It is easily extendable and will ultimately include user-developed tools, reflecting the current research topics and methodologies in the hydrology community. Tools are accessed through Web Processing Services (WPS) and can be joined, saved and shared as workflows, enabling complex analyses and ensuring reproducibility of the results. To build workflows we include an easy-to-use drag and drop user interface.

How to cite: Strobl, M., Azmi, E., Hassler, S. K., Mälicke, M., Meyer, J., and Zehe, E.: The V-FOR-WaTer Virtual Research Environment for Environmental Research, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-6258, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-6258, 2022.

The Modular Assessment of Rainfall–Runoff Models Toolbox (MARRMoT) is a flexible framework for hydrological modelling designed for model intercomparison studies and hypothesis testing. It reproduces 47 established conceptual hydrologic models of varying complexity including Sacramento, HBV, GR4J, VIC and TOPMODEL, amongst others. The package also allows to modify them or create new ones by mixing-and-matching components and modules from different models. We radically restructured MARRMoT compared to versions v1.x using an object-oriented programming approach to enhance code clarity and computational efficiency.

MARRMoT v2.1 is structured around two hierarchical classes, where a high-level superclass provides the template of all common model operations, while model-specific code is defined into individual subclasses derived from the single superclass. This reduces the verbosity and repetitiveness of the code, improving readability and facilitating debugging. Additionally, it simplifies the procedure to modify model structures or create new ones, also ensuring that best practices for solving model equations are followed as these are contained in the definition of the superclass and deployed automatically across all models.

We also updated MARRMoT’s numerical solving routine by including a Newton-Raphson solver. This lets us obtain satisfying solutions to the implicit Euler approximations of the models’ differential equations in a number of cases where the previous solving routine had failed, while also obtaining a 2.6-fold runtime improvement on average. We tested these changes by comparing outputs of 36 of the models in the framework between this object-oriented version and the previous version (v1.4) using calibrated parameters and climate inputs from the CAMELS US dataset.

The new version of the toolbox (v2.1) and user manual, including several workflow examples for common application, is available from GitHub (https://github.com/wknoben/MARRMoT).

How to cite: Trotter, L., Knoben, W., Fowler, K., Saft, M., and Peel, M.: Modular Assessment of Rainfall–Runoff Models Toolbox (MARRMoT) v2.1: better, faster and more accessible hydrological modelling through object-oriented programming., EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-6849, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-6849, 2022.

How to cite: Kalverla, P., Hut, R., Drost, N., Verhoeven, S., Alidoost, F., Vreede, B., Andela, B., Smeets, S., Camphuijsen, J., Dzigan, Y., Pelupessy, I., van den Oord, G., van Werkhoven, B., Aerts, J., and van de Giesen, N.: Introducing the eWaterCycle Python package for open and FAIR hydrological modelling, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-7715, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-7715, 2022.

The goals of open science include easy reproducibility of research results, transparency of research methods and re-usability of artefacts, e.g. data, code, and graphics. Consequently, open science is expected to foster scientific collaboration and sustainability of research, as it enables building on each others' methods and results for many years and decades to come.

Here we report about our collective attempts in the last 4-10 years of taking open science to the extreme by using exclusively open formats, open-source software, sharing all stages of our work online and recording workflows and provenance of code and data. Most of our analyses are carried out in Jupyter Notebooks, which are all shared online through gitlab. In these notebooks and our python-analyses, we integrate the python package essm for transparent and easily reproducible mathematical derivations. For more complex analyses, including large model runs, we use the tool Renku of the Swiss Data Science Center in order to record workflows and provenance of code and data.

Find out where we succeeded, where we failed, what we gained and what we lost in pursuing open science to the extreme. Hear about the views and experiences with open science at the undergraduate, postgraduate, postdoc, engineer and senior researcher level. Eventually, we will also report about what we are still missing for entirely reproducible, verifiable, and reusable open science. We hope we can foster a debate about good open science practices, and how we can remove obstacles that are still in our way.

How to cite: Schymanski, S. J., Ceolin, S., Corvi, O., Gama, A., Krieger, L., Minette, F., Nijzink, R. C., O'Nagy, O., Osuebi-Iyke, E., and Thakur, G.: Open and collaborative science: 4+ years of going to the extreme, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-8851, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-8851, 2022.

Sedimentologika is a community-driven Diamond Open Access (DOA) scientific journal about sedimentology. The journal aims to create a place where people can publish their research and access scientific studies on all types of sedimentary processes, methods, deposits, and environments, across all spatial and temporal scales, on Earth or any other planetary body, for free. The published material will be free to share (i.e., no embargo period) since authors retain the copyright. Sedimentologika is driven by the community for the community and is part of a broader DOA movement in geosciences. Sedimentologika aspires at emancipating from the financial barriers associated to private publishing houses to provide direct and equal access to science to all citizens, scientists, and institutions all over the globe. This journal will be defined by Open Science principles to promote ethical dissemination of science and knowledge, following high equality, diversity, and inclusion standards. Each step of the review and publication process will be visible and easy to follow for authors, reviewers and the community. Sedimentologika will be launched by mid-2022 and we are always looking for motivated people keen on giving a little bit of their time to make Sedimentologika a viable and recognized peer-reviewed scientific journal. Interested in this initiative? Come discuss with us!

How to cite: Marchegiano, M., Chiarella, D., Jarochowska, E., Kane, I., Mitten, A., Privat, A., Poyatos-Moré, M., Soutter, E., Spychala, Y., Thomas, C., Vaucher, R., and Zuchuat, V.: Sedimentologika: a community-driven DOA journal, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-8870, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-8870, 2022.

The universe of Open Science is expanding with many scientific disciplines, organizations and policymakers committing to openness, accessibility, transparency and reproducibility. The paper “A Hydrologist’s Guide to Open Science” (Hall et al., 2022) introduces four Open Hydrology Principles and provides a practical guide to empower hydrologists across the globe as they transition to open, accessible, reusable, and reproducible research in their academic work and beyond. In this poster, we will focus on the fourth principle of Hall et al. (2022), Open Publishing, which should build on the other three principles (1. Open Research Process and Approach, 2. Open Data, 3. Open Software Development and Use). We will present current Open Science policies of major hydrology journals based on the following five criteria: a) open-access model, b) publication finance policy, c) preprint policy, d) release requirements for data, code and software, and e) peer-review procedure. This overview can serve as a guideline for researchers that are in search of journals aligning with their Open Science perspectives. Additionally, we hope to kick off a broader discussion about the hydrologic publishing landscape and how it can evolve to foster Open Science.

Reference

Hall, C.A., Saia, S.M., Popp, A.L., Dogulu, N., Schymanski, S., Drost, N., van Emmerik T. Hut, R., A Hydrologist’s Guide to Open Science. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, doi.org/10.5194/hess-2021-392 (in print)

How to cite: Dogulu, N., Popp, A. L., Hall, C. A., Saia, S. M., Schymanski, S. J., Drost, N., van Emmerik, T., and Hut, R.: Open Science in the publishing landscape of hydrology research, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-8901, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-8901, 2022.

In the context of research software sustainability, in this work we present the case of IGMAS+ (Interactive Gravity and Magnetic Application System) – a software tool for interactive 3-D numerical modelling, inversion, visualization and interpretation of potential fields together with some applications.

Modern workflows for geophysical interpretation and construction of 3-D data-constrained subsurface geophysical models in complex geological environments require software tools capable of handling multiple interdisciplinary and inhomogeneous input data, both seismic and non-seismic, like gravity and magnetics with their gradients, or magnetotelluric. These aspects imply big challenges not only in implementation and development of the modelling software, but also in organizing communication within the user community. A user of a research software often plays a role of a tester. Our joint goal as a research software community is to improve communication between developers and users, foster related technologies and overall culture of testing while using the research software.

Through the example of IGMAS+ we illustrate how a research software based on clear concepts with a well-established core algorithm can survive in the course of 40 years of development and still be useful, popular and demanded, at the same time being free for research and education purposes with a long-term plan to stay so. The software is largely used in creation of 3-D data-constrained subsurface structural density and susceptibility models at different spatial scales. Both large-scale models (thousands of square km) and regional (hundreds of square km), which we illustrate on several lithospheric-scale case studies, are important for understanding the drivers of geohazards. These models are necessary for efficient and sustainable extraction of resources, such as groundwater, deep geothermal energy or hydrocarbons, from sedimentary basins. Medium-scale models support studies on the usage of subsurface as thermal, electrical or material storage in the context of energy transformation. On the other hand, small-scale (tens of square km) models are largely used in applied geophysics, typically in sub-salt and sub-basalt settings. On the microscale (1 - 5 meters), the software presented here has also been used very successfully in the context of archaeological research and natural cavity localizations. Creation of all these models benefit a lot from the interactive modelling and inversion capabilities.

IGMAS+ is maintained and developed at the Helmholtz Centre Potsdam – GFZ German Research Centre by the effort of a research and development group limited by staff and time capacities. In these circumstances we find important to share our experience in organizing the development of the software and its documentation, the support of users, as well as our vision on the exchange of experience among the users.

How to cite: Anikiev, D., Götze, H.-J., Bott, J., Meeßen, C., Plonka, C., Schmidt, S., and Scheck-Wenderoth, M.: IGMAS+: a success story of a 3-D potential field modelling software, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-9388, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-9388, 2022.

The Renku platform developed at the Swiss Data Science Center integrates state-of-the-art data science and open source software tools to enable collaborative, reproducible and reusable data science. Data, code, workflows and computational environments in every project are versioned from the start, allowing researchers to focus on their task of discovery rather than worrying about preserving their work. In addition, Renku provides a hosted solution for running those computational environments, which allows researchers to share their fully reproducible work instantly with others. Renku treats all aspects of the data analysis process (code, data, workflows) as nodes in an indexed, searchable Knowledge Graph, meaning that datasets, algorithms or full workflows can be discovered, shared and reused. In this talk we will describe how Renku lowers the bar for researchers to participate in open-science and provides scientific communities with tools to gain a deeper understanding of pathways of discovery within their disciplines.

How to cite: Roškar, R.: Renku: a platform for collaborative, reusable and reproducible research, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-10697, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-10697, 2022.

Seismica is an effort to establish a Diamond Open-Access (OA) journal for the community of researchers working in the (broadly defined) fields of seismology and earthquake science. Diamond OA journals are free to read, do not charge authors to publish, and thus promise to widen access to published research to all. Such efforts require broad community participation beyond editing and reviewing articles, as all functions typically fulfilled by paid staff, including administration, production, typesetting and copy editing, must be undertaken by volunteers.

In December 2020, the Seismica Task Force, a spontaneously-organized group of seismologists and earthquake scientists, connected on Twitter. Inspired by the example of the established Diamond OA journal Volcanica, we began to explore the possibility of founding such a journal in our own field. Through outreach via social media, blog posts, conference presentations and disciplinary mailing lists, we have built a community of over 180 interested participants. With broad input, this group has developed a roadmap (https://doi.org/10.31223/X5304V) for the build-out of the journal, including an editorial structure and policies, broad outreach and structures to ensure a diverse editorial team, a logo and visual branding, and agreements with the McGill University Library to host and support the journal.

In this presentation, we will introduce our first editorial board, and solicit our first article submissions for publication in 2022.  We will also update the broader community on these and other developments in the journal-building process, and share our experiences and lessons learned.

How to cite: Gabriel, A.-A., Bruhat, L., van den Ende, M., Funning, G., Hicks, S. P., Jolivet, R., Lecocq, T., and Rowe, C.: Seismica: a community-led Diamond Open-Access journal for seismology and earthquake science, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-11264, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-11264, 2022.

Tektonika is a new community-led diamond open-access journal (DOAJ) for structural geology and tectonics. It will join the growing body of DOAJs established over recent years and expand the open science movement within academia. Tektonika is a grass-roots initiative, driven by the enthusiasm and devotion of a wide and diverse spectrum of Earth Scientists from around the globe. This project endeavors to set up an open platform, devoid of any paywall, to publish, disseminate, and promote structural geology and tectonics research, and shape, alongside the other initiatives, the bright future of open access publishing.

This contribution comes shortly after the official kick-off date of Tektonika and is a great opportunity to provide an overview of our experience setting up a DOAJ and highlight the milestones that have been achieved. These include the selection of executive and associate editorial teams, as well as journal policies regarding submissions, peer-review, article types, journal scope, ethos, and relevant guidelines. A shop with journal merchandise has been set to support the journal costs and may also fund other activities, such as mentoring programs, awards, and seminars. Most importantly, Tektonika is currently welcoming submissions as the first diamond (free-to-publish, free-to-read) open-access platform in the fields of tectonics and structural geology.

How to cite: Fernández-Blanco, D., Gouiza, M., Bond, C., McCarthy, D., Lee, A., and Pérez-Díaz, L. and the Tektonika DOAJ community: Tektonika, the new Diamond Open Access journal for structural geology and tectonics, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-12042, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-12042, 2022.

Hype Data Delivery Service: Data provision for decision support and scientific collaboration

Reliable access to quality assured data is essential to decision support for society and a crucial component to scientific enquiry. This presentation introduces the HYPE Data Delivery Service and highlights its potential and versatility in serving the science community and society at large.

The hydrological catchment model HYPE simulates water flow and substances on their way from precipitation through soil, river and lakes to the river outlet (Lindström et al., 2010). The catchment is divided into sub basins and further into classes depending on land use, soil type and elevation. The global implementation of the Hydrological Predictions for the Environment (HYPE) model covers an area of 135 million km², delineated to about 131 300 catchments, following river networks from source to sea (Arheimer et al, 2020). The HYPE Data Delivery Services provides results from the Global HYPE for all continental domains of the world except Antarctica. Results for the European domain are taken from the European (E-HYPE) model (Donnelly et al. 2016). The results range from historical simulations, forecasts (1-10 day, monthly, seasonal) to climate impact projections, essentially encapsulating the past, present and future. HYPE forecasts are driven by near-real-time adjusted reanalysis forcing data for hydrology (HydroGFD, Berg et al. 2018) while projections are driven by an ensemble of CMIP5 GCMs and CORDEX RCM output.

While the Hypeweb service (hypbeweb.smhi.se) visualization service provides spatial Open Data and time series points of interest, the delivery service offers high volume, high availability data covering whole continental domains. Through purchased subscriptions, the delivery service meets the data needs of many users including national hydrometeorological services, hydropower industry, hydrological consultancy and re-insurance companies. The delivery service also fosters research partnerships and collaborations through data and model sharing Research Agreements. Research Agreements with academic and research-based institutions carry obligations for collaborative research and peer reviewed publications in furtherance of scientific knowledge. The Hype Data Delivery Service is a definite win-win for science serving society through data provision.

Arheimer, B., Pimentel, R., Isberg, K., Crochemore, L., Andersson, J. C. M., Hasan, A., and Pineda, L., 2020. Global catchment modelling using World-Wide HYPE (WWH), open data and stepwise parameter estimation, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. 24, 535–559, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-535-2020

Berg, P., Donnelly, C., and Gustafsson, D.(2018). Near-real-time adjusted reanalysis forcing data for hydrology, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 22, 989–1000, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-989-2018.

Donnelly, C, Andersson, J.C.M. and Arheimer, B., 2016. Using flow signatures and catchment similarities to evaluate a multi-basin model (E-HYPE) across Europe. Hydr. Sciences Journal 61(2):255-273, doi: 10.1080/02626667.2015.1027710

Lindström, G., Pers, C.P., Rosberg, R., Strömqvist, J., and Arheimer, B. (2010). Development and test of the HYPE (Hydrological Predictions for the Environment) model – A water quality model for different spatial scales. Hydrology Research 41.3-4:295-319.

How to cite: Gbobaniyi, E., Gyllensvärd, F., Popp, A., Capell, R., Andersson, J., and Arheimer, B.: Hype Data Delivery Service: Data provision for decision support and scientific collaboration, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-12439, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-12439, 2022.

With the increasing volume of information from satellites observing Earth, the technical and methodological prerequisites of users in science and applications are becoming more demanding and complex for generating demand-driven products while exploiting the full potential of large Earth observation (EO) data archives. Since 2014, the European Space Agency (ESA) is addressing this challenge with the concept of Thematic Exploitation Platforms (TEPs), aiming to create an ecosystem of interconnected platforms providing thematic EO-based data and services for currently seven thematic sectors.

The built-environment and urban sector is addressed with the Urban Thematic Exploitation Platform (UrbanTEP; urban-tep.eu), acknowledging that urbanization and sustainable settlement growth are key global challenges. The linkages to socio-economic development, health, environment, greenhouse gas emissions, climate change and other sectors are deep and multi-faceted. EO based services and resulting information products and other spatial datasets have successfully found their way into planning and decision-making processes that address the urban ecosystem. While a range of downstream services are based on solitary and effortful processing and visualization solutions, the platform-based approach has proven to be a game changing technology, being capable of revolutionizing service provision, workflows and information products.

UrbanTEP is a collaborative system, which focuses on EO data provision, processing and other spatial products for delivering multi-source information on trans-sectoral urban challenges on various scales. It is developed to provide end-to-end and ready-to-use solutions for a wide spectrum of users in the public and private sector. The core system components are an open, web-based portal connected to distributed and scalable high-level computing infrastructures and providing key functionalities for:

• high-performance data access and processing (IaaS – Infrastructure as a Service),
• modular and generic state-of-the art pre-processing, analysis, and visualization tools and algorithms (SaaS – Software as a Service),

• customized development and sharing of algorithms, products and services (PaaS – Platform as a Service), and
• networking and communication.

The facilitation of EO service acceptance and uptake by the urban community, as well as the onboarding of third-party service providers are essential to PaaS solutions. UrbanTEP is therefore in the process of expanding the range of service solutions and the interconnection with other service providers. The concept of “City Data Cubes” is introduced for urban use cases and algorithm hosting capabilities (“algo-as-as-service” functionalities) are improved by adopting the OGC Common Architecture standard. In addition, the data analytics and visualization capabilities of UrbanTEP provide functionalities for a user-driven derivation of key urban indicators based on the above-mentioned multi-source data collections. The provision of premium urban information products, like the World Settlement Footprint (WSF) outlining built-up areas globally, allows users and service providers to derive customized demand-driven EO-based products.

How to cite: Bachofer, F., Boettcher, M., Boissier, E., Brandt, G., Brockmann, C., Esch, T., Feuerstein, S., Goncalves, P., Marconcini, M., Opletal, M., Pacini, F., Paganini, M., Soukup, T., and Svaton, V.: UrbanTEP – Earth Observation Based Services for the Urban Community, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-873, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-873, 2022.

Within the Italian Government’s guidelines on space and aerospace matters to achieve the strategic objectives of the national space policy [1], the “Telecommunications, Earth Observation and Navigation” (TLC/EO/NAV) sector is the first listed by priority order. TLC/EO/NAV satellite services and applications (the so-called “downstream”) will be exploited by citizens and valorized by Institutions under an integrated application perspective. The downstream sector is therefore a key element to maximize the socio-economic impact of investments in the space sector.

In this context, the Italian Space Agency (ASI) aims to bring its contribution, by stimulating the downstream development through initiatives aiming to promote the use of national and European space systems, and the demonstration of new techniques and procedures for information generation to create products and deliver innovation services.

The present paper focuses on the “scientific downstream”, i.e. the (pre-)operational exploitation of state-of-the-art processing and analytical workflows of TLC/EO/NAV data that have been designed, tested, validated and demonstrated by researchers and academia to formerly answer a specific technical-scientific question (e.g. a more accurate retrieval of a geophysical parameter such as soil moisture in vegetated and crop areas) and are brought to a development and engineered stage so as to generate end-use or value-added products (e.g. maps of multi-temporal spatial variation of soil moisture vs. rainfall and irrigation practices, at a temporal frequency as satellite data allow).

To accelerate a faster uptake of satellite-based technologies for the geosciences as new EO missions are launched and made operative – COSMO-SkyMed First and Second Generation in the Synthetic Aperture Radar domain, and PRISMA in the hyperspectral –, ASI is running several initiatives, including:

• data exploitation [e.g. 2], to make users more acquainted with satellite data and consolidate or prepare for new applications;
• joint research projects with the national scientific community [e.g. 3], to develop novel algorithms up to at least a Scientific Readiness Level (SRL) of 4, i.e. “Proof of concept”, according to ESA SRL Handbook EOP-SM/2776;
• dedicated R&D programs for SAR and hyperspectral algorithm developments, supporting projects that aim to address key application domains (e.g. precision agriculture, natural hazards, urban areas);
• prototyping thematic platforms allowing consolidated algorithms and processing routines to be used for generation of EO-based products [e.g. 4];
• launch a new program for demonstration projects to capitalize the above algorithm legacy and prepare the scientific downstream.

This paper will discuss ASI’s current activities, achievements, lessons learnt and ongoing developments in the accomplishment of the above roadmap.

[1] https://presidenza.governo.it/AmministrazioneTrasparente/Organizzazione/ArticolazioneUffici/UfficiDirettaPresidente/UfficiDiretta_CONTE/COMINT/DEL_20190325_aerospazio.pdf

[2] Battagliere et al. (2021) Satellite X-band SAR data exploitation trends in the framework of ASI’s COSMO-SkyMed Open Call initiative, Procedia Computer Science 181, 1041–1048.

[3] Tapete et al. (2020) Development of algorithms for the estimation of hydrological parameters combining COSMO-SkyMed and Sentinel time series with in situ measurements, IEEE M2GARSS 2020, 53–56.

[4] Candela et al. (2021) “The Italian Thematic Platform costeLAB: from Earth Observation Big Data to Products in support to Coastal Applications and Downstream,” Proceedings of the 2021 conference on Big Data from Space, EUR 30697 EN, ISBN 978-92-76-37661-3, doi:10.2760/125905, JRC125131.

How to cite: Tapete, D. and Coletta, A.: ASI’s roadmap towards scientific downstream applications of satellite data, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-5643, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-5643, 2022.

The recent OGC Cloud Concept Development Study [1]  has shown that the major (big) Geospatial Data providers are going towards Cloud solutions not only to make more data more accessible, but also to locate data processing next to the data. Meanwhile, recent experiences from the H2020 e-shape project show that the EO developers community still needs support to fully adopt the Cloud all the more that based on the feedback received during e- shape’s first sprint, the Earth Observation Cloud platforms still need to mature to be more attractive. In order to support the good connection between Data providers, Technology providers and EO developers, it is critical that sponsors keep on supporting the efforts from the Earth Observation community at a number of levels: Enhancing Copernicus and other open data accessibility, developing Clouds and platforms interoperability and operational maturity, increasing cloud skills among developers and scientists, sustaining funding mechanisms long enough to allow the rendez-vous in the Cloud of all the critical stakeholders with good timing to reach the critical point of self-sustainability.

During this process it is important to not only develop the technical skills and new platforms capacities, but also to develop a good understanding of the pricing mechanisms and how to optimize the costs. This is very needed to develop the trust that outsourcing infrastructures will lead to the expected budget savings and  to trigger the budgets organization evolutions that  moving to Cloud technologies requires. 

[1]  Echterhoff, J., Wagermann, J., Lieberman, J.: OGC 21-023, OGC Earth Observation Cloud Platform COncept Development Study Report. Open Geospatial Consortium (2021). https://docs.ogc.org/per/21-023.html

How to cite: Voidrot-Martinez, M.-F., Hempelmann, N., and Lieberman, J.: Lessons learned from e-shape H2020 Project on the use of the Cloud for Earth Observation, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-5993, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-5993, 2022.

Increasing agricultural production is inevitable in the future since population growth and climate change have led to significant pressure on global food security. One of the ways is to intensify the existing cropland by multi-cropping practice, allowing multiple uses of a single field during one year.  This research aims to identify and map double-cropping land using multi-temporal Sentinel 2 imagery from 2021 and advanced machine learning models. The case study focus is on Bačka and Srem, regions located in the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, Republic of Serbia. These regions are characterized by fertile land and widespread agriculture production. However, there is a low presence of double-cropping practice due to usually dry summers, but with a tendency to change as the number of irrigation systems increase.

Considering the small amount of double-cropping fields, there is a need for direct ground truth data collection. For that reason, the first step was to reduce the area of interest to get insight into the locations of potential double-cropping land. This result was obtained by using the threshold method based on the phenology of crops during the year. The NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) time series was utilized to define appropriate thresholds for feature two peak values to discriminate double-cropping within each pixel. The identification of the results was used on-site for collecting ground truth data. Based on the collected data and the analyzed NDVI time series, besides double-crop, three more classes of arable land were distincted and included in the classification: single winter crops, single summer crops and clover. The collected data contained 46 parcels of double crops, 43 single winter crops, 55 single summer crops and 27 parcels of clover. We used time-series images to create a dataset for training the pixel-based Random Forest classification. The results showed a very high overall accuracy of 99% and an  F-score higher than 0.9 for each of the classes.

This methodology is a suitable approach for detecting double-cropping systems, with further potential to identify exact crop types and the main practice of combining crops. The findings of this study showed that only about 2% of the study area was under this production. Except for positive economic outcomes, utilizing these systems brings significant environmental benefits and rational use of the soil without expanding physical cropland but with the same advantages. Therefore, the resulting geospatial datasets of double cropping croplands could help solve important questions relevant to food security, irrigation and climate change.

How to cite: Marković, M., Lugonja, P., Brdar, S., Živaljević, B., and Crnojević, V.: Detection of Double-Cropping Systems Using Machine Learning and Sentinel 2 Imagery - A Case Study of Bačka and Srem Regions, Serbia    , EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-6225, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-6225, 2022.

The concept of ‘Digital Earth’ (DE), as outlined in 1999 by the former US Vice-President Al Gore, foresees a “multi-resolution, three-dimensional representation of the planet that would make it possible to find, visualise and make sense of vast amounts of geo-referenced information on physical and social environments”. The DE concept is quickly becoming reality, with a strong dynamic component provided by real time data, forecast and projections. The Copernicus programme provides a fundamental contribution to this concept. The challenge is to access and extract information from distributed data centres containing decades of global and local environmental data generated by in-situ sensors, numerical models, satellites, and individuals.

The Advanced geospatial Data Management platform (ADAM, https://adamplatform.eu/) implements the DE concept: ADAM allows accessing a large variety of multi-year global geospatial collections from satellites (Sentinels, Landsat, MODIS) model analysis and predictions (CAMS, C3S), enabling data discovery, visualization, combination, processing and download. ADAM provides datacubeless access and processing services, namely it exposes multi-dimensional (spatial, temporal, spectral …) subsetting capabilities as well as on-the-fly processing functions, so that the consumer (human or machine) gets only the piece of data wherever and whenever needed, avoiding transferring large amounts of useless bytes or massive local processing. Key feature of the ADAM concept is the standardization of the interfaces: each layer (discovery, access, processing, visualization) exposes OGC (https://www.ogc.org/)-compliant interfaces to foster federation and interoperability.

ADAM is an horizontal (generic) layer to support different vertical domains such as Agriculture, Cultural and natural heritage, marine applications, critical infrastructure monitoring, public health, education and media. This contribution focuses on two main operational applications for atmospheric sciences and climate change assessment and mitigation.

TOP (http://top-platform.eu/) is a web-based platform build on top of the ADAM data exploitation layer offering users from the atmospheric sciences domain a Virtual Research Environment (VRE) to exploit Copernicus atmospheric and climate data products, such as Sentinel-5 P data, CAMS products, European Environmental Agency in-situ measurements. Deployed on the Mund Dias, it is the first operational platform implementing the data triangle (EO, model and in-situ data) and hence creates an atmospheric multi-source data cube, stimulating a multidisciplinary scientific approach due to the availability of various collections.

One of the main effects of evolving climate is change precipitation and temperature regimes: EO provides a fundamental contribution for high resolution monitoring these variables. ADAM offers access to global datasets from Copernicus Climate Change services (C3S), ESA Climate Change initiative (ESA CCI) and the GPM program. In the framework of the ESA EO4SD Climate Resilience cluster (https://eo4sd-climate.gmv.com/), more than 30 climate variables and indicators were computed for climate screening, climate risk assessment and climate adaptation. Indicators are provided to various entities such as the World Bank Climate Change Knowledge Portal (CCKP, https://climateknowledgeportal.worldbank.org/). Another relevant example is the STRENCH project (https://www.interreg-central.eu/Content.Node/STRENCH.html) that allows managers of natural and cultural heritage sites to assess climate risk and define mitigation actions through the use of a dedicated webGIS tool fed by a large pool of climate indicators computed from models and satellite data via ADAM.

How to cite: Natali, S., Mantovani, S., Rendl, C., and Marco Figuera, R.: The ADAM federated data handling platform to enable scientific services development, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-11073, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-11073, 2022.

Earth Observation plays important role in Precision Agriculture. Precision agriculture, holds great promise for modernization of agriculture both in terms of environmental sustainability and economic outlook.  The vast data archives made available through Copernicus and related infrastructures, combined with a low entry threshold into the domain of AI-technologies has made it possible, if not outright easy, to make meaningful predictions that divides individual agricultural fields into zones where variable rates of fertilizer, irrigation and/or pesticide are required for optimal soil productivity and minimized environmental impact. Usage of Earth Observation in Precision Agriculture is in many years subjects of intensive research, but there already exist commercial application. But full potential of EO is till now not utilised. This limits the uptake of precision agriculture technology and thus also the realization of its promised benefits. EO4Agri project in its Strategic Research Agenda identified as one from  priorities for future to support collaborative research of expert from different domains, EO, agriculture, Artificial Intelligence and also direct involvement of farmers or advisors. But till now there didn’t exist platforms, which will be able to support such collaborative research. Now The Map Whiteboard is opening new possibilities for such collaborative research in this domain.

The Map Whiteboard concept at the centre of this submission is intended to plug into the “traditional” workflow of variable rate applications and enables agricultural advisors/extension services and farmers to interact, adjust and share an understanding of the estimations made by the ‘black box’, thus increasing the trust in and improving the quality of the prediction models. The vision of the Map Whiteboard innovation was conceived out of a sequence of large-scale collaborative writing efforts using Google Docs. As opposed to traditional offline word processing tools, Google Docs allows multiple people to edit the same document]—at the same time—allowing all connected clients to see changes made to the document in real-time by synchronising all changes between all connected clients via the server. The ability to work on a shared body of text, avoiding the necessity to integrate fragments from multiple source documents and with multiple styles removed many obstacles associated with traditional document editing. The Map Whiteboard technology seeks to do the same for the traditional use of GIS tools. The overall vision for the technology is that a Map Whiteboard will be to GIS what Google Docs is to word processing. We are now introducing this technology as a tool for collaborative work farmers and advisory services offering them analysis of EO data. The Map Whiteboard is now in intensive tested  and now are integrated tools for online analysis of EO data.

How to cite: Charvat, K., Bergheim, R., Berzins, R., Langovskis, D., Zadrazil, F., and Kubickova, H.: Map WhiteBoard - New Technology in Collaborative Research in Smart FArming, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-12431, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-12431, 2022.