Geoscience plays a vital role in shaping our sustainable future, yet the discipline is at a critical crossroads. Declining student enrolments, reduced course offerings, and the closure of university departments threaten its survival. Key challenges include public perceptions of geoscience and associated industries, its lack of visibility in school curricula, outdated branding and stereotypes, and issues related to diversity and inclusion. As students increasingly seek altruistic, sustainability-focused careers, geoscience must respond rapidly or risk further decline. A more strategic, impact-driven approach to geoscience communication is essential to address the discipline’s struggling brand image. This presentation takes you behind the scenes of the Earth Futures Festival, an international geoscience film and video festival. The festival bridges the arts and sciences to demonstrate how geoscience, combined with long-standing cultural knowledge of the Earth, offers solutions to pressing global challenges. We will explore the impact-focused approach underpinning the festival’s design, including forging value-aligned partnerships, providing communication skills training for geoscientists, and amplifying the visibility of typically underrepresented groups. This talk will provide a step-by-step practical guide to illustrate how impact-focused design can be effectively applied to geoscience communication and outreach.

How to cite: Handley, H.: An impact-driven approach to geoscience communication, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-13520, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-13520, 2025.

Human perception is strongly influenced by communication. In the context of natural hazards, perception plays a crucial role in the resilience of affected populations. This is particularly true for people's perceptions of phenomena related to climate change (CC). Given this, it is essential to effectively calibrate communication, especially digital communication, which has significantly transformed how information is shared. Moreover, digital communication is the primary channel for younger generations, often labeled “digital natives.” However, the preferences of young people regarding digital communication tools have not been sufficiently explored.

In this study, in the framework of the Italian NRRP Tech4You Project, we examine the digital communication tools preferred by students from an Italian scientific high school. A questionnaire was administered to 74 students, asking them to select from various digital communication tools related to CC topics. Additionally, an open-ended question encouraged the students to explain their choices briefly. The communication preferences were analyzed via SPSS statistical software, whereas the comments were analyzed via the qualitative data analysis software AtlasTi.

The results highlight a preference for communication that is concise, simple, and similar to the content young people usually engage in. With respect to the proposed content, videos and images are preferred over explicating texts. These findings, which shed light on students' preferences for internet digital tools related to CC, offer valuable insights for better calibrating digital communication in the field of climate change adaptation (CCA), which involves young citizens.

This study provides a good basis for enhancing young people's access to information through digital communication, which could significantly improve their social resilience to CC-related events. This improvement is crucial, as the information of today's youth contributes to building more resilient adult citizens in the future.

This work was funded by the Next Generation EU - Italian NRRP, Mission 4, Component 2, Investment 1.5, call for the creation and strengthening of ‘Innovation Ecosystems’, building ‘Territorial R&D Leaders’ (Directorial Decree n. 2021/3277) – project Tech4You - Technologies for climate change adaptation and quality of life improvement, n. ECS0000009

How to cite: Carone, M. T. and Antronico, L.: Climate change and digital communication: teens’ preferences, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-6859, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-6859, 2025.

Universities are critical in addressing scientific, environmental, social, and political challenges of climate change. But solving the many problems associated with this grand challenge requires: (1) an interdisciplinary approach connecting university experts from various knowledge domains and organizations; (2) synergy with stakeholders for developing and deploying actionable solutions to adapting to the climate crisis; and (3) communicating research deliverables to the public to inform the adoption of climate-friendly behavior.

Here, we examine the Climate Transformation Programme (CTP) at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) as a case study in interdisciplinary research, evidence-based policymaking, and stakeholder engagement for climate action in Southeast Asia. The CTP framework integrates expertise from science, technology, social sciences, and the arts and translates it into actionable items for decision-makers through a three-fold stakeholder engagement approach. This strategy includes engagement with government agencies, industry partners, and community groups.

To highlight the importance of an interdisciplinary approach within CTP, Kim et al. (2023) combined whole-genome sequencing with reconstructions of landscape change of Southeast Asia[1]. We showed that rapid sea-level rise drove early settlers in Southeast Asia to migrate during the prehistoric period. Our work was the first reported instance to provide proof that sea-level rise changed the genetic makeup of human populations in Southeast Asia – a legacy that continues to impact current populations, affecting the genetic diversity of the region today.

Through the CTP corporate partners network, researchers establish mutually beneficial alliances with businesses committed to developing long-term resilience to the climate crisis. To support the adoption of context-appropriate and feedback-driven climate solutions, partnerships with governmental and international organizations should be fostered. For example, Yim et al. (2024) estimated the global health impacts of air pollution over the past 40 years and its association with climate variability[2]. We revealed that 135 million premature deaths were attributable to PM2.5 air pollution during this period, with climate variability exacerbating health risks. This research was recognized at the 2024 World Health Organization (WHO) annual meeting and is employed in partnership with Prudential Insurance Company to assess health impact on individuals of Southeast Asia.

Effective climate communication is key to mobilizing the public to adopt pro-climate behaviors. Using plastic waste as an example, Xiong et al. (2024) investigated if virtual reality (VR) is a viable tool that could overcome several challenges facing climate communication[3]. Our finding indicates policymakers could adopt VR technologies to increase public members’ interest in learning about climate issues. In designing pro-climate behavioral interventions, policymakers should focus on facilitating individuals’ autonomous motivation by giving them a sense of control.

How to cite: Tsyrulneva, I., Kim, H. L., Yim, S. H. L., Ho, S. S., and Horton, B. P.: Integrating disciplines and stakeholders to address climate change challenges, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-7680, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-7680, 2025.

Etna's eastern flank is crossed by numerous seismogenic faults, which cause surface faulting, resulting in the destruction of buildings and exposing the local population to risk. Rebuilding damaged buildings in earthquake-prone areas raises ethical and economic concerns. A seismic event measuring Mw4.9 occurred on 26 December 2018, causing significant damage to over 3,000 buildings within an area of 205 km² populated by approximately 140,000 individuals residing on the Etna's eastern flank. The earthquake resulted in a ground rupture exceeding ten kilometres, encompassing several urban areas. Consequently, it was imperative to conduct a preliminary geostructural study to ascertain the most vulnerable tectonic zones and upgrade targeted buildings. The study identified the homogeneous microzones in seismic prospection, namely the Zones of Attention (ZA_ACF), Susceptibility (ZS_ACF) and Respect (ZR_ACF) of the faults activated during the 2018 earthquake. Buildings in the ZR_ACF were not permitted to be repaired because they were at serious risk of future damage, and owners were offered financial compensation to rebuild in seismically safer areas. Initially, some people demonstrated reluctance to accept the proposed relocation. Empathy and clear explanations regarding the rationale for the relocation were provided, and the provision of comprehensive support to people facing significant psychological challenges was identified as being necessary. This approach is currently being implemented in the reconstruction of other seismic areas in Italy, and it has the potential to become a common and sustainable model for the reconstruction of areas affected by natural disasters.

How to cite: Neri, M., Neri, E., and Leonardi, A.: Geoethical principles applied to the reconstruction planning of natural disasters: the Etna 2018 earthquake case study, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-9411, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-9411, 2025.

How to cite: Korhonen, N., Laapas, M., Kühn, T., Pirinen, P., Luomaranta, A., Kuntsi-Reunanen, E., Vajda, A., and Gregow, H.: Utilizing Urban Microclimate Data in Education and Research , EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-17453, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-17453, 2025.

In order to effectively mitigate, adapt to and benefit from climate change, society needs climate expertise. To enhance professional climate action competencies and to educate students in climate-informed decision making a new master-level course, "Living with changing climate" was developed. This course was created by a multidisciplinary team of experts from the Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research (UH-INAR), the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) and the Department of Educational Sciences at the University of Helsinki, as part of the ClimComp-project funded by the Research Council of Finland.

Designed for an online learning platform, the course is part of the Climate University curriculum. Climate University (www.climateuniversity.fi), a network of higher education institutions in Finland that provides climate and sustainability education in collaboration with schools and working life. The "Living with changing climate" course covers the causes and complexity of climate change, its impacts and adaptation needs, future scenarios and their links to mitigation efforts, and acquaints students with open-source weather and climate data, applications and their use, and the principles of climate services. Additionally, students apply the knowledge gained in project work on a real-life example, enabling them to collaborate with stakeholders. The course was piloted during spring 2023 among a group of students with diverse background. Based on the feedback received, the course material was improved and published in the curriculum in autumn 2023. The design and development process of the course, including the challenges encountered, and lessons learned are presented.

How to cite: Mäkelä, A., Gregow, H., Vajda, A., Korhonen, N., Lavonen, J., Lauri, K., Makkonen, R., Merikanto, J., Räisänen, P., Siponen, J., Vesterinen, V.-M., Ylivinkka, I., Riuttanen, L., Böhnisch, A., and Kuntsi-Reunanen, E.: Climate competencies for real-life action: developing a master level course "Living with changing climate", EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-18727, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-18727, 2025.

The West African countries share a myriad of challenges, including environmental degradation, desertification, enhanced rainfall variability, unprecedented heat waves, floodings and declining agricultural productivity. The accelerated climate change along with other global change stressors like population growth and rapid urbanization contributes to land degradation, chronic poverty, food insecurity, and malnutrition.

To address these challenges, the Climate Services for Risk Reduction in Africa (CS4RRA) was initiated by France and Germany through their ministries of higher education and research (MESR and BMBF respectively), with West African regional and national institutions such as ACMAD, AGRHYMET/CILSS, WASCAL, African Centres of Excellence, Universities, National Governmental Services in West Africa with the aim to enhance climate resilience through Knowledge, Innovation, and Capacity Building (KIC). This initiative is built on the achievements of previous EU and AU programmes (H2020, JPI Climate/SINCERE, Copernicus CCS, ERA4CS, Climate-KIC, etc.). Four hybrid webinars (in-person and online), rooted in West African countries, were held to identify gaps and critical issues in climate services for risk reduction in Africa.

To capitalize on such Webinars Forum, CS4RRA culminated in an international Stocktaking Conference for West Africa, on 5 - 6 November 2024. Building on conclusions and recommendations from the webinars and aiming to address gaps in knowledge, innovation, and capacity development, this conference convened policymakers and representatives of governments, academia, donors, international agencies, and various stakeholders of the climate service value chain together in Africa. The main objective was to agree on the identified necessary research and innovation efforts and to address the corresponding funding gaps. This conference examined potential areas for multilateral cooperation to support research and innovation on climate services for risk management, resilience, and adaptation in West Africa and beyond. 

How to cite: Monfray, P., Ogunjobi, K., Sanfo, S., Roehrig, J., Fink, A., Kane, C., Sama, M., Sultan, B., Agboka, K., Alabi, T. A., Cherif, M., Gaye, A. T., Amponsah, W., and Dindane, A.: Climate Services for Risk Reduction in Africa (CS4RRA): a multilateral initiative between Europe and Africa, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-20205, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-20205, 2025.

 Generative AI is radically affecting the teaching landscape in Earth Sciences, which includes evertyhting from essays to coding. Staff have a variety of approaches, ranging from enthusiastic early adopters to 'head-in-the-sand' 'if I don't look at it it won't exist' wishful thinkers. How can we best help everyone learn about the pitfalls and advantages, so they are informed enough to use it correctly if they wish to? This abstract will cover reflections from teaching staff along their journey to integrating generative AI into teaching practice and describe workshops held to integrate staff with different levels of experience. The goal was to give beginners a supported first taste with signposted development resources, and share ideas and methods and resources for the more advanced users.

How to cite: Petrie, E.: Reflecting on the journey towards integrating Generative AI into understanding and practice, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-20328, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-20328, 2025.

The city of Follonica is an energy community and the high school is involved in the "Pecora River Agreement", a local project whose aim is to redevelop the river ecosystem.

Outdoor education is a method that encourages students to be active participants and become citizens aware of the importance of environmental protection.

Students have projected a study (using IBSE method) of the polluted area around the river. The city's history is studied, using local library, showing its importance in climate, the changes in the water regime, and the shape of the river during the XX century.

The environmental situation is measured through chemical and physical parameters of the water, soil texture, quality indicators of soil (analysis of soil fauna), and water (Extended Biotic Index).

The digital products are: a website, some reports, and an interactive map of the river.

School has communicated the situation to the local authorities as a part of the Agreement, moreover, students make proposals: plants on the riverbank, activities to sensitize the local community, and monitoring through an ecological index for the future of the city

How to cite: Severi, A.: Outdoor education for rehabilitation of a river, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-20776, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-20776, 2025.

Translation of geoscience research into tangible changes, such as modified decisions, processes or policy in the wider world is an important yet notably difficult process. Co-RISK is an accessible (i.e. open access, paper-based, zero cost) ‘toolkit’ for use by stakeholder groups within workshops, which is intended to aid this translation process. It is given a robust basis by incorporating paradox theory from organisation studies, which deals with navigating the genuine tensions between industry and research organizations that stem from their differing roles. Specifically designed to ameliorate the organizational paradox, a Co-RISK workshop draws up ‘Maps’ including key stakeholders (e.g. regulator, insurer, university) and their positionality (e.g. barriers, concerns, motivations), and identifies exactly the points where science might modify actions. Ultimately a Co-RISK workshop drafts simple and tailored project-specific frameworks that span from climate to hazard, to risk, to implications of that risk (e.g. solvency). The action research approach used to design Co-RISK (with Bank of England, Aon, Verrisk), its implementation in a trial session for the insurance sector and its intellectual contribution are described and evaluated. The initial Co-RISK workshop was well received, so application is envisaged to other sectors (i.e. transport infrastructure, utilities, government).  Joint endeavours enabled by Co-RISK could fulfil the genuine need to quickly convert the latest insights from environmental research into real-world climate change adaptation strategies.

https://gc.copernicus.org/articles/7/35/2024/

How to cite: Hillier, J. K. and van Meeteren, M.: Co-RISK: A tool to co-create impactful university-industry projects for natural hazard risk mitigation, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-291, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-291, 2025.

Skeptical Science is a volunteer-run website publishing refutations of climate misinformation. Some members of the Skeptical Science team actively research best-practices refutation techniques while other team members use these findings to share debunking techniques effectively either in writing or through presentations. During 2024, our team collaborated with other groups specializing in fact checking and countering misinformation about the climate crisis. With this submission we highlight two of these collaborations:

• Creating fact briefs in collaboration with Gigafact
  Fact briefs are short, credibly sourced summaries that offer “yes/no” answers in response to claims found online. They rely on publicly available, often primary source data and documents. Fact briefs are created by contributors to Gigafact — a nonprofit project looking to expand participation in fact-checking and protect the democratic process. 
• Turning a PDF-based report refuting 33 climate solutions myths into stand-alone rebuttals
  In early 2024 we spotted an impressive report addressing climate solutions misinformation, "Rebutting 33 False Claims About Solar, Wind, and Electric Vehicles," written by members of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School. We collaborated with the authors to create 33 stand-alone rebuttals based on the report's content to make it possible to link to each of the rebuttals directly.

Both of these collaborations help with sharing fact-based information in order to counter mis- and disinformation spread online.

How to cite: Winkler, B.: Collaborations between Skeptical Science and other groups to spread fact-based information, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-1439, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-1439, 2025.

In an era characterised by the political economy of financialised capitalism, accounting plays an instrumental role in shaping decision-making through the principle of materiality.  This principle influences how physical climate risks are perceived and addressed.  The role of accounting and the principle of materiality are foundational to using corporate reporting to prepare markets for the effects of climate change.  
The Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD, 2023) has highlighted persistent inadequacies in corporate disclosures, particularly their failure to provide decision-useful information for managing or mitigating the financial and societal impact of extreme weather events.  Inspired by the Absurdist literary tradition, the paper offers a conceptual alternative: expressing materiality as an aesthetic performance that embraces the ambiguity and complexity of climate risk.
To visualise this interplay, disclosure is interpreted as a form of communicative storytelling, where accounting frameworks set the plot and characters, shaping stakeholder engagement.  The tangible impacts of physical climate change function as the unpredictable forces driving the narrative, while aesthetic materiality transforms these elements into a cohesive strategic risk management framework.  This dynamic symbiosis, imbued with Absurdist tensions, illustrates how narrative, financial structures, environmental realities, and performative aesthetics collectively influence decision-making in the face of climate risks.
The Absurdist lens reveals how contemporary disclosures embody a condition of "waiting for the correct data," a state of deferral legitimised by incremental approaches to risk management.  Traditional calculative paradigms in accounting—such as materiality thresholds, metrics, and financial quantification—struggle to address the non-linear and interdependent risks posed by extreme weather events.  By aestheticising materiality, this paper argues that corporate disclosures can better cope with these limitations, engaging stakeholders through participatory and relational communication rather than static, deterministic metrics.
Aesthetic materiality shifts the focus from rigid frameworks to systemic interconnectivity, inviting decision-makers to critically reflect on the unpredictability of climate risks and to co-create meaning alongside stakeholders.  This perspective complements tools such as impact-based forecasting and early-warning systems by addressing the socio-cultural dimensions of risk communication.
Empirical insights from 44 interviews with stakeholders across 16 FTSE350 organisations illustrate the limitations of calculative realism in accounting for climate scenarios.  Participants reported deferring action in pursuit of elusive “objective truths,” grappling with helplessness amidst multiple potential realities and feeling hopeless by the inexpressible ambiguity associated with accounting for extreme weather risks.  These findings underscore the Absurdist tension between striving for control and coping with the immeasurable—a tension that current frameworks fail to resolve.
Aesthetic materiality is a conceptual response to the systemic inadequacies of existing corporate disclosure practices.  It disrupts normative accounting principles such as reliability and objectivity, advocating instead for evocative narratives, symbolic imagery, and dialogical engagement that better reprehend the interconnected nature of extreme weather events.  Such a transition also signals a shift beyond the prevailing interdisciplinary accounting discourse by foregrounding the limits of language and representation, emphasising the performative aesthetics of materiality and expressing disclosure as an unending process. 

How to cite: O Rourke, J.: Accounting Beyond the Calculative: Expressing Corporate Disclosure Through Aesthetic Materiality, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-1592, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-1592, 2025.

Developing innovative public engagement measures are central to addressing many of the key geoscience related challenges within the EU. One of the most pressing European challenges includes achieving a sustainable and secure supply of critical raw materials (CRMs). These materials include vital metals used in renewable energy technologies, for which the EU is often totally reliant on imports at both the extraction and processing level. Hence, EU climate neutrality by 2050, as per the European Green Deal, hinges on CRM supply. However, this is not often discussed in the public realm.

Informal education spaces such as festivals provide unique environments for science communication, where incidental adult audiences can stumble upon new scientific concepts and problems in engaging ways. However, to be successful, science exhibits at such events need to capture attention and stimulate the audience in a short period of time. The critical raw material challenge is underrepresented in the festival environment likely due to historically negative public attitudes towards mining. Hence, a necessary science communication endeavour is to develop a novel engagement activity that engages adult audiences at festivals with this issue and stimulates conversation. We present a hands-on, challenge-based public engagement activity/tool for use in the fast-paced science and arts festival environment, where contact time is limited and interaction is key. Designed to simulate the supermarket experience, ‘GreenDealz’ brings participants through tactile ‘shopping’ tasks, with evaluation points included throughout. The main aim of GreenDealz was to engage participants with the concept of critical raw materials and their demand for renewable energy technologies in a relatable and task-based way.

We outline the iterative process of developing GreenDealz for the festival environment, including ideation, design, and an evolution of evaluation from classic self-reported techniques to more novel and festival friendly ‘embedded assessment’ measures. Importantly, we highlight how this activity has been tested and validated via a mixed methods approach: our quantitative data, collected across several festivals in Ireland, yields significant findings about audience learnings and engagement, while our qualitative data, gleaned through less time-restricted participant interactions sheds a deeper light on the effectiveness of this tool in achieving learning outcomes and sparking interest in critical raw materials within non-specialist audiences.

How to cite: Blennerhassett, L., Schuitema, G., and McAuliffe, F.: GreenDealz: a hands-on shopping activity for public engagement with critical raw materials, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-2292, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-2292, 2025.

Austrian citizens, like many others worldwide, show high levels of skepticism coupled with low interest in science. This disengagement is closely tied to limited science literacy, characterized by a poor understanding of the scientific process and scientific data generation. Initiatives operating at the intersection of science and education provide a valuable opportunity to develop innovative methods of science communication, enhance science literacy, and positively influence attitudes toward scientific findings. To address these challenges, scientists from diverse disciplines, educators, and administrators have joined forces to establish the “Interdisciplinary Network for Science Education Lower Austria (INSE)”. Led by WasserCluster Lunz and funded by GFF NÖ, this partnership aims to: (i) deepen public understanding of science by engaging students and citizens in scientific processes across disciplines, (ii) spark interest in science through innovative communication strategies, and (iii) build trust in the benefits of science by showcasing its contributions to addressing societal and ecological challenges.

In this presentation, we will introduce the INSE partnership and highlight our science education concepts tailored to different educational levels. At the primary level, the focus was on research in the humanities, emphasizing the significance of reading and writing. At the lower secondary level, the main principles of the "Nature of Science (NOS)" were introduced, while at the upper secondary level, students conducted their own research projects, either in the natural sciences (a respiration experiment in aquatic ecology) or the social sciences (a social science survey). Students explored the principles of specific research methods and examined the similarities and differences among various scientific disciplines. This approach aimed to provide participants with both a solid understanding of general scientific principles and insights into discipline-specific methodologies.

We will also present initial evaluation results on the effectiveness of our educational activities. Additionally, we aim to foster new collaborations at both national and international levels to strengthen our network and expand the resources available for science education.

How to cite: Feldbacher, E., Sippl, C., Lughammer, B., Capatu, I., Jöstl, G., Eibl, D., Panzenböck, M., Coulson, L., Akbari, E., and Weigelhofer, G.: Connecting Science and Education: Innovative Approaches from the INSE Network, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-2755, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-2755, 2025.

SCAPE° is a new science center under development in Offenbach, Germany, dedicated to making weather, climate, and their profound connections to human life both tangible and engaging. Situated in the heart of the city, SCAPE° aims to bridge the gap between science and society through interactive exhibits, immersive workshops, and dynamic community events.

This presentation will provide an overview of SCAPE°’s organizational structure, the planning and design process, and the challenges encountered in creating this innovative space. Key exhibits will be showcased, including hands-on installations such as turbulence simulators and immersive visualizations of global weather phenomena, demonstrating the center’s commitment to interactive and educational engagement. Examples of workshops and events will illustrate how SCAPE° fosters dialogue and involvement in a scientific, but also artistic way. 

By sharing the experiences and lessons learned in developing SCAPE°, this presentation seeks to inspire innovative approaches to science communication and public engagement in weather and climate sciences, while raising awareness and excitement for SCAPE° itself as a vital new space for exploration and education.

How to cite: Frank, B.: SCAPE° Offenbach: A New Science Center Bringing Weather and Climate to Life in the Heart of the City, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-2820, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-2820, 2025.

This study investigates how the mining industry employs science communication tactics, specifically framing, warmth, honesty, and relatability when engaging with the public. Guided by three primary research questions, this project seeks to identify: (1) which frames and tactics Canadian mining organizations employ when communicating about mining, (2) how these tactics influence engagement among audiences with pro-, anti-, and neutral attitudes toward mining, and (3) whether the use of tactics varies based on the type of organization.

A mixed-methods approach integrates content analysis, survey responses, and thematic analysis. Advertisements, corporate websites, and corporate responsibility documents from various mining organizations are systematically coded to identify framing strategies and communication techniques. To evaluate changes in public perceptions, knowledge, and behaviours, participants complete pre-engagement surveys to establish baseline attitudes toward mining. They then engage with assigned materials in two stages: first independently and later through guided discussion and interviews conducted via Zoom. Post-engagement surveys capture immediate reactions and subsequent changes in perception, knowledge, and potential actions. Transcribed interviews from guided discussions are analyzed thematically to uncover deeper insights into how audiences engage with mining-related messaging.

This research is significant for its focus on the intersection of industry messaging and public engagement, addressing a critical gap in understanding how science communication influences public trust and opinion in resource-driven sectors. Insights from this study will inform best practices for transparent, relatable, and effective communication in the mining industry, with broader implications for improving public engagement strategies in other science-based fields.

How to cite: Onstad, C. and van der Flier-Keller, E.: Preliminary Insights into Science Communication Strategies in Canadian Mining Messaging: A Mixed-Methods Perspective, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-2911, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-2911, 2025.

Some environmental issues (nuclear/special wastes, CO₂ storage) are extremely long-lasting, from thousand to one million years (Flüeler 2023). Three aspects are mandatory to recognise them adequately: their complexity (e.g., safety “proof”), uncertainty (aleatory/epistemic …), inequality (today’s risk deciders vs. future risk bearers). All require a deep sense of multiperspectivity: Changing perspectives enables a conscious view of an issue from different angles.

With exceptions, conventional practice reveals “technical” and “acceptance” approaches. The problem is said to be solely political, “the public’s” poor state of knowledge spurs the plea for “outreach”, following the “deficit model”: Specialists inform laypeople to close their “information gap”. The long term is covered by safety margins and, as a last resort, by waste retrievability.

Applied research is more sophisticated. Nuclear waste safety cases have become comprehensive, considering insecurities and stakeholder involvement (NEA 2020b). Still, the very long term (10,000y plus) is left to risk analysts. “Communication Across 300 Generations” (Tannenbaum 1984) or “to bridge ten millennia” (Sebeok 1984) are issues reserved to semiotics and not really developed further (NEA 2019). Conserving artefacts and symbols over time seems unsatisfactory, even unrealistic. Site-selection procedures have, partly, recognised the need for decades-long processes (NEA 2020a).

What is “long term”? (cf. Flüeler 2023, 55ff.) It would be futile for society to deal with the year 800,000 AP, but it is to reckon what Brand and Eno called “the Long Now”, https://longnow.org: 10,000 years back and forth, yet a generations-based approach seems more practical, maybe the Canadian First Nations’ yardstick of the Seven Generations (NCSL 2017): “Traditionally, no decision was made until it was understood how it would affect the next seven generations”. Or we draw on Boulding’s suggestion: 100 years backward and foreward (grandparents to grandchildren) (Boulding 1978).

At any rate, our responsibility to future generations “requires new operationalisations, new norms of practice, new sets of values, new virtues, and – last but not least – new institutions” (Birnbacher 1988). It needs new skills for sustainable governance, transparent (digital) dashboards, open online platforms to table/respond to controversial views/assertions, transdisciplinary labs, ways to address indeterminacy (>>“uncertainty”), VR learning machines to train changing perspectives, etc.

The ethical, political and institutional complexity insinuates that there is no silver bullet to tackle the issue of governance: “The solution is easily summarized, but much less easily achieved: to establish ecological reflexivity as a core priority of social, political and economic institutions” (Dryzek/Pickering 2019). We need continual discourse to transform our societies sustainably, rather than pre-fixed concepts in order to restore supposedly paradisiac past states.

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Birnbacher, D. Verantwortung für zukünftige Generationen. Reclam, Stuttgart (transl.).

Boulding, E. The Family as a Way into the Future. Pendle Hill, Wallingford, PA.

Dryzek, J.S./Pickering, J. The Politics of the Anthropocene. Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford.

Flüeler, T. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-03902-7.

NCSL. https://healingofthesevengenerations.ca/about/history.

NEA/Nuclear Energy Agency/2019. Preservation of Records, Knowledge and Memory Across Generations. OECD, Paris.

NEA/2020a. Final Disposal of Radioactive Waste. Policy Brief.

NEA/2020b. Two Decades of Safety Case Development: An IGSC Brochure.

Sebeok, T.A. Communication Measures to Bridge Ten Millennia. BMI/ONWI-532. Battelle, Columbus, OH.

Tannenbaum, P.H. Communication Across 300 Generations: Deterring Human Interference with Waste Deposit Sites. BMI/ONWI-535.

How to cite: Flüeler, T.: How to communicate “long term”? 10, 100, 10,000 years …? Practice, research, reflections, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-4847, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-4847, 2025.

Similar to X-rays used in medicine to scan human bodies, to understand the characteristics of the oceanic crust that covers >70% of our planet, marine geophysicists conduct controlled source seismic experiments at sea on research vessels. We produce tiny earthquakes using compressed air, which travel through the subsurface built of different rock types; the differences in the rocks introduce changes in the propagated waves, which are registered by an array of receptors and then processed to produce seismic images. However, this field of research is not commonly known by school students or the general public. To bridge this gap, we designed a seismic atelier to expose the less-known but marvelous world of marine geophysics and show it as a possible career path. The atelier includes a presentation of our work at sea supported by pictures and videos, presentation of the Ocean Bottom Seismometer (OBS) developed and designed internally at IPGP, and model that simulates seismic data acquisition. For this model, we obtained the EGU Public Engagement Award in 2023. The elements that constitute the model:

• 400 l water tank, floating LEGO ship
• three 3-D printed OBSs connected to an electromagnetic mechanism that simulate deployment and recovery of the instruments
• ballons that are perforated under the water to mimic the seismic source
• hydrophone connected to a laptop for signal recording

The experiment is accompanied by a 5-question quiz tailored to correspond to the age of the participants; all the topics concerning the questions were covered in the presentations. The quiz is conducted before and after the atelier, which helps us to evaluate the impact of outreach activity. All the questions were designed as a multiple-choice. For example, for the age 11-15 years, one question is: What is the temperature of the deep ocean?, with the offered responses: a) 0-3º, b) 23-25ºC, and c) 0 -10 ºC.

We have already run the atelier on two occasions, and the results are promising. The first time was during the Fête de la Science (Open House event in France) at IPGP in early October 2024, during which we presented our atelier to four groups, 10-12 participants (9-12 years old) in each group. The second session was organized with 30 high-school students (~15 years old). The quizzes' analyses clearly show that the number of correct answers increases by up to 50% after the conducted atelier, demonstrating the positive impact of the activity on student knowledge. The results also show that some questions were tackling less-known topics. For instance, the question we gave as an example above was consistently answered incorrectly by ~80% of students before the atelier; in contrast, after the atelier, the situation was reversed, and >90% of the participants gave the correct answer. Overall, the impressions of the students after participating in the atelier, especially the youngest ones, are highly positive, and we hope they will develop a certain level of passion for marine sciences. The next stage for our project would be to film it and make it available online in different languages to reach students internationally.

How to cite: Marjanovic, M., Besançon, S., Hautemayou, D., Mahato, S., and Luc, T.: How do we make an X-ray scan of Earth’s oceanic crust?, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-6769, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-6769, 2025.

How to cite: Pocaterra, C., Mingardi, V., Mentini, L., Silvi, S., and Careccia, A.: Science Communication through Engagement and Outreach for the bioeconomy, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-7084, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-7084, 2025.

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects have historically struggled to be inclusive and accessible to students from diverse backgrounds. Furthermore, STEM subjects have often been rigid in their teaching structure, creating barriers to education for students with more specific (or unrecognised) learning needs. Our STEM outreach course, Think Like A Scientist, has been running in a number of English prisons since 2019, and started in Canada and Australia over the past two years. Our students in prison often have diverse learning needs – a classroom often presents numerous barriers (sensory, communication, information processing, and regulation) which particularly impacts neurodivergent students (e.g., autism, ADHD, OCD, dyslexia, etc.). In our teaching in prison, we have been conscious of creating different educational access points that are not solely reliant on rigid teaching structures.

Although our outreach programme is tailored to the restrictive prison environment, the application of its core principles are fundamental Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) practices that can be applied to university-level teaching and supervision. Here, we outline the choices we have made in prison education to increase educational engagement for those within the neurodivergent umbrella – and how these choices can map onto university teaching to widen participation for STEM students. Specifically, we will describe our university campus work in a few key areas: creating relatable science content for our geoscience student body, giving students a voice in their education, adding reflection activities, and fostering a classroom environment that is inclusive and accessible to all. Finally, we welcome an open discussion on potential best inclusive practices in the geosciences.

How to cite: Heron, P., Osowski, K., Crameri, F., and Williams, J.: Adventures in (geo)science communication: mapping outreach practices into university classrooms, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-7405, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-7405, 2025.

AGROECOLOGY, the European Partnership "Accelerating Farming Systems Transition: Agroecology Living Labs and Research Infrastructures," is a significant European research and innovation initiative involving the European Commission and 26 Member States, Associated Countries, and Third Countries, with a total of 72 partner organizations. The goal of AGROECOLOGY is to assist the agricultural sector in addressing the challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss, food security and sovereignty, and environmental sustainability, while ensuring agriculture remains profitable, sustainable, and attractive to farmers.

Transforming the agricultural sector to meet societal and policy demands requires bold and systemic changes. AGROECOLOGY fosters for solutions that leverage natural and biological processes, blending state-of-the-art science, technology, and innovation with farmers' knowledge. By pooling resources from the European Commission and the involved member states and regions, the Partnership funds high-level research in Living Labs and Research Infrastructures, co-creating relevant knowledge and technologies aligned with the priorities of the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda for the Farming System Transition.

To support these efforts, a range of activities is being implemented to inform, engage, and empower stakeholders. These activities aim to enhance capacities, raise awareness, and facilitate the exchange of knowledge and data. A key element of this effort is the Conversations on Agroecology which serve as foundational steps to strengthen agricultural knowledge and innovation systems (AKIS) for agroecology. These conversations foster collaboration and connections between Living Labs, Research Infrastructures and stakeholders across Europe.

The online Conversations on Agroecology are held monthly throughout the Partnership, enabling the mobilization and networking of agroecology actors in Europe and beyond. In 2024, six online conversations were organized on various themes, such as the role of AKIS for agroecology, agroecological transition, and the power of networks for agroecology. Through these monthly conversations, AGROECOLOGY engages diverse groups of actors, ensuring involvement of institutional AKIS actors, farmers, and farming networks to ensure inclusive participation and drive progress toward sustainable food systems by 2030.

How to cite: Sandén, T., Fohrafellner, J., Pires da Silva, A., and Brites, C.: Empowering Stakeholders to Drive Farming System Transition: Conversations on Agroecology, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-9684, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-9684, 2025.

The popularity and use of Participatory or Citizen Science (CS) in scientific research has increased over the recent years, and the literature reports that CS can promote positive change; enhance public knowledge, understanding, and awareness of environmental issues; and amplify conservation efforts.

Accessibility to polar regions is limited and expensive.  With resources from other traditional platforms (i.e. research vessels and funding) decreasing, research institutions are looking at alternatives that involve partnering with the private sector tourism as a ‘crowdsourcing’ data collection option, with the added benefit of passenger participation and education. CS monitoring is a cost-effective alternative for greater spatial and/or temporal coverage, including geographical areas that remain under-researched. 

HX’s Science & Education Program focuses on broadening guests’ understanding of the polar regions and ecosystems, as well as the impacts of climate change. Our guests become active participants in data collection through an immersive educational onboard program and on-site interaction with researchers. During 2024 we allocated over 1900 cruise nights to welcome 80+ researchers from collaborating institutions on our vessels and our guests contributed more than 30,000 data submissions to over 20 different CS projects globally.

To better understand this potential and to evaluate the longer-term effect of participation in CS and science related activities on guests, HX carried out a research project in partnership with UTAS during 2022 and 2023. Results from semi-structured interviews with over 70 guests on three HX vessels suggest that guests saw CS, and the Science & Education program more generally, as a core part of their experience, and many returned with a heightened sense of the fragility of the region.

However, and as an example, HX represents approximately 8% of the Antarctic expedition cruising tourism. The full potential for future partnerships to tap into these vast resources as an industry is yet to be realized.

How to cite: Meraldi, V., Hess, C., Stainton, H., Evans, H., Leane, E., and Hardy, A.: The untapped potential of Citizen Science to support research in the polar regions while educating captive audiences on board expedition cruise vessels., EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-11418, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-11418, 2025.

Most people in Irish society, when asked, “Do we experience earthquakes in Ireland?” would likely answer, “No we don’t”. However, this is incorrect – earthquakes do occur in Ireland and are occasionally felt. This misconception is understandable as Ireland is not located near the edge of a plate boundary and the earthquakes we experience tend to be of very low magnitude (M2.5 is the largest onshore Irish earthquake recorded so far). As a result, earthquakes are not a regular thought for the population of Ireland. We aim to raise awareness on this topic.

The QuakeShake programme has these main aims:

• Encourage Irish society to consider seismic activity and monitor seismic events both locally and globally and thereby develop an integrated community of citizen seismologists throughout Ireland.
• Provide teaching resources for educators and school students.
• Inspire interest in Physical and Earth Sciences at tertiary levels.
• Support the government’s STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering Art and Mathematics) initiative.
• Foster a closer relationship between researchers and citizens.
• Gather and share seismic data to support scientific research in various seismological fields.

The programme is managed by the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS) and co-funded by DIAS, Geological Survey Ireland (GSI), and Research Ireland. QuakeShake functions as the outreach programme for the Irish National Seismic Network (INSN), the national earthquake monitoring body in Ireland. It supports and promotes the monitoring efforts of the INSN.

QuakeShake is facilitating the operation of affordable seismometers, known as Raspberry Shakes, in schools, homes, and public institutions. These compact, professional grade seismometers require only power and internet connectivity to operate. In 2024, QuakeShake distributed seismometers via public raffle and workshops for teachers and the public. In 2025, the aim is to distribute even more Raspberry Shake devices and encourage the public and schools to acquire their own units. 

At EGU 2025 we will showcase the programmes development, aimed at educating people from all backgrounds in Ireland about both Irish and Global earthquakes. We will illustrate how QuakeShake is actively building a community of citizen seismologists across Ireland.

How to cite: Reilly, L., Möllhoff, M., Bean, C., Power, S., Collins, L., Smith, P., Grannell, J., Mohamed, H., Smithers, E., and Grange, P.: Current progress of the QuakeShake outreach programme. How are earthquakes being brought to the attention of Irish society?, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-12106, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-12106, 2025.

How to cite: Alonso, A., Prieto, D., García-Hernández, R., Afonso, D., de los Rios, H., D’Auria, L., and Pérez, N. M.: GUAYOTA: a weekly multi-language chart information on the seismo-volcanic activity in the Canary Islands , EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-12352, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-12352, 2025.

Rainfall is very commonly experienced by most people, often seen as a constraint. Anyway, usually people are not really paying attention to it, being too busy with their daily life. As rainfall and hydrology scientists, we aim to reach out to the general public to increase knowledge in an area of widespread misinformation. More importantly, we aim to enhance curiosity and awareness of people in their geophysical environment. In order to contribute to this much needed efforts, we designed and implemented a series of multisensory experiences centered on rainfall with three purpose in mind: i) Actively engage people on geoscience topics by pushing them to pay attention to their environment ; ii) Create a simple and pleasant moment for people enabling to focus on geophysical environment. iii) Create some new knowledge on rainfall for them. With regards to the latter point, the involvement of one’s senses is a great tool to facilitate memorization.

The experiences are simple and do not require any material, apart from an available mind and some rainfall. Three examples are feeling the drops and their sizes on the hand or face while walking; listening to the rain falling on something (tent, umbrella, sheet of metal…); looking at the rain falling near a lamppost at night. Each experience has a simple take home message. The first one is related to the various sizes of drops, the second one to the temporal variability of rainfall, while the third one enables to notice the temporal variability of both rainfall and wind. 

The process is designed as follows. A short description of the suggested experience is given to people. Once they have implemented them, they are asked to fill a rather open/free form to report their sensations and findings. After they are given some explanations on the take home messages we originally had in mind, which does not necessarily match their own feeling. If they are interested in doing it again, they are invited to provide new sets of feedback. 

In a first step, the whole process was tested with 10-15 people with various backgrounds and who have no expertise in rainfall. Results of this preliminary implementation will be presented in this poster. They are used to tune the process, i.e. the experiences, the short description and also the explanations of the take home message. In future investigations, it will be implemented with a larger number of people to obtain more quantitative and robust results.

How to cite: Gires, A. and Dallan, E.: Increasing awareness on geophysical environment: a multi-sensory experience of rainfall, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-13449, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-13449, 2025.

Geoscience plays a vital role in shaping our sustainable future, yet the discipline is at a critical crossroads. Declining student enrolments, reduced course offerings, and the closure of university departments threaten its survival. Key challenges include public perceptions of geoscience and associated industries, its lack of visibility in school curricula, outdated branding and stereotypes, and issues related to diversity and inclusion. As students increasingly seek altruistic, sustainability-focused careers, geoscience must respond rapidly or risk further decline. A more strategic, impact-driven approach to geoscience communication is essential to address the discipline’s struggling brand image. This presentation takes you behind the scenes of the Earth Futures Festival, an international geoscience film and video festival. The festival bridges the arts and sciences to demonstrate how geoscience, combined with long-standing cultural knowledge of the Earth, offers solutions to pressing global challenges. We will explore the impact-focused approach underpinning the festival’s design, including forging value-aligned partnerships, providing communication skills training for geoscientists, and amplifying the visibility of typically underrepresented groups. This talk will provide a step-by-step practical guide to illustrate how impact-focused design can be effectively applied to geoscience communication and outreach.

How to cite: Handley, H.: An impact-driven approach to geoscience communication, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-13520, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-13520, 2025.

Podcasting about science is thriving.  In the Earth sciences alone, there are at least 15 podcasts.  How do such podcasts fit within the ecosystem of informal science education alongside museums, field trips and other resources?  Can podcasts convey the core results of present-day research without sacrificing their essence and subtlety?  Are researchers willing to make time to contribute to podcasts?  Who is listening to these podcasts and what are they seeking from them?  Does AI-enabled translation and transcription help reach listeners from hitherto less well-served geographies?  The presentation will address such questions and use examples from Geology Bites and other podcasts. 

How to cite: Strimpel, O.: Using podcasts to disseminate the essence and excitement of scientific research, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-13862, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-13862, 2025.

In the wake of disasters, storytelling can function as a means for collective sensemaking, trauma recovery, and community-centered knowledge co-production. Through the practice of listening and the medium of voice, audio stories can convey culturally specific knowledge that engages emotions while fostering dialogic thinking on complex topics. Here, we detail our experience in research and producing a public-facing audio story series about communities facing displacement and loss from water-related disasters. First, we traveled in 2023 to communities in the central Philippines devastated by 2013’s Super Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda), one of the deadliest and strongest storms to make landfall in modern history. We conducted field interviews with Haiyan survivors and responders, local policymakers, practitioners, and researchers in the months leading up to the tenth-year commemoration of the storm. Their narratives allowed us to ground discourses about learning from disaster in mass media and academic research—discourses that we examined via a computational analysis of over 15,000 newspaper articles and 300 academic abstracts on Haiyan. The second story series explores perspectives on climate retreat in the wake of floods and increasing flood risks in New Jersey. This series centers the voices of homeowners considering property buyouts through a state program, local officials, as well as scientists who are documenting the social and physical impacts of more intense flooding and sea level rise in real time. Titled Carried by Water and produced by Princeton’s Blue Lab, these interrelated series anchor academic framings of disaster in lived experience and first-person narratives. The project does so to shed light on long-term recovery, learning processes applied to everyday decision-making, and diverse understandings of disasters, home, agency, risk, and climate resilience.

How to cite: Soriano, M., Maxwell, R., and Carruth, A.: Audio narratives of long-term disaster recovery and climate change adaptation, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-14045, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-14045, 2025.

The International Geological Congress (IGC) 2028 is returning to Canada, after an absence of over 50 years (1972, Montreal). Hosted in Calgary, Alberta, this will mark the first IGC to be held in western North America. We look forward to showcasing our “Gorgeous Geology” and “Legendary Landscapes” with the world’s geoscience community. Field trip opportunities include the Mohorovic discontinuity and glacial fjords in UNESCO World Heritage Site (UWHS) Gros Morne National Park (Newfoundland), the Carboniferous Forests at UWHS Joggins Fossil Cliffs (Nova Scotia), the Logan Line separating the Appalachians from the Grenville Province of the Canadian Shield in UWHS Quebec City (Quebec), the Cretaceous Dinosaur fossil beds at UWHS Dinosaur Provincial Park (Alberta), and evidence for the Cambrian Explosion of Life in the Burgess Shale surrounded by glaciers across the UWHS Rocky Mountain Parks (Alberta/British Columbia). Potential Indigenous cultural day trips from Calgary include Blackfoot Crossing, UWHS Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, and UWHS Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park, also known as the “Blackfoot Archives” because of the thousands of pictographs throughout the park.

Here we report on the overall communications plan, starting with phase one leading into IGC 2024 in which a powerful social media presence became the potential game-changer to connect with the target audiences such as the national and global geoscience community, as well as the general public. This connection built brand awareness while unearthing enthusiasm for the destination and program. Stage one for the social media campaign involved a recent three-month social media campaign with daily bilingual postings on Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn and YouTube. Social media was important for achieving the goals of: i) promoting Canadian geosciences, ii) highlighting the conference tagline “Geosciences for Humanity” and iii) building awareness about the Canadian bid. During IGC 2024 the social media team also promoted the events that happened at the Canadian Booth and Reception, reflecting Calgary’s renowned hospitality such as the White Hat Ceremony swearing in 30 IGC delegates as honorary Calgarians. This strategy united the international geoscience community, emphasizing the collaborative spirit that we aim to foster for IGC 2028.

The stage two of the social media (post-bid) campaign started at the end of 2024. Weekly themes promote Indigenous and geotourism offerings across Canada, with three weekly postings to showcase content. After winning the bid to host IGC 2028, interest from the local media was sparked after a press release led by the University of Calgary framing this as the “Olympics of the Geosciences”. Co-chairs Boggs and Eaton were interviewed on TV and Radio. Further press releases will follow in upcoming years to profile plenary speakers and advertise the Keynote Daily Themes (KDT) to local public schools and universities across Canada. KDTs such as “Space and Planetary Geosciences” will springboard off the Artemis II Mission which will be circumnavigating the moon in 2025 with Canadian Astronaut Jeremy Hansen onboard.

How to cite: Boggs, K., Dubois Gafar, A., Eaton, D., Navarro, L., Demorcy, J., Bley, H., Rojas Parra, J., and Carlisle, R.: Promoting Geosciences: Effective Communication Strategies for the International Geological Congress (IGC) 2028 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada., EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-14200, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-14200, 2025.

Engaging the community with geosciences has always been a big challenge for geoscientists. It has become increasingly important in the face of widespread misinformation on social media. To address this, the “Talk2Geo: Hablemos de Geociencias (Let’s talk about geoscience)” project was created to bridge the gap between geoscientists and the general public in an informal and approachable setting, where people don’t feel afraid or ashamed to asks questions.

We dropped the traditional structure of the academia and took researchers from the Universidad de Concepción away from the university, to a local restobar. There, through the course of the first semester of 2024, we organized six conservatories. Scientist were asked to present a brief introduction to their research topic in a non-scientific, everyday language. The audience was encouraged to ask questions and engage in discussions throughout the talks. These interactions often guided the development of the topics, fostering an open and dynamic dialogue. The addressed themes were stratigraphy, hydrothermal waters, volcanoes, field geology, earthquakes and landslides.

The talks had a great reception from the public, who participated actively and asked abundant questions. We compiled these questions and general topics of interest about each of the themes and presented the results to academics at the university, not only to bring sciences to the public but to also bring peoples interests to academics, hoping to have an impact in the development of future research topics.

How to cite: Cabello, C., Leal, D., and Riedel-Hornig, M.: Talk2Geo: Hablemos de Geociencias, a geoscience outreach project, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-14325, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-14325, 2025.

An Exploration of Co-creation Through the Memory of Darkness, Light, and Ice discusses a successful co-creation of a film project with sicentsits and film professionals from Europe and the US. The resulting film,The Memory of Darkness, Light, and Ice is about the science of how a long-lost sediment core reveals crucial clues about the disappearance of the Greenland Ice Sheet and global sea level rise. Scientists find the sediment from a secret sub-ice US Milirary Cold War base in the Arctic holding clues to the stability of the Greenland Ice Sheet and completely transforming our understanding of ice sheet collapse. The film was an enormous undertaking to follow the science across nine laboratories in the US and Europe and highlights some of the most remote locations in Greenland. The E&O generated not only important outreach for science, but also built on practical and theoretical research within film. The collaborative academic model built the E&O team within the science team rather than as an ad hoc external team. This approach developed an atmosphere of co-creation. During this presentation, Kasic will sceen excerpts of the film and will be availabe to discuss the combined traditional and non-traditional approaches the project took to E&O, from conception to completion. 

Here is a private link to the film in its entirety:

The Memory of Darkness, Light, and Ice

Link to trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukf54a6ZRW0

Full Film available for screening upon request.

How to cite: Kasic, K.: An Exploration of Co-creation Through the Memory of Darkness, Light, and Ice, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-14662, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-14662, 2025.

How do soil scientists perceive and experience soils? They use a wide variety of devices and tools, such as microscopes, laboratory equipment and field campaigns, and they summarize their knowledge through publications, graphs, and tables. Approaching soils with this academic perspective is likely to cause scientists to have different relationships with soils than people without soil science training. Humans have relationships with soils, and in addition to the science-based ones, these relationships can be personal, artistic, cultural, sensorial and more. Clearly, soils matter at many levels since people and communities can feel a deep connection with the soil of their homeland, as a source of identity, sustenance and a sense of place and belonging. What we proposed during the Wageningen Soil Conference 2023 was to let soil scientists discover the diversity in ways that soils can be experienced and perceived so to facilitate a positive transformation on how do we do soil science. During these event we took participants beyond the scientific perspective in an informal and relaxed space where we engaged with soils in unexpected and creative ways. Seventeen ‘stations’ were dedicated to experiencing colors, smells, tastes, textures, sounds, visuals, emotions and feelings peculiar to soils. Each station was organized by either a scientist or an artist that was present to encourage discussions, conversations and sharing of stories to inspire to experience new soil perspectives. One of the goals of this exercise was to expand (transform) the, often narrow, view of soil scientists on soils and let them discover other dimensions which can allow them to better connect with society and inspire them to share their work and knowledge about soil. This event was just the beginning of our collaboration towards experiencing soil perspectives and more events using the same or a similar format for different stakeholder groups (non-soil scientist, general public) were organized. During the conference we will share our concept, experiences and reflection with a broader group of soil scientists also reflecting about the experiences derived from the course ‘Transformative soil science’ hold in November 2024. The course was grounded in transdisciplinary perspectives from natural and social sciences and the humanities, and helped early-career scientists to understand their own perspectives on soil, and how to connect with other perspectives in an integral way of knowledge generation that contributes to meaningful transformations.

How to cite: Bongiorno, G., Stomph, D., Wiersma, W., and Student, J.: Experiencing soil perspectives – an interdisciplinary approach to transform soil science, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-15176, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-15176, 2025.

Soil health plays a crucial role in ecosystem functioning and is closely linked to human life. However, land and soil degradation are widespread due to environmental and anthropogenic threats. Soil knowledge is essential to address modern global challenges. Despite the important role of soils, they are often underappreciated by the general population, highlighting the need to raise soil awareness. The EU project CURIOSOIL (2024-2028, co-funded by the European Union: URL: curiosoil.eu) therefore aims at raising soil literacy and promoting a positive narrative around soils. CURIOSOIL focuses on enhancing soil literacy by triggering soil curiosity and connections between society and soil. According to the EU Mission Soil Implementation plan, soil literacy refers to both awareness about the importance of soil and practice-oriented knowledge related to achieving soil health. Soil literacy and education are crucial to environmental sustainability and the future of societies.

With this poster contribution, we seek to explore to what extent university students and scientists at EGU are willing to reflect on their own attitudes and behaviors toward soils using a participatory approach. We hypothesize that participating in discussions and reflection exercises about soil helps to increase awareness, spark curiosity, and encourage action to solve soil-related issues. We therefore invite conference participants to actively engage with us through our participatory poster. The participants are invited to answer targeted questions, write down and display their reflections directly on the poster, via post-its and/or via a digital survey. These questions are aligned with learning objectives and competences of soil literacy related to knowledge, attitudes and behavior towards soil.  All collected information will be anonymized to ensure privacy and confidentiality. To the best of our knowledge, this participatory approach is new to soil science as usually data are presented and not collected during a soil science conference. We therefore also aim to introduce the participatory poster as a research tool for data collection. Additionally, it serves as a communication instrument to encourage reflection on individual perspectives towards soil and promote an active role of raising soil awareness in society.

Specifically, our objectives are to: 1) collaboratively (the presenter and conference participants together) reflect on our knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors including emotions and habits related to soils, 2) discuss factors that influence our connection with soils (or lack thereof), 3) brainstorm on ways to create formal and informal environments that improve awareness, curiosity and learning about soils. Our findings will be used to design CURIOSOIL educational materials that will be made available for free on the project website (curiosoil.eu).

In summary, we believe that our participatory approach can enhance soil awareness, curiosity and learning. We intend to bridge the gap between society and soils to encourage careful and sustainable soil use and protect soil health. Moreover, our participatory approach is designed to engage scientists, foster multidisciplinary collaborations between social and natural scientists towards co-creation of educational materials, as well as to contribute meaningfully to natural science research.

How to cite: Huber, S., Gruselle, M.-C., Keiblinger, K., Lubbers, I., Rodrigues, S., Ugstad, H., Stolte, J., Taghizadeh Kerman, N., Bøe, F., and Fischer, F.: CURIOSOIL: Join us to raise awareness and curiosity about soils!, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-15618, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-15618, 2025.

Inter- and transdisciplinary projects often face the challenge of becoming scattered, due to the challenges of communication, collaboration and data integration. While co-design and close collaboration between all involved actors have been widely recommended to address congruence and representativity of all disciplines on the results and reports, inter- and transdisciplinary research often lacks platforms where these practices can be effectively carried out. The Einstein Research Unit “Climate and Water under Change” (CliWaC) investigated water-related issues in the Berlin-Brandenburg region, Germany, from diverse perspectives of more than 20 individual research groups across a wide range of disciplines - thus making it a perfect case for researching integration tools. By the end of the three-year project, we have developed a knowledge-based interactive data platform called the CliWaC Explorer, that can address the abovementioned issues and present research results and products in a coherent whole.

The CliWaC Explorer is designed as a multi-purpose tool: as a data-exploration platform for researchers studying water-related issues in the region, as a decision support tool for stakeholders and as an education and outreach tool for the wider public. One of the biggest challenges was to appeal to both a natural and a social science user base. We achieved this by allowing the users to both navigate topics spatially, as commonly done in map-based natural sciences or in a thematic plane, where project parts are organized according to their thematic relationships. The explorer has been developed with close collaboration of the project partners, and currently being further developed with a series of workshops, to be accessible by a wider user base including stakeholders and educators. We believe our platform could provide a template of how interdisciplinary research can be integrated, and how its results can be communicated to a wider audience.

How to cite: Somogyvári, M., Brill, F., Alencar, P. H. L., Fischer, J., and Sauter, T.: Integrating the results of an interdisciplinary project over social and natural sciences: the Cliwac Explorer, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-16949, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-16949, 2025.

Ecotourism and rural tourism are pivotal activities for generating substantial income, supporting rural economies, and fostering a deeper understanding of land and soil resources in various regions, particularly in inland areas. Recognizing their significance, the United Nations has included these activities in the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (specifically SDG 8.9 and SDG 12), aiming for their accomplishment by 2030. While digital tourism has experienced remarkable growth recently, its focus largely remains on well-known tourist destinations.

This study highlight the potential of a geospatial decision support system (S-DSS) built on a publicly accessible, web-based geospatial cyberinfrastructure (GCI). This system offers a practical and effective tool to enhance tourism opportunities in less-visited inland areas promoting a greater appreciation of soil and land environmental resources.

The S-DSS platform is designed to facilitate the collection, management, processing, and analysis of both static (e.g., information on soil and geology) and dynamic data (e.g., climatic data). It also features advanced data visualization and on-the-fly computational tools, catering to a diverse user base that includes farmers, tourism operators, associations, and public institutions.

The S-DSS tool known as EcoSmarTour operates across the entirety of Italy, providing extensive information, including detailed soil information, to expand territorial knowledge. It supports scenario analysis, map generation, and the assessment of potential trails or ecotourism hotspots. Also, through the use of artificial intelligence, EcoSmarTour can generate text-based narratives of selected routes, tailored to the user’s preferences. This functionality enables the creation of customized storytelling for various audiences, from children and teenagers to adults and experts.

How to cite: Mileti, F. A., Tatone, M., Terribile, F., and Blazica, B.: A Smart Platform for Enhancing Soil and Land Awareness in Italy, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-17396, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-17396, 2025.

“In the end, we will conserve only what we love; we will love only what we understand; and we will understand only what we are taught.” These words by forestry engineer Baba Dioum in 1968 reflect, how the relationship between people and forests has intensified over recent decades, a development that has significantly contributed to forest conservation. Unlike trees, esthetical and vital soils are rarely exposed for people to see, understand, or appreciate, making it harder to foster a connection to them.

The EU project SOILSCAPE (Spreading Open and Inclusive Literacy and Soil Culture through Artistic Practices and Education) aims to bring soils closer to the public. Alongside modern communication methods, the project places a strong emphasis on artistic approaches to promote awareness, understanding, and love for soils in their context.

In a first step towards this goal, current narratives were analyzed through a media study that examined coverage in newspapers, television, podcasts, and social networks. Thereby, the guiding questions were: What knowledge and opinions are there? Which imaginations and associations regarding soils do we find in society - and of whom? For exploring these questions, we conducted a survey using a verbal and visual questionnaire and follow-up expert interviews. Our analysis aimed at assessing dominant soil narratives and their potential impacts, and at preparing effective strategies to strengthen connections between people and soils, including cultural and artistic approaches. Thereby, we addressed societal narratives, imaginaries, and values related to soils, particularly focusing their perception and communication. The media research, questionnaire-based survey, and expert interviews were conducted in eight European countries: Bulgaria, Germany, Finland, France, Italy, Poland, Portugal, and Switzerland. The study yielded almost 100 datasets from the media analysis, 435 complete responses from the visual-based questionnaire, and 24 expert interviews, providing a robust foundation for understanding how soils are perceived and how soil awareness in the European public can be more effectively enhanced.

Our results from the media research show that soils are mostly not in the focus of media, but rather treated as functional elements in discussions related to agriculture, climate change, and urbanization. People tend to perceive soils indirectly, through their use and significance in these broader contexts. Perception of soils varies widely depending on region and prior knowledge. Around 40% of participants felt that soils in their region are in poor condition, while another 40% were unsure. Primary threats to soil that were named by people included agriculture, forestry, biodiversity loss, and climate change.

These outcomes of this study point to a gap between implicit and explicit awareness of soil-related challenges. While artistic and educational approaches seem most promising in bridging this gap, the results of our study highlight the urgent need for targeted communication strategies to raise the awareness of soils and make them a topic of societal concern. Only by fostering a deeper public understanding, a stronger connection to and protection of this critical resource can be achieved.

How to cite: Sauer, D., Schwindt, D., Patzel, N., Luis Lucas, F., Raous, S., Bampa, F., Mellanen, L., and Melkas, H. and the SOILSCAPE Team: Soils in Society: Digging into Narratives and Perceptions for a Deeper Understanding, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-18051, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-18051, 2025.

Climate change has led to an increase in permafrost warming and thaw at global scale. Land surface changes associated with permafrost thaw include the acceleration of Arctic coastal erosion, increased thaw slumping in ice-rich regions, the drainage and formation of lakes, as well as an intensification of other disturbances, such as forest and tundra fires and droughts. Thermo-erosion threatens infrastructure and leads to gullying, slumping, and even landslides. To detect and map such permafrost disturbances at high spatial resolution across large regions and to quantify land surface change, remote sensing analyses can be applied. In the ERC PETA-CARB, ESA CCI Permafrost, and NSF Permafrost Discovery Gateway projects, a pan-arctic 20-years time series of land surface disturbance trends was produced using Landsat TM, ETM+, and OLI imagery. The dataset presents a valuable source of information for Arctic communities, planners, stakeholders, and rights holders. Arctic communities living on frozen ground are increasingly forced to adapt their livelihoods to permafrost thaw. In some areas, the relocation of settlements has become the last resort and is already actively planned for several communities in Alaska.

To make the large landscape change dataset more easily accessible to non-specialist audiences, within the EU Arctic PASSION project, we designed a new web-based portal tailored towards such audiences and the sometimes limited internet bandwidths encountered in Arctic communities. The Arctic Landscape EXplorer (ALEX, https://alex.awi.de) was launched in early 2024 and provides interactive maps displaying recent information on land surface changes, hot spots of disturbances, and potential areas of active permafrost thaw and erosion. While focusing on the local to regional scale relevant for private users, regional, and state-level decision makers, exploring the data up to the pan-arctic scale may open new avenues for understanding permafrost change for the general public. A new release of ALEX in early 2025 will provide several new features. On the portal's home page, a new section will highlight selected locations in the Arctic with extraordinary land surface changes, accompanied by contextual information. On the map, users will be able to easily compare the change data with satellite imagery and other reference maps using a swipe and fade toolbox. Sharing specific map views will also be enabled. A second story map focusing on shore erosion explains geophysical processes and the role of permafrost.

Consultations with local representatives and stakeholders in Alaska, requests from members of governmental and tribal entities to reuse our data, and inquiries from research partners in the Arctic confirm that our transfer efforts have met real needs. This positive feedback encourages us to continue updating the tool beyond the end of the Arctic PASSION project.

How to cite: Lübker, T., Nitze, I., Laboor, S., Irrgang, A., Lantuit, H., and Grosse, G.: Communicating remotely sensed pan-arctic permafrost land surface changes to non-specialist audiences with the Arctic Landscape EXplorer (ALEX), EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-18409, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-18409, 2025.

Climate adaptation action is increasingly both local and urgent. Reasons for including citizen and community voices in decision-making range from securing climate justice to generating more apt solutions and increasing public acceptance of interventions. More broadly, attempts to rebuild public trust in democracy and public institutions has led to a surge in citizen engagement initiatives for decision making in a whole range of subjects.

This confluence of trends has generated an ever-growing knowledge and experience base and countless publications that call for citizen engagement in climate change adaptation efforts, provide best practices for citizen engagement, and occasionally both. However, the enormous breadth of the intended audiences means that in almost all cases, these best practice guides focus on citizen engagement in general.

As part of the Adaptation AGORA project – a 3-year Mission Adaptation project that brings together researchers and practitioners from 12 institutes from across Europe – we have spent two years mapping European adaptation-related citizen engagement initiatives ( CEIs), interviewing experts across the CEI value chain and carrying out interactive workshops in attempt to identify best practices. The variety of adaptation contexts and wide range of possible (positive and negative) outcomes and impacts from CEIs pushed us beyond only looking for universal good practices to also consider those that lead to specific outcomes, like generating more just decisions, being tailored to the local settings in which they apply, promoting mutual learning, or producing improved collaboration.

We find that choices taken when designing initiatives are key to the achievement of different goals. Some general good practices can almost universally be applied, like setting a clear objective, and ensuring effective communication before, during and after the initiative. However, beyond these straightforward observations, the variety of primary and secondary objectives (awareness raising, allocating public resources, generating ideas, creating guidelines, forming long-term plans etc.) and the myriad of contextual factors (scale, scope, location, resources, familiarity with citizen engagement etc.) frustrate identifying the best practices to pursue among a surfeit of potential actions. Essentially, what is often missing from existing best-practice guides is a framework to prioritise what can be achieved with limited resources to meet the identified goals. Indeed, the relative merit of different practices in achieving different goals is well understood only by a few seasoned experts, and frequently a challenge to communicate.

Hoping to facilitate discussion and the exchange of different perspectives, we propose a serious game, Citi-Adapt, that seeks to visibilise the trade offs and push collaborative teams to collectively seek better design choices in the pursuit of different goals in unique contexts. Citi-Adapt allows us to add in different constraints, to situate CEIs in different contexts, and for different actors to walk in each other's shoes. It can be played in two ways – 1) exploring the types of resources required to achieve certain goals; and 2) identifying possible outcomes based on available resources – and we would be delighted to present it and hear your thoughts as we move to building a prototype.

How to cite: Pickard, S. and Baulenas, E.: Citi-Adapt: Communicating design decisions for citizen engagement in climate adaptation action via a serious game, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-18809, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-18809, 2025.

This study investigates the co-production and science communication efforts surrounding the use of storm-resolving Earth system models (SR-ESMs) to support the renewable energy transition. The models were developed under the Horizon Europe EU-funded project Next Generation of Earth System Models (NextGEMS) in the course of 3,5 years. 

By engaging in participatory workshops with stakeholders from the energy sector—including policymakers, energy providers, and civil society—we co-created scenario storylines that integrate the km-scale climate model outputs with socio-political narratives. These workshops served as a platform for dialogue, enabling the communication of complex scientific findings in a manner accessible to non-specialist audiences, and also exploring the way in which SR-ESMs can move forward to support key societal challenges such as the energy transition.

The co-production process and communication strategy were informed by exploring stakeholder perspectives and preferences, which helped design the scenarios that could be later on represented by the SR-ESMs. Specifically, the use of discourse-analytical methods helped identify key narratives that resonate with different audience segments, ensuring the models' outputs are framed in ways that address socio-environmental concerns, such as the public acceptance of renewable energy technologies.

Our communication efforts revealed several lessons: the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration, the value of iterative engagement with stakeholders, and the need for flexible strategies that adapt to evolving audience needs. These insights contribute to best practices in science communication, emphasizing the role of co-production in making scientific information actionable and impactful for policy and societal change.

How to cite: Baulenas, E., Bojovic, D., Veerman, M., Dolores-Tesillos, E., Lacima-Nadolnik, A., Haslehner, K., Kumar, A., Delgado-Torres, C., and Soret, A.: Storm-Resolving Earth System Models to Support Renewable Energy Transitions: mixing storyline methodologies to bridge science and society, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-19249, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-19249, 2025.

Soil plays a fundamental role in terrestrial ecosystems, acting as a medium for plants and other organisms while supporting all terrestrial life by providing essential conditions for growth and development. Despite its critical importance, the role of soil is often undervalued. The CURIOSOIL project aims to ignite curiosity about soils, enhance soil literacy, and foster meaningful connections between people and soil. CURIOSOIL focuses on improving soil education, addressing the pressing need for a stronger connection with soil amidst increasing human pressures on this vital resource. The project seeks to bridge gaps in soil knowledge among pupils, students, teachers, citizens, policymakers, and practitioners, thereby addressing soil illiteracy, a significant barrier to sustainable soil use. A key part of CURIOSOIL is the development of the Soil Literacy Assessment Framework (SLAF) for five target groups: primary education, secondary education, tertiary education, teachers, and lifelong learners. To achieve this, we identified the core main domains and subdomains of soil literacy in consultation with soil experts and stakeholders in soil education and lifelong learning. Four main domains have been defined: soil diversity, soil services, soil threats, and soil solutions.

This study prioritized these main domains and subdomains for designing a valid soil literacy assessment framework (SLAF) in diverse target groups. Furthermore, understanding the relative importance of these main domains (and subdomains) enables educators and policymakers to focus on the most impactful areas, ensuring that soil education efforts address the unique needs of both children and adults. By establishing these priorities, resources can be allocated efficiently, and targeted educational activities can be developed to enhance soil awareness and literacy. In this study, we employed the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) to prioritize soil literacy's main domains and subdomains for SLAF. AHP is a widely recognized method that provides a systematic framework for pairwise comparisons of variables, enabling a detailed evaluation of their relative importance. Using this approach, soil experts, researchers, and educators assessed the significance of various domains for children and subdomains for adults, yielding valuable insights into the main domains and subdomains priorities.

The AHP analysis was facilitated by specialized software, such as Expert Choice. This study demonstrated its utility in designing an assessment framework and prioritizing the main domains and subdomains of soil literacy for diverse target groups. By utilizing the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) in this study, soil experts contributed valuable insights into the prioritization of soil literacy the main domains and subdomains for designing valid questionnaires. This input ensures that the resulting assessment framework and educational activities are scientifically robust and practically applicable.

Keywords: Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), CURIOSOIL, environmental education, Soil Literacy Assessment Framework (SLAF), sustainability

How to cite: Lubbers, I., Taghizadeh Kerman, N., Morias Rodrigues, S., and Noroozi, O.: Prioritizing Soil Literacy: An AHP-Based Approach, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-19274, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-19274, 2025.

The University Partnership for Atmospheric Sciences (UPAS) is a collaborative initiative among ten German universities offering Bachelor's and Master's programs in meteorology. Supported by an executive office at the University of Bonn, UPAS aims to enhance meteorological education and research in Germany by focusing on four key areas:

• Attracting qualified students
• Providing excellent education
• Fostering synergies for successful science
• Engaging in societal and community outreach

A significant component of UPAS is its dedication to advancing science communication and public engagement within meteorology. This commitment is exemplified through initiatives such as MeteoXchange, an international network fostering professional growth among early-career scientists via annual virtual conferences and specialized workshops designed to enhance presentation and communication skills. Additional efforts include interactive science slamming workshops, hands-on climate change experiment demonstrations for classrooms across Germany, the development of a dedicated podcast, and the creation of high-quality Open Educational Resources (OER). These activities not only elevate internal training but also bridge the gap between scientific research and societal understanding, amplifying the impact of meteorology on diverse audiences.

This presentation will highlight UPAS's achievements, providing an overview of our approaches to enhance education, research and outreach in meteorology. We will also discuss challenges encountered and share lessons learned, including strategies for overcoming hurdles and successfully leveraging synergies among our partner institutions. We are more than keen to invite collaboration and idea exchange with other geoscientific networks sharing similar objectives, in particular on the international level.

How to cite: Thiele-Eich, I., Arimond, E., and Uebachs, A.: University Partnership for Armospheric Sciences (UPAS): a joint effort in communicating meteorology , EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-20089, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-20089, 2025.

Scientific research is often inaccessible to non-academic audiences, even when it is publicly funded or conducted in their local area. Bridging this gap is essential to promote public understanding and inspire future geoscientists.

This study presents a small-scale science communication project developed as part of a Master's thesis and implemented in a rural Austrian community within the Hohe Tauern National Park. The initiative involved two local school classes and the general public through interactive activities and workshops. An open lecture on regional geology, given by young scientists from the University of Innsbruck, introduced the project to the wider community. The following day, school classes took part in field workshops led by scientists and National Park rangers on topics such as regional geology, tectonics, ore mining, geoarchaeology, alpine farming and local fauna. Hands-on, outdoor activities proved to be an effective and easy-to-implement tool for geoscience engagement and received positive feedback during this project.

Feedback indicated an increased interest and understanding of geoscience topics among participants. This study highlights how small-scale, low-cost projects can effectively engage local communities and stimulate interest in geoscience. Such efforts are critical to making science communication accessible and replicable for future researchers.

How to cite: Gatt, T., Sieberer, A.-K., Westreicher, F., Mattersberger, M., and Zeiner, S.: Communicating geoscience to the public: insights from an early career scientist, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-20316, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-20316, 2025.

Tales from Mednight – Junior Edition is an enchanting collection of stories created to inspire children under 12 with the wonders of Mediterranean science. This one-of-a-kind anthology showcases the winning entries from the IV Literary Contest “Tales from Mednight,” a transnational initiative celebrating the fusion of creativity and science.

The stories explore themes such as biodiversity, clean energy, Mediterranean history, and environmental stewardship, sparking curiosity and fostering a love for science among young readers. Written in seven languages—Arabic, English, French, Greek, Italian, Spanish, and Turkish—the winning tales embody the Mediterranean's rich cultural diversity and shared scientific legacy.

To celebrate the launch of the Junior Edition, the Mednight initiative is distributing printed copies to children in hospitals, primary schools, and refugee camps. Free digital copies are also available, ensuring that the inspiring world of Mediterranean science reaches young readers everywhere.

How to cite: Krouma, M. and the Mednight team: Tales from Mednight – Junior Edition: Inspiring Young Minds with Mediterranean Science, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-20455, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-20455, 2025.

How to cite: von Szombathely, M., Reif, A., Poschlod, B., Blanz, B., Borchert, L., Brunner, L., and Sillmann, J.: The communicative power of climate extremes , EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-21677, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-21677, 2025.

While most individuals pursuing academic careers in scientific research focus on publishing in disciplinary journals, which are often inaccessible to the general public, the importance of engaging the broader public is becoming increasingly evident. Making academic knowledge and research-based information available to everyone is crucial, for example, for raising awareness of scientific topics and encouraging science-oriented thinking and decision-making. In recent years, we have been promoting various earth science topics to the public through a range of media, including video, popular articles, and children's books. A key aspect of these efforts is presenting complex ideas using simple text and artistic expressions that are suitable for engaging the public and effectively communicating scientific concepts. Here we highlight insights into promoting scientific knowledge to the public through illustrated children's books, designed to convey “big” and “complicated” scientific terms in a way that is accessible to diverse audiences, by carefully considering how text and illustrations complement each other. Examples of how scientific concepts and terminology can be simplified using straightforward language and illustrations will be presented as well, depicting how self-made art and professional illustrations can be used in children's books depicting earth science. Recommendations for collaborating with artists, will also be discussed, highlighting some of the dos and some of the don’ts.

How to cite: Ben Dor, Y. and Yasur, G.: More than words; some notes on art design in earth science children’s books, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-1436, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-1436, 2025.

I have a visual mind. Already at primary school, I felt that pouring something I learned into the right image, gave me an increased level of insight. It also helped me communicate with others. In my scientific career at the interface between soil science and hydrology, the urge to draw, sketch, sculpture, and build has always remained. In the beginning, I found rare opportunities to create my own illustrations in talks, posters, or a popular science exposition for the university. However, not being a professional artist, I often felt limited, as if the idea in my head did not always get the chance to crystallize into the right form. In this presentation, I will illustrate the synergy that comes into existence when scientists engage with artists. I will highlight some collaborations with various artists throughout the past year resulting in illustrations for an opinion article, a book chapter, an illustrated children's book and more. The conversation on how to visualize or create something from an abstract idea results in a wonderful cross-pollination between the artist and the scientist. It teaches us how things come across with other people, and how this in turn creates something new. Something exciting. Something that trickles down into society and builds bridges. I will bring some material and hope to open the conversation with you on your next idea!   

How to cite: Garré, S.: The synergy between art and science: a testimony from a soil scientist, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-2060, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-2060, 2025.

We present Arboreal Futures, a transdisciplinary exhibition project at the boundary between climate research and art, with the overarching goal  of communicating about climate change with the general public. Through the example of this exhibition project, we explore the role of art in science and vice versa, along with the positive outcomes that can arise from working at the nexus of these fields.

Art, through its influence on the sensory experience of large audiences, plays a significant role in shaping the collective imaginary and the public discourse. Artists are increasingly considered as agents of importance in communicating science to broader audiences. There are mainly three different ways to envision art and science collaboration, namely 1) art to illustrate and translate science, 2) art as inspired by science for its artistic expression, and 3) transdisciplinary cooperation between art and science to ask questions, design experiments, and formulate knowledge.

The transdisciplinary approach is of particular interest in the context of climate change, since addressing climate change as a society requires building up bridges between - and making interact - various forms of knowledge, including scientific as well as non-scientific forms, that tend to evolve in separate contexts.

We organized two artist-in-residences at the Plant Ecology Research Laboratory (PERL), EPFL in summer 2023. The artists stayed at the lab for two and four weeks, respectively, and worked in interaction with the researchers in their research projects, helped them, and accompanied them in field research experiments. We selected the two participating artists, Maja Renn and Krzysztof Wronski, through an international call for artists.

As outcomes of the residences, the artists initiated new works and pursued them further for over a year after their residence at PERL. Maja Renn developed a series of performative works translating the phenomenon of phenoplasticity she discovered at the lab into choreographic forms. Krzysztof Wronski developed a new series of artistically driven interventions that reflect on the current and emerging needs of trees and forests and question the role technology and human management should play in light of them.

An exhibition presenting the completed art works together with PERL’s research took place at the Pavilion on the EPFL campus from November 2024 to January 2025.

In this talk, we will discuss the broader context of this project, the artists and the researchers’ experiences, and the outcomes with a glimpse at the Arboreal Futures exhibition.

How to cite: Bourqui, M., Rohr, B., Renn, M., Wronski, K., Johnson, K., Bachofen, C., and Grossiord, C.: Communicating climate change through the lens of art and science transdisciplinarity, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-2332, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-2332, 2025.

The Earth’s magnetic field is invisible and cannot be sensed by the human body. Yet, it plays a crucial role for life: besides its most prominent role in navigation, it serves as a protective shield against harmful solar and cosmic radiation. Among the most dramatic variations of the Earth’s magnetic field are reversals, marked by a significant decrease in field intensity and a complete flip of the magnetic poles. Geomagnetic reversals are well-documented in paleomagnetic records spanning Earth's geological history. They are considered a natural characteristic of the geomagnetic field and occur very irregularly, on average, a few times per million years.

To make the drastic, global changes of the Earth’s magnetic field accessible to a general audience, we present an audio-visual representation of the most recent reversal, known as the Matuyama-Brunhes reversal, which took place 780,000 years ago. Both the visual and sonic depictions are based on a global model, resting on an extensive compilation of global paleomagnetic sediment records.

Building on our previous experience in engaging audiences through outreach projects (e.g. Nielsen, K., & Hayes 2025; Schanner et al. 2024; Nielsen et al. 2022), we find that the combined audio-visual format provides an intuitive, corporeal, and immersive experience – one that to a far better extent than text and graphs can capture the attention of the general public.

Nielsen, K., & Hayes, L. (2025) The Sun, https://www.instagram.com/p/DEZqSqANIjN/?img_index=1 (approx 228K plays)

Schanner, M., Kervalishvili, G, & Nielsen, K. (2024) Sonification of the Laschamp event, https://www.instagram.com/p/DBJVujeIC-T/ (approx 61K plays)

Nielsen, K., Linden-Vörnle , N., & Kloss, C. (2022) The scary sound of Earth’s magnetic field, https://soundcloud.com/esa/the-scary-sound-of-earths-magnetic-field (approx 1.15M plays)

How to cite: Nielsen, K., Schanner, M., Mahgoub, A., Panovska, S., and Kervalishvili, G.: Sound Reversal – Hearing Earth’s magnetic field switch poles 780k years ago, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-3279, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-3279, 2025.

Society is facing large sustainability challenges, that can only be solved using an interdisciplinary systems thinking approach.  Progressing towards a sustainable and resilient future requires systems change, including re-establishing the relationship between humans and nature, and sustainability education.  To reach sustainability transformation, higher education must teach students not only being able to adapt to change, but also to build their capacity to shape and create change. One way to achieve this, is to teach at the interface between the arts and sciences to promote affective as well as cognitive learning objectives and practical skill development.

One example of such interaction is the project ‘Harmony in Complexity’, which is a musical data sonification of one century of climate data (1924-2024), including an optional participatory performance.  Through a science-art cooperation, we combined scientific knowledge (head) with practical engagement (hand) and emotional connection (heart).  Inspired by a student brainstorm, we created a musical experience by sonifying the distinct and important global datasets of CO2 concentrations and planetary temperature anomalies. The CO2 concentrations are mapped to frequencies which are perceived as a musical tone, and the temperature anomalies are divided in three different zones in the Northern Hemisphere (tropical, temperate, northern) and converted to musical notes.  This resulted in a dual layer composition, integrating both the steady rise in CO2 concentration and the correlating temperature changes. To engage with the data and the data-sonification, we developed an optional guided musical audience participation with an embodied experience.  After presenting the musical piece including spoken explanations, the audience is invited to participate with body percussion mimicking natural elements like rain and wind, and vocal engagement.

The musical piece including audience engagement has been presented to an audience of over 200 people. People in the audience indicated afterwards that they were emotionally moved by the musical piece.  In the engagement part, the audience that consisted of people of all different backgrounds, age, gender, and discipline, felt connected and positive about the solutions that can be found if we engage together. Insights from this project will be integrated in the sustainability programmes at Utrecht University. By integrating arts and sciences, we aim to develop holistic education programs that empower students to become agents of positive change in a rapidly changing world.

How to cite: Rebel, K. and Van Nispen tot Pannerden, T.:  Harmony in Complexity: Engaging Head-Hands-Heart towards a Resilient Future , EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-4061, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-4061, 2025.

How to cite: Townsend, P., MacRae, M., Hall, V., Stephens, A., and Debski, A.: Climate mosaic: inspiring conversations about data through art , EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-4093, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-4093, 2025.

The capacity of art to create new media content and to approach non-intuitive concepts makes it a powerful tool to communicate research. However, deploying art as “a communication” tool comes with the risk of producing a work of limited artistic interest. Finding the right balance between these two goals is a complex challenge.

In this presentation, we will describe the conceptualisation and realisation of the project Liquid Strata, a project led by an oceanographer, Joan Llort, and the artists Entangled Others and Daphne Xanthopoulou, that sought to reflect on the visual representation and the limitations of observing the mesopelagic ecosystem. Liquid Strata is a digital sculptural installation curated by Lluis Nacenta first presented in the 2024 SonarMies edition under the Sonar+D Festival program in Barcelona (Spain). It was designed as a gate into the mesopelagic, a vast ocean ecosystem covering the global oceanic layer between 200 and 1000 meters deep. The mesopelagic, also known as the Twilight Zone due to the dimmed sunlight that reaches it, is one of the largest and least well-known, yet already threatened, ecosystems on Earth.

The main conceptual challenge of this collaboration was to produce a digital visualisation of a region and a phenomenon (the “marine snow”) that is extremely hard to observe. The scarcity of visual data imposed an alternative approach. The strategy applied by the Entangled Others and Joan Llort was to model the dynamics of the particles and fauna populating the mesopelagic, similarly to what researchers do when modelling the ocean carbon cycle but with an artistic purpose. This paradigm change forced us to review the literature and identify mechanisms that can be visually attractive despite not being the dominant drivers of the carbon cycle. The installation also made explicit the limitations of observing the deep ocean and how research tries to explain and understand an ecosystem that is so vast that is almost inconceivable for the human mind. Throughout the work we purposedly drifted away from pure aesthetics, trying to visualise the scientific concepts rather than embellishing them. In this sense, the soundscape was generated based on data acquired from underwater sonar but only working with infrasounds and avoiding the sounds of whales and other marine mammals commonly used in outreach.

The presentation will describe the concept and the methodology behind the artwork as well as some of the many challenges faced during this interdisciplinary collaboration. The last two minutes will showcase a video of the installation accompanied by an immersive soundscape.

How to cite: Llort, J., McCormick, F., Crespo, S., Xantholoupoulou, D., and Nacenta, L.: Liquid Strata installation: art-purposed modelling of the ocean’s Twilight Zone, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-4101, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-4101, 2025.

Scientific outreach is often made through visualisation: graphic design, filmmaking etc… As a seismologist, I often thought that seismic waveforms could look a little bit unappealing to the eye (some may strongly disagree with me). Fortunately, there have been recent efforts to use sound to visualise and listen to earthquake data, making for unique outreach exhibitions. Here, I propose to go beyond by transforming and arranging seismic data into electronic dance music. On this poster, I  show the workflow behind ‘Tremors’, a melodic techno track (made under the moniker of LEARTH), which was produced with almost exclusively processed seismic signals. I present the link between a variety of seismic signals and musical instruments frequency responses and show how the track can be built with Python, Ableton and Touch Designer. I also made an abstract music video that exhibits the range of processes we can record at the Earth’s surface. Meet me at my poster to listen to the music or watch the video. I will also bring my sampler with pre-loaded Earth sounds: come along if you want to do your own track !

How to cite: Illien, L.: Making electronic dance music with seismic data, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-5710, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-5710, 2025.

The collaboration between art and science is essential in addressing environmental inequalities and promoting environmental justice. The exCHANGE [1] project was born precisely out of a desire to explore this potential, seeking to combine different perspectives to address complex social issues such as inequalities. By combining their powers, art, and science can create immersive experiences using augmented or extended reality to communicate the consequences of climate change. Under the activities of exCHANGE [1], the THEMIS concept was born to propose an immersive experience (by means of augmented and/or extended reality) that aims at creating conscience and awareness in the audience about the actual and final consequences of climate change in alpine environments. THEMIS aims to give voice to the voiceless, promote environmental justice, and contribute to educating people through effective communication. These two approaches are connected to the purpose of a shared project that will see the creation of an immersive experience for the public.

The extended reality experience is based on the four basic elements of nature (water, air, earth, and fire) as a complex, intricate, and very delicate system in balance. These elements produce and maintain life, but they also destroy it. All living things have been adapting and evolving for thousands of years to this harmony, but the accelerated changes in climate do not give them/us any chance to quickly adapt to the new conditions.

THEMIS is inspired by the GEOPARC Bletterbach [2], which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site renowned for its geological and paleontological significance because of rock layers dating back over 280 million years, an open-air geology book that shows us the life of the planet through sedimentary rocks, fossils, and traces of ancient environments, including evidence of tropical seas and volcanic activity. We recreate these elements inside an environmental simulation chamber, and we organize dedicated sessions with heterogeneous types of audiences to observe, experience, and understand our self-relation with them in life.

[1] exCHANGE, Exploring Pathways of Art-Science Collaboration, Eurac Research 2024.

https://www.eurac.edu/en/institutes-centers/center-for-advanced-studies/projects/exchange

[2] GEOPARC Bletterbach. 2025. https://www.bletterbach.info/en/

How to cite: Mejia-Aguilar, A., Hell, S., Kustatscher, E., Daldos, P., Parin, R., Weisel, Z. K., and Isetti, G.: exCHANGE and THEMIS: A symbiotic approach to tackle inequalities due to climate change in Alpine environments, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-6180, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-6180, 2025.

We made a three-episode docuseries called “Sharing Minds” to show the backstage of the geodynamic research behind risk management. Through contemporary cinematographic language, in collaboration with a professional director, we showed the craft of the research, both analogue and digital, done by walking and modeling at the same time, connecting past and future. Our goal was to introduce a young adult audience to STEM disciplines and the essential role of a science without barriers. We wanted to underline the choral adventure of a transnational and transgenerational way of doing research on the earth’s dynamics. Overall our goal was to make the general public more aware of our shared vulnerability as deeply earthly beings through artistic expression. The first two episodes are set in two special locations of Italian geology: Etna and the Emilia Romagna area affected by the 2018 earthquake; the third is set at the Experimental Tectonics Laboratory of the University of Roma Tre. Lights, shadows, landscapes, music and interviews style were made to inspire new generations and serve as a powerful tool for cognitive learning to reignite the sense of beauty and shared responsibility for our planet.

“Sharing minds” was produced to promote Transnational Access as part of the MEET project (Monitoring Earth's Evolution and Tectonics), funded by PNRR, the Next Generation EU plan of the European Union and the Italian Ministry for University and Research, coordinated by Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV). 

The docuseries is on Youtube: SHARING MINDS_Ep1 - Sampling rocks; Ep2- Liquèfaction; Ep3- Experimental Tectonics

How to cite: marzioni, M.: “Sharing minds”: a mini docuseries for an open science in an open world, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-6207, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-6207, 2025.

In late 2024, the International Ocean Discovery Program’s Expedition 405 embarked on a mission to further investigate the physical conditions and the geologic processes behind the 2011 Tohoku-oki earthquake. Alongside groundbreaking scientific research, the expedition prioritized public outreach. Comics were one of the media utilized for this purpose.

These comics simplified complex scientific ideas, experiences of life aboard the Chikyu research vessel, the collaboration between multidisciplinary teams, and the geologic data acquisition methods used during the expedition. Developed in partnership with the science party and crew, the comics drew on visual references and detailed notes to ensure accuracy. The comics used humor and engaging visuals to simplify scientific concepts, while portraying researchers as approachable and relatable individuals to inspire young readers to explore geosciences.

Published in English and Japanese, the comic book aims to inspire a diverse audience, sparking curiosity in Earth sciences and fostering early STEM identity development. Digital versions in English will also be freely available on the JOIDES Resolution website to ensure global accessibility. This initiative demonstrates how creative storytelling through comics can make complex science accessible to young learners.

How to cite: Schuba, N. and the IODP Expedition 405 Scientists: From Research Vessel to Comic Pages: Inspiring Middle-Grade Readers Through IODP Expedition 405, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-7636, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-7636, 2025.

In an era of pressing environmental challenges, the fusion of art and science offers a powerful medium for deepening individual and public understanding and emotional engagement with global issues. This presentation explores the intersection of climate science and art through the collaborative efforts of a climate scientist and a painter/teacher. Building on the scientific findings of the SEARCH project, which investigates rates of change in past warm climates, we are using the emotional and cognitive power of art to promote a deeper awareness of climate risks and the goals of the European Green Deal (GreenSCENT project), and to contribute to the education of the next generation of scientifically literate and emotionally engaged young people.

Our approach integrates the principles of Intuitive Vision Painting, an art form we have developed, inspired by the method founded by Michele Cassou, which emphasizes unrestricted choice and spontaneity in creative expression. By engaging participants through painting examples and video demonstrations of this form of spontaneous painting, we aim to make the scientific complexities of climate change more accessible and relatable. This method serves as a catalyst for participants to connect emotionally with the urgency of climate action, increasing their receptivity to the scientific narratives and policies surrounding climate adaptation.

Through this interdisciplinary collaboration, we demonstrate how combining scientific data with artistic practice can break down barriers to understanding and create a shared language that bridges the gap between abstract scientific concepts and personal, emotional experiences. Our presentation will include a brief overview of the results of the SEARCH project, examples of Intuitive Vision Painting, and hopefully an interactive discussion on how such artistic interventions can enhance public engagement and drive more effective communication strategies in the face of climate change.

References and Notes:

Advanced Climate Risk Education https://www.acre.blue

Mudelsee M (2014) Climate Time Series Analysis: Classical Statistical and Bootstrap Methods. Second Edition. Springer, Cham, xxxii + 454 pp.

Mudelsee M (2020) Statistical Analysis of Climate Extremes. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, xii + 200 pp.

Ólafsdóttir KB, Schulz M, Mudelsee M (2016) REDFIT-X: Cross-spectral analysis of unevenly spaced paleoclimate time series. Computers and Geosciences 91:11–18.

This work has been funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation), project number 468589022 (SEARCH), within the SPP 2299, project number 441832482; and by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101036480 (GreenSCENT).

How to cite: Mudelsee, M. and Mudelsee-Künkler, F.: Embracing Climate Change through Painting: A Scientific and Artistic Collaboration, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-8389, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-8389, 2025.

The convergence of art, science, technology, and society in the 21st century has redefined how knowledge is created and communicated. This evolving interplay is driven by global challenges such as climate change, technological advancements, and the imperative to foster inclusivity and equity in science communication. This presentation explores the dynamic interactions between these fields, emphasizing their transformative potential for public engagement, environmental advocacy, and interdisciplinary collaboration.

A central theme is the role of art in enhancing ocean literacy and environmental awareness. Examples include collaborative efforts such as visualizing oceanic data through art, crafting engaging infographics, and using artistic mediums to depict the impacts of climate change. Initiatives like the "Mission Azul" video game and the "Ocean Challenges" documentary series demonstrate how gamification and storytelling can connect with diverse audiences, making complex scientific concepts accessible and inspiring. These projects blend scientific rigor with artistic expression to stimulate learning and action.

Particularly innovative is the use of art for cultural sensitivity and inclusivity in science outreach. Collaborative projects, such as coloring books with QR-linked science talks during the pandemic and performances like "Blue Fear," exemplify how art can amplify marginalized voices, bridge cultural divides, and elicit emotional connections to scientific issues. By integrating visual arts, digital media, and performance, these initiatives create a participatory space where audiences become co-creators of scientific knowledge.

Moreover, the presentation examines how significant global events, such as the 2008 economic crisis and the 2019 pandemic, have accelerated the integration of art and science. These turning points have driven a shift from purely representational uses of art to a more intricate relationship where art serves as a critical tool for exploring complex issues, promoting sustainability, and challenging societal norms.

Finally, the presentation underscores the importance of measuring the impact of art-science collaborations. Quantitative metrics, such as audience reach and interaction rates, complement qualitative insights from participant feedback, providing a comprehensive understanding of the effectiveness of these efforts. This dual approach ensures that science communication strategies remain adaptive and responsive to the evolving needs of society.

By showcasing examples of eco-art, urban art projects, and interdisciplinary collaborations, this presentation highlights the growing significance of the art-science interface in addressing global challenges. It calls for continued exploration of this nexus to enhance public engagement, inspire collective action, and foster a more inclusive and interconnected understanding of science and its societal impact.

How to cite: Mohamed Falcon, K. J. and Rey, D.: Bridging Worlds: The Transformative Interplay of Art, Science, and Society for Global Challenges, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-9533, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-9533, 2025.

The Earth's dynamic processes shape the landscapes we inhabit and underpin the delicate balance of life on our planet. However, the complexity of geoscience topics often creates barriers to engagement, particularly among younger audiences. In my recent book, How the Earth Works, I aim to bridge this gap through the integration of accessible writing and evocative illustrations, crafting a narrative that invites children—and their families—into the wonders of our planet.

This project combines the rigor of scientific accuracy with the emotional resonance of artistic expression to make complex concepts relatable and engaging. The vibrant illustrations are not merely visual aids; they are tools for storytelling, designed to ignite curiosity and foster a deeper connection to Earth's processes. It is a book that educates by stealth, and demonstrates that science stories, when told well, can light a spark of curiosity even on those a-priori not interested in science.

In this presentation, I will discuss the creative and interdisciplinary approach taken in How the Earth Works—from translating geoscientific knowledge into visually compelling artwork to crafting a narrative that resonates with children and adults alike. I will share insights into how art can foster curiosity, create emotional connections, and encourage dialogue about environmental challenges. In addition, I will share some of my journey into becoming a scientific author and illustrator, hopefully inspiring others who wish to take their science to the next level…through art!

How to cite: Perez-Diaz, L.: Educating by Stealth: Art and Narrative as Tools for Science Communication, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-9582, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-9582, 2025.

Music has the creative ability to deliver information about climate change in an emotionally engaging way. There are numerous examples of converting climate change data into musical compositions. One well-known approach is the sonification of data by scaling and converting data time series to musical notes. The result may often sound dissonant (sometimes voluntary to raise awareness), and very challenging when several time series, hence musical sequences, are combined into one song. Another approach is to step away from the sonically display of climate information by interpreting the sequence artistically, hence freely.

One way to overcome the purely data-driven dissonance is to make use of harmonic scales for mapping data series to musical notes. The major advantage being that several sequences can be combined harmonically as long as they belong to the same scale. Such harmonic sequences are used as building blocks for songs, allowing for a creative approach to music based on the data series, while keeping the inner musical coherence. Besides data sonification, direct sound sampling (e.g., Pettit et al, 2015) or other types of measurements may also be the basis of music creation. We found that raw phase-sensitive radar returns (ApRES) produce a (noisy) signal within the audible range (0.1 - 10 kHz) and that different parts of the ice sheet produce distinct sound patterns depending on the radar return. While they cannot be directly mapped via sonification, we may use them as a rhythmic component.

Using both harmonic sonification of mass balance time series and radar pulse returns from the Antarctic ice sheet, we created electronic-based music. All songs have data-driven cryosphere change components through bass lines, arpeggiators and rhythmic patterns, and are further creatively harmonized. All sonification code is available through a toolbox.

References:

Pettit, E. C., K. M. Lee, J. P. Brann, J. A. Nystuen, P. S. Wilson, and S. O'Neel (2015), Unusually loud ambient noise in tidewater glacier fjords: A signal of ice melt. Geophys. Res. Lett., 42, 2309–2316. doi: 10.1002/2014GL062950.

(*) The author is besides being a glaciologist and ice sheet modeller, amateur jazz piano, keyboard, bass player and composer.

How to cite: Pattyn, F.: The sound of ice: using radar data and sonification in music composition, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-10270, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-10270, 2025.

To promote the students’ ability to perceive how the climate has been changing and to understand how it is likely to change in the future is an essential base for the Climate Change Education (CCE) in ESD (Education for Sustainable Development). The change in the climate in each area could be recognized rather easily with the “distortion of the seasonal cycle” there also by the non-experts.

It should be noted that the detailed cycles show rather different features from region to region, even within middle and higher latitudes. Thus, in the CCE, deeper understanding of the detailed seasonal cycles themselves would be also necessary. By the way, interdisciplinary approach with cultural understanding education such as music, and so on, sometimes gives a great help for understanding of the regional climate including the detailed seasonal cycles. In addition, selection of the study areas or targets which are not so familiar to the students in their usual lives could also provides considerable advantage for deepening the students’ perception of the heterogeneous others. Based on the above concepts, we have continued the interdisciplinary studies as summarized by Kato et al. (2023).

This time, interdisciplinary approach including the lesson practice for the university students with the above concept was made on a topic of the climate and songs of spring/May around Germany. Around Germany, there are so many songs and literature works in which “May” is treated as the special season. However, without knowing the detailed seasonal cycle around Germany, it seems rather difficult for the people in the other regions, such as in Japan, to realize why they celebrate not simply spring but especially “May”.

According to our analysis, May is the very month when the appearance frequency of the days with daily mean temperature corresponding to the ordinary summer days increases rapidly, while the intermittent appearance of the extremely low temperature days terminates completely around the end of March. With considering such climatic backgrounds, musical expressions of spring/May in several German lieder, such as “Im wunderschönen Monat Mai” (In the especially wonderful month of May) by Schumann, “Andres Maienlied (Hexenlied)” by Mendelssohn, “Trockne Blumen” by Schubert, and so on, were analyzed for demonstrating the importance of the word “May” in these lieder for the interdisciplinary lesson at university. In the lesson practice, details of the climate and seasonal cycle around Germany in association with the seasonal feeling of the special season May were firstly presented, by comparing with those around Japan. Then, several German lieder, a film music, etc. were appreciated, paying attention to the relation between expressions of the songs and their climatic backgrounds. It seems that the students were able to realize the characteristic expressions of the songs relating to the seasonal feeling of “the special season May” around Germany, mainly from the song lyrics, although how to promote further the students' deepening of such perception including musical expressions themselves together with the climate data is a remaining problem.

How to cite: Kato, K., Nagaoka, I., Kato, H., and Otani, K.: Climate and songs of spring/May around Germany: Interdisciplinary lesson practice at university on the regional variety of the seasonal cycles and seasonal feelings as an important base to perceive the changing climate, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-11104, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-11104, 2025.

Environmental challenges such as climate change, natural hazards, and compound events demand interdisciplinary approaches beyond traditional scientific methods. The PerfectSTORM project studies the risk of cascading hazards of extreme rainfall after drought, focusing on hydro-social feedback to guide the future management of drought-to-flood events. We explore both the positive and negative potential of rainfall in mitigating drought impacts and causing flood impacts. By integrating theory from data science, hydrological modelling, sociology, and behavioural and cognitive sciences, the project employs a mixed-methods approach to develop qualitative and quantitative storylines. These storylines are constructed through narrative interviews, mental simulation workshops, socio-ecological modelling, and novel data visualisation techniques, ultimately identifying global hotspots and pathways for managing drought-to-flood events.

Within this framework, art-science methods have been employed not only as tools for communication but as integral methodologies throughout the research process. Creative approaches have enabled deeper engagement and richer insights, from preparation and brainstorming to data gathering, analysis, and communication. For example, narrative interviews and mental simulation workshops are enhanced by participatory art sessions, where drawing and visualisation/materialisation help participants express complex ideas and lived experiences.

The poster will highlight the role of art-science collaborations within the project, focusing on three ongoing art/science activities. (a) The Travelling Suitcase is an interactive, portable exhibition that engages diverse audiences worldwide. The exhibition integrates multimedia storytelling, visualisations, and artistic installations, fostering dialogue and bridging cultural and linguistic barriers. (b) The Limited Documentary Series delves deep into the dynamics of drought-to-flood events, weaving together scientific insights, historical data, and human stories. These films highlight the cascading impacts of drought-to-flood events through scientific analysis and human narratives. (c) The Drought-to-Flood Atlas is a cornerstone activity of the project, combining art, science, and community engagement to create a comprehensive and interactive resource. This atlas aims to bring the complexities of drought-to-flood events to life through scientific data, creative visualisations, and participatory storytelling. The web Atlas includes interactive maps and visualisations of the models, timelines, and graphs; these features will help convey the cascading nature of hazards and their impacts on various scales, from local communities to global patterns. This participatory design ensures that the atlas evolves as a living, inclusive document that reflects diverse voices.

Combining art and science, the PerfectSTORM project transcends traditional research boundaries, creating new pathways for understanding and addressing global environmental challenges. With this poster presentation, we aim to demonstrate how interdisciplinary collaborations can inspire deeper connections, bridge gaps in understanding, and promote actionable solutions to the world’s most pressing sustainability issues.

How to cite: Van Loon, A., Kontou, D.-M., Mendoza, H., Weesie, R., Matanó, A., and Torrenga, D.: Art-Science as a Multidimensional Tool: Exploring the socio-hydrological interactions of drought-to-flood events, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-11374, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-11374, 2025.

ArtEO is a non-profit initiative established with the simple aim of bringing Earth observation (EO) and other environmental data closer to artists and creatives. The mission of ArtEO is to facilitate easier access to data and imagery for artists, musicians, storytellers and creative professionals who wish to engage with climate change and environmental subjects. In the first phase of the initiative (‘Pioneer Phase’), ArtEO has worked with a diverse range of multidisciplinary artists who have produced work in many genres, ranging from large scale sculpture to immersive projections, movement-based performance art to video work, software-based sonification to powerful musical composition. These works have been showcased in a number of major art-science events, and in climate communications and innovation contexts, including the Ars Electronica Festival, MTFLabs, EGU, IAC and elsewhere.

ArtEO takes a specific approach to supporting artistic and creative engagement with EO data that is often distinct from other forms of science communication, data visualization and infographics. However, there are some overlaps and they share a common goal of achieving greater reach, visibility and impact with the data. There is an opportunity for cross-learning between all of these areas and this session will provide an insight into the process and methodologies undertaken by artists working with EO in the ArtEO Pioneer Phase, and what this has revealed about the challenges for the wider public of engaging with EO data and imagery. and about ArtEO’s aim is to achieve significant public reach with both the artworks themselves and the data utilised.

How to cite: Kapur, R.: ArtEO - Environmental Data for Artists: Lessons from the Pioneer Phase, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-13115, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-13115, 2025.

Interweaving scientific research with artistic practice, Glacial Hauntologies is an intra-disciplinary art-science collaboration that translates, subverts, and repurposes tools from many disciplines to explore geophysical data and glaciological archives. We are interested in how ice - past ice, current melt, and future glacial disappearances - reoccurs as a persistent hauntology across 21st century landscapes, scientific data, and day-to-day life.

Working across print, sound, textile, movement, archives, programming, and math, our work confronts male-dominated, colonial histories of Antarctic research by centering expansive, embodied, collaborative practices that create alternative relationships to, histories of, and ways of doing research about glacial change. This work includes recordings of dripping meltwater overlayed with sonified seismic data, large-scale, sewn cyanotype fabric collages, zines of body outlines for recording deep field experiences, interactive glaciological data presentations, and other multimedia work.

We will present work generated from this collaboration, propose a framework for intersectional, transdisciplinary creative research, and discuss the outcomes of doing integrated artistic and scientific research.

How to cite: Case, E., Hoffman, A., Mode, H., and Rai, T.: Glacial Hauntologies: an intra-disciplinary collaboration between glaciology and artistic practice, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-13671, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-13671, 2025.

The Arctic is warming at three times the global average, significantly impacting people, place, and the environment. In Alaska these impacts are felt in very real ways. Yet, for various reasons, much of the science explaining those changes does not reach the people and communities most impacted. The one benefit that we have, however, is our interconnectedness. We prevailed upon those connections to create a unique collaboration of Arctic research and original musical compositions that brought the sounds of this changing Arctic to our Alaska communities most affected. Recognizing that music can inspire far beyond data, we paired 7 Arctic researchers from Fairbanks AK with composers in Juneau AK to create original chamber music compositions. Music inspired by features of particular Arctic research. To critical acclaim, we hosted three concerts featuring these unique compositions with the aim to reach and inspire those affected by these environmental changes, and to connect communities on common issues affecting us all. Additional visual artists were featured in association with the concert showcasing their own interpretation of our changing home. We produced a feature documentary capturing the process, the place, the science, and the people. Bringing together people with quite different mindsets for this collaboration required new thinking -very much out of the box. The collaborative success reached far beyond our original idea with significant press attention and demonstrated catalytic effect for building community. 

How to cite: Alexeev, V., Doranz, C., Dowgray, S., and Brix, K.: Sounds of the Changing Arctic, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-13864, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-13864, 2025.

Hydrogeologic training and work experiences give me the ability to read earth’s revealing “stories” told in inter-bedded rocks, streams, fossils and landscapes. I look for stories of people in places I have worked allowing those stories to inform my photographs. Themes such as the environmental impact that food production, energy extraction, and sustainability have on peoples’ lives, are woven into my images.

As an artist, I elevate the everyday mundane subject into the sublime. During exposure, I choose what to reveal and conceal when composing an image, bringing awareness of common things often overlooked. In exhibitions, my environmental photographic work opens a space for reflection, dialogue, conversation, questioning and insights.

My “3000 Miles of Acid Mine Drainage in My Backyard” images of chemical sludge and polluted water create abstract beauty as irony. Color, lighting and composition along with important layers of information imbedded in each image, make them so compelling. As Diane Stoll (Aperture) noted, “Katarin Parizek’s unsettlingly gorgeous close-ups of sludge” are pleasing to the viewer yet also grotesque.

Selected in juried exhibitions, shown in gallery settings, and used in an applied way, these images are presented at scientific meetings and congresses directly impacting society by bringing awareness to environmental and social issues. My images critique political climates, question viewers, create dialog and social awareness.  Environmental impact that food production, energy extraction, and sustainability have on peoples’ lives are woven into my photographs.  I worked with the US Embassy, Bolivian Ministry of Culture, National Ballet of Bolivia, tribal elders in the United States and Bolivia, Ministry of Antiquities in Egypt and FRONTERA EASTERN in The Republic of Georgia and served as the official photographer for a six-person USAID team, photographing nuclear impacted-waste lands of Chernobyl.

My images communicate the importance of dewatering projects to non-English speaking Egyptian villagers, who try to protect their homes and survive off their salt-encroached land. Ministers, high official decision makers with money and power who rarely leave Cairo, to travel to isolated villages to see these problems firsthand. The water-related damage is not only impacting villages and farmland, but also permanently destroying ancient antiquities along the entire Egyptian Nile Valley and Delta. Villagers share their problems and allow me to photograph dying date trees, salty sugar cane fields, opening their mudbrick homes showing the destruction created by rising groundwater. These images are embedded in permission papers and reports, used as evidence to visually communicate problems to the Supreme Council of Antiquities. Reports are sent to the Egyptian ministers concerning water resources, housing, drainage, agriculture, and antiquities. These images illustrate problems that words cannot describe. They expose and reveal the hidden, giving voices to the voiceless villagers. Here, my images shift from photography as illustration to photography as social activism. These reports go to decision makers with the ability to fund projects that create change in Egypt. They bring social awareness to problems that need resolution. In this manner, image making turns into discourse that creates awareness and informs public policy at an international level.

How to cite: Parizek, K.: Environmental Visual Story Telling: Facilitating Discourse that Creates Public Awareness and Potentially Changes Public Policy at an International Level., EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-14727, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-14727, 2025.

The intensifying climate crisis necessitates innovative approaches that extend beyond conventional education and behavioral strategies. This study integrates Living Lab and artistic frameworks to empower children to transform climate science into actionable narratives. From 2023 to 2024, six role-playing workshops titled “Traveling Without Rockets: A Journey to the No-Litter Planet” were held in art museums in Seoul and Changwon, adapting the framework for participatory contexts. This research examines the potential of reframing climate discourse to make it more relevant to children by addressing micro-level, everyday issues. Through the workshops as a case study, it explores the artistic experimentation of developing and applying practical solutions at individual, group, and community levels.

Existing  information-based climate education often emphasizes the severity of the crisis, inadvertently instilling fear, anxiety, and helplessness in children. This study addressed these limitations by shifting the narrative to a future-oriented perspective, asking, “How can we design and act for a climate-ready future?” This shift moved the discourse from fear and risk to imagination and proactive preparation.

Children engaged in a scenario-based methodology, leaving a devastated Earth to explore the fictional No-Litter Planet. Acting as researchers, they gathered evidence to address climate-related challenges and collaboratively reimagined Earth’s future. This scenario-based methodology went beyond traditional knowledge dissemination, fostering creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills.

The workshop design was grounded in a scientific literature review, emphasizing coexistence, empathy, and collaboration as essential values for addressing the climate crisis. The Living Lab framework was adapted to include storytelling and role-playing, enabling children to collaboratively create and test climate adaptation solutions in an experiential and supportive environment. Symbolic activities further enhanced children’s understanding of climate-induced inequalities and the critical need for cooperation in building resilience. Furthermore, the workshop was intentionally designed to involve parents, fostering intergenerational dialogue and engagement. By facilitating shared experiences, the workshops extended their impact from children to families and communities, encouraging collective discussions on sustainability and resilience. This focus formed the basis for designing the workshop specifically for children.

This study highlights the potential of integrating Living Lab methodology with artistic practices to enhance climate adaptation education. The findings demonstrate how combining scientific knowledge with emotional engagement cultivates resilience, imagination, and collaborative action. This interdisciplinary approach offers a scalable model for addressing global challenges and fostering community participation.

Keywords: Living Lab, Climate Adaptation, Art-Science Communication, Role-Playing Workshop, Children, Stakeholders, Co-Creation, Problem-Solving, Artistic Imagination

How to cite: Kim, J.: Reframing Climate Adaptation Education: Integrating Living Lab and Artistic Frameworks to Engage Children, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-15567, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-15567, 2025.

The Anthropocene is intertwined with questions of death, loss, grief and destruction. A lot of the death and loss that we discuss in the context of climate change is caused by humans and experienced by humans in different ways. Perhaps part of future loss and death can also be prevented or alleviated by us. For this to be possible, we need to better understand our relation to death in the context of our environment. This is not only a philosophical or theoretical issue but also something that is useful to discuss in the context of transdisciplinary methodologies and art to improve the social impact of scientific research.

Art plays a crucial role in making sense of complex emotions and roles that we have in relation to climate and death as academics - and as humans. This presentation looks into the importance of creating open, non-hierarchical spaces for exchanging research results from different fields and artistic expressions help to deepen understanding and spark collaboration. They also help to create a cognitive environment where emotions and challenges are met with care, which creates a base for transdisciplinary trust. As part of the presentation, I provide practical examples of how previous climate & death-themed discussions have sparked interest and discussion across fields and evolved into transdisciplinary events, including the transdisciplinary seminar Climate & Death 2024 [1]. The event provided a common, welcoming space for scientists, artists and practitioners to share information and discuss, showcase artistic work and hold workshops. 

Climate change, sustainability and death overlap in many areas, such as extreme weather, air quality, health & well-being, security, ethics and culture. Whether or not we succeed in mitigating climate change, environmental destruction, biodiversity loss or other related problems, humans face inevitable death, loss and grief. These aren't only part of crises, but life in general. Furthermore, talking about death and other 'fundamental' issues is important to transform ourselves and our systems to be more sustainable. Talking about hope should include discussions on death, loss and grief, as well. The seemingly dark topics are simultaneously fundamental for discussing what we find meaningful and joyful in life. Discussing such issues helps us to connect beyond labels as humans when faced with existential questions related to climate change. It can also help us to develop useful methods for science communication and for taking climate action together.

The presentation is based on work done in the Safer Climate network, based at the Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research (INAR) at the University of Helsinki as part of the Atmosphere and Climate Competence Center (ACCC) Flagship Program funded by the Research Council of Finland.

[1] https://www.saferclimate.org/about-climate-and-death, https://www.helsinki.fi/en/conferences/sustainability-science-days-2023/biographical-information-climate-death

How to cite: Rantanen, R.: Climate, Death and Art: Creating Shared Spaces for Understanding and Action, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-16315, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-16315, 2025.

Climate change is one of our most urgent challenges and new communication strategies are needed to raise awareness and inspire humans’ action. As a complex phenomenon, climate change is often insufficiently explained by traditional scientific communication methods like articles and reports, which often fail to reach non-expert audiences.

To address this gap, we developed SEAMAN (Synthesized Earth Monthly Anomalies), a software translating climate data into a nocturnal seascape, which offers an immersive and emotional way to explore climate data over time. SEAMAN (https://github.com/GeoModelLab/seaman), uses NASA-Power climate data (1984–2022) to draw an interactive digital canvas to visually and audibly represent climate anomalies. The sea, with its dynamic waves, reflects temperature anomalies through changes in color and movement. The moon's size and position symbolize precipitation rates, while the stars' position in the sky illustrates aridity patterns. Together, these elements create a dynamic and evolving digital canvas that enables users to intuitively explore and understand complex climate data.

SEAMAN is designed for educators, researchers, decision-makers, and the general public, enabling them to explore climate trends, analyze historical data, and see the effect of temperature and precipitation changes. By combining scientific clarity with artistic expression, the software fosters a deeper understanding of the urgency of collective climate action.

How to cite: Del Cavallo, E., Bregaglio, S., Bruno, M. R., Calone, R., Carriero, G., Poggi, G. M., Rossi, E., and Bajocco, S.: SEAMAN: Imagining Climate Data in a Sonified Nocturnal Seascape, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-16558, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-16558, 2025.

Submersion illuminates the future evolution of glaciers and ice sheets, whose melting significantly contributes to sea-level rise, affecting coastlines and coastal regions worldwide. This multimedia triptych, blending printed and digital imaging technologies, invites audiences to explore glacial environments, immerse themselves in potential futures shaped by sea-level rise, and understand the individual actions that most influence glacier and ice sheet melting.

Commissioned by the European research project PROTECT (Projecting Sea-Level Rise: From Ice Sheets to Local Implications), Submersion serves as a science-communication initiative to bridge research findings with public engagement. Led by the Institut des Géosciences de l’Environnement (IGE-CNRS), PROTECT focuses on understanding and projecting the impacts of ice-sheet dynamics on future sea levels.

The exhibition is a collaborative production involving PROTECT, ESAD Valence, and Alizée De Pin, a graphic artist and illustrator-in-residence. The residency integrates research-creation processes. Through four workshops, students and faculty from ESAD Valence’s Graphic Design program contributed to the project, fostering innovation and interdisciplinary collaboration.

As part of PROTECT’s work on communication, dissemination, and research output exploitation, the project emphasizes the creation of an artwork rooted in scientific findings. Submersion aims to raise public awareness of the critical issue of cryosphere melting and sea-level rise, encouraging audiences to reflect on the environmental impacts of their actions and to envision a sustainable future.

How to cite: Chapuis, A., Durand, G., De Pin, A., and Cunin, D.: Submersion: an art-science collaboration on the cryosphere and rising sea level, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-17126, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-17126, 2025.

"Portraits of Climate" brought climate research and art together for a one-year long cooperation. Art has the unique power to touch people and evoke emotions and reactions. The connection between art and climate research unfolds a remarkable power – it sharpens our awareness of climate change, evokes emotions, and connects us in profound ways. Art and science stem from the same curious, investigative, and creative nature of human beings. Once upon a time, these two fields were inseparably interconnected, and "Portraits of Climate" provides an opportunity to explore the synergies between them. This project is not just about exchanging information, but also about creating something new together that integrates both artistic and scientific perspectives. Each artwork you will see here reflects the cooperation and co-production between artists and scientists, their passion, commitment, and their unique perspectives on the world around us.

What potential does the "Co" in cooperation and co-production hold? What influence can art have on research, and how can both disciplines enrich each other? Do we remain in the roles of the artist or the researcher, or do we go beyond? Are we pushing boundaries? What role has art in education? Journey Through Time and into the Future by Jenni Schurr and David Nielsen

Participants: 

Dit Coesebrink, Daniele Alef Grillo, Carl Maria Kemper, Nana Petzet, Jenni Schurr, Prof. Dr. Jörn Behrens, Dr. Martin Döring, Prof. Dr. Michael Köhl, Dr. Cleovi Mosuela, Dr. David Nielsen, Dr. Jan Wilkens

How to cite: Pagnone, A.: Portraits of Climate, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-17759, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-17759, 2025.

“Sky Islands: a past time travel in the Andes mountains” is a short film based on the scientific publication “The flickering connectivity system of the northern Andean páramos”[1], which was selected for a special virtual issue in the Journal of Biogeography (July 2021) as one of the highest citation rates of papers published since 2009. This film used digital art, photography, 3D animation, and scientific data visualization to understand how the high-altitude ecosystems of the Northern Andes, the páramos, evolved in time and space. It displays how the shifting elevational distributions of the páramos were caused by changing temperature conditions driven by long-term climate fluctuations and how speciation could have increased exponentially under these dynamic conditions. Additionally, it provides key insights in how the present-day biodiversity, which was built up during several million years, is deteriorating in just a few decades of devastating human activity. The film has now been shown at different public events, is available in Youtube ([2] over 10,000 views since 07-2018), and an updated version has been the official selection of international environmental film festivals, winning several awards in addition [3]. The results of this outreach approach have had a significant impact in various ways. First of all, decades of knowledge on the evolution in Andean ecosystems has been integrated, providing a much-needed interface for multi-disciplinary research between paleoecology, phylogeography of plants, and pollen-based reconstructions of paleoclimate. Secondly, strong information graphics trigger new initiatives in mountain research globally, elucidating the origin of biodiversity in an unprecedented manner. Thirdly, science visualization is increasingly being considered as a vital tool in communicating key scientific development. In addition, it helps students to better understand the history of the páramos, and high mountain ecosystems in general. Finally, the visualization is relevant for a large public including scientists and universities, filmmakers, new media artists, schools, policymakers and governments, stimulating outreach to the community also through the use of social media tools [4,5]. In this talk, we will elaborate further on the process of making a scientific film from a scientific publication, and the challenges of “translating” a scientific story into a work of public outreach and art.

References

[1]     Suzette G.A. Flantua, Aaron O’Dea, Renske E. Onstein, Catalina Giraldo, Henry Hooghiemstra 2019. The flickering connectivity system of the northern Andean páramos. Journal of Biogeography 46(8), 1808-1825. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/jbi.13607

[2]      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Wcp18vBDK4

[3]      https://www.catalhinagiraldo.com/sky-islands

[4]      https://www.instagram.com/skyislandsandes/

How to cite: Flantua, S., Giraldo, C., and Hooghiemstra, H.: A 3D visualization of the elevational dance of the Andean high mountain biome in the Pleistocene arena , EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-18222, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-18222, 2025.

A long-standing intellectual partnership between Franco Siccardi (1942 – 2024) professor at University of Genoa and founder of CIMA Research Foundation, and artist Beppe Schiavetta has allowed for the exploration of the relevance of historical narratives in the context of today’s environmental crises. One significant collaboration resulted in the "Lament of Ur," an ancient Sumerian text recounting the destruction of the city of Ur, likely caused by drought and social unrest. Schiavetta translated this historical tragedy into evocative paintings, while Siccardi drew parallels to modern issues like climate-induced migration and resource scarcity.

Modern challenges such as climate change, drought, and ecosystem degradation require innovative solutions that blend scientific insight with creative engagement to inspire action. The CIMA Research Foundation exemplifies how interdisciplinary collaboration between science and art can effectively communicate complex environmental issues and drive societal change.

This partnership highlights the shared cognitive processes between art and science, both of which rely on the brain’s capacity to create vivid imagery and construct narratives. By intertwining scientific analysis with emotional resonance, their work engages audiences intellectually and emotionally, enhancing the impact of their message.

The relevance of this collaboration extends to global efforts by researchers from various countries, such as the World Drought Atlas, which highlights the systemic impacts of drought on ecosystems, economies, and societies. These findings underscore the urgency of integrative approaches to risk communication that combine data with creative expression.

Through The Lament of UR paintings, but also exhibitions, lectures, and projects, the CIMA Research Foundation demonstrates how art can transform scientific findings into accessible, emotionally compelling narratives that inspire empathy and action. The potential of such interdisciplinary collaborations to engage communities, raise awareness, and drive transformative solutions to global challenges such as droughts represents a new way of exploring different languages. By uniting science and art, we can create powerful tools to address climate change and other pressing issues, fostering a deeper connection to our planet and promoting a sustainable future.

How to cite: Mantini, M., Polo, L., Alessandri, B., Visigalli, R., and Ferraris, L.: Lament of Ur: Addressing Drought Through Art, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-19404, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-19404, 2025.

In academia, science often seems disconnected from art, creating knowledge that is isolated or distant from society. However, this connection is essential and can be fostered through various artistic forms, including the figure of the clown. Since 2019, through an action-research project, we have been exploring the integration of the clown’s universe with that of science, enabling what we call a “back-and-forth” dynamic. This term reflects the bidirectional nature of the interaction: society benefits from receiving presentations that convey scientific ideas in an accessible way, while the artist-scientists on stage experience the challenge and practice of sharing knowledge in a playful, unpretentious manner rooted in fun. In this work, we present a diagnosis and consolidation of this initiative through the performance “A Journey to the Center of the Earth,” which involves researchers, undergraduate and graduate students, high school teachers, and staff, demonstrating how the union of art and science can enrich both academia and society.

How to cite: França, G. S., Barreto, P. S. C. S., Gosling, G., Bertollini, J., Moreira, G., and Feo,  . S. C.: The Clown Merging Art and Science., EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-19859, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-19859, 2025.

As global societal, economic and environmental challenges intensify, there is an urgent need for finding new ways of thinking and communicating both in science and in arts. The Science Meets Art (SMA) association fosters collaborations between scientific experts and artists, creating a dynamic network where new perspectives are introduced, resulting in interdisciplinary projects that reach broader audiences and evoke deeper emotional connections to topics such as climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss.
The mission of Science Meets Art is to break down traditional boundaries between science and the public by fostering spaces where both artists and scientists can explore, collaborate, and present their work. These collaborations open up new ways of thinking about science, challenge stereotypes and biased knowledge, not only making it more relatable but also enabling artistic responses to scientific data that resonate with diverse audiences. By organizing public events and supporting joint projects, SMA actively promotes scientific outreach and facilitates a deeper understanding of the environmental issues we face. We acknowledge that artistic expression cannot be forced but must be nurtured through reflection and improvisation, providing artists with the freedom to explore new topics while contributing to public discussions on science.
In this session we will showcase some of the past SMA activities, including three exhibitions in scientific institutes, collaboration with performance art and artivism on climate and environmental issues. We will present our principles and manifesto and open the doors for inputs and new collaborations.

How to cite: Vinca, A.: Science Meets Art: Vienna-based association and network for trans-disciplinary projects, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-20223, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-20223, 2025.

"Clouded Judgments" is an educational board game designed to deepen understanding of meteorological alert systems and the complexities of decision-making under uncertainty. Inspired by the weather alert framework used in Liguria, Italy, by the Regional Agency for the Environmental Protection of Liguria (ARPAL), the game introduces players to the probabilistic nature of forecasting and the challenges of managing uncertainty in predictions. Players navigate scenarios involving varying degrees of forecast reliability, balancing the risks of overestimating threats (leading to economic and social costs) and underestimating dangers (potentially compromising safety and lives).

Game mechanics include thematic card decks (e.g., "Atmospheric Events" and "Actions"), reliability tokens, resource tokens, and dice rolls to simulate probabilistic outcomes. Players begin with limited resources and must decide whether to invest in improving their forecasting reliability—by upgrading instrumentation or analysis tools—or to use action cards for immediate benefits. Measurements are conducted over successive days, represented by dice rolls, which determine the accuracy of weather data based on the players’ reliability levels. While uncertainty decreases as more data is collected, players must still interpret incomplete or contradictory information and issue an alert specifying its intensity, time of the day, and type. Correctly issued alerts reward resources, while underestimations incur penalties, simulating the societal and economic consequences of misjudged decisions. To avoid underestimations, players may adopt cautious strategies by overestimating threats, prioritizing safety but potentially incurring economic losses.

The game simulates the chaotic nature of atmospheric events, and the resource trade-offs faced in real-world forecasting. By immersing players in scenarios that require critical decision-making and risk management, "Clouded Judgments" allows students to experience the complexities of meteorological management firsthand, beyond theoretical knowledge.

Designed for educators and students, "Clouded Judgments" fosters critical thinking, engagement with meteorological concepts, and an understanding of uncertainty and risk management. By blending real-world analogies with interactive gameplay, the game connects scientific principles to practical applications, making it a valuable tool for teaching and outreach.

Future plans include classroom playtesting phases and outreach activities to evaluate the game’s educational impact and refine its mechanics. "Clouded Judgments" exemplifies how gamification can effectively bridge the gap between complex systems through which meteorological events are managed and public understanding, offering a novel approach to science education and decision-making training.

How to cite: Brusasco, L., Nardella, M., Vannini, S., and Lertora, N. C.: Clouded Judgments: An Educational Board Game for Teaching Meteorological Decision-Making Under Uncertainty, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-638, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-638, 2025.

Effective communication of flood risk and the importance of mitigation strategies is crucial to strengthen resilience in communities facing increasing climate challenges. Risky Rudi is an innovative, interactive card game designed to engage players in understanding the three dimensions of risk - hazard, vulnerability and exposure - while exploring the complexities of flood risk management decision-making.

Players act as mayors and are tasked with maintaining their city's resilience score with a limited amount of money. The game includes risk reduction cards categorized by hazard, vulnerability and exposure, each with a cost and effectiveness score (1-10). These cards simulate real-world actions such as developing infrastructure, installing early warning systems, improving education, etc.  Periodic flood events, whose intensities are determined by a dice roll,  request players to use these measures strategically.

Risky Rudi also includes funding cards, representing financial support, and obstruction cards, such as political influence or social inequality, to reflect systemic challenges in flood risk management. Joker cards, such as the climate scientist, provide an additional element to the game mechanics.

Through the game, participants gain insight into the interconnectedness of risk components, the cost-effectiveness of different interventions, and the socio-political barriers to implementation.

How to cite: Meyer, A. and Höller, P.: “Risky Rudi” – A Card Game for Communicating Flood Risk and Mitigation Strategies, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-953, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-953, 2025.

In today’s fast-paced digital world, scientific misinformation can spread rapidly. Civic science literacy—the ability to understand how scientific knowledge is developed and evolves—is an essential skill. This skill equips individuals to better grasp how scientific understanding changes over time and critically evaluate information presented in the media, a vital component of media literacy. This is particularly crucial in areas such as climate change science. However, key aspects of science literacy are challenging to convey effectively. With traditional education systems already tasked with numerous learning objectives, complex interdisciplinary topics like scientific literacy often receive insufficient attention.

Recognizing the need for innovative approaches, our project has developed a fun and educational board game to tackle science literacy called SCIBORG. This game primarily tackles the steps of the scientific method: observation, question, hypothesis, experiment, and conclusion. The game takes place over three phases: hypothesis, experiment, and conclusion. In each phase, players collect components such as “collect sufficient data” and “find collaboration partners” to earn points. Whoever has the most points over the three phases wins. The board game includes examples from a wide variety of scientific fields including ecology, physics, history, engineering, psychology, and medicine in order to highlight that these steps are applied across fields. Players have bonus cards with specific research goals such as “Build a robot” and “Mission to Mars!” that tackle interdisciplinary topics. Finally, chance cards are dealt after every phase such as “You have a scientific breakthrough” and “Your research proposal was rejected” to illustrate the uncontrollable factors in research.

The game was play-tested with various groups both inside and outside of the classroom. Pre- and post-questionnaires were given to the players to assess their understanding of the scientific method and their reaction to the game. The game is available both online and in a print and play format. We will present the idea behind the game, its mechanics, as well as our first evaluation results.

How to cite: Coulson, L. E., Lekkas, K., Morar, C., Matei, L., and Feldbacher, E.: SCIBORG: The Science Literacy Board Game, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-1625, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-1625, 2025.

Serious games are designed for purposes beyond entertainment, serving as powerful tools to address environmental challenges. They foster education, engagement, and behavioural change by offering immersive experiences that enable players, stakeholders, and decision-makers to understand complex issues and co-create solutions. However, for beginners, navigating the field of serious games can be difficult. To address this challenge, the Serious Games Cookbook was developed as a practical guide for beginners. It covers essential aspects of applying serious games, including setting objectives, selecting suitable games, and organising game sessions. The cookbook also provides guidance on designing serious games, addressing content development, game mechanics, player engagement, and techniques for influencing perspectives. This presentation will share insights into the development of the Serious Games Cookbook and demonstrate its potential to enhance our collective capacity to tackle environmental challenges.

How to cite: Mao, F.: Learning to address environmental challenges using serious games: A cookbook for beginners, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-3570, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-3570, 2025.

Science Hunters (1) is a programme of projects that has successful utilised the popular computer game Minecraft to engage children from under-represented backgrounds with geosciences, engineering and other related areas for the last decade (2). Projects use a defined approach which allows interest-led, constructive exploration of specific topics, which our research has shown can successfully increasing subject knowledge and understanding (3), while Minecraft can act to draw children to engaging with topics (4).

Since 2020, the Building to Break Barriers (5) and Engineering for Sustainable Societies (6) projects, supported by Royal Academy of Engineering Ingenious Awards, have used Minecraft to engage children with exploring the Sustainable Development Goals, developing a range of topics for children, mainly within a key target age range of 7-14 years, to explore. These were delivered as virtual and in-person sessions with schools and community groups, with related activity resources freely available on the project websites.

‘River management’ resources introduced information about rivers, flooding and resulting disruption, and the concept of river management for flood prevention including examples of both ‘hard’ structural measures and ‘soft’ natural approaches. ‘Natural Flood Management’ resources built upon these, to consider sustainable solutions and link explicitly to the SDGs, in particular SDGs 6 (Clean water and sanitation), 9 (Industry, innovation and infrastructure) and 11 (Sustainable cities and communities). Here, we outline our approach, outputs for supporting children to explore river management and sustainable solutions, and feedback from teachers, community group leaders and children.

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

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

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

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

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

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

How to cite: Hobbs, L., Behenna, S., and Clayson-Lavelle, P.: Engaging children with river and Natural Flood Management in Minecraft, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-3837, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-3837, 2025.

A vital aspect often missing in science communication for young adults and university students is the opportunity to make the concept of research tangible early in their studies. Scientific findings are frequently presented in a 'top-down' manner, leaving the methods and realities of research projects as abstract concepts. To address this gap, we have developed a role-playing game that places participants in the shoes of researchers planning a large-scale scientific collaboration. This approach aims to provide participants with a clear and practical understanding of how contemporary research operates, particularly within the context of large-scale collaborations.

In this game, participants first receive an introduction to the subject matter, such as climate science or atmospheric research. They are then provided with a "toolbox" of methods specific to the topic, each with associated costs in money and personnel. Each method can yield "research points," determined later by rolling dice. Working in teams of 3–5, participants select from a list of research questions and collaboratively devise a plan to allocate their resources effectively to answer their chosen question.

The game concludes with dice rolls determining the research points for each team, simulating the role of chance in scientific outcomes. This approach engages participants with the challenges of finite resources, the importance of strategic planning, and the realities of uncertainty in research.

The game has been successfully implemented at the LCOY 2024 Conference in Berlin and with a smaller group of students at the University of Mainz. Participants reported gaining valuable insights into the intricacies of active, cutting-edge research while finding the experience both engaging and educational. This game demonstrates the power of gamification in communicating the complexities of science in an interactive and impactful way.

How to cite: Schwenk, C. and Jeske, A.: Making Research more Tangible through Role-Playing: A Game-Based Approach to Understanding Large Scientific Collaborations, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-4274, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-4274, 2025.

Effectively communicating natural hazard risks to diverse audiences remains a critical challenge in fostering resilience. Safe Haven – Landslides, developed within the Horizon Europe The HuT project, is a tabletop serious game designed to enhance understanding and management of landslide risk through an engaging, interactive approach.

The game employs simple yet dynamic card-based mechanics to simulate real-world challenges associated with landslide hazard and risk. Participants need to manage the landslide risk in a region. During the game, they gain insights into the complex interplay of factors influencing landslide risk and explore effective mitigation strategies. Target audiences include high-school students, educators, and different stakeholders offering them a collaborative, interactive environment to discuss and experiment with risk management concepts.

Preliminary testing has demonstrated Safe Haven’s ability to foster engagement and improve participants’ awareness of landslide dynamics and mitigation strategies. Building on this success, the game has been adapted for other hazards, such as floods (Safe Haven – Floods), and further developments are underway to address heatwaves (Safe Haven – Heat Waves), broadening its relevance and impact.

This presentation will explore the design, implementation, and preliminary outcomes of Safe Haven – Landslides, illustrating how game-based approaches can serve as powerful tools for geoscience communication, education, and training.

How to cite: Gargiulo, M. V., Calvello, M., Oostwegel, L. J. N., and Rianna, G.:  Safe Haven – Landslides: A Serious Game for Enhancing Landslide Risk Awareness and Management, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-4526, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-4526, 2025.

Claims about the ‘power’ of games and simulations to slow the speed of climate change are sometimes exaggerated.  We have therefore embarked on a literature review of academic publications on the topic of simulation/gaming and climate change.  In our presentation, we will summarize the work so far.

As we write this abstract, we have identified over 400 items, some published in peer-reviewed journals, some in games conference proceedings, some in magazines or blogs.  We will therefore need to design careful inclusion/exclusion criteria, to have a pool of from 20 to 40 publications.

The types of publications vary widely: research on a particular game, tips on facilitating, overview of the role of games in climate education, use of simulation as a climate research tool, role-play of climate negotiations, necessity of debriefing, evaluation of climate games.  Types of games mentioned or examined also vary: board, online, computerized, single player, interactive, video, escape rooms and even gamification.

We hope that our review will be able to reveal a variety of elements, such as:

• the real potential and limits of games to influence climate education;
• how exaggerated the claims are about the power of climate games;
• what aspects of global warming are present in game publications and in games, e.g., carbon cycle, how GHGs actually 'heat' the planet, floods, hurricanes (and why), slowing of AMOC, role and acidification of the ocean;
• the use of debriefing in climate games.

Our aim is not to propose a taxonomy of climate, althiough categories of climate game types may emerge in the literature. 

[Please note that most ‘games’ related to climate change education are in fact simulations, often with game elements.  In keeping with the long tradition of simulation/gaming (dating back to the early pioneers, such as Duke, Greenblat, Guetzkow), we use the term game to refer to the whole spectrum of interactive events (Ken Jones’ term), from 100% simulation to hybrid simulation/games.]

If you are interested in contributing to this work, please come to see us at our poster, or contact us here oceans dot climate at gmail.

How to cite: Crookall, D., Blair, B., Promduangsri, P., Wellman, R., Krakovska, S., and Nguyen, U.-P. (.: Climate change games literature review: Report on work in progress, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-5211, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-5211, 2025.

How to cite: Faranda, D. and the and the ClimarisQ team: ClimarisQ: A game on the complexity of the climate systems and the extreme events, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-5808, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-5808, 2025.

Do you dare to enter the model land? Brave adventurers are sought to explore the mathematical depths of strange new worlds. Your quest will be full of uncertainty, unknowns, and potential misdirections. But the rewards for success are high! Only the wisest will emerge victorious, having uncovered some hidden secret of the universe or been shown tantalising glimpses of possible futures.

Numerical models are used to guide decision-making across almost every part of society, from weather forecasts to predicting flooding, from financial investments to managing outbreaks of disease. Whilst the models try to represent reality, or at least some aspect of it, they make assumptions, are forced into simplifications, and incorporate the biases of their creators and the data they use. Because of this, they create their own version of reality, a concept Thompson (2022) calls ‘model land’.

Adventures in Model Land invites you to bring these worlds to life and to go inside them. Inspired by tabletop roleplay games (TTRPG), we have created an open-source framework to guide you through the process of imagining a model land. Further levels in the framework help you create quests for groups of players to explore the model land, or to reshape existing games to play by the rules of your model. This process is intended to be an enjoyable way to engage with your models but can also lead to greater insights into their limitations and, crucially, their usefulness.

This poster will demonstrate the first level of the Adventures in Model Land framework and provide a link to the document. Members of the project team will be available to discuss your model lands and how you can get involved with the wider project.

Thompson, E., (2022). Escape from Model Land: How mathematical models can lead us astray and what we can do about it. Basic Books.

How to cite: Skinner, C., Thompson, E., Lewis, E., Hut, R., and Illingworth, S.: Adventures in Model Land, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-7032, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-7032, 2025.

Ice cores are a cornerstone of climate research, offering invaluable data on past atmospheric conditions to help us understand current climate change. The Beyond EPICA project seeks to recover a stratigraphically intact ice core from East Antarctica, capturing a record of atmospheric gases spanning 1.5 million years to study the mid-Pleistocene climate transition.

However, drilling ice cores in Antarctica is no easy feat. Fieldwork on the Antarctic Plateau is marked by extreme conditions and unexpected challenges—often humorous, sometimes frustrating, occasionally even catastrophic. Inspired by these real-life experiences and developed in Antarctica itself, Beyond EPICA: The Game invites players to step into the heart of this scientific adventure.

Designed for 2–8 players, the game combines strategy, teamwork, and resilience as players take on the roles of Beyond EPICA field participants. Players must navigate logistical and environmental obstacles to reach the Little Dome C drill site and complete their ice core—managing resources, overcoming setbacks, and maintaining mental stamina along the way. Action cards featuring real-world scenarios—such as equipment failures, harsh weather, and the trials of daily life—immerse players in the realities of Antarctic fieldwork. Modular rules allow for flexible gameplay, while card annotations provide deeper insights into the challenges of polar research.

Beyond EPICA: The Game serves as an engaging educational tool, offering players a hands-on understanding of the science, logistics, and human effort behind ice-core drilling. It provides an opportunity to explore the intersection of climate research and polar exploration, fostering curiosity and appreciation for geoscientific endeavors.

How to cite: Gerber, T. A., Bienville, N., Alemany, O., Ceinini, A., Dallmayr, R., Gay, I., Hüther, M., Joos, F., Koldtoft, I., Lawer, G., Lemburg, J., Mühl, M., Panichi, S., Possenti, P., Scoto, F., Veale, J., and Westhoff, J.: Beyond EPICA: The Game, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-8263, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-8263, 2025.

Educating people to safe behaviors and raising risk awareness are activities that are often considered among the most cost-effective measures to face geohazards. At the same time, game-based learning is an effective means to convey messages that persist in the mind of people and to reach different age groups.In this work we explain the game mechanics, and the reasons behind them, that we adopted to create a semi-competitive strategy boardgame named Dangers and Dwellers, where the players interpret up to 8 characters, each playing a different role in the disaster risk management of a fictional island frequently struck by floods, earthquakes and landslides.The game lasts for 6 turns, during which the island and its inhabitants must not go beyond a certain level of physical, economical and psychological damage. Each turn is divided into two phases: during the first phase the players must collectively debate on how and which of their unique abilities should be implemented. The players must manage a shared pool of resources to invest in risk prediction, mitigation or response. During the second phase, a geohazard hits the island and the damages are calculated according to the actions played during the first phase. Other than preserving the island and its people, each player has an individual goal, that under some circumstances may go against the general interest.We have spent a four-month period carrying out several playtests that were necessary to calibrate the difficulty and the duration of the game.  In the ever-challenging task of transmitting knowledge while at the same time being entertaining and engaging, we leaned toward the latter, by drawing from the mechanics of boardgames popular in the gamers’ community. Surprisingly, despite the game being initially targeted at adults and high-school students, we witnessed a marked interest in the game also by primary school students. The presence of a game master at every session ensured smooth gameplay, even among casual gamers and large groups.The playtest showed that the game mechanics successfully reproduce the dynamics of actual societies in front of natural hazards, and players must continuously make hard choices and face contradictions. In this way we aim to deliver important messages on disaster risk management both explicitly and implicitly.

How to cite: Intrieri, E., Segoni, S., Cardi, F., and Bandecchi, E.: Dangers and Dwellers: design and playtest of a semi-collaborative boardgame on sustainable management of geohazards, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-8564, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-8564, 2025.

One of the main aims of study programmes in physical geography and related subjects is to convey a deep understanding of earth surface processes. Practical constraints often force curriculum developers to stick to traditional learning formats, with limited options for the creations of innovative, exciting learning environments. We attempt to close this gap by creating a freely available physical geography computer game. The primary target audience will be bachelor students of geography and related subjects, but the environment will be flexible enough to be adapted for high schools, awareness-building towards geomorphic risks etc. it will be optimized for virtual reality experiences, but also useable with basic equipment (ordinary PCs and laptops, possibly mobile phones) in order to increase reach and accessibility. The game is developed with Unreal Engine 5.

The scene of the game is an 80 km x 80 km landscape featuring all major geomorphic landforms and biomes in a logical arrangement, from the equator to high latitudes, and from high mountains to the deep sea. Terrain elevation is scaled by 1:10, meaning that the highest mountains peak at roughly 900 m asl. Technically speaking, the gaming environment consists of six closely related elements: (i) terrain, created in GIS essentially through the interpolation of manually drawn contour lines; (ii) land cover, created mainly from materials, grass, and foliage available for Unreal Engine; (iii) processes (landslides, volcanic eruptions etc.); (iv) player movement through trails, roads, railways, air and water transport; (v) light and atmospheric conditions; and (vi) most importantly, a set of tasks and rewards.

The player will move through the landscape and guided through the tasks. Tasks will be related to each other, following a storyline, and will focus on gaining a deep understanding of earth surface processes in an exciting interactive way. Particular emphasis will be put on the understanding of spatial and functional relations, e.g. vegetation transects or connections between different geomorphic processes. Rewards will be awarded at important milestones along the storyline.

The proposed gaming environment is still in a very early phase of its first stage of development, in which components (i)–(iv) are implemented along with an initial set of tasks and rewards. This prototype is then intended to be exposed to the target audience, so that students are invited to add their own ideas and that the game will be gradually enhanced and improved. It will be made available to the public as soon as considered mature enough.

How to cite: Mergili, M. and Pfeffer, H.: A comprehensive physical geography game for virtual reality, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-10446, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-10446, 2025.

In 2024, we published QUARTETnary - the card game about the geological time scale with the help of almost 400 Kickstarter backers. In QUARTETnary, players collect sets of four cards belonging to a certain geological time unit with the aim of obtaining the most complete geological time line to win the game. Consisting of 60 beautifully illustrated and colourful cards, QUARTETnary has players explore all the important events in Earth’s history: from dinosaurs to humans and from the formation of the Alps to the formation of the Himalayas.

As of January 2025, all Kickstarter backers have received their games, meaning that people around the world are now starting to play QUARTETnary. This is an excellent opportunity to quantify QUARTETnary’s educational benefits and see how it fares as a tool for science education in addition to being a fun game to play. 

To quantify the educational benefits of playing QUARTETnary, we asked initial playtesters and Kickstarter backers to fill in a survey before playing QUARTETnary (118 respondents) and after playing QUARTETnary (35 respondents as of January 2025). The surveys assess players’ knowledge of the geological time scale and the history of the Earth through both self-assessment (“How much do you know about Earth’s history?”) and objective questions testing knowledge of specific events (“Which geological time period(s) ended with a major mass extinction?”) and the order of events (“What happened in the same time period during which the Sahara was formed?”). By comparing the results from the before and after playing QUARTETnary survey, we are able to assess if and how players’ knowledge on the history of the Earth improves through playing QUARTETnary. In addition, we gather subjective feedback through the surveys on what players think of QUARTETnary both in terms of being fun to play and as an educational tool. 

Our results show that the number of people who can correctly identify the colours of time periods increases from approximately 50% to 75% by playing QUARTETnary. In addition, the five time periods with mass extinctions are more often correctly identified with for example 31% of people correctly identifying the Ordovician as having ended with a mass extinction in the before survey and 60% of people doing so in the after survey. Overall, people enjoy playing QUARTETnary with 85% of respondents giving QUARTETnary an 8 out of 10 or higher. 

Note that our results are biased in terms of demographics, with a significant amount of respondents being highly educated (with over 41% having completed a PhD in the before survey) and already familiar with the nomenclature of the geological time scale (almost 50% of respondents give themselves a 7 out of 10 or higher when asked how familiar they are with the names of the geological time scale in the before survey). 

Looking towards the future, we will announce the rudimentary idea and timeline for the next game of The Silly Scientist. Just like QUARTETnary, our new game rocks! And yes, that is a hint for the theme of our next game…

How to cite: van Zelst, I., Peskens, R., and Perez-Diaz, L.: Quantifying QUARTETnary as a tool for science education, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-11714, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-11714, 2025.

Micropaleontology focuses on studying microscopic fossilized remains of organisms, typically smaller than two millimeters, such as Foraminifera and Ostracoda. Micropaleontology is vital for dating geologic records, reconstructing ancient environments, and monitoring modern ecosystems. Micropaleontological skills are also highly valued in industry, yet they are often omitted in undergraduate geology programs.

FossilSketch is an online educational software designed to facilitate learning of micropaleontology. It enhances the traditional lab-based micropaleontology classes and allows for active learning of microfossil identification through a combination of informational videos, exercises, and interactive mini-games. The student centered learning approach in FossilSketch is driven by providing scaffolding and immediate feedback to users. Analysis of classroom assessments showed that junior and senior geology majors who used FossilSketch were better able to understand the process of microfossil identification and achieve a correct identification than those who did not use FossilSketch (Stepanova et al., 2024).

Gamification in geosciences enhances learning by incorporating game-based elements, such as challenges, rewards, and interactive simulations, to engage students and improve their understanding of complex geological concepts. In FossilSketch, students interactively practice and  learn to recognize morphological features through mini-games that divide the identification process into smaller tasks before combining their skills to identify common genera or morphotypes. After learning to identify microfossils, students apply this knowledge to interpret microfossil assemblages and gain insight into various micropaleontology applications in research and industry. 

FossilSketch offers six engaging mini-games of varying difficulty, each designed to teach key morphological features of microfossils:

1. What microfossil is this?:

• Level 1: Sort specimens into three categories—Foraminifera, Ostracoda, and "Other."
• Level 2: Classify Foraminifera as planktonic or benthic.

2. Identify microfossil features:

• A game designed to help players identify key microfossil features by analyzing highlighted details in the images.

3. Foraminifera Chamber Arrangement Matching:

• For each of the three game rounds, students match four randomly selected Foraminifera images to the correct chamber arrangement card.

4. Foraminifera Morphotype Matching:

• A simplified classification game where students drag and drop Foraminifera images to match them with their overall test shape in three rounds of the game.

5. Ostracoda Valve Outline:

• Match images of ostracod valves with their corresponding outline cards by dragging and dropping in three rounds of the game.

6. Ostracoda Valve Orientation:

• Learn proper orientation of ostracod valves by rotating incorrectly oriented valves to align the dorsal side upwards in four rounds of the game.

Each game incorporates interactive elements to enhance learning and retention of microfossil morphology. For all games, students receive star ratings from zero to three based on how many rounds they completed correctly on the first attempt. In all the mini-games, students could advance to the next round only by submitting a correct answer. 

References:

Stepanova, A., Belanger, C., Anwar, S., Stanley, C., Nath, A., Cherian, J., & Hammond, T. (2024). Using the interactive software FossilSketch to teach micropaleontology to undergraduate students. Journal of Geoscience Education, 1-21.

How to cite: Stepanova, A., Belanger, C., Dabhi, U., Bajaj, D., Bhavsar, S., Bang, D., Anwar, S., and Hammond, T.: The use of educational games in micropaleontology: FossilSketch software to teach microfossil identification, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-14034, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-14034, 2025.

As a media artist, I inquire about climate science through artistic practice, software, and infrastructure studies, and I develop participatory methods to engage the public in climate simulation. In this presentation, I will discuss my artistic and theoretical research into the simple climate model Hector. This model emulates complex Earth System Models (ESM) and calculates temperature change based on the impact of various climate scenarios. The presentation will take the shape of a demo of what I have called a "climate engine", where I have replicated Hector's modelling system within the blueprint of a game engine (Unreal Engine). During this demo, I walk the public through the interface of Hector's climate engine to re-narrate the model's imaginary of climate futures. Finally, I will discuss the potential and limitations of mobilising climate models through artistic game practices to think otherwise about public engagement in climate actions.

How to cite: Legrand, G.: Hector's climate engine, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-17418, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-17418, 2025.

Climate services, encompassing information products such as weather forecasts and advisories, aim to support decision-making. However, the uptake of climate services remains limited despite advancements in data quality and quantity. Challenges to usability arise from inadequate recognition of local context, a lack of integration of local knowledge and insufficient actionable information for decision-making. Addressing these challenges requires approaches that emphasize the integration of diverse knowledge systems, beyond scientific knowledge, and foster continuous exchange between stakeholders. For climate services this means knowledge exchange and integration between climate service providers, purveyors, and end users.

In this research, we explore whether accessibility and perceived usability of climate information improve when local knowledge is integrated with scientific knowledge provided through seasonal forecasts, using serious gaming as a participatory tool. Our serious game, Farm or Fallow, simulates farming livelihoods based on insights from participatory research conducted in the Alazani River Basin, Georgia. The game is grounded in the climate service co-created to meet the needs of stakeholders in the Georgian Living Lab (as part of the I-CISK project) to ensure that the game is as realistic a representation as possible. This interactive framework enables users to engage with climate services that they have co-created while reflecting on their decision-making processes.

We present preliminary findings from gameplay sessions involving diverse climate service users, including stakeholders from the Georgian Living Lab. The study investigates how participants combine different knowledge systems during the playing of the game, and whether the experience enhances their ability to articulate the value of climate services from a user-centred perspective. These findings provide also insights into how serious gaming can be utilised as tool to enhance user capacities to understand, interpret and use weather and climate information, thereby encouraging uptake of climate services.

How to cite: Rastogi, S., Werner, M., and van Cauwenbergh, N.: Combining Knowledges and Co-Imagining the Use of Climate Services through Serious Gaming, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-17653, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-17653, 2025.

The Croatian Meteorological and Hydrological Service (DHMZ) has embraced innovative game-based approaches to engage diverse audiences and raise awareness about meteorology and climate change. Our primary initiatives, Meteo memory and Pub Quiz Cards, integrate gamification with scientific communication to create meaningful and interactive experiences.

Meteo memory is a custom-designed memory game that incorporates atractive meteorological photographs and "Show Your Stripes" graphics, a widely recognized symbol of climate change. By matching pairs of cards, players learn about meteorological phenomena and the realities of climate change in an engaging and approachable manner. This game has been used in multiple contexts: as promotional material for clients, and as an interactive activity at science communication gatherings and events. The tactile and visual nature of the game has proven to be effective in stimulating conversations and educating audiences ranging from school children to policymakers.

Our second initiative, Pub Quiz Cards, challenges participants to answer meteorology, hydrology, air quality and climate-related questions in a fun and competitive format. These cards not only test knowledge but also encourage learning through playful interaction. Designed for diverse user groups, the quiz cards provide a deeper understanding of scientific topics while maintaining an entertaining and accessible format. The incorporation of real-world meteorological, hydrological and air quality data and questions rooted in everyday weather experiences enhances their relevance and appeal.

These initiatives have demonstrated the power of games as tools for public engagement, fostering curiosity, and sparking conversations about meteorology, hydrology, air quality and climate resilience. By integrating play with education, DHMZ has successfully reached audiences across generations, transforming complex scientific information into relatable and memorable experiences.

This presentation will showcase the development, deployment, and impact of Meteo memory and our Pub quiz cards, emphasizing their role in fostering environmental literacy and resilience.

How to cite: Špoler Čanić, K.: Engaging Minds Through Play: Gamified Tools for Climate and Weather Education, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-19133, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-19133, 2025.

“A life-threatening asteroid is approaching Earth. Mission AVERT, designed to deflect it from its trajectory, is ready to launch – if only the missing launch codes can be recovered in time...”

Interactive games offer an innovative approach to geoscience outreach, fostering curiosity and learning through hands-on challenges. With Mission AVERT, we created a multimedia geoscience-themed escape room game designed for 13 - 14-year-olds to explore geoscience concepts in an engaging and accessible format. Inspired by NASA’s DART mission, students solve puzzles encrypting the mission’s launch codes to deflect a life-threatening asteroid from colliding with Earth.

Mission AVERT showcases the diverse and essential role of geoscience in addressing real-world challenges. Its puzzles cover a broad spectrum of geoscience topics, including earthquakes, climate change, planetary science, and scientific policy communication. Solving them requires teamwork and a variety of skills – ranging from mathematics and physics to language, creativity, and keen observation – ensuring that every student can contribute meaningfully based on their individual strengths. By featuring students and staff from Imperial College London in video messages, Mission AVERT offers young participants relatable role models working and conducting research in geoscience. Comprised of an interactive website, videos, and paper-based puzzles, it integrates seamlessly into classrooms, with little setup or preparation required.

Here, we will explore the design process, educational objectives, and preliminary feedback and lessons learned from our first classroom implementation. We discuss how escape rooms like Mission AVERT can spark an interest in geoscience while equipping students with problem-solving and teamwork skills.

How to cite: Locher, V., Kanimova, E., Johnson, E., Leibowitz, Z., and Zhao, J.: Mission AVERT: A Geoscience Escape Room, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-19303, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-19303, 2025.

Various contemporary developments, such as changes in water demand and availability due to climate and demographic change, are challenging for water utilities. Raising awareness regarding these issues is essential not only for the general public but also for students in classrooms.
The EWA tool, a free online tool (available at https://sww-ewa.tugraz.at/) aimed at developing optimal designs for water supply systems under uncertain water demand availability, has been equipped with a flexible gamification system to support teachers and educators with this task. The tool provides a user-friendly interface through which hydraulic models can be uploaded, simulated, and optimized for different scenarios. It calculates performance indicators such as demand coverage or the number of unsupplied nodes to enable well-founded planning.
The embedded gamification system allows users to create realistic “challenges” that reflect complex water supply problems with a challenge editor. The generated challenges can be combined with custom models to provide a playful approach to problem-solving tailored to specific water supply systems. Success in challenges is rewarded with prizes, reinforcing the learning content and making planning an intuitive experience. 
Students can solve individual challenges, such as a challenge where the population in a future area is growing, and the water supply systems need to be expanded to supply all nodes adequately. Tasks can also be created for varying operational conditions, such as fire situations or system failures.
The tool's simulation and gamification approaches make it an ideal teaching tool. Students, in particular, can use practical scenarios to better understand the complexities of water supply. At the same time, the tool promotes awareness of future challenges as users can see the impact of demographic and climate change on the systems.
Through this combination of strategic planning, gamification, and knowledge transfer, the EWA tool makes a valuable contribution to students' education and awareness in the classroom. It not only makes the complex requirements for a resilient water supply comprehensible but also conveys them in an engaging and interactive way.

How to cite: Arbesser-Rastburg, G., Stelzl, A., Adler, V., Camhy, D., Pirker, J., and Fuchs-Hanusch, D.: Integrating the EWA Tool into Teaching and Raising Awareness of Water Supply Challenges, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-19579, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-19579, 2025.

Fieldwork is an essential part of geoscience education, offering hands-on experience in observing and analyzing geological formations. However, participation in fieldwork is often limited by logistical, physical or financial constraints, excluding many students from this critical component of their education. To address this, we present an innovative project that leverages digital technology to create an inclusive virtual fieldwork experience, utilizing Unreal Engine 5 to simulate the practices of geoscientists in an immersive and interactive environment.

The core of the project involves the use of photogrammetry to capture and digitize real-world geological outcrops (RBVR: reality-based virtual reality) and transforming high-resolution models into game-ready 3D assets. These assets are integrated into an Unreal Engine 5 framework, enabling users to explore realistic representations of real geological sites. Unreal Engine 5’s visualization capabilities, such as Nanite and Lumen, are employed to deliver visual fidelity to enhancing the sense of immersion.

In addition to its visual realism, the platform incorporates gameplay mechanics and interactive functions that emulate authentic geoscientific practices, for example collection of field equipment, safety standards and measurement of discontinuity orientations. These features provide students with a simulated fieldwork experience, fostering skill development and comprehension of key concepts in geology.

This project demonstrates the potential of immersive technologies to complement geoscience education by broadening accessibility and expanding the subsequent processing of the field work. By offering a virtual environment in addition to traditional fieldwork, our platform not only addresses barriers to participation but also provides a scalable and customizable solution for a wide range of educational settings. This approach underscores the transformative role of technology in creating equitable and inclusive learning environments for future geoscientists.

How to cite: Seiling, A.-D., Pastaschuck, R., Duda, M., Bartmann, K., and Backers, T.: GeoVis: Developing an immersive educational tool using Unreal Engine 5, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-20783, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-20783, 2025.

This work examines the extent and form in which uncertainty of Extreme Event Attribution (EEA) results is best communicated to stakeholders. To achieve this, we develop communication materials in both text and graphics and test them for accuracy and accessibility through guided interviews with scientists and stakeholders.

Extreme weather events pose significant challenges for human civilization. Climate change can influence both the intensity and probability of specific extreme weather events, such as heatwaves or heavy rainfall. EEA has become an established tool to answer public questions about the contribution of climate change to such events. However, the results of EEA studies are often accompanied by considerable uncertainties. Communication of results, including an accessible representation of uncertainty, is therefore a fundamental necessity in this field of research, extending beyond the general effort to make scientific findings accessible to the public. Media representatives, who often bridge the gap between attribution scientists and the public, are therefore key stakeholders in this research.

We present the current state of research on communicating uncertainties in this field and outline our iterative approach to working with attribution scientists and media representatives alike to determine what should be communicated and how to communicate it effectively. Finally, we evaluate which communication materials are both relevant and accessible, and we reflect on the lessons learned for future communication efforts concerning EEA results.

This study is part of ClimXchange, which aims to enhance the usability of climate science for societal stakeholders. ClimXchange is embedded within the ClimXtreme research consortium, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), which focuses on extreme weather events in the context of climate change.

How to cite: Knauf, J., Zimmermann, T., Schröter, J., Tivig, M., and Kreienkamp, F.: Communicating uncertainty in extreme event attribution to the media, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-2164, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-2164, 2025.

Skilful weather forecasts help users make sound decisions when faced with potentially hazardous climatic conditions. However, this beneficial result may be reduced or negated in the absence of an effective communication of forecast uncertainty. On average, forecast skill improves for shorter lead times, which implies that we expect differences between successive forecasts. While there is a vast literature on the communication and visualisation of weather forecast uncertainty, little attention has been dedicated to communicating forecast changes to non-specialist audiences. Nonetheless, this is a key dimension of forecast uncertainty, and there are several user cases in which providing information about possible future changes in weather forecasts can improve their use.

An illustrative example is the situation in which a user has to decide whether to act now or wait for the next forecast. This can be as simple as a professional deciding whether to drive or not to a client on a day for which extremely heavy rainfall is forecasted, potentially leading to flash flooding. Cancelling well-ahead of time makes rescheduling easier, yet the forecast has a larger chance of being wrong. Cancelling on short notice minimises the chance of a false alarm, but poses greater logistical challenges for both the professional and the client. Something as simple as knowing how often the later forecast is better – for example knowing that 9 times out of 10 a heavy rainfall forecast issued one day ahead is better than one issued 5 days ahead – can qualitatively help the non-specialist users in this fictitious example to make a more informed decision.

In this contribution, we consider a variety of cases in which information on forecast changes may be of value. We then present a set of easily interpretable metrics making information on such changes accessible to non-specialist users.

How to cite: Messori, G., Jewson, S., and Scher, S.: Communicating uncertainty in weather forecasts: the role of forecast changes, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-4471, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-4471, 2025.

Whether its memories of a cold, frosty Christmas or an August bank holiday beach trip interrupted by rain, many cultural, sporting, and social events in the United Kingdom have strong associations with particular weather conditions. As the average global temperature increases, the impacts of a changing climate are likely to be felt across many aspects of British life, including in the public’s experiences of these popular events. Several recent works conducted by the UK Met Office have sought to make the local day-to-day impacts of climate change more understandable for the public by exploring likely climatic conditions of popular events by the 2050s. These works have received strong engagement from the public, demonstrating the demand for relevant and understandable climate information.

We serve this demand by using the 2018 UK Climate Projections (UKCP18) and HadUK-Grid observations data to evaluate how climate change will affect the climatology of a diverse range of British social, cultural, and sporting events. To explore and communicate the uncertainties in UKCP18 due to inherent model biases, several bias correction methods are applied to the data and the resulting data is analysed together to give an improved uncertainty range. The research will focus on assessing changes to temperature variables at global warming levels of 1.5°C and 3.0°C to illustrate these two future scenarios and the uncertainty within each scenario.

We will show that some events are likely to have a significantly altered climatology which is likely to substantially change the nature of these events or force them to change when they occur during the year to give the best chance of having favourable climatic conditions. By assessing the impact of climate change on popular British events such as the London Marathon and Glastonbury Festival the findings of this research will prove useful in communicating the impacts of climate change in a way which will resonate with the British public.

How to cite: Woods, L., Pope, J., and Fung, F.: Impacting on our Lives: Using British sports and culture to explain uncertainty in climate projections, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-9081, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-9081, 2025.

Flood frequency analysis is a cornerstone of hydrologic studies, providing a probabilistic framework to relate the magnitude of extreme events to their frequency of occurrence. This methodology is critical for designing flood-related infrastructure, conducting economic evaluations of flood control projects, and delineating floodplains. However, its utility depends heavily on data quality, model selection, and parameter estimation, each of which introduces uncertainties that become especially significant for rare events.

This presentation will address key sources of uncertainty, including model choice, parameter inference methods, and sample size limitations. Strategies for incorporating these uncertainties into engineering practice are discussed, with an emphasis on probabilistic representations and innovative design approaches. An exceptional flood, a "black swan" event, is used to illustrate the paradox of increased uncertainty despite improved information. This case underscores the importance of expanding flood analyses through historical records, regionalization, and causal modeling, particularly in the context of a changing climate.

The presentation will be designed to foster cross-discipline exchange in the quantification of uncertainty in Earth Sciences.

How to cite: Viglione, A.: Flood Frequency Hydrology: Navigating Uncertainty in Flood Design, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-11466, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-11466, 2025.

Two-dimensional (2D) images are often used to communicate the results of scientific investigations and predictions. Examples are weather maps, earthquake hazard maps and MRI slices. In contrast to statistical analyses of individual variables or time series, there are currently no established methods for visualizing the uncertainties in the 2D images. However, this would be necessary to make the information in the 2D images clear to scientists as well as to the non-expert public audiences in order to avoid misinterpretation and over-interpretation.

In this study, we demonstrate the challenges and approaches to uncertainty visualization using the case study of drought forecasting, which is relevant for climate adaptations and mitigations. A drought is a deviation (anomaly) from the parameter value expected from long-term data. In our case, the parameter under consideration is soil moisture, which is an important parameter for various environmental processes. The soil moisture can be used in combination with soil type to estimate the amount of water available to plants in the topsoil. If the amount of water available to plants according to the so-called percentile approach deviates significantly from the value expected from long-term data, this is referred to as an agricultural drought.

The drought forecast is based on ensemble modelling. This means that the results of various weather forecast models are used to predict the development of soil moisture for the period of the weather forecast. For each weather model used, a possible soil moisture development is predicted. Each of these is used for a drought forecast. The result of the ensemble modelling is therefore several forecasts, which can differ significantly. Due to the use of different weather models and the consideration of uncertainties in the models, the result of ensemble modelling is therefore a large number of drought forecast maps. When visualising the results, often only a map of the mean values resulting from the predictions is shown. If only the mean value is displayed, however, the information about a possible difference and thus the uncertainty of the predictions is lost. In other words: If individual cases from the ensemble predict the possibility of drought, this will not be clearly visible in the mean value map.

In this presentation, we will demonstrate and discuss different approaches to visualize the uncertainty in the prediction.

How to cite: Dietrich, P., Najafi, H., Pelzer, M., and Mohadjer, S.: Visualization of uncertainties in 2D images, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-13135, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-13135, 2025.

Uncertainties are an unavoidable part of scientific research. Practical limits with regard to the number, accuracy and precision of available observations as well as limitations in terms of methodological accuracy and modelling contribute to the fact that even the most elaborate and meticulous forecasts can never be deterministic and no completely reliable and accurate predictions for decision-making can be achieved. In concrete applications, a sufficient understanding of the accuracy and reliability of scientifically based predictions is important, for example in disaster prevention or resource planning. For example, natural hazard maps are primarily intended for those who have the necessary expertise to understand them. However, they are also used in their unaltered form by non-experts for decision-making, many of whom are unfamiliar with the scientific background and implications of the map.

We address this problem using an earthquake hazard map which can be relevant to non-expert audiences when seeking advice on purchasing a house or obtaining insurance. In order to understand how non-experts perceive a scientifically compiled earthquake hazard map, we conducted an online survey with 229 participants. This was done as part of the 2024 Science & Innovation Days (a public engagement event) in Tübingen, Germany. Participants were asked about their first impression of the map in terms of information content, any need for further explanation and possible actions to take. Other questions assessed participants’ previous experiences and self-assessment of hazard perceptions.

In this presentation, we will discuss the survey results and share lessons learned when communicating information that contains uncertainty with non-expert audiences.

How to cite: Dietrich, P., Dietrich, M., Pelzer, M., and Mohadjer, S.: Non-expert understanding of hazard maps: Insights from an online survey, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-13260, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-13260, 2025.

Working with environmental data means dealing with complex processes, limited data (in space and/or time) and the impossibility of setting up controlled experiments, leading to uncertain predictions of system behaviour.

In the field of statistical hydrology, many efforts have been made during the last decades to provide methods to quantify uncertainty, but the common practice of infrastructure design has not yet incorporated them. This may be due to several reasons, including the complexity of the methods, which are often difficult to apply in most everyday cases, and regulations that "favour" well-established requirements.

Here we present the "uncertainty compliant design flood estimator" (UNCODE) method, which accounts for aleatory uncertainty in the estimation of the design flood value. The method provides a corrected design value and is easy to use for practical purposes as simplified formulae are provided to quantify the correction factor. However, in addition to its practical application, it can also be used to compare different models with different levels of uncertainty and to highlight the "cost" of uncertainty.

Finally, its mathematical formulation allows a direct link to be made between the classical approach to hydrological design, based on a fixed hazard level (or return period), and a risk-based design approach, which is widely recognised as a more flexible method but is not usually included in regulations.

How to cite: Ganora, D.: Uncertainty in flood frequency analysis and its implications for infrastructure design, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-15189, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-15189, 2025.

Maps are the most commonly used means of visualizing and communicating natural hazard information to support decisions about risk mitigation. They are a product of hazard assessment studies which involve different input parameters with uncertainties relevant to decision making. This process is further complicated by the subjective uncertainties that arise in the audience when confronted with the visualization of hazard information. 

Natural hazard maps are primarily designed to be used by experts, but they are also used in their unaltered form to communicate with non-experts, many of whom are unfamiliar with the map’s scientific background and implications. Previous studies focus mainly on evaluating such maps with expert groups (e.g., directly involved stakeholders and authorities), with less attention on non-experts (e.g., the public audiences) who are confronted with these maps before purchasing a house, getting insurance or making other critical decisions. 

To address this gap, our study investigates how well hazard maps are understood and interpreted by non-expert audiences. We tested two earthquake hazard maps of Germany that differ in color palettes (rainbow vs. colorblind-friendly and perception-optimized yellow-orange-red-brown color palettes) and data classification schemes (algorithmic Fisher vs. quasi-logarithmic classification schemes). We showed both maps to 20 non-expert participants during the 2024 Science & Innovation Days (a public engagement event) in Tübingen, Germany. Participants answered map-reading and hazard perception questions (e.g., participants were asked to read off the hazard level for a given city, and to compare hazard levels between for a pair of cities) while their eye movements were monitored with eye-tracking software. 

To identify if either map improved map reading and hazard perception, participants’ responses were scored, analyzed and compared using a two-sample Mann–Whitney U and Fisher’s Exact tests. In general, the differences detected in participants’ responses were not statistically significant, perhaps due to the small sample size. Still, we observed that nearly all participants who used the redesigned map (8 out of 9) correctly read the hazard level for a city while only 33% (3 out of 9 participants) who used the rainbow color map responded correctly.

Eye-tracking data were used to analyze focus-metrics. Composite heatmaps accumulating the duration of eye fixations of all participants indicate that their eye movements were focused more on the high hazard zones and the corresponding values shown on map legend when answering questions using a hazard map redesigned to use best practices for hazard perception.

To quantify these differences, the ratio of fixations on high-hazard zones to total fixations on the map were calculated for both map versions. The data were tested for normality and the statistical significance of the differences were evaluated using Independent Samples t-tests for equal variances. While the results were not statistically significant, participants viewing the redesigned map showed a greater number of fixations on high-hazard zones compared to the participants viewing the original map, with a moderate effect size. We note tendencies in the data that encourage the repetition of the experiment with a larger sample size.

How to cite: Mohadjer, S., Ergün, G., Mutz, S. G., Schneider, M., Schürmann, T., Pelzer, M., and Dietrich, P.: Non-Expert Understanding of Hazard Maps: An Eye-Tracking Study , EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-17779, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-17779, 2025.

A presentation of emerging themes and lessons learnt from examples of best practice in uncertainty quantification and communication relevant to climate services.  Drawn from existing literature and reports, and from a community engagement workshop.

• Consider the climate risks that are of most concern to the audience. 
• Use language the audience is familiar with (don’t say uncertainty).
• The precision of uncertainty information should be relevant to the situation.
• Understand existing narratives about climate uncertainty.
• Use communication about uncertainty to build trust.
• Be aware of deep uncertainty.

Standardised approaches to uncertainty communication should consider not only the climate science component, but also the complexities regarding socio-economic vulnerability.

Climateurope2, is a Horizon Europe project with a consortium of 33 parties from 13 countries that includes intergovernmental institutions such as the World Meteorological Organisation, social sciences, humanities and STEM expertise, assurance providers, SMEs, and standardisation bodies. Together we are building a community of practice for the standardisation and support of climate services.

How to cite: Pascoe, C., Dankers, R., Domingo, X., and Pagé, C.: Don't say uncertainty: preliminary best practices and emerging themes for uncertainty quantification and communication in climate services from the Climateurope2 project., EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-18364, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-18364, 2025.

The recent COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need to effectively communicate forecasts and their uncertainty. This is especially important if the aim is to minimize the risk of misinformation and poorly-informed decision-making. Both the IPCC and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction have identified risk communication, complexity and uncertainty as major challenges to decision-making, and call for better understanding of how existing risk communication practices are perceived by those affected and those making decisions.

Despite these calls, many geoscientists, especially early career researchers, lack opportunities to discuss scientific uncertainty and explore ways to communicate uncertainty to different audiences, including the non-scientific publics. To address this demand, we organize the international training school “Understanding the Unknowns: Communicating Uncertainty as a Driving Force for Geosciences”, which is co-sponsored by the EGU and set to take place at the University of Tübingen in Germany from March 17 to 19, 2025. This in-person, three-day training school aims to equip Early Career Researchers with knowledge and skills needed to effectively account for and communicate uncertainty in geosciences with their peers as well as public audiences.

Some of the biggest challenges of training programs on uncertainty relate to the interdisciplinary nature of the concept: understanding and effectively communicating uncertainties requires knowledge and skill sets typically taught and researched across a range of diverse fields. Highlighting this interdisciplinary background, we combine insights from geoscientific uncertainty assessment and outputs (e.g., maps, interpretations, models, simulations, time series) with approaches from (visual) rhetoric, science communication, presentation research, and multimedia competence. 

Building on existing good practice, the training strives to equip geoscientists with the tools and skills they need to communicate uncertainty, help reduce misinformation, and enhance future decision-making. This will be done collaboratively through an interdisciplinary partnership between the Department of Geosciences, the Research Center for Science Communication at the Department of General Rhetoric, and Global Awareness Education at the University of Tübingen. The new approaches and exercises developed for this training will not only be practically applied in the training school, but also reflected and evaluated, including a pre-workshop survey addressing expectations and needs identified by the participants and a concluding qualitative evaluation.

In this presentation, we will discuss our multifaceted practices and strategies applied to foster skills in communicating uncertainty in geosciences, present the results of the accompanying survey and evaluation used in this training, and conclude with lessons learned and best practices recommended to further develop similar opportunities in the future.

How to cite: Pelzer, M., Dietrich, P., and Mohadjer, S.: Fostering Skills in Communicating Uncertainty in the Geosciences: a review of concepts, strategies and approaches applied in the training school “Understanding the Unknowns: Communicating Uncertainty as a Driving Force for Geosciences”, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-18655, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-18655, 2025.

Sub-seasonal weather forecasting is notoriously difficult, particularly for the extra-tropics. Predictions must be probabilistic, and from weeks 3 or 4 onwards forecast distributions are often very close to model-climate distributions. Together, these facts make conveying a meaningful forecast to customers extremely difficult, and those forecasts are then very vulnerable to misinterpretation. Standard map-based graphical output can show little more than whether the forecast mean is for average, or above average or below average conditions – ostensibly a 3-category classification. And indeed “average” in this scheme can be interpreted variously as a genuine forecast of average, or a “no-signal” prediction, which cannot both be right.

So ECMWF is working towards a new two-layer brand of map-based sub-seasonal forecast products, that succinctly represent both the mean anomaly and the forecast uncertainty. We plan to call these “quantile-based weekly guidance maps”. The overarching aim has been to exploit much better than hitherto the information content of the sub-seasonal forecast system in a compact format. Once these first go public they will be classed as an “experimental product”. We hope for wide-ranging uptake, providing greater outreach for our forecasts than hitherto, to benefit multiple sectors of society.

The new graphical output can be summarised in a 3-by-3 matrix form where one dimension represents the mean anomaly and the other relative spread. So for example a mean anomaly around zero can either represent a high confidence, narrow distribution forecast of average conditions (a true forecast of “average”), or more commonly a no-signal forecast where forecast and climate distributions are much the same (= “we don’t know”), or less often an odd scenario in which forecast spread exceeds climate spread (= “very uncertain indeed”). The graphical versions of the new system, and the 9 classes, will be demonstrated using real ECMWF forecast examples. These will highlight how translating appropriately chosen mathematical metrics into suitable graphics, and on into plain language text, can lie at the heart of successful uncertainty communication. Clear documentation for users is another key requirement.

How to cite: Hewson, T.: Making Uncertainty in Sub-seasonal Weather Forecasts Intelligible, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-19375, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-19375, 2025.

How to cite: Stepanovic, J., Claes, S., and Sermeus, J.: Immersed in Uncertainty: Discussing Uncertainty in Science in a Planetarium, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-21809, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-21809, 2025.

Anatolia is a geography that has experienced major natural disasters from ancient times to decay due to its geological location. In this context, Anatolia has always attracted the attention of researchers. The earthquakes that occurred in 6 provinces of Turkey, namely Anatolia, on February 6, 2022, and caused great loss of life and property, the re-emergence of the earthquake explosion in Anatolia. We, archaeologists, have been exposed to major earthquakes and climates from ancient times to decay, and situations that can be defined as natural have caused great losses. The Hittites, Assyrians, Hellenes, Romans, and societies before and after these civilizations, who continued their existence in Anatolia in ancient times, suffered great material and spiritual losses as a result of natural disasters experienced in the geography of Anatolia, and the ancient geological and climatological documentation of Anatolia has been documented. This is possible, the earthquakes and climatic conditions that occurred in Anatolia from ancient times to decay and are included in historical records due to its service location will be included, and it will be discussed how these earthquakes and climatic events will end archaeological settlements in ancient times and today.

How to cite: Yüksel Özer, F.: Natural disasters that occurred in ancient times in Anatolia and the damage they caused to ancient settlements, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-1907, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-1907, 2025.

Architectural heritage in the African context, as a domain of cultural heritage, frequently encounters substantial obstacles for conservationists and custodians due to the lack of fully documented current conditions or as-built blueprints, which serves as the initial obstacle. Most architectural heritage buildings constructed prior to and during the colonial era lack documentation; traditional heritage structures were created through generational knowledge, while colonial buildings were built using imported knowledge, which largely dissipated after independence.
The second primary difficulty is the absence of documented social narratives pertaining to these heritage buildings. Numerous heritage buildings in Africa has profound cultural significance that is gradually being eroded owing to insufficient recording. This essay will introduce a prototype project in Porto-Novo, Benin, wherein the author utilizes local social engagement and digital technologies to chronicle Afro-Brazilian or Aguda architecture, a vanishing architectural heritage in Benin. Afro-Brazilian architecture is a construction style created by formerly enslaved Africans who resettled in the Bight of Benin countries following the abolition of slavery in Brazil. This settlement developed a distinctive architectural style that amalgamated Brazilian and native African influences, particularly Yoruba, significantly affecting the urban morphology of Benin.
The project utilizes LiDAR scanning, photogrammetry, and geolocation technologies to digitize heritage structures and develop interactive immersive interfaces that facilitate engagement with and access to this valuable architectural heritage.

H. Killion Mokwete is Assistant Professor at Northeastern and UK-trained and registered Architect (RIBA-chartered Architect & Urban Designer) and Co-Founder of the community-based design startup Social Impact Collective (SIC). He teaches various design studios both at undergraduate and graduate level and is currently undertaking multidisciplinary research initiative in Benin with local historians at the Ecole du Patrimoine Africain - School of African Heritage (EPA), Benin, Porto-Novo.

How to cite: Mokwete, H.: Digitizing Afro Brazilian Architectural Heritage buildings in Benin through LiDAR technology and social participation, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-2907, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-2907, 2025.

How to cite: Barco, L., Chiriaco, G., Monopoli, T., Arnaudo, E., and Rossi, C.: From Polygon to Prediction: A Request-Driven Architecture for Disaster Mapping and Impact Assessment , EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-4316, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-4316, 2025.

Extreme weather events driven by climate change, such as floods and droughts, are damaging the structural stability of historic buildings in Central Germany by causing moisture retention and soil desiccation. The alternating wet and dry periods lead to cracks in walls and subsidence from falling groundwater levels. Understanding the impact of these conditions on regional groundwater dynamics and building materials is crucial as droughts and floods are expected to increase in the coming years.
As part of this study, three geoelectric field campaigns with a total of 17 profiles are being carried out between April 2024 and April 2025 at five different field sites of monuments in the federal states of Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt. For investigating seasonal and weather-dependent fluctuations in groundwater conditions, transient trends are observed by repeated electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) measurements. These provide insights into hydrological changes in the subsoil, and thus information on how weather events can affect different layers of the soil as well as foundation structures. In addition to the geoelectrical investigations, 14 groundwater wells are being drilled to a depth of around 10 m to monitor the fluctuations in the groundwater level over time. Furthermore, complementary laboratory tests are being conducted to characterize the soil properties, allowing a reliable interpretation of the ERT inversion results.
Preliminary results indicate that layers down to 25 m depth can be affected by weather-dependent variations in resistivity, depending on the hydraulic properties of the soil material at the respective site. Despite the elevated precipitation during the summer months of June and July, the topsoil underwent significant drying by November 2024, leading to a reduction in the groundwater level and subsequent saturation of the deeper soil layers. Ongoing continuous measurements shall provide further insights.

How to cite: Lehmann, W., Römhild, L., Gossel, W., and Bayer, P.: Historic buildings under the impact of climate change: insights from geoelectric field monitoring, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-4438, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-4438, 2025.

The Mediterranean Sea has a long record of cultural heritage sites located near its coast, reflecting each nation’s historical continuum and identity. These monuments also attract tourism and provide financial benefits to local communities. However, they are subject to structural damage and decay exacerbated by climate-change-related phenomena including extreme weather events, sea-level rise, etc. Sea Level Rise (SLR) is a major threat to coastal heritage sites as it can  lead to extensive inundation and soil erosion. SLR projections are constructed by studying representative pathway scenarios (RCP), which try to deliver possible alternatives about the future atmospheric composition.  SLR has escalated from an average of 1. 2 mm/year before 1990 to 3 mm/year between 1993 and 2010, with projections indicating a rise of 1–2 meters by 2100 across different scenarios.

The ongoing Triquetra Project, funded by the European Union, aims to design a toolbox for assessing and mitigating climate-related risks and natural hazards, expected to affect Heritage Sites. A methodology has been developed to evaluate future exposure of coastal heritage sites SLR in EU Mediterranean Countries. This workflow uses open-access data to produce SLR projection maps for 2050 and 2100 based on the IPCC (2019) report for RCP 2.6, 4.5, and 8.5. Four main sources of data were used: a hybrid coastline vector file combining national fine-scale datasets with the European Environment’s Agency (EEA) coastline file, FABDEM as the primary source of elevation information,  the European Ground Motion Vertical Service’s (EGMS) L3 product which measures vertical ground movements using Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (InSAR) data from the Sentinel-1 mission, and, finally, NASA’s Sea Level Projection Tool which provides information on all RCP scenarios. Coastal Heritage Sites and Assets were identified using OpenStreetMap and UNESCO’s Word Heritage Site point layer.

The pre-processing stage of the algorithm involves the projection of all datasets into a common coordinate reference system, the clipping of the data into the area of interest (AOI), defined as a 2km buffer zone from the coastline, and the conversion of EGMS and NASA’s SLR data units to meters. The algorithm proceeds with raster calculations to determine the AOI’s elevation for the target years 2050 and 2100 under different RCP scenarios by adding the elevation values to the EGMS data and subtracting NASA’s SLR projected values. Raster calculations and Boolean algebra are performed to identify sub-areas affected by these scenarios. Finally, spatial queries are conducted to find coastal heritage sites at risk from Sea Level Rise, organized by monument type and country for vulnerability assessment.

The results demonstrate that Greece, France, and Italy are expected to be more affected by SLR phenomena due to their extensive coastline and unique geomorphology, with the impact being more severe on Greece and Italy between 2050 and 2100. Finally, more than 240 heritage sites appear to be at risk primarily on the Greek and Italian coast, including UNESCO sites like Delos, the Medieval City of Rhodes, et al.

How to cite: Chalkidou, S., Georgiadis, C., Roustanis, T., and Patias, P.: Assessing the Exposure of Coastal Cultural Heritage Sites to Sea Level Rise Phenomena in the EU Mediterranean Countries using open access data, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-4992, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-4992, 2025.

Climate change is one of the biggest threats to cultural and natural heritage across marine and coastal ecosystems. Multiple risks interact, cascade, and/or compound broader environmental, socio-economic, and cultural impacts on tangible (places, structures, ecosystems, etc.) and intangible heritage attributes (values, socio-economic activities, etc.). These risks arise from exposure, vulnerability, and responses to such impacts. For example, the physical materiality and integrity of underwater cultural properties are threatened by changes in water temperatures and acidity levels, compounded by extreme weather events causing strong waves and currents, which disrupt livelihoods tied to tourism and fisheries and provide conditions for looting and unregulated diving. This study adopts an empirical, value-based, and stakeholder-driven approach to identify, assess, and map these complex risks and their interactions.  

As part of the THETIDA Horizon Europe project that aims to develop an integrated risk monitoring, preparedness, and management mechanism for underwater and coastal heritage sites, the Living Labs methodology has been employed in the pilot sites. Through public-private-people partnerships, the Living Labs engage relevant national and local stakeholders and community groups to identify values, determine impacts, and assess exposure, vulnerability, and responses. This stakeholder-driven complex risk mapping methodology relies on the framework for complex climate change risk assessment that includes response as the fourth determinant of risks, together with hazard, exposure, and vulnerability [1]. In addition, it builds upon the Climate Vulnerability Index (CVI) for World Heritage, which employs a systematic and value-based approach to assess the climate vulnerability of shared values and attributes of cultural and natural properties [2]. Building upon CVI’s two-stepped procedure targeting to assess impacts on heritage values and communities, this complex risk mapping framework adopts a similar process to determine:

• Risks to heritage values: The heritage values attributed to the sites are identified. Moreover, their vulnerability, exposure to risks, and the impacts of key hazards and climate stressors on the sites are assessed.
• Risks to heritage communities: The heritage communities (stakeholders) and their socio-economic and cultural connections to the sites are identified. At the same time, their vulnerability, exposure to risks, and collective and/or institutional responses to climate-induced impacts are being evaluated.

This paper will present this innovative complex risk mapping framework and its preliminary implementation results in one of the THETIDA underwater sites. These sites include the Ottoman shipwreck in Paralimni, Cyprus, and the Second World War airplane wreck off the coast of Algarve, Portugal.

The complex risks posed to underwater heritage sites and their interactions remain largely underexplored in the existing literature, limiting the adoption of inclusive strategies to address them. This value-based and stakeholder-driven complex risk mapping framework outlined here enables a comprehensive assessment of risks and impacts on heritage values and communities. While initially tested for underwater sites, this framework provides a systematic methodology that can be applied to all heritage types, making it highly relevant for decision- and policy-makers working to safeguard underwater and coastal heritage.

Acknowledgement: This research has been funded by European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation funding under Grant Agreement No: 101095253, THETIDA project.

References:

[1] DOI: 10.1016/j.oneear.2021.03.005

[2] DOI: 10.5070/P536146384

How to cite: Ikiz, D., Guzman, P., Veiga-Pires, C., Oliveira, S., Demesticha, S., Demetriou-Patsalidou, A., Giatsiatsou, P., Nicu, I. C., and Michalis, P.: Value-based and stakeholder-driven complex risk mapping for underwater heritage through Living Labs, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-6132, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-6132, 2025.

Climate change poses increasing challenges to outdoor cultural events, including human towers (castells) festivals, which demand favourable weather conditions. Human towers, recognised by UNESCO in 2010 as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, rely on safe and comfortable conditions for participants and audiences alike. Building on a project developed in 2024, this communication wants to present the development of a climate-smart decision-making tool to enhance the management of casteller exhibitions under evolving climatic conditions. The prototype tool named Castells, Llindars i Informació Climàtica- CLICapp (Human Towers, Thresholds and Climate Information) aims to transform climate data into valuable information for decision-makers to manage the human tower exhibitions better, especially in summer (due to extreme temperatures and high humidity values) but not only.

The project’s groundwork is the study of temperature trends from 1951 to 2023 during the central hours of the day (12–15h) at four significant festivals (Sant Joan in Valls, Festa Major of La Bisbal del Penedès, Sant Magí in Tarragona, and Sant Fèlix in Vilafranca del Penedès). Results highlighted rising thermal stress, with Heat Index values underscoring the growing discomfort for Castellers (Olano et al., 2024). Then, participatory workshops based on the co-creation methodology for climate services (Font et al., 2021) were held with 109 castellers from 10 teams (colles castelleres), offering qualitative and quantitative insights into their perceptions of favourable and adverse weather for castells. These workshops also generated adaptation proposals prioritised by feasibility and importance (Saladié et al., 2025).

This communication will outline the two new steps undertaken in this project: the introduction of real-time measurements using temperature and humidity sensors in 11 urban squares during the summer season, which provided empirical data on thermal conditions of the exhibitions, and the initial insights into transforming all this data in useful information (climate raw data and co-creation insights) into an app. This app prototype aims to convert climate data and the information collected from the squares and participant groups into understandable and actionable insights for decision-makers—whether they are the Castellers, organisers (i.e. City Hall), other stakeholders (medical services, businesses, police, civil defence), or the public. The developing tool wants to integrate near real-time weather forecasts to identify potential risks for specific festival dates and times. Combining these insights with adaptive strategies proposed in the co-creation workshops provides a robust framework for pre-event planning. The advanced monitoring capabilities will allow organisers to receive near real-time updates on key parameters such as temperature, humidity, Heat Index, or co-created indices based on the information gathered during the workshops.

This project advances the adaptive management of outdoor cultural events by ensuring casteller festivals remain safe and sustainable amid climate change while preserving their cultural essence, safeguarding heritage, promoting climate innovation, and prioritising the well-being of participants. This initiative provides a replicable model for other cultural manifestations facing similar climate challenges worldwide. Incorporating climate services into intangible cultural event management combines scientific research and innovation with cultural preservation to protect the identity, ensure the sustainability of traditions under climate stress, and safeguard human health.

How to cite: Olano Pozo, J. X., Saladié Borraz, Ò., and Boqué-Ciurana, A.: CLICapp: A co-created tool for climate adaptation and safety in human tower exhibitions , EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-8771, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-8771, 2025.

Underwater cultural heritage (UCH) sites provide insight into past human behavior and history and thus their preservation is crucial. Within the scope of THETIDA, a Horizon Europe project dedicated to developing technologies and methods to protect coastal and underwater cultural heritage, this work aims to predict the physical processes that can put UCH at risk. This risk assessment is applied to a specific site in the Algarve, Portugal where a WWII U.S. B24 bomber plane crashed approximately 3 km offshore Praia de Faro. The plane now sits 21 m deep on the coastal shelf, which consists mainly of sand. The site is exposed to dominant, more energetic waves coming from W-SW and sheltered from less energetic E-SE waves. The mean significant wave height is 0.9 m, but it can rise to above 3 m with the occurrence of storms. As the site is located in the open ocean, a highly energetic environment, the site is subject to risks caused by wave-induced currents and sediment transport. To analyze and predict these risks in real time a numerical framework integrating three operational process-based models was developed. The numerical system is composed of: 1) the wave model SWAN, 2) the hydrodynamic model MOHID, and 3) the sediment transport model MOHID sediment. The operational wave model uses bathymetric data from EMODNET and is forced with wind conditions from the Skiron Atmospheric Modeling and Weather Forecasting Group in Athens and wave conditions at the boundary from the Copernicus Marine Environmental Monitoring Service (CMEMS). The model was calibrated by testing various formulas for the physical parameters attributed to wave propagation. A statistical analysis was completed to determine the best physics formulas to use for the model by comparing the results of each calibration setting with in-situ buoy measurements. SWAN was then two-way coupled to the hydrodynamic modeling system SOMA (Algarve Operational Modeling and Monitoring System), which is powered by MOHID. The coupling mechanism forces the wave model with velocities and water level output from SOMA and forces SOMA with wave results from SWAN. Preliminary results of the coupling revealed that the impact of current velocity and water levels on wave propagation in the study area is negligible in deeper areas, where the observations used for model validation lie. Further investigations are been conducted to analyze the effects of the two-way coupling in nearshore areas such as the location of the B24. The wave-hydrodynamic coupled system is now being used to develop a non-cohesive sediment transport model, which will be used to evaluate in real-time risks on UCH. This forecasting system will be included in the decision support system of the THETIDA platform.

How to cite: Mills, L.: An Operational Numerical Framework for Assessing Risks to Underwater Cultural Heritage, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-9465, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-9465, 2025.

One of the most significant consequences of climate change is the threat it poses to cultural heritage sites. The TRIQUETRA project addresses this critical challenge by applying a comprehensive risk assessment framework. This framework integrates both traditional and advanced technologies, including remote sensing and laser-based spectroscopy, to quantify the severity of risks, monitor their progression, and inform effective mitigation strategies.

Climate risks emerge from the interplay of climate hazards, exposure, and vulnerability. Understanding these risks at the site level is essential to ensure the implementation of appropriate adaptation and mitigation measures. Recent research highlights the compounded impacts of climate-induced geo-hazards, such as landslides and earthquakes, which threaten the physical integrity of monuments and the socio-economic systems they support.
Citizen engagement is a core component of the TRIQUETRA project, which includes a dynamic web and mobile platform where visitors actively participate in monitoring cultural heritage sites. The TRIQUETRA application enables citizens and visitors to contribute valuable datasets by capturing and uploading site photos, complementing and enhancing existing 3D models. A backend system assists cultural site authorities in better monitoring sites by providing up-to-date imagery and reports from visitors. Simultaneously, the TRIQUETRA Citizen Engagement Application creates an interactive and enriched experience for visitors through Virtual Reality (VR) and immersive Augmented Reality (AR) technologies. The application offers additional information through VR and AR experiences, allowing users to learn more about critical features at risk, such as areas affected by climate change or structural vulnerabilities. This fosters awareness and encourages preservation efforts.

The Choirokoitia case study demonstrates the application of the TRIQUETRA methodology in monitoring how the site is affected by climate change while also enhancing the visitor experience. Choirokoitia, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is one of the best-preserved Neolithic sites in the Mediterranean. It represents the Aceramic Neolithic period of Cyprus at its peak, around the beginning of the 9th millennium BCE. Located in the District of Larnaka, about 6 km from the southern coast of Cyprus, the site leverages crowd-sourced information to provide stakeholders with real-time updates on its condition. By comparing uploaded images to a referenced 3D model, authorities gain valuable insights for preservation.

By integrating advanced technologies and community-driven monitoring, TRIQUETRA ensures a holistic approach to safeguarding cultural heritage. The project establishes a replicable framework that enhances risk assessment and promotes active participation in preservation efforts, offering scalable benefits for cultural heritage sites worldwide.

How to cite: Themistocleous, K., Evripidou, V., and Toumbas, K.: Monitoring Climate Change in Cultural Heritage Sites Through Enhanced Visualisation Experiences and Crowdsourcing , EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-12307, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-12307, 2025.

The Delos archaeological site, inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage Site List, is situated on a small rocky island in the center of the Aegean Sea. This uninhabited island boasts of monuments with immense significance to human civilization and it is set within a pristine natural landscape. Delos is increasingly vulnerable to risks due to climate change and geodynamic events, which together endanger its cultural and natural heritage. Recently, a multi-hazard environmental monitoring facility has been established in Delos, incorporating climate and numerical prediction modelling, as well as satellite-based and in-situ real-time monitoring of various seismic, atmospheric, and oceanographic parameters. In addition to providing an overview of the overall facility, we discuss the potential long-term changes in atmospheric parameters such as air temperature, and precipitation along with sea level, that could impact the monuments and the landscape in the future, for different socioeconomic scenarios. Furthermore, we discuss how state-of-the-art models have been downscaled and optimized to forecast meteorological conditions, air quality, and wave activity in the Delos area. Local monitoring of earthquake activity and how it is incorporated into the National Seismic Network, as well as measurements of atmospheric and oceanic parameters are also discussed. The project is a groundbreaking initiative aimed at formulating policies and strategies to promote sustainable growth in the economy, tourism, and culture. It also serves as a model for strengthening the resilience of cultural heritage against natural hazards and risks, as well as a pilot program that aims to be applied to other monuments in Greece and abroad with the support of international organizations (e.g., UNESCO, ICOMOS, Europa Nostra, etc.).

Acknowledgments: This work has been performed in the framework of the project: “Development and installation of an integrated system for the monitoring of the impacts of climatic change on the monuments of Delos” that has been funded by benefit foundations of "Protovoulia ‘21“.

How to cite: Fountoulakis, I., Melis, N. S., Solomos, S., Kapsomenakis, J., Poupkou, A., Maris, C., Synolakis, C., and Zerefos, C. S. and the Delos Observatory team: Establishment of a transdisciplinary monitoring facility in Delos, Greece for the protection of Natural Heritage from the impacts of Climate Change, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-13403, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-13403, 2025.

Andean plateau in Peru and its World Heritage sites are particularly affected by the impacts of climate change. The sacred Valley Archaeological Site around the city of Cuzco, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is exposed to significant geological risks due to recurrent landslides induced and worsened by climate change effects that threaten its structural integrity, security and exploitation. The Machu Picchu Historic Sanctuary was built on Upper Permian-Lower Triassic (250–300 Ma) igneous rocks, primarily plutonic, which form the Vilcabamba Cordillera's backbone (from 2000m since 6000m a.s.l.) These intrusive formations, oriented ONO–ESE, constitute the elevated regions of the Eastern Cordillera. The area is dominated by a batholith composed mainly of granite and granodiorite, with medium-textured basic granite prominently outcropping within the citadel. The Machu Picchu site and all the sacred valley of Cuzco its surroundings are characterized by instability phenomena driven by complex geomorphological and structural/tectonic conditions worsened by the effects induced at altitude by the climate change (melting of the permafrost, heavy rainfall and increase in temperature). The above mentioned phenomena are exacerbated by the interplay of primary discontinuity families, resulting in recurring processes such as planar slides, rockfalls, topples, debris slides, debris flows, and avalanches. The present work shows the application of Differential Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (DInSAR) technique to measure slow, non-catastrophic morphological changes with millimeter-scale precision. A previous interferometric satellite analysis work carried out in the early 2000s to test the general stability of the Inca Citadel has been resumed and updated. The analysis captures both long-term and seasonal processes triggered by diverse causative factors, enabling informed planning of mitigation strategies. Specifically, DInSAR data processing was conducted for the Machu Picchu archaeological area and for the wider Cusco area, complemented by direct field surveys to validate the results (November 2024). Multi-temporal SAR images from the Sentinel-1 constellation (C-band radar) were processed using advanced DInSAR techniques to generate ground displacement measurement points. The spatial distribution and correlation of these measurements with slope instability and structural damage were analyzed, revealing ground deformation trends from January 2020 to August 2024. Preliminary results indicate that the citadel exhibits average ground and structural displacement of less than 1 mm/year substantially negligible. However, localized analyses highlight distinct patterns of small-scale displacement in the Grupo de las Tres Puertas with slight brick detachment and in the Upper Plaza and Eastern Citadel sector showing relative subsidence compared to adjacent areas, suggesting potential movements of the eastern flank. Monitoring systems (remote and in situ) are recommended. The use of Sentinel-1 DInSAR data provided critical insights into the interaction between ground displacement and archaeological structures. It facilitated the identification of potentially unstable areas, detected anomalies, and traced ground displacement accelerations over time. Displacement anomalies and weather-climate anomalies over time, highlights the effects of the latter on the spatial-temporal increase of instability phenomena. These findings underscore the utility of DInSAR as a powerful tool for addressing preservation of intervention on CH threatened by slope instability, offering data-driven approaches for damage prevention and site management.

How to cite: spizzichino, D., ferrigno, F., leoni, G., and menniti, F.: DInSAR analysis for slope instability monitoring due to Climate Change: CUZCO and Machu Picchu case study., EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-15505, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-15505, 2025.

Kalapodi arcaheological site is located in central Greece, in the region of present-day Fthiotis consisting of a complex of temples and surrounding remains. It comprises a very important sanctuary, being among the most significant of ancient Phokis, providing crucial insights into Greek religious practices and architectural forms from the Mycenaean to the Classical periods. The archaeogical site in Kalapodi has been the focus of extensive cultural heritage management efforts by the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) since 2017.

As a case study in the TRIQUETRA program, funded by the EU Horizon Europe research and innovation program (GA No. 101094818), this site exemplifies the challenges posed by climate change on cultural heritage. TRIQUETRA project aims to develop an integrated methodological model to safeguard archaeological remains, such as those at Kalapodi, from environmental risks and mainly frost. Central to the project is the creation of an evidence-based assessment platform for precise risk stratification, coupled with a comprehensive database of mitigation measures.

In this paper we would like to leverage environmental data and materials analysis from Kalapodi, so as to quantify the impacts of climate change and propose tailored preservation strategies. These include assessing the effects of frost on ancient structures and implementing preventative measures to ensure their long-term stability. To achieve this a pilot site has been designed and constructed on which several monitoring equipment has been attached to understand the influence of environmental conditions on the pilot and hence the ancient monument. The acquired knowledge and the methodology followed highlights the importance of combining scientific research and heritage management to address climate-related challenges and protect cultural heritage for future generations.

How to cite: Oikonomou, A., Sotiropoulos, A., Gourgouleti, P., and Bilis, T.: Safeguarding the Past: Monitoring Climate Change at Kalapodi Sanctuary through the TRIQUETRA Project, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-16404, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-16404, 2025.

The development of an Agent-Based Model (ABM) has proven highly effective for analyzing how the behavior of different agents leads to aggregated phenomena. Despite the challenges in creating such a model—including conceptualization, agent definition, relationship establishment, behavior design, programming, testing, validation, and reporting—the process allows for valuable testing and rethinking of strategies for enhancing the resilience of cultural landscapes, as the results offer significant insights into phenomena like drought. While not predictive, the observed trends can inform general analysis and highlight key areas for action to achieve specific goals. The RescueMe project developed an ABM that simulates three types of administration and underscores the impact of decision-making on territorial resilience, significantly influenced by timely policies and actions. The primary goal of the model is to simulate how farmers, agricultural plots, and decision-makers interact with each other and their environment, particularly under varying drought conditions. The model tests the hypothesis that decision-makers can intervene to mitigate the effects of drought by creating mechanisms that enhance plot resilience and/or attract new farmers safeguarding the values of the cultural landscapes. In this way, the ABM aims to develop a reflection and awareness-raising tool to allow cultural landscapes to consider the consequences of different climate change adaptation measures and behaviors. The impact chains co-created with the project case studies have been used as a basis for the modeling. The impact chain of drought on agriculture (impact of specific climatic hazards on a given sector) was selected due to its importance for a significant number of cultural landscapes, and the organigraphs created during the early stages of the project were used to help define the agents. The scenarios generated with the ABM simulate the impact of the behavior of agents on landscape resilience and potentially inform the definition of a serious game.

How to cite: Egusquiza, A., Cantergiani, C., and Villanueva, A.: Agent-Based Modeling for analyzing the climate resilience and decision-making impact on drought dynamics in Cultural Landscapes, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-17815, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-17815, 2025.

Preserving cultural heritage sites demands risk management strategies that capture site-specific vulnerabilities at fine spatial resolutions. The present study introduces a novel framework for flood risk assessments that bridges large-scale hydrological modeling and sub-meter-level hydraulic simulations to provide enhanced insights into potential impacts. Our approach employs state-of-the-art Rain-on-Grid (RoG) hydraulic simulations, targeted field data collection, and high-resolution geometric documentation using UAV imagery and GNSS ground control points to account for detailed terrain characteristics.

Within the scope of the Horizon Europe TRIQUETRA Project, we apply this framework to the Apollo temple in the archaeological site of Kolona on Aegina Island, Greece. A total of 945 vertical and 4900 oblique UAV images were processed following a multi-image photogrammetric workflow, to produce a digital surface model with a resolution of 1 cm. We then use this data to set up the RoG model and to analyze flood scenarios for various return periods to obtain sub-meter-level hydraulic parameters and evaluate how the site’s vulnerability to flood intrusion might change if its existing wall obstructions were to be extended.

The proposed methodology offers a robust means to extract high-resolution boundary conditions for advanced computational fluid dynamics simulations. Using our multi-scale workflow, relevant stakeholders can enhance their data-driven decision-making for cultural heritage protection and preservation purposes.

Acknowledgments: This work is based on procedures and tasks implemented within the project “Toolbox for assessing and mitigating Climate Change risks and natural hazards threatening cultural heritage—TRIQUETRA”, which is a Project funded by the EU HE research and innovation program under GA No. 101094818.

How to cite: Alexopoulos, M. J., Iliopoulou, T., Istrati, D., Soile, S., Verykokou, S., Ioannidis, C., and Koutsoyiannis, D.: A Multi-Scale Framework for Flood Risk Assessment in Cultural Heritage Sites: The Apollo Temple in Aegina, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-18452, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-18452, 2025.

European Cultural Heritage (CH) is a crucial resource that must be maintained, preserved and made accessible, to counteract degradation enhanced by unfavorable environmental conditions and climate changes. Some of the conservation methodologies nowadays available lack sustainability and cost-effectiveness, and are typically based on energy-consuming processes or non-environmentally friendly materials. This contribution will report on the main results so-far achieved in the EU-funded project GREen ENdeavor in Art ResToration (GREENART), coordinated by the Center for Colloid and Surface Science of the University of Florence (CSGI). Coping with the imperatives of EU Green Deal, the project proposes new solutions based on green and sustainable materials and methods, to preserve, conserve and restore CH. In particular, several innovative materials have been developed and tested:  1) Protective coatings based on green materials from waste and plant proteins, with self-healing and reversibility character, possibly functionalized with organic/inorganic nanoparticles to impart VOC capture, anti-corrosion and barrier behaviors. 2) Foams and packaging materials made by biodegradable/compostable polymers from renewable sources (polyurethanes and natural fibers) to control temperature and relative humidity. 3) Consolidants based on natural polymers from renewable sources, to mechanically strengthen weak artifacts. 4) Gels and cleaning fluids inspired by the most advanced systems currently available to conservators, which will be improved according to green metrics and circular economy requirements. 5) Green tech solutions for monitoring CH assets non-invasively against pollutants and environmental oscillations. Life Cycle Assessment and modeling favor the “safe-by-design” creation of affordable solutions safe to craftspeople, operators and the environment, and minimize energy-consumption in monitoring museum environments. Such holistic approach is granted in GREENART by a multidisciplinary partnership that gathers hard and soft sciences and engineering, including academic centers, innovative industries and SMEs, conservation institutions and professionals, museums whose collections hold absolute masterpieces in need of conservation, public entities and policy makers. Innovative materials and products have been assessed at the lab scale on representative mock-ups of works of art (remedial conservation), or in simulated museum/archive environments (preventive conservation). The project intends to transfer the most promising systems to field assessment on actual artefacts and museums/archives, in cooperation with conservator partners. The best products are also fed into a GREENART open repository and an App to illustrate the new solutions and involve citizens in good preservation practices. Constant feedback from conservators (internal or external to the partnership) can stimulate iterative refinement of the products, triggering a positive loop in this methodological approach. Covering these topics, we provide here an overview of the most advanced green materials for art conservation that can be useful to end-users in this field.

How to cite: Chelazzi, D., Poggi, G., and Baglioni, P.: The GREENART project: "green" and sustainable materials for cultural heritage conservation, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-18757, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-18757, 2025.

Nowadays Cultural Heritage (CH) monuments face increasing effects of climate change (CC) that vitally impact their sustainability. The TRIQUETRA project, recognising the cruciality of the identification, quantification and mitigation of those CC-driven effects, aims to develop a novel Decision Support System (DSS) that leverages the existing knowledge, to efficiently provide a holistic approach for the conservation of the CH monuments.

More specifically, the TRIQUETRA project focuses on developing a comprehensive, evidence-based DSS for the identification and mitigation of the impacts of climate change on CH sites. TRIQUETRA is based on three key components i.e., Risk Identification, Risk Quantification, and Risk Mitigation. The basis for the DSS is the TRIQUETRA Knowledge Base Platform (KBP), which serves as a dynamic electronic repository equipped with advanced search functionalities and visualisation tools. The KBP concentrates a wide array of validated data regarding a wide variety of CH sites around the world, which climatic, geological and historical records, site-specific attributes, risk assessment, and mitigation strategies are provided through verified research publications.

The DSS features two distinctive modules: the a) Risk Severity Quantification module and b) the Mitigation Measure Selection and Optimisation module. The latter utilises the catalogued information of KBP to provide tailored mitigation measures for each pilot site and verify them based on project outcomes. By incorporating dynamic user stories that consistently reflect the stakeholders' needs, this module facilitates the selection of the most appropriate preservation and mitigation strategies for each site.

Moreover, to enhance functionality, the DSS integrates a search mechanism that allows users to filter results based on a series of criteria such as cost, implementation timeframe, topological effect, etc. The algorithm is adaptable to diverse user inputs and constitutes a scalable solution, leveraging the database of the KBP to identify optimal mitigation solutions, by cross-referencing the characteristics of a given CH site with those of similar sites documented in the relevant literature, providing users with a ranked list of applicable measures.

This adaptive module and the TRIQUETRA DSS as a whole aim to complement research contributing to the protection of cultural heritage against climate change, enabling tailored monitoring and preservation strategies for each pilot CH site.

How to cite: Charalampopoulou, V., Anastasiou, A., Magkoufis, E., Mpotonakis, K., and Kontopoulos, C.: A Smart Decision Support System for the Mitigation of Climate Change Effects on Cultural Heritage, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-19235, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-19235, 2025.

The combination of future Sea level rise and changes in wave climate in coastal areas represents one of the greatest threats to the preservation of underwater cultural heritage (UCH). This study presents a new methodology to assess climate change’s impacts on UCH preservation in shallow waters, focusing on wave-induced hazards like decontextualization of archaeological object, scouring, and wear erosion caused by sediment transport. The approach uses hybrid downscaling of bias-corrected wave fields to assess the changes on this hazard and associated risk under RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 CMIP5 scenarios. The methodology was applied in the Bay of Cadiz, where an overall reduction in wave energy flux was observed. However, local increases were detected in rocky shoals and in the coastal zone, both areas with high UCH density. As a result, the shallow zones exhibited significant changes in decontextualization and scouring hazards. However, the most relevant risk changes were linked to wear erosion, particularly at sites on rocky outcrops near Cadiz. The developed methodology tested in this study is essential for identifying areas with higher risk and for evaluating UCH preservation under future climate conditions. It offers an effective tool for screening sites at risk and for conducting a long-term assessment of these risks in coastal environments affected by climate change.

How to cite: Ferrero Martín, C., Izquierdo, A., Bethencourt, M., Mentaschi, L., and Fernández Montblanc, T.: Wave Hazards on Underwater cultural Heritage: The Impact of Climate Change on Cadiz Bay , EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-19445, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-19445, 2025.

Wave runup plays a pivotal role in shaping the stability of coastal cliffs, as it generates hydrodynamic pressures that can compromise their structural integrity over time. These cliffs, especially those near cultural heritage (CH) sites, are vital natural structures that indirectly safeguard invaluable assets. Their destabilization, however, poses significant risks, necessitating a comprehensive understanding of the underlying processes that threaten their stability. Despite growing interest in coastal hazard assessments, there remains a paucity of quantitative studies focused on the interplay between wave runup dynamics and the structural characteristics of cliffs. Addressing this gap is essential for improving risk assessment methodologies and developing effective mitigation strategies.

Field measurements conducted in the Horizon Europe project TRIQUETRA revealed that coastal cliffs rarely conform to idealized vertical geometries. Instead, they often exhibit structural irregularities, such as varying inclinations or pre-existing damage like notches, which can exacerbate their exposure to wave-induced pressures. These variations are critical in determining the wave runup and consequently the exposed height of the cliff, which affects its stability. In this study, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations using the Volume of Fluid (VOF) method were employed to model wave-cliff interactions. The analysis focused on the influence of geometric configurations and structural irregularities on the maximum wave runup and the  hydrodynamic pressure distributions, with particular attention to the behavior of steeply inclined cliffs and notched formations. The results demonstrate that wave runup is significantly amplified on near-vertical cliffs, with this effect becoming more pronounced under larger wave conditions. Conversely, notches reduce overall wave runup as their height increases, redistributing hydrodynamic forces along the cliff face and altering the pressure patterns. These findings highlight the intricate relationship between wave dynamics and structural variations, emphasizing the need for site-specific analyses when assessing cliff vulnerabilities.

By advancing the understanding of wave-cliff interactions, this research provides a valuable contribution to coastal hazard studies, offering new insights into the mechanisms driving cliff instability. The outcomes underscore the importance of integrating advanced CFD tools into risk assessments, enabling the design of targeted mitigation strategies to protect coastal regions and preserve the structural integrity of cliffs that play a critical role in safeguarding nearby CH sites.

Acknowledgments: This work is based on procedures and tasks implemented within the project “Toolbox for assessing and mitigating Climate Change risks and natural hazards threatening cultural heritage—TRIQUETRA”, which is a Project funded by the EU HE research and innovation program under GA No. 101094818.

How to cite: Sobhani, R., Istrati, D., Martino, S., Marmoni, G. M., and Feliziani, F.: CFD investigation of wave runup on coastal cliffs for impact assessment on cultural heritage, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-19751, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-19751, 2025.

Digital twins of cultural heritage are urgently needed for both comprehensive documentation and digitalization of the monuments, and, also, for the efficient planning of restoration activities towards increased resilience to climatic stressors. Here, we present a workflow for geodetic field surveying followed by 3D building information modeling (BIM), to create a digital twin of an example historical building of Western Greece, the ‘Old Hatzikosta Hospital’ in Messolonghi. More specifically, a detailed point cloud was generated, based on data collected with a Terrestrial Laser Scanner. Building features not directly detectable from the ground (e.g., rooftops) were mapped with photogrammetry using an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). The collected data were then further analysed to derive a detailed 3D model of the monument. This 3D model could serve as a baseline for future engineering applications, such as planning maintenance and restoration interventions. Moreover, the digitalization of cultural heritage could also assist in raising public’s awareness and making such historical buildings more widely visible and accessible (e.g., virtual tours, interactive geodatabases etc.).

How to cite: Tsikas, P., Kyriou, A., Lyros, E., Nikolakopoulos, K., and Pappas, C.: Aerial and ground-based surveying and 3D modeling of cultural heritage – a case study in Messolonghi, Western Greece, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-21315, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-21315, 2025.

As part of the SIREN project (Saving Italian hydRological mEasuremeNts), a citizen science initiative hosted on the Zooniverse platform (https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/siren-project/siren-project), thousands of volunteers are contributing to the digitization of the hydrological yearbooks produced in the past by the Italian National Hydrological and Mareographic Service. These yearbooks represent an invaluable repository of hydrological data but remain difficult to access due to their paper-based format. Moreover, the quality of these old books is deteriorating due to ageing, with fading ink and handwritten corrections that make the digitization with optical character recognition software challenging.
The involvement of citizens in the project serves a dual purpose: their participation enables a reliable interpretation and digitization of these historical data in a shorter time frame, while simultaneously raising public awareness of environmental issues such as hydrological risk and water resource management.
To better understand the profiles of the volunteers engaged so far and to broaden the project's reach to a wider segment of the population, an anonymous survey was conducted in recent months.
Initial data analysis reveals a diverse range of participants. One group consists of users with technical or scientific backgrounds in line with the project topic. Another group is motivated by the opportunity to contribute to a public utility initiative, putting into practice their skills and previous knowledge. The survey has also provided valuable insights into the participants' interests, their motivations for contributing, and their understanding of the project's significance.
Since students from high schools and universities seemed to be underrepresented, several workshops and dissemination events were planned to increase the scientific impact among youth. These activities were performed as part of the IMPETUS Accelerator, a seven-month structured programme that aims at maximising the scientific, social, economic, democratic, and environmental impacts towards the Sustainable Development Goals and the Green Deal targets.
This collaborative effort highlights the potential of citizen science to bridge gaps in hydrological data accessibility and awareness, fostering a community of engaged individuals committed to preserving and utilizing this invaluable historical resource.
Thanks to this initiative, for the first time, a complete dataset of daily discharge measurements will be available for the Italian territory.

How to cite: Mazzoglio, P., Bertola, M., Mattozzi, A., Listo, T., Princivalle, L., Sacco, C., Lombardo, L., Viglione, A., Laio, F., and Claps, P.: SIREN: a citizen science project for the recovery of the Italian hydrological data, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-1395, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-1395, 2025.

Groundwater is the most abundant reservoir of available freshwater and both communities and ecosystems are strongly dependent on it. In Europe, groundwater abstraction accounts for more than half of all tapped water.

Water springs are the surface manifestations of groundwater and their physical and chemical characteristics can carry information on hydrodynamic processes, aquifer lithology, soil properties, and climatic conditions. Both natural ecosystems and human communities are deeply reliant on the availability of spring water, which is extensively exploited for drinking water supplies. Also, springs are crucial geographical and cultural elements of all territories and can constitute biodiversity hotspots, hosting numerous plant species and providing water to downstream ecosystems.

Groundwater recharge, and consequently the permanence of water flow from springs, is closely linked to meteorological and climatic conditions that influence processes such as precipitation, evapotranspiration, and others.

Current climate trends in Europe suggest declining groundwater recharge across many regions, threatening ecosystems and communities. These challenges are compounded by human activities, which can lead to the disappearance and pollution of natural springs.

It is therefore essential to collectively adopt measures for the protection of springs that combine community awareness initiatives with community collaboration for monitoring activities at a large scale. Citizen science is a crucial approach for these purposes, contributing to clarify current scientific issues through active participation in science.

In April 2024, the Italian Alpine Club (Club Alpino Italiano, CAI) launched the nationwide citizen science project, Acqua Sorgente. Leveraging CAI’s extensive network of over 800 local sections throughout Italy and 350,000 members, the project aims to: i) create and maintain an open-source national database of springs monitoring data; ii) foster community awareness on issues related to springs and water resources.

Through CAI-developed applications, participants can record information such as the location, photographs, flow rate, electrical conductivity, and temperature of springs. Springs’ electrical conductivity and temperature are acquired by trained volunteers equipped with portable probes provided by the Alpine Club. The database already contains more than 800 validated springs’ monitoring data (https://maps.acquasorgente.cai.it/).

Preliminary hydrological and hydrogeological analyses were developed on the collected data and included, but are not limited to: analysis of main drivers of springs’ temperature and electrical conductivity; springs’ role in sustaining a good conservation status in vegetation; interpolation of springs’ temperature and electrical conductivity at national scale. The analyses were integrated with a socio-hydrogeological questionnaire targeted to understand  water resources and spring water perception.

Furthermore, the project is engaged in dissemination activities to promote water awareness, including public events and educational programs for schools combining theoretical and practical lessons.

This presentation will share reflections on the efforts and challenges involved in developing and sustaining such a large-scale citizen science project. Lastly, we hope to foster potential collaborations for research activities related to springs and water resources, which the Acqua Sorgente project aims to support.

How to cite: Nigro, M., Luppichini, M., Re, V., Natali, S., Pilosu, E., Marini, R., Barbieri, M., Bernasconi, R., Del Sarto, A., Peduzzi, S., Garzonio, C. A., Priolo, G., Bassi, L., Vaccarella, M., Nardi, G. C., Zanchetta, G., Giannecchini, R., Pollo, A., and Piccioli, A.: Acqua Sorgente a nationwide citizen science project to monitor and study the Italian water springs, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-2698, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-2698, 2025.

Assessing the state of ecosystem service wetlands provides is an essential prerequisite for protecting and restoring wetlands. Citizen Scientists' (CS) involvement in these assessments assists wetland managers and scientists in data collection, functions as an important component of wetland education, and enhances citizens’ stewardship. However, not all methods developed for citizen scientists are equally suited to support these aspects, requiring the assessment of both their potential and limits.

In our Horizon Europe project Restore4Life (https://restore4life.eu/citizen-science/), we compared Citizen Science methods for assessing water quality, above- and below-ground organic carbon stocks, and plant biodiversity with scientific methods regarding data quality, explanatory power of data, and applicability. We analyzed the suitability of these methods to provide reliable and valuable data for wetland assessments and enhance people's awareness of the importance and sensitivity of wetlands. Our seven study sites included lowland and mountain river floodplains, lake floodplains, and peatlands. We wanted to answer the following questions:

• How well can CS data distinguish different wetland habitats? Which parameters have the largest potential to show differences among wetland habitats?
• How well do CS data reflect scientific data? Which methods/parameters fit well, and which do not?
• How can CS methods be improved to deliver the precision needed for wetland assessments?

Our preliminary results show that the activities significantly increased the participants' environmental education and awareness of wetlands. However, wetland assessment using CS faces several challenges, such as, e.g., restricted access to protected or flooded areas and a limited internet connection, hampering the use of online Apps and GPS. Water quality assessments by non-scientists were especially problematic in organic-rich waters typical for wetlands. Untrained citizen scientists also had problems recognizing cultivated tree species within forests, distinguishing between herbaceous plants and young trees, and determining plant species. Furthermore, citizen scientists showed a strong bias toward selecting easily accessible and less diverse sites for species and above-ground organic carbon determinations, which were not always representative of the respective floodplain forest habitat. Restore4Life is funded by the European Union.

How to cite: Weigelhofer, G., Feldbacher, E., Rosenberger, C., Srđević, Z., Mikuska, A., Čerba, D., Weidendorfer, J., De Haney, S., Cvijanović, D., Milošević, D., Gulyá, K. B., Miklós, T., Stojković Piperac, M., Novković, M., Grabić, J., Ždero, S., VLaičević, B., and Turković Čakalić, I.: Potential and limits of Citizen Science in assessing ecosystem services of European wetlands, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-2828, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-2828, 2025.

The accumulation of plastic litter in marine environments presents a major environmental challenge to sustainability and is central to the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, the vast size of oceans and the widespread nature of marine plastic litter make its monitoring difficult. Citizen science offers a promising solution, providing valuable data for SDG monitoring and reporting, however, there has been no evidence of its use to date. In this presentation, we share how Ghana became the first country to integrate citizen science data into their official statistics and the official monitoring and reporting of SDG indicator 14.1.1b for marine plastic litter. This effort also helped to bridge local, community level data collection with national and global monitoring and policy agendas, aligning with the SDG framework. The data have already contributed to Ghana's Voluntary National Review and been reported in the UN SDG Global Database, helping to inform national policies.

In this presentation, we will focus on the process of validating citizen science data and integrating it into official monitoring and reporting, involving key stakeholders at local, national, and global levels, such as government agencies, the UN, civil society organizations, citizen science networks, and academia. This approach offers a model for other countries and citizen science initiatives interested in adopting similar methods for official monitoring and policymaking. A central theme will be how citizen science projects can be designed to foster collaboration and trust among diverse stakeholders, including governments, UN bodies, and local communities. We will highlight our success and lessons learnt, and showcase how knowledge production through citizen science can strengthen sustainability efforts, influence effective policy, and highlight the value of participatory sciences.

How to cite: Fraisl, D., See, L., Bowers, R., Seidu, O., Fredua, K. B., Bowser, A., Meloche, M., Weller, S., Amaglo-Kobla, T., Ghafari, D., Laso Bayas, J. C., Campbell, J., Cameron, G., Fritz, S., and McCallum, I.: Citizen science data, marine plastics, and SDG monitoring: How to build trust in citizen science data and methodologies among diverse actors with varying needs and motivations?, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-4527, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-4527, 2025.

For several decades now, air pollution has been a key concern for experts, public authorities and city dwellers, who are the first to be affected. Airborne particulate matter (PM) is indeed well known to cause adverse health effects. However, urban air quality stations are too sparse to provide a detailed picture of the distribution of pollution. Since PM is also deposited on the surfaces of urban tree, tree bark can then act as an alternative passive trap. Its magnetic properties make it possible to measure the amount of metal particles deposited on them and to estimate the pollution caused by motorized traffic around the trees. Here we present the citizen science project Ecorc’Air, in which volunteers collect fragments of plane tree bark, which are then sent to laboratories and used for a range of analyses. Since its launch in 2016, the project has led to the production of annual maps showing detailed concentrations of metal particles in Paris with fine spatial resolution. The concentration of fine metal particles decreases as the distance between trees and the road increases, with parked cars potentially acting as barriers to protect pedestrians from PM. There is a growing interest and involvement of city dwellers, especially those involved in local associations, to act in favor of environmental research, a trend also observed in other European cities. Municipalities can also provide support by considering citizen science as an additional source of data for quantifying air quality and a means of communicating with their residents on environmental issues.

How to cite: Isambert, A., Carvallo, C., Franke, C., Turcati, L., Sivry, Y., Coural, S., Macouin, M., Rousse, S., and Fluteau, F.: Ecorc’Air: A Citizen Science Project for the Biomonitoring of Vehicular Air Pollution in Paris, France , EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-6446, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-6446, 2025.

The Arctic is one of the most vulnerable regions on Earth concerning climate change and is increasingly affected by pollution from human activities. The ICEBERG project (Innovative Community Engagement for Building Effective Resilience and Arctic Ocean Pollution-Control Governance in the Context of Climate Change) is a multidisciplinary initiative funded by the European Union. It focuses on assessing types, sources, distributions, and impacts of pollution on ecosystems and coastal communities across the European Arctic. Case studies in West Svalbard, South Greenland, and North Iceland are being used to develop community-driven strategies to enhance resilience and reduce pollution. The project addresses a range of pollutants, including macro-, micro-, and nanoplastics, ship emissions, sewage, persistent organic pollutants, and heavy metals. 

As part of ICEBERG, our team from the Earth Observation and Modelling (EOM) group at Kiel University deployed time-lapse cameras to monitor the accumulation of marine litter along Arctic beaches. Using machine learning, we aim to automate the detection and classification of marine litter, offering new insights into its types, sizes, and seasonal variations. The results will be combined with drone-based data and coastal marine observatory artificial intelligence processing, which aims to map and monitor the spatiotemporal trends of marine litter in specified areas. By leveraging the high temporal mapping capabilities of small drones with machine learning algorithms, combining both will offer a comprehensive and advanced method for mapping marine litter across various spatial and temporal scales.

In the initial phase of ICEBERG, we deployed an autonomous camera system in West Svalbard to collect year-round data from an uninhabited site, while we held community consultation meetings in Iceland and Greenland to introduce the project and jointly explore opportunities for citizen science collaborations. By adopting a citizen science approach, we are actively partnering with academic & non-academic actors, including local and Indigenous stakeholders and non-governmental organizations in Iceland and Greenland who are supporting the installation and maintenance of the cameras. Additionally, through partnerships with high school teachers and students, we are also engaging young people to raise awareness of ongoing pollution challenges and explore actionable measures for mitigation and adaptation. By developing an interactive data-sharing platform, citizen scientists have the opportunity to upload their observations of any kind of pollution, serving as data crowdsourcing along with the data from the time-lapse cameras and drones. ICEBERG empowers communities to actively contribute to the process of identifying pollution sources, monitoring coastal litter, and developing meaningful interventions. 

We will present our innovative approach for monitoring pollution on Arctic beaches, emphasizing the role of community engagement and potential future co-created solutions. By integrating artificial intelligence tools and fostering local collaborations, ICEBERG offers a sustainable and inclusive approach for addressing environmental challenges in vulnerable Arctic regions. Our presentation will highlight the use of citizen science to enhance Arctic resilience and governance, share preliminary time-lapse data from Svalbard and Iceland, and explore the opportunities and challenges of community engagement in Arctic environmental monitoring.

How to cite: Lion, V., Muhuri, A., Oppelt, N., Papakonstantinou, A., Liang, C., Jóźwiak, B., Nawrot, A., Lépy, É., and Herrmann, T.: Building Arctic Resilience through Citizen Science and Artificial Intelligence in Marine Pollution Control, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-8287, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-8287, 2025.

The Balearic Islands are home to a rich diversity of seabeds, yet their distribution and evolution remain challenging to map and study, which has become a priority in the EU-marine strategy directive. The SECOSTA project contributes to bridge this gap by integrating advanced machine learning with citizen participation, driving both scientific progress and community engagement.

Central to SECOSTA’s success is its hands-on, co-creation approach, where high school students actively design, build, and deploy low-cost, innovative tools for marine research, including beach profilers, bathymetric probes, tide gauges, and bathythermographs. A standout example is the Arduino-based seabed exploration platform, collaboratively constructed by students under the supervision of the SECOSTA team. This device integrates a GPS chip, datalogger, and submersible camera mounted on a floating platform, enabling efficient collection of high-resolution, geo-referenced seabed imagery in shallow coastal waters. Designed for ease of use, the platform can be towed by a small craft, such as a kayak or paddleboard, or by a swimmer, allowing students to gather invaluable data on underwater habitats.

The project focuses on classifying and characterizing critical marine ecosystems, such as Posidonia oceanica, alongside benthic species, sediment patterns, and marine debris. Students label collected images using Roboflow to build a robust dataset, which is then used to train a convolutional neural network inspired by U-Net, a leading architecture for image segmentation. By engaging in every step—from designing the tool to enrichening the dataset used to train the AI—students gain a deep understanding of both scientific and technological processes, while developing a sense of ownership over the outcomes. 

Since its launch in 2018, SECOSTA has engaged over 7,500 students from 33 educational institutions, generating actionable insights for coastal management and fostering longterm community capacity. These achievements have been made possible through close collaboration between researchers, students, and local government, highlighting the importance of transdisciplinary partnerships in addressing complex environmental challenges. By blending participatory methods with cutting-edge AI applications, the project exemplifies how co-creation can empower communities to take an active role in tackling issues like climate change and biodiversity loss.

This presentation will explore SECOSTA’s co-creation methodologies, the technical specifications of its seabed exploration platform, and the lessons learned from integrating students into environmental monitoring and AI-driven marine research. SECOSTA exemplifies the transformative power of citizen science, where education, technology, and sustainability converge to inspire the next generation of scientists and stewards of the natural world.

How to cite: Loyola Azanza, E., Herrada Mederer, Á., Puigdefàbregas, J., Villalonga Llauguer, J., Gomis Bosch, D., Bonin Font, F., and Jordá Sánchez, G.: AI-Driven Marine Citizen Science: SECOSTA’s Blueprint for SeabedExploration, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-8304, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-8304, 2025.

Global challenges resulting from climate change, resource depletion, and land use change require local solutions that acknowledge the configuration and history of its landscapes and the related social-ecological processes. Particularly sensitive to climate change are high-mountain tropical regions. The Andean ecoregion, where Ecuador’s capital Quito is located, is home to c. 3 million people and host globally-important biodiversity hotspots. These include near-urban cloud forest remnants and unique páramo grasslands, characterized by their organic rich soils and water storage capacity of utmost importance for irrigation and drinking water in rural and urban areas.

We would like to discuss how we explored the potential to: 1) initiate inter- and transdisciplinary research on land use and landscape dynamics under global and local change, and 2) co-design this research by identifying the most pressing subtopics in the area surrounding Quito. Our research team includes researchers from Ecuadorian, German, and Polish research institutions as well as members of NGOs. Within these group, we had two in-person, a few online meetings and a three-week field visit that included two community-oriented workshops in summer 2024. We exchanged scientific and local perspectives, including those from community and NGO contexts, on “landscape” as a potential conceptual framework. Discussions focused on methodologies on “how to research together” and the exchange of knowledge on human and natural history, all within the context of a decolonial/political ecology framework.

We furthermore explored lakes and sedimentary deposits as archives for historical landscape dynamics, land use change and their transformation over time, as well as current ecosystem functioning using vegetation surveys with state-of-the-art remote sensing and field mapping. As a result, we identified future study areas and pressing topics that our inter- and transdisciplinary research can focus on, i.e., wildfires that intensify under climate change, water quality, soil erosion and volcanic eruption risks. With this initial phase of transdisciplinary research, we recognize high potential to co-create actionable knowledge that addresses the interconnectedness between societal and natural (or more-than-human) systems, and to contribute to tackling ongoing and future land use challenges in the tropical Andes.

How to cite: Dietze, E., Volmer, A.-K., Valdés-Uribe, A., Pérez, L., Słowinski, M., Velarde, E., Budds, J., Carpintero, N., Carrión, A., Feist, L., Halaś, A., Larrea-Maldonaldo, C., López, P., López-Sandoval, M. F., Ruíz-Urigüen, M., Tapia, R. L., Więckowski, M., Zurita-Arthos, L., and Mariscal, A.: Exploring inter- and transdisciplinary research on land use under climate change in the tropical Andes of Quito: the role of landscape history and local knowledge, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-8498, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-8498, 2025.

Namibia's rapid urbanization has led to an increase in informal settlements, with an estimated 40 % of the country's urban population living in these communities. These settlements are characterized by unregulated land occupation, limited access to municipal services, and a lack of tenure security. The prevalence of poor housing conditions in informal settlements contributes to prevailing cycles of poverty, social exclusion, and vulnerability to environmental hazards. In order to support socio-economic progress, existing research emphasizes the need for inclusive urban planning, secure land tenure, and infrastructural development. Despite community-driven efforts, such as negotiations for group land ownership, water management, and participatory informal settlement profiling and household mapping by organizations like the Shack Dwellers Federation of Namibia, various challenges that hinder sustainable improvements remain. At the municipal and national levels, these challenges include insufficient geospatial data for planning and cadastral purposes.

To address these issues, we rely on advancements in open-source geospatial software and the capabilities of commercial drones (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, UAVs). Together, these advancements allow for removing barriers when generating high-resolution geospatial data products. UAVs offer high-resolution imagery with centimeter-level accuracy that can potentially be employed for cadastral purposes, and their deployment is faster and more cost-effective compared to conventional field surveying methods. At the same time, open-source software, specifically OpenDroneMap, allows for the generation of geospatial data products, such as orthophotos, digital elevation models, and textured 3D models from captured drone images without additional licensing costs.

In this study, we conducted drone flights over informal settlements in Okahandja, a town in central Namibia that has not yet been mapped by the municipality. We conducted the fieldwork in close collaboration with the municipality and the informal settlements' residents, and drone flights were enabled by financial support from the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team. Our team surveyed ground control point markers, visible in the drone imagery, using real-time kinematic positioning based on existing cadastral ground control points outside the informal settlements to improve georeferencing. As a result, we generated orthophotos and digital elevation models with centimeter-level georeferencing accuracy and an image resolution of 6 cm/px, which is sufficient for layout planning and cadastral applications. We shared the data products with the municipality of Okahandja, with technical support from the Namibia Housing Action Group, and published the orthophotos on the OpenAerialMap platform under a CC-BY 4.0 license to encourage broader use by stakeholders, such as researchers, local authorities, NGOs, and community organizations. As a result, the data generated supports the community-driven land formalization process.

Our work highlights the potential of combining UAVs, the availability of open-source geospatial tools, and open science principles to address critical challenges within Namibia's informal settlements. The procedure provides high-resolution data for the municipalities' planning and cadastral needs and supports participatory informal settlement upgrading efforts. By enabling community involvement through open science, we show how technological advancements and good scientific practice can enhance participatory decision-making in land administration - particularly where the scope for shaping outcomes by governance structures alone is limited.

How to cite: Riedel, C., Mabakeng, M. R., and Lewis, J.: Drones, Open-Source Tools, and Open Science for Participatory Land Administration in Namibia’s Informal Settlements, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-9803, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-9803, 2025.

The project "Iberia in a Grain of Sand – IBERARENUM," led by the Marine Research Center (CIM) of the University of Vigo, exemplifies the transformative potential of citizen science for advancing ocean literacy and addressing pressing environmental challenges. This initiative engages the Spanish public in creating the first National Sand Bank, cataloging biogeochemical compositions of beach sands, and fostering societal involvement in coastal monitoring and climate change adaptation. By harnessing public participation in sampling campaigns and using open-access geospatial databases, IBERARENUM bridges scientific research and community action.

Targeting hydological basin representative sites along Iberian diverse 3,300 km coastline, the project standardizes data collection through educational tools, including online tutorials, field manuals, and video guides, prioritizing inclusivity. Collaborations with schools, fisheries, and associations for individuals with diverse abilities ensure broad and meaningful participation. The project highlights gender equity by featuring women scientists in its outreach.

Through interdisciplinary collaboration, IBERARENUM delivers high-resolution sedimentological data that illuminate coastal dynamics, ecosystem services, and climate-driven vulnerabilities. Results are disseminated via interactive maps, public exhibitions, and educational materials, promoting scientific literacy and empowering communities to co-create knowledge. Its innovative framework integrates FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) principles, facilitating data sharing across scientific and non-scientific audiences.

Aligned with the UN Decade of Ocean Science and Sustainable Development Goals, IBERARENUM strengthens the citizen-science nexus to address climate resilience and biodiversity conservation. This initiative serves as a replicable model for integrating research, education, and public engagement, advancing both societal and scientific capacities to tackle coastal and climatic challenges.

How to cite: Rey, D. and Mohamed, K. J. and the Iberarenum Citizen Science Team:  Iberia in a Grain of Sand – IBERARENUM, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-9814, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-9814, 2025.

The turning of geo-hydrological processes into disasters can be facilitated by the lack of awareness among people at risk. Accordingly, living in areas prone to floods or landslides with a general unpreparedness both in terms of self-protection behavior and long-term risk mitigation strategies, can lead to the loss of human lives and significant damage. Engaging citizens in disaster risk reduction is one of the main challenges to enhance resilience of communities. To this aim, various approaches are being developed including public engagement in citizen science activities. This approach allows people to be involved in different phases of the scientific process, enhancing their knowledge about natural processes and risk perception.   

The HYRMA (Hydrogeological Risk Assessment through Collaborative Mapping) is a European Union financed project to promote direct participation of citizens in scientific research focusing on disaster risk reduction. The main goal of the project is to implement collaborative data collection to acquire, store, analyze, and share geo-localized data about hazard, exposure, and physical vulnerability of buildings located in selected landslide- and flash flood-prone areas of Italy. Researchers and citizens are connected by user-centered web applications designed through a bottom-up approach and made available free of charge on mobile devices. These web applications can be used by citizens in the field to collect different kinds of geo-localized data, by filling digital forms based on a very intuitive and user-friendly interface, as well as by capturing photographs and reporting notes or comments. The forms included in the web applications are developed considering hazards of the study sites, with the support of local stakeholders. The forms, specifically, allow collect datasets for the following purposes: 1) damage estimation in the aftermath of geo-hydrological events, or to assess physical vulnerability of buildings in areas at risk; 2) reporting real-time information on flood events.

In order to test the first version of the forms, students of public and private secondary schools were trained and engaged by researchers with the support of their teachers and volunteers of the local Civil Protection groups. Differently-abled students with specific interests in practical activities including the use of digital tools were also involved. The first tests provided encouraging results on several aspects, together with criticisms that are being exploited to improve some sections of the web applications. Students demonstrated an easy and intuitive use of the web applications and, interestingly, they well understood the research aims and citizen science principles. This preliminary feedback suggests a successful use of the participatory approach implemented in the HYRMA project for raising awareness of people at risk, and encourages similar activities with other citizen categories.

This project has received funding from the European Union – Next Generation EU, under grant agreement 2022NRAW3Z_PE10_PRIN2022.

How to cite: Esposito, G., Molinari, D., Sterlacchini, S., Zazzeri, M., Voltolina, D., Chelli, G., Cavalli, R. M., Milella, M., and Salvati, P.: Public engagement in field data collection for flood and landslide risk mitigation, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-11706, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-11706, 2025.

Addressing the complex challenges posed by climate change requires innovative approaches that prioritise communities as active participants in shaping solutions, especially in adaptation context. The Adaptation AGORA project, funded by Horizon Europe, exemplifies this by integrating citizen needs and perspectives into climate adaptation planning across diverse European regions through participatory methodologies. Similarly, the CLIMAS project focuses on how citizens can directly contribute to formulating actionable policy recommendations for climate adaptation through Climate assemblies and the tools needed to run these assemblies. CLIMAS integrates citizen science and living labs as transformative tools to co-create inclusive policies that enhance participatory decision-making processes. 

Both projects support the EU Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change by leveraging best practices, innovative tools, policy instruments, and governance mechanisms to engage communities in climate action and deliberative democracy meaningfully. Together, they address the challenges of climate change with integrated methodologies aimed at driving social and political transformation. In addition, both projects share a commitment to promoting citizen science, building community capacity through workshops and training, and fostering knowledge sharing. They also emphasise the use of participatory methodologies to co-create solutions and integrate citizen-generated data into policy and planning processes.

The CLIMAS project focuses on an innovative toolkit designed to integrate citizen science into different phases of climate assemblies, providing citizens with experiential knowledge and co-developing policy recommendations. This toolkit was developed through a co-creation process led by the Ebre Bioterritori Living Lab in Catalonia, which acted as a hub for collaboration among policymakers, climate assembly organisers, scientists, local communities, and citizens. Through this process, key citizen science projects and activities were identified to catalyse meaningful actions in climate assemblies. The toolkit was subsequently tested in the Chios Living Lab and during two climate assemblies held in Riga (Latvia) and Edermünde (Germany). Early results demonstrated the toolkit’s potential to enhance citizen engagement, promote collaborative and bottom-up learning, and bridge the gap between scientific evidence and participatory decision-making for climate action. 

Adaptation AGORA, on the other hand, focuses on direct community engagement in local adaptation processes and emphasises societal transformation through transdisciplinary approaches. The project is developing a roadmap for large-scale citizen engagement, aimed at ensuring long-term impact and policy transferability while prioritising climate justice, gender equality, and equity. For instance, in the Italian pilot, Rome’s Climate Adaptation Strategy was co-designed through an iterative dialogue with citizens, reflecting their active role in shaping climate solutions. Across its four pilot regions, Adaptation AGORA has facilitated workshops and focus groups that brought together diverse stakeholders—including underrepresented and vulnerable groups—to co-design and implement actionable strategies. Between January and February 2024, Adaptation AGORA organised final co-creation workshops in each pilot region, engaging citizens, civil society organisations, academics, experts, and policymakers to develop and co-create adaptation measures and innovative engagement methodologies.

This presentation will showcase the activities and outcomes of Adaptation AGORA’s co-creation workshops in the pilot regions, discuss the challenges and opportunities encountered, and highlight the complementarity between Adaptation AGORA and CLIMAS in fostering resilient, inclusive, and community-driven climate adaptation strategies.

How to cite: Mercogliano, P., Reder, A., Acierno, A., Mattera, M., Adinolfi, M., Ellena, M., Mele, A., Vicens, J., Bertomeu, F., Alvarez, N., Laniado, D., Kotrikla, A. M., Fameli, K. M., Polydoropoulou, A., Pour, H. E., and Di Ciommo, F.: Shaping climate action and solutions with local communities: the experience of Adaptation AGORA and CLIMAS projects under the umbrella of the EU Mission Adaptation to Climate Change, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-11843, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-11843, 2025.

In recent years, sustainability science has increasingly emphasized the integration of transdisciplinary knowledge and sustainability transitions, alongside approaches to facilitate transformative change for sustainable development. This highlights the critical importance of practices and facilitation methods in addressing the current challenges of sustainability. To tackle the complex environmental and climate challenges of today, it is essential to integrate local communities and stakeholder participation into practical solutions for real-world problems. Moreover, further research is still required to clarify the intricate connections, governance, and management interactions between social and ecological systems.

This study focuses on the Wu-Fu community as its research site and adopts a participatory action research (PAR) approach, where the researcher also assumes the role of a local actor to actively facilitate the planning and construction of ecological refuge ponds in farmland areas. Through the establishment of a local communication platform, the study promotes participatory co-design, ensuring community members' engagement and sense of ownership throughout the design process to achieve long-term sustainable management. Lastly, the study employs the lens of actor-network theory (ANT) to explore the complex networks between human society and nature in the local context. It also integrates the InVEST model to quantitatively evaluate the ecological refuge ponds' contributions to habitat quality, ecological benefits, and local development. Addressing the dual needs of agricultural production and ecological conservation, this research proposes a scientifically grounded and practice-oriented strategic framework to establish a successful model of coexistence between society and nature.

How to cite: Chen, H. C.: Participatory Co-design Model for Facilitating Local Community in Harmony with Nature: A Case Study on Wu-Fu Farmland Ecological Refugia Pond, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-11857, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-11857, 2025.

Solving today’s environmental challenges requires interdisciplinary collaboration, cultural understanding, and community engagement. We present a model framework designed to integrate these critical elements into sustainability-focused education, tested through immersive projects in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. This framework connects students with real-world challenges, empowering them to co-create actionable, community-driven solutions.

The model framework consists of three core components:

• Interdisciplinary Teamwork: Students collaborate across disciplines to analyze sites, develop master plans, and design context-specific solutions.
• Cross-Cultural Learning: Through site visits, shared projects, and dialogue, students deepen their understanding of how social, economic, political, and environmental factors shape sustainability decision-making.
• Civic Engagement: Partnerships with local organizations and community members ensure that student designs align with lived experiences, priorities, and pressing local challenges.

This model framework emphasizes cultural responsiveness, teamwork, and real-world application, preparing students to address complex environmental challenges with creativity and inclusivity. By adopting this framework, educators can foster interdisciplinary collaboration, enhance cultural understanding, and strengthen community connections within environmental and geoscience education.

How to cite: Hall, C., Kokroko, K., Bugaj, A., Mexia-Alvarez, N., Munguia-Vega, A., Horley, L., and Davi, L.: A Model Framework for Integrating Bi-national Community-Engaged, Culturally Responsive Partnerships into Sustainability Education, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-12137, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-12137, 2025.

This Canadian Community Science Liaison (CSL) programme (based at Mount Royal University in Calgary, Alberta) incorporates place- and curriculum-based Citizen Science projects into Kindergarten to Grade 12 classrooms. The first module created, the Geological Bumblebee Programme (GBBP), had >800 Grade 2-9 students build and install ~400 bumblebee boxes to monitor and learn about local bumblebee populations. In southern Alberta there are 23 Bumblebee species, with box occupation rates above 30%, and colonies ranging from a few individuals to over 200. One student stated that “I used to be scared of bumblebees, but now I recognize their importance for pollinating”. We now have ethics clearance to start a longitudinal study of the impacts of the GBBP on students, their families and their teachers.

A new module on permafrost is now being trialled in Inuvik, Northwest Territories, in honour of the newly established International Union of Geological Sciences Geoheritage Site across the Mackenzie Delta Region. The permafrost module was co-created with a Grade 3 teacher, and Aurora Research Institute staff including the outreach coordinator, and two permafrost scientists. This participatory collaborative research starts with students doing some background research, then going into the field and collecting data, followed by evaluating and synthesising the data in the classroom. Activities include the use of geological and aerial maps, making their own pingo (ice cored hills), inputting data into applications such as Survey123 and the ‘good old fashioned’ measuring with a ruler.

These place- and curriculum-based citizen science projects engage students while getting them out on the land, which is an important connection for the Indigenous communities across the Mackenzie Delta Region (Innuvialuit and Gwich’in in Inuvik). The data they collect will be used by scientists, while creating opportunities for schools to compare their results across permafrost regions, especially essential in a world with a changing climate. Schools in permafrost regions could also present their results to their southern counterparts to educate about permafrost and the impacts of climate change. This is particularly important in a country like Canada where 90% of the population lives within 300km of the southern border with the United States and most Canadians do not get the opportunity to visit the Northern Territories. One of the expected outcomes is for the students participating in this module to develop their own pride of place whilst illustrating the uniqueness of where they live. 

How to cite: Dubois Gafar, A. and Boggs, K.: Citizen Science to ‘science with society’: an example from the Canadian Community Science Liaison programme, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-12384, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-12384, 2025.

Design thinking is an approach typically used in product innovation and marketing that puts empathy for the end-user at the centre of the design process. Design thinking is a human-centred process that emphasizes creativity and collaboration, leading to facilitation of citizen engagement through improved recruitment and retention of participants. Here we present two case studies that use design thinking methodologies to better understand the citizen scientists involved.

CityCLIM (a European Union Horizon 2020 funded project) applied a stakeholder analysis technique called the Value Proposition Canvas (VPC) to better understand the motivations of the citizen scientists participating in a data collection campaign for urban climate. The project specifically identified a target group consisting of citizens who ride a bicycle primarily for commuting or as a hobby, with specific requirements in terms of route, duration and frequency. Using the VPC allowed organisers to formulate a targeted recruitment, participation, and communication strategy. This strategy is beneficial for retaining and motivating citizen scientists, but also for ensuring high quality spatial and temporal environmental data for the project.

The ICEBERG project (a European Union Horizon 2020 funded project) applied a product design technique called Empathy Mapping, which provides deeper insights into the citizen’s and community’s needs, rather than thinking from the researcher's point of view. Empathy Mapping was used to identify barriers to implementing a community-based environmental monitoring program, in order to brainstorm solutions and opportunities for participation. These insights (some of which draw from experiences of the consortium members working with the case study communities) were used to reflect on researcher conduct when engaging the community and planning citizen participation activities.

How to cite: Liang, C. Y., Ködel, U., Schütze, C., and Dietrich, P.: Think before you link (with citizen scientists): Design thinking methodologies for citizen engagement, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-14698, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-14698, 2025.

The "Superchar" project aims to develop a nutrient-release biochar derived from sewage sludge, promoting sustainable agricultural practices while addressing pressing environmental and food security challenges. By leveraging sewage sludge as a feedstock, this initiative not only offers a cost-effective and accessible solution but also addresses the complexities associated with managing potentially contaminated human waste. The Superchar is engineered to increase soil carbon stocks, sequester atmospheric CO2, and serve as a slow-release fertilizer for phosphorus and potassium, thus enhancing food security in vulnerable communities. Our approach emphasizes the importance of community engagement by establishing a local value chain, especially in rural areas where phosphorus scarcity poses significant problems. The innovative technique of "mineral doping" involves pyrolyzing phosphorus-rich sewage sludge with potassium-rich organic materials to produce water-soluble potassium phosphates, facilitating the recovery of vital nutrients for agricultural use. We have created five different biochars from sewage sludge, chicken manure, and pyrolyzed straw, processed at a controlled temperature of 650°C. These biochars are currently undergoing evaluation in a series of flow-through column experiments designed to simulate real-world conditions. Each column assembly of washed sand and biochar undergoes regular hydration and sampling, allowing us to meticulously monitor parameters such as temperature, pH, electrical conductivity, and nutrient release. Moreover, we are collaborating with Mosan (mosan.com), a non-governmental organization working at Lake Atitlán in Guatemala, to assess the effectiveness of mineral doping and the impact of biochar on crop growth. If proven successful, the Superchar model promises not only a low-tech, economically viable solution for carbon sequestration and sustainable fertilization but also creates pathways for regenerative agricultural practices, vital for addressing climate change and promoting socioeconomic development. Our findings hold the potential to revolutionize negative emission technologies, thereby advancing agricultural nutrient management strategies that align with sustainable development goals. This project serves as a prime example of how community engagement and innovative research can lead to transformative outcomes in the realms of climate resilience and food security.

How to cite: Vorrath, M.-E., Buss, W., Mijthab, M., and Anisie, R.: Poo for future: Community Engagement through Biochar Innovation by Utilizing Sewage Sludge for Enhanced Agricultural Practices and Climate Resilience , EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-14814, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-14814, 2025.

Recycling metals like iron and lead appears essential for sustainable development, yet it often has severe consequences for the quality of life in communities near recycling sites. Citizen science and transdisciplinary approaches—uniting researchers from the physical, natural, and social sciences, with citizens and non-academic partners—are increasingly recognized as vital to addressing such complex Anthropocene challenges. However, the role of co-produced knowledge in fostering the sustainable transformation of affected territories remains to be fueled by inspiring examples.

We present here the AirGeo project, a community-based participatory research initiative addressing the environmental and social impacts of metal recycling activities in West Africa, with a specific focus on air pollution. We focus on Sebikotane, Senegal, a rapidly urbanizing city located 45 km from the capital, Dakar, and home to three recycling plants specializing in steel and lead batteries. The project aims to co-produce, evaluate, and share data on air quality in this understudied area. The transdisciplinary team encompasses experts in geosciences, aerology, anthropology, literature, and botany, alongside artists, municipal authorities, NGOs, and local citizens, who are actively involved as non-academic partners.

We will present the use of passive bio-sensors made from tree bark, combined with environmental magnetism and geochemistry, to produce air quality data. Furthermore, the project leverages arts—forum theater, live sketching, literature, and design—as innovative tools to translate scientific concepts and disseminate knowledge. By combining participatory science with artistic expression, the AirGeo project exemplifies a novel approach to addressing environmental issues and promoting future sustainable transformations for this area.

How to cite: Macouin, M., Tastevin, Y.-P., Dutrait, C., Laffont, L., Delville, L., Leon, J.-F., Bassimbé Sagna, M., Gueye, M., Schreck, E., Drigo, L., Vedel, E., Bauchard, L., Kantenga Luongwe, M., Rousse, S., Cassayre, L., and Milard, B.: Passive air monitoring using bark: A participatory science approach to metal recycling impacts in West Africa, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-15480, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-15480, 2025.

Co-created and participatory science has been recognized within the research community as a means to further applied science, improve uptake of research findings, and enhance the scientific community's ability to respond to urgent socioenvironmental challenges like climate change. However, many of these participatory methods are still limited by the Western science community's traditional notions of "knowledge production" and "original research". What is frequently neglected are options that seek collaboration beyond that research process or involve the production of knowledge that is, by the research community's standards, not publishable. Based on our experiences as scientists and practitioners in the ecological sciences and conservation, both within and beyond academia, we present examples of co-creation and applied science processes with and within local and Indigenous communities, utility companies, finance and investment professionals, and policy makers to illustrate the need for and potential impact of work that pushes the boundaries of what is frequently considered by researchers as "science." Many traditional examples of science co-creation involve the insertion of public or community input at one or more points within a standard research process (e.g. community consultation to identify research questions, citizen science to assist with data collection, or production of communications materials to disseminate findings). Even when attempted, longer-term, iterative processes of co-creation are often limited by grant timelines and publishing requirements that tend to work on the short-to-medium scale. We posit that the historic segregation of the academic sciences from "practical" work and the lived experiences of most people continues to limit our ability to produce effective, useful, and culturally responsive research and that to truly be co-creators requires a more fundamental shift towards co-equal power sharing within knowledge production endeavors. In this discussion, we aim to open a dialogue about how and under what circumstances the research community can broaden our understanding of science, incorporating other ways of knowing and moving past knowledge production as a primarily academic endeavor. 

How to cite: Maurer, T., Bennett, W., Saksa, P., and Cremonese, E.: Science is We: towards co-equal power sharing in scientific knowledge production, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-15689, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-15689, 2025.

A climate-neutral transformation of the heating sector is essential for the energy transition, and geothermal energy offers substantial potential to achieve climate protection targets. While the importance of the energy transition is widely recognized, deep geothermal projects often face challenges resulting from unfavorable public perception. Induced seismicity, in particular, raises public concerns and significantly influences social acceptance. Several factors contribute to these concerns, including inadequate or poorly communicated information about the complex scientific processes involved, ineffective dialogue between project developers and local communities, and limited opportunities for public participation in research or project development. To address these concerns, effective communication and active public participation in projects are identified as key solutions. This study presents a conceptual framework for participatory monitoring of geothermal projects and explore its influence on factors related to risk perception and technology acceptance. We focus on a citizen science approach that enables non-experts to actively participate in seismic measurements around a geothermal project through various formats, using plug-and-play seismometers. The individual, societal, and scientific implications of this approach are examined by integrating and connecting established sociological concepts within the context of deep geothermal energy. The conceptual framework is illustrated through a case study conducted within the DeepStor project, where Raspberry-Shake© seismometers serve as a central tool for fostering dialogue and collaboration with citizens and schools, enabling joint seismic data collection and hands-on learning experiences. We present results of initiatives where we are using the tool in educational projects and public science events, while preparing it for distribution to volunteers interested in contributing to the measurement network. The sociological and geophysical benefits of the initiative are discussed in relation to the conceptual framework. The findings of this study can provide guidance for a successful integration of participatory and co-creation approaches into geothermal research and industrial applications.

How to cite: Bremer, J., Azzola, J., Schätzler, K., Bauer, F., and Kohl, T.: Engaging Schools and Communities in Geothermal Monitoring: Theoretical Framework and Case Studies from the DeepStor Research Infrastructure (Germany), EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-16396, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-16396, 2025.

Solid waste governance in India has traditionally relied on linear, centralised capital-intensive systems such as landfills and incineration. These approaches have led to severe environmental degradation, public health crises, and the marginalisation of informal waste sectors. Despite democratic decentralisation efforts, the persistence of top-down governance has stifled local governments' ability to address these challenges effectively. Furthermore, unlike large cities, smaller towns face significant technical, financial, and institutional capacity constraints in developing context-specific solid waste management solutions.

The situation in South Indian state of Kerala mirrored this trajectory until widespread protests and legal interventions in the early 2010s prompted a shift towards decentralised solid waste governance. In response to these systemic failures, Alappuzha municipality in Kerala pioneered a participatory, decentralised waste management model. Supported by wide-ranging citizen engagement, expert collaboration, and political leadership, this initiative improved waste management practices and inspired the state’s 2018 Solid Waste Management Policy. However, as the model was scaled up across cities, the focus shifted from the process to the outcomes, reducing success to a few indicators, such as elimination of waste dumping spots and implementation of household-level on-site treatment systems. This shift overlooked participatory processes and highlighted the persistent institutional capacity deficits and socio-political complexities, mandating the need for sustainable participatory governance frameworks.

To address these challenges, CANALPY was launched in 2017. This transdisciplinary initiative, jointly undertaken by the Centre for Policy Studies, IIT Bombay, and the Kerala Institute of Local Administration, focuses on capacity building, knowledge co-production and community-led solutions. By integrating local knowledge with academic knowledge, CANALPY created ‘deliberative platforms’ for dialogue and collaboration, addressing issues of sanitation, water pollution, and solid waste management. Being closely associated with CANALPY since its formation, the authors trace the evolution of participatory solid waste governance in Alappuzha, analysing the drivers, enabling conditions, and challenges associated with co-creation. It highlights how CANALPY has facilitated knowledge sharing, bridged capacities, and informed policy-making. At the same time, it critically examines socio-political and institutional barriers while scaling up.

It was found that while knowledge co-production facilitates dialogue and collaboration, consensus building is crucial to translate knowledge into actionable outcomes. Without consensus, deliberative processes risk becoming prolonged exercises without tangible results, a notable critique of existing participatory research. Additionally, the study highlights the unsustainability of voluntarism in the long term. Participation often depends on individuals with intrinsic motivation or altruistic tendencies, leading to disengagement as such efforts fail to be institutionalised. Socio-political dynamics, including power imbalances and inequities, further restricts inclusive participation. To address these barriers, the importance of aligning incentives with participants' motivations is emphasised. Context-specific incentives, such as social recognition, skill-building opportunities proved effective in sustaining long-term engagement. Institutionally, the need for adaptive frameworks that bridge gaps between local governance structures, community aspirations, and academic collaborations was evident. The work demonstrates that academia can serve as a transformative platform for participatory governance by addressing these socio-political and institutional challenges. It offers a replicable framework for advancing transdisciplinary approaches to solid waste governance in small towns in Global South.

How to cite: Suresh Kumar, R. and Narayanan, N. C.: Co-Creating Solutions: Enablers and Barriers to Participatory Solid Waste Governance in Small Towns of the Global South, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-16868, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-16868, 2025.

What are soils, and how do they influence our lives? The project “Boden entdecken” (German: discovering soil) aims to further this discussion. Boden entdecken is based in South-Eastern Brandenburg (circa 130 km South of the Berlin in Upper Lusatia, Germany), where environment and society are characterised by centuries of lignite mining and the current transformation towards an end of open cast mining by 2038.

Two approaches are pursued to support a public debate on the role of soils in our society, their properties, and potentials for different land uses.

First, citizens discovered real soils themselves. Soils are always near, but little is actually know about them. From May to September 2024, teams of citizens were invited to discover the soils of their surrounding themselves. Eighteen team, including over 60 participants of various backgrounds, actively looked under the surface. 38 mineral soil profiles of 55 cm depth were dug and investigated by them. An app and a little kit developed in the project were used, and soil properties were analysed in the field. The field analysis is a simplified approach based on the Müncheberg soil quality rating (Müller et al. 2007). For each soil profile an assessment, a score, is directly reported after the field investigation. All results can be accessed by the participants and landowners on the website of the project. Additionally, all results were scientifically evaluated. To validate the results, twelve of the soil profiles were additionally analysed and sampled by soil scientists.

Secondly, the local media and networks are used to raise interest and to bring together stakeholders. The main communication and outreach of the project occurs via social media (Instagram and Facebook). However, in-person events, meetings and interviews play a crucial role in engagement of landowners and citizens with soil science. They proved essential in this project and provided a platform for exchange and feedback.

Here we like to present sone lessons learnt in the project: Which project methods proved useful in engaging landowners and citizens? What motivated them to participate in “discover their soils”?

https://boden-entdecken.de

Müller, L.; U. Schindler; A. Behrendt; F. Eulenstein and R. Dannowski. The Muencheberg soil quality rating (SQR) – Field manual for detecting and assessing properties and limitations of soils for cropping and grazing. (2007): 1-103.

How to cite: Klemm, J. and Gerwin, W.: Soil and Citizen Science – engaging citizens, landowners, and scientists (Brandenburg, Germany), EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-17330, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-17330, 2025.

Scenario is a promising approach to support future land use optimization and urban sustainable development. Despite an increasing number of scenarios literature undertaken in Sub-Saharan Africa, a little investigation is made into urban green infrastructure injustice and the associated temperature cooling service in Madagascar. Madagascar experiences a complex interplay of challenges of astonishing urbanisation, entrenched poverty, and significant vulnerability to climate change. To anticipate the future of urban development in a highly uncertain socio-economic context, we engaged stakeholders from a dynamic urban region in Antananarivo in a participatory scenario planning process to co-create salient, diverse, plausible, credible, and legitimate scenarios. Stakeholders with researchers developed four normative visions for the future for 2030 aligned with the SDGs and African Union Agenda 2063. Based on stakeholder input, combined with planning documents and analyses of historical dynamics, scenarios were translated into spatially explicit representations of how each of the four narratives would shape land cover by 2063. Four storylines were entitled: (1) a loveable future that by 2063, Antananarivo could transform into a thriving modern city with more equitable access to green infrastructure, restored wetland corridors, expanded public infrastructure, and intensified and modernised agricultural zones, (2) a development prioritised over the environment world, where the drive for profit leads to urban expansion, loss of green spaces, and fragmentation of agricultural land, (3) a worst tomorrow, which we can see the landscape is marked by environmental degradation, as lush natural spaces, rivers, and crop fields are replaced by buildings due to population growth, land privatisation, and rural-to-urban migration, increasing heat extreme events, and (4) a run-away scenario, that results in significant conservation, with agricultural and bare land converted to forest and savanna, but at the cost of lower economic development. Our “bottom-up” urban planning strategy, incorporating stakeholders' perspectives, is essential to fostering an equitable, cool, and green environment for the future of African urban forests and vegetated landscapes.

How to cite: Han, R., Marchant, R., and Thorn, J.: Co-constructing future land use scenarios for a equity and cooling Antananarivo, Madagascar, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-18223, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-18223, 2025.

Achieving long-term effectiveness in natural disaster risk management needs a multifaceted approach. This approach should integrate the disaster’s impact with the region's social, economic, and physical characteristics. A variety of models have been developed to measure the disaster’s impact and propose risk reduction solutions. However, finding the optimal local solution is challenging. To enhance the sustainability of these solutions, it is crucial to consider the local pressing issues, which may be social, economic, cultural, or physical in nature. These issues manifest in the decision criteria when determining the most appropriate risk mitigation or management strategies. Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) methods are instrumental in evaluating suitable solutions by integrating the outputs of risk assessment models with local priorities, which are represented as rankings of the decision criteria. Since the local experts and community representatives have the most practical information regarding regional issues, their input is essential in ranking the decision criteria. Various preference elicitation methods can be employed to capture experts’ perceptions on important issues.

When it comes to disaster risk mitigation and management, the elicitation of stakeholders’ collective perception on important issues is challenging. Different experts with different backgrounds, concerns, and visions for the future can have different perceptions on important issues that should be addressed by the disaster risk mitigation solution. This difference of opinion can lead to conflict of priorities. Since the disaster risk mitigation and management solutions are usually led to policy making or implementation of those solutions, the existing conflicts can have a negative impact on the effectiveness of these solutions. As such, it is vital to address these conflicts and elicit the collective priorities of local stakeholders.

In this research, a Simos-based silent negotiation process is developed for eliciting the stakeholders’ collective priorities for natural disaster risk mitigation and management. The developed process is designed to engage the representatives of local communities and other experts and decision-makers and systematically direct them to compromise on less important issues. The designed process benefits from different methods to increase robustness. By directing participants to compromise on their less important issues, this process provides the collective local priorities in mitigating disaster risk. Furthermore, it can gauge the level of conflicts among the stakeholders at the end of the silent negotiation. Additionally, it creates equal opportunity for all the participants to raise concerns and argue their point of view. This creates the opportunity to address issues and concerns from different communities.

The process is developed and implemented in the Horizon Europe project MEDiate (Multi-hazard and risk-informed system for Enhanced local and regional Disaster risk management). The MEDiate project is dedicated to creating a decision-support system (DSS) for disaster risk management that considers the complexities of multiple interacting natural hazards and fits the final disaster risk management solution to the characteristics, priorities, and concerns of the local communities and decision-makers. The MEDiate framework is implemented on four different testbeds (Oslo (Norway), Nice (France), Essex (UK), and Múlaþing (Iceland)), each of which has a different multi-hazard pair and different socio-economic characteristics.

How to cite: Yeganegi, M. R., Komendantova, N., and Danielson, M.: Engaging and Conflict-Resolution preference elicitation in Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis for Localized Mitigation Actions in Disaster Risk Management, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-18473, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-18473, 2025.

We present a collaborative citizen science initiative carried out with high school students from EES N° 3 “Florentino Ameghino”, Chillar, Argentina, as part of a paleoenvironmental research project in lake sediment cores of Laguna La Barrancosa (37°19’ S, 60°06’ W). Students actively participated in collecting and analysing a sediment core spanning the past 500 years. Together, we conducted measurements of magnetic susceptibility, dry density, and organic matter, aiming to reconstruct past environmental changes and emphasize the importance of preserving this site as a vital ecological resource.
The project was made possible through the Neville Shulman Award, which provided funding to support research that increases local community engagement in environmental projects. This grant allowed us to design an initiative that combined scientific research with a participatory and educational approach, empowering the local community and fostering a sense of environmental stewardship.
Through hands-on experiences in both their school laboratory and advanced facilities at the University, students not only gained technical skills but also developed a deeper understanding of how agriculture that dominates the region´s landscape has influenced the lake's ecosystem. This project empowered students to reflect on their relationship with the environment they inhabit. Particularly given that, many of the students' families are involved in agriculture and often visit the lake for fishing.
These experiences offered all of us a unique opportunity to bridge the gap between local knowledge and academic science. For the students, this marked their first interaction with professional research and their first experience visiting a university. One of the most inspiring outcomes was the impact this project had on the students’ aspirations. Their exposure to scientific methods, combined with the support and encouragement of researchers, motivated many to consider pursuing higher education. The project opened new possibilities and demonstrated the accessibility of academic paths, planting seeds for future scientific curiosity and engagement. At the same time, it prompted us as scientists to reflect on how we do science and how to effectively communicate our work to diverse audiences.
Students presented the results during Chillar's annual town celebration, where they sparked valuable discussions about the region’s history and environmental challenges. Among the ideas that emerged was a new initiative to connect the observed environmental changes with the area’s archaeological history in future research. This underscores the richness and relevance of integrating local perspectives into scientific endeavors.
This presentation will delve into the outcomes of this collaboration, including lessons learned, best practices, and challenges faced during the process. It will also highlight the mutual benefits of co-creation, where both scientific research and community engagement are enriched, illustrating how participatory approaches can transform environmental awareness and promote inclusive, impactful science with long-lasting effects.

How to cite: Achaga, R. and Santiago, C.: Connecting Communities and Science: A Collaborative Paleoenvironmental Project in Laguna La Barrancosa, Argentina, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-20165, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-20165, 2025.

The heaviest water in our world is made in some places close to the land with the ice. This heavy water (in an actual sense) fills the bottom 40% of the world’s big open water body, moving around all sorts of things important for our life. Studies now show that almost half of this very heavy water is made in one spot near the ice down there. Since the 1990s, this heavy water making has gone down by about 40%. This drop is thought to be caused by both human-made warming and normal changes that happen in our world. In my work, I look at how normal shifts in our world alone can change heavy waters in the land of the ice. In this study, we use a computer to see how much one such normal shift from the small lands in the big water body (let us call it NS for normal state) controls two heavy water forming spots. We find that wind changes tied to a less strong NS push ice on the water towards the land, stopping some water areas from opening up and dropping heavy water making. In another spot of the land with ice, we see almost the counter sign, with more heavy water being formed during a less strong NS. This suggests that this same NS can have very different powers around the land of the ice. These things can help us better understand how heavy water forming changes over time, and how it changes the big water as our world warms quickly in the years to come.

* I used ChatGPT for synonyms.

How to cite: Huguenin, M.: How shifts in the normal state of our world can make more or less very heavy water in the land of the ice, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-477, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-477, 2025.

We want to understand how the edge between huge water bodies and dry land moves. Sometimes this edge moves when the huge water body becomes higher. This happens more and more as the large rock we're living on is getting hotter. But sometimes the edge moves because the tiny rocks that form the ground get moved around by the wind or the water.

To find out how much the land-water-edge is moved by the large water or by the tiny rocks, we need to know how high the ground near the edge is. Our idea is to use flying space boxes. Some space boxes see how high the huge water body is. Other space boxes see where the land-water-edge is. They have been seeing all that for the past 30 years. Now we put this together: One edge and one how-high-is-the-water seen at the same point in time go together! When we know how high the land-water-edge was, then we also know how high the ground was. We repeat this for all edges so that we get a bigger picture.

But now all the how-high-is-the-ground points cover a long time! It would be much better if we would know how high the ground is for all edges, but only at one point in time. How good that someone thought very long and came up with an idea on how to put together all the edges in a cool way. This idea uses a lot of the playing-around-with-numbers that we did in school. It helps us to find out how high the ground was near the land-water-edge at one point in time.

How to cite: Aschenneller, B., Rietbroek, R., and van der Wal, D.: How high is the ground at the edge between huge water bodies and dry land?, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-3669, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-3669, 2025.

We take world pictures to understand the world, and to guess what it will look like in the coming times. Usually we say that we make these pictures from our strong understanding. However, it is important to consider that these pictures are taken by humans. So what the humans making the picture did is also part of the picture.

I look at some parts of the picture where it becomes clear that humans made it. This is
1. faults that humans put into the picture even though they did not want to.
2. the idea that the humans making the pictures have in mind for what the picture is good for.

The faults may be someone using a wrong letter, or thinking wrong about how to enter the understanding into the picture. Ideas for what the picture might be good for are for making understanding, or for having a picture with as many things as possible in it so that it approaches the real world. These ideas sometimes do not agree, as where more things make it less easy to understand the picture. This may cause anger between the people making or using the picture.

These parts where it becomes clear that humans make the picture force us to think again: what are the world pictures made of and what are they a picture of?

How to cite: Proske, U.: World pictures and where it is important that they are made by humans, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-6700, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-6700, 2025.

The world is getting hotter, and we are getting close to a point where the new fire is too much. We have made some changes to use power better and are getting closer to not putting out as much bad air that warms the world, but we still have a long way to go to stop it completely. Because of this, some people are thinking about really big ideas to make the world hurt less from this new fire. These ideas can not fix the bottom cause problem, but they might make things less bad for a while.

One idea has to do with the white soft stuff in the sky—sky water. Sky water is very important for keeping the world air and ground the right kind of warm. If we did not have sky water, the world would be way, way hotter! But not all types of sky water cool things down. Some high, fine sky water made of ice, also called high sky water, do something totally different. They work like the glass in a hot car, making the world warmer. If we could clear the world of all high sky water, it could make the world cooler—even cooler than it was before we started putting bad air into the sky.

Of course, we can not just take all high sky water away, but some people are thinking about whether we can change how sky water is made so it does not warm the world so much. This idea might work best in places where other ways of cooling the world do not work well, like at night or in very cold places.

The problem is, we do not really understand high sky water very well. They are one of the hardest parts of the sky to understand, so trying to change them is really, really hard. For now, this idea is something we can only try out on computers or in small sky water rooms. It might never work in real life, but thinking about it can help us learn more about how the world works and how we can take care of it.

How to cite: Gasparini, B.: Can clearing high sky water lead to a cooler world?, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-8596, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-8596, 2025.

A few years ago, in a place quite close to here, a lot of rain fell from the sky. This hurt people and caused problems to their houses. People were not ready. But the rain could have fallen in a different place - maybe a bigger city - or fallen for longer, or fallen over a bigger area. We use computers to make new worlds to try out different possible ways the rain could have fell. You can think of them as several different story lines. We then use these story lines to think about what could have happened, what could happen in a few years, or what we need to be ready for. We also use these story lines to try to understand why some of them rain lots and some don't rain at all. This is important to people - we need to imagine such things to be ready in case they do happen. 

How to cite: Stoffels, R., Thompson, V., and Fischer, E.: Imagine rain falling in a different place, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-10332, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-10332, 2025.

Eyes in the sky stay high in outer space and look down on earth. There are many of them; some remain fixed over the same spot on the world's surface, while others keep going round and round. They see most of what happens on earth, and we might like them or not. However, some eyes in the sky only see the air, the water and the clouds, so they are not to worry about. We can actually make good use of them. These special eyes in the sky make pictures using the light coming from or mirrored by the earth and passing through the air. With these pictures, people can tell how warm or cold the air is, how much water is in the air, where and when clouds form, and even how fast the wind blows. We can also pass this information on to big computers, which can use it to guess whether it will get warm or cold in the next few days, where the air will rise and form clouds, where it will rain. It seems big computers are learning to do this job completely on their own, with very little help from men. Anyway, they will always need pictures from the eyes in the sky. At work, I do nothing with the information coming from the eyes in the sky. Some friends have great fun with it, but I like it a lot more to understand how the air moves over or around mountains. I am mostly interested in how mountains help make rain (which is sometimes too much for us) and strong winds (which can blow things away or feed big fires), and also in how mountain winds move stuff around.

How to cite: Serafin, S.: Eyes in the sky help us guess where and when it will rain, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-10532, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-10532, 2025.

How to cite: Wu, Y. and Seipelt, J.:  Little Earth Makers: A Clearer View of Our World , EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-12049, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-12049, 2025.

In the cold south part of our world, there is a very large area of ice called Getz where nine big ice rivers flow toward the sea. These ice rivers are moving faster than before, which is bad news for people living near water everywhere. When this ice moves into the warm sea water, it turns to water and makes the world's seas rise higher. Over the last twenty-five years, these ice rivers have started moving almost one-fourth faster than before, and some are moving nearly half again as fast. This has caused enough ice to turn into water to make the seas rise by nearly one part in a thousand of a meter - which might seem small, but affects millions of people living near the water.

Our group of people who study ice and water, called GOAT, is working to understand why this is happening and what it means for people's homes and lives. We named these nine ice rivers after places where people came together to talk about making the world less warm. This helps people remember that what happens to far-away ice matters to everyone. When seas rise, they can push water into people's homes, hurt the places where people grow food, and force people to move away from the places they have lived for many years.

We are working together with other people who study ice to learn more about how warm sea water, along with other things like snow falling and heat from deep inside our world, makes the ice move faster and break apart. We also want to help more people understand why these changes matter to them, even if they live far from the cold south. By working together and sharing what we learn, we hope to help people better prepare for the rising seas and work to slow down the warming that is causing this problem.

How to cite: Eayrs, C., Kim, B.-H., and Lee, W. S.: Ice and Water: How Big Ice in the Cold South Affects People's Homes, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-15940, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-15940, 2025.

We have made big computers that tell us if it will rain, or be hot, or be windy in the next days. To know what will happen in the future we need lots of information about what the air is like now. This information comes from many machines, like cameras flying around the world in space, that can tell us many different things. Some machines can tell us how hot the air is, others how wet, and others how fast the wind is. But the problem is, that not all information the machines give us help the same. Sometimes adding some kinds of information about the air now even makes the computer tell us the wrong things about the future. Finding out how much different kinds of information help is not easy, so people have had many ideas to guess how much which machines help. In this talk I will look at some different ideas people had on how to guess which information helps. I use a very simple computer and many strange numbers to show that other people did things wrong. But the good news is that we managed to fix their broken ideas, and now they work well.

How to cite: Griewank, P.: How to know better if it will rain, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-17577, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-17577, 2025.

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, the people had a simple wish: to know if the days ahead would be warm with the sun or cool with the whisper of winds. To make this wish come true, they made computers so big they could guess what the skies would bring. Though it was nice when first made, now it had grown old, nearly 20-30 years old, and could no longer keep up with the ever-changing skies. So, over the past few years, these people and many other people around the world have worked very hard, even when they were not paid that well, to find new ways to make these guesses better and better. 

After reading stories of new ways from far, far away lands, three people and I set out to see if one of these newer ways could work in our land. Instead of making just one guess, our new way uses 50 different guesses to understand every problem where things could go wrong and add them to form one final, nicer guess. Like every other story, this story also has a happy ending, and in this talk, I will show you how the new way is better than the old in our land.

How to cite: Jyoti, K.: It is a story of new ways to make better guesses of whether the coming days will be hot or cold in our land, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-18966, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-18966, 2025.

Here we will look at how the air moves into the up area and how it’s moves have changed over the last two times four ten years. We know that the up area air is not alone, but it is a part of the whole sky air. We can see that in the early year when not clean air is moved from areas more down to the up area and the air in the up area is becoming less nice.

For our work we use a computer to add up the time how long air parts stay in the up area and to follow air parts to see where they come from and where they go to. So we can also find out where the not clean air comes from. Maybe the areas where the not clean air comes from has changed over time?

Our computer tells us that air parts usually stay in the up area for around one week in month one of the year and around two weeks in month seven of the year. However, this is not the same in the whole up area and it has changed in the last two times four ten years. It has changed most in month four of the year, when the air parts stay shorter in the up area now than they used to.

How to cite: Plach, A.: Looking at air moving into the up area in the last two times four ten years - A move-with-parts look, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-19186, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-19186, 2025.

In our life we use many things. When they are not made of matter like wood, but of low-money colored matter, they last long but with a new problem.
When they get old, they lose pieces. Some pieces become small, so small that they are able to fly with wind. That causes a lot of tiny colored pieces in the air and it is a problem for people breathing it, as well as for the animals, the water, the ground and the air too. Here we will talk about how these colored pieces enters the air, why it is a problem and what we can do to avoid it. 

How to cite: Bucci, S.: New troubles in the air, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-19309, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-19309, 2025.

During the 2013 BARREL balloon campaign, electron precipitation was found to occur over a range of time scales (ms to hours) and energies (10s of keV to MeV). On 26 January 2013, an energetic particle injection was observed by GOES, THEMIS, and the Van Allen Probes, followed by drift echoes of electrons with energies of 80 - 400 keV. Following the injection, BARREL observed X-rays produced in the atmosphere by precipitating electrons with likely energies less than 180 keV. However, the precipitation showed temporal variation with a dominant oscillation period of ~20 minutes, corresponding to the drift period of ~300 keV electrons as observed by MagEIS on the Van Allen Probes. Oscillations in energetic electron precipitation have been observed previously but not in conjunction with in situ measurements of the trapped population. This study shows the association between electron drift echoes and temporal features in energetic precipitation.  These multipoint observations suggest an intriguing correspondence between the drifting ~300 keV electrons and a lower energy electron precipitation mechanism yet to be identified. 

How to cite: Halford, A.: Observations of electron precipitation correlated with drift echoes, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-20487, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-20487, 2025.

Computer mirrors are important for studying air. Most computer mirrors are about fixed points in space and time. This fixed approach is good for many studies, but studies focused on going through the air could use moving points in space and time. We made a computer mirror using moving points in space and time for all air in the world using winds from a computer mirror using fixed points in space and time. Everyone can use this computer mirror. It can be used to study dry and wet air times, moving water and hot in the air, and long time air-situations. We will present some uses of the computer mirror.

How to cite: Bakels, L., Blaschek, M., Duetsch, M., Plach, A., Lechner, V., Brack, G., Haimberger, L., and Stohl, A.: A new computer mirror for studying air moving through space and time, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-21647, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-21647, 2025.

Where water meets German land, strong winds often push water towards the land, causing high water. Knowing if these high-water days will happen more or less often in the next few years would help people to be ready for them. The ways we already use to know about what will come don't understand small enough areas to help people be ready for high water. To make this better, we use computer learning to couple highs and lows in the air to high and low water days at three places where water meets land: Cuxhaven, Esbjerg, and Delfzijl. Our computer can then turn knowing how the air will change in the next ten years into knowing how high water in one place will change in the next ten years. We check how good this works and find that knowing what will come works better for many years together than for a single year, as it works better for the highest water days and numbers of high-water days than for the time for which high water happens

How to cite: Borchert, L. and Krieger, D.: How many strong-wind high-water days will come in the next ten years?, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-21681, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-21681, 2025.

Drones as remote sensing platforms have rapidly been adopted and incorporated into higher education coursework in geography and across the geosciences. Not surprisingly, students and faculty alike are interested in broadening their conceptual knowledge while also enhancing practical geospatial skills. Through a survey of 45 instructors, this study examines how drone content is being taught in university-level geography courses (primarily in GIS and remote sensing) in the USA. Instructors as a whole were consistent in emphasizing how drones enhance their instruction due to the hands-on (field-based, from the ground up) factor, but responses reflect disagreement among instructors in terms of what content is important to stress within these courses (i.e. photogrammetric concepts vs. flight school/aircraft operation preparation). Instructors face many challenges in drone-focused courses from equipment purchase and upkeep to institutional factors (e.g., research universities vs. community colleges). Importantly, these instructor insights provide a curricular snapshot and foundation from which instructors can build a more cohesive curriculum moving forward.

How to cite: Mathews, A. and Morgan, G.: Drone-focused curriculum in geography higher education: insights from instructors, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-3, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-3, 2025.

NetCDF files are a standard format widely used for storing and sharing scientific data, particularly in geospatial analysis. However, analyzing these files often requires advanced programming skills, creating a steep learning curve for students and researchers without a coding background. While existing tools for NetCDF analysis are helpful, they are often optimized for specific purposes, which can limit their flexibility in addressing diverse user needs. As a result, programming languages remain the primary method to fully leverage their potential, creating a technical barrier that hampers accessibility and slows the learning process.

To address these challenges, we introduce a chatbot powered by large language models (LLMs) that offers a novel approach to remote sensing education. Designed to facilitate the analysis of NetCDF datasets, the chatbot allows users to interact directly with their own data, dynamically tailoring responses to their individual expertise levels and informational needs. It provides personalized guidance, generates Python code snippets, and offers interactive visualizations, enabling users to explore their datasets intuitively and effectively. By learning through hands-on interaction with their own data, users not only overcome technical barriers but also develop a deeper understanding of geospatial analysis techniques.

The system incorporates Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) to enhance its capabilities, seamlessly integrating natural language processing with geospatial analysis tools. Unlike other generative AI solutions, such as ChatGPT, our chatbot not only prioritizes data privacy by ensuring that user datasets remain entirely local but also offers a functional advantage by generating Python code that can be executed directly when requested by the user. This feature allows users to visualize, analyze, or manipulate their data on demand, unlocking virtually unlimited possibilities for geospatial data exploration. By combining privacy, flexibility, and functionality, the chatbot becomes particularly valuable for researchers working with proprietary or confidential data, as well as for those seeking an all-in-one solution tailored to their specific needs.

Preliminary evaluations show that the chatbot significantly enhances user engagement and comprehension of complex geospatial data structures. By eliminating technical barriers and empowering users to analyze and learn directly from their own datasets, this tool represents a transformative approach to remote sensing education. It shifts the focus from navigating technical challenges to fostering discovery and deeper insights, making it an invaluable resource for both education and research.

How to cite: Pascual, R., Díez-Pastor, J. F., Latorre-Carmona, P., and Aroca-Fernández, J. M.: Adaptive Chatbots for Remote Sensing Education: A Natural Language Query System to Simplify Complex Geospatial Data Understanding, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-1188, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-1188, 2025.

The Greenland Ice Sheet Ocean Science Network (GRISO) project, funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), facilitates innovative approaches to geosciences education through its annual two-week summer school in Greenland. Since its inception in 2022, this program has become a hallmark of GRISO’s efforts to cultivate interdisciplinary collaboration and foster equitable research in and around Greenland. The summer school brings together early-career researchers from diverse disciplines and nations to engage with Greenland-focused research themes, such as ice-ocean interactions, climate impacts, and sustainable development. Participants benefit from direct engagement with local researchers and organizations, and actively apply their experiences to find innovative ways to move forward Greenland-focused research in an equitable way.

The curriculum emphasizes collaborative techniques and a broad introduction to a multitude of research disciplines and methods, equipping participants with skills to design and execute research projects that respect and integrate local knowledge and priorities. Field-based activities, exchange with local experts and organizations, and community interactions create a dynamic learning environment, fostering partnerships that extend beyond the summer school. By conducting these summer schools, GRISO contributes to training a new generation of researchers prepared to mindfully address complex Arctic challenges through innovative and inclusive approaches.

This presentation will share insights from the summer schools, highlight its alignment with the current U.S. and Greenland research strategies, and discuss its broader impact on the landscape of Greenland-focused research.

How to cite: Schulz, K., Sutherland, D., and Moon, T.: Cultivating Collaboration in the Arctic: A Greenland Summer School Advancing Inclusive Geosciences Education, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-1424, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-1424, 2025.

The EGU Education Committee (EC) provides an increasingly wide range of support for all those who teach geosciences at the university level, including PhD students, postgraduates, research fellows, and permanent academic or teaching support staff. New initiatives are being proposed in the hope of having a greater impact on the university community. Initiatives include:

The support of 1 Early Career Scientist (ECS) with experience in teaching Earth, planetary, and space sciences at the university level and in conducting research in the field of geoscience, by receiving a fellowship.

Geoscience Distinguished Lectures series at university: The EGU EC offers an annual series of Geosciences Distinguished Lectures, to be given by top scientists from Europe who have previously participated as speakers in GIFT workshops during the EGU General Assemblies. University teachers from the European region are welcome to request a lecture, for which the EGU Committee on Education will cover the travel and subsistence costs of the speaker. Lecturers and topics should be selected among the ones given in the last 5 years in any EGU General Assembly GIFT Workshop, whose programs can be viewed on the GIFT webpages. The distinguished lectures will be in hybrid mode to ensure a broader visibility of the initiative. More than one university could participate in the event.

Support for the creation of teaching material for higher education: EC awards each year 5-10 grants to fund the preparation of university level geoscience teaching materials. The teaching material can be on any geoscience topic, including laboratory or fieldwork.

The EC is also planning the creation of a professional network in LinkedIn for the promotion of Tertiary Education in Geoscience among university students and university educators.

EC webpages themselves (https://www.egu.eu/education/ ) are a valuable collection of slides, videos and teaching materials.

How to cite: Kourtidis, K. and the EGU Education Commitee: EGU Education Committee initiatives in support of Higher Education teaching, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-1628, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-1628, 2025.

Study programmes in atmospheric science usually start with introductory courses in mathematics, physics and meteorology. Current scientific topics and also science communication are often not addressed in the early stage. We wanted to give first semester students the opportunity to come into contact with cutting-edge research and to gain science communication skills at the same time. Therefore, we offered an elective seminar, where the students were asked to make a video about the Collaborative Research Centre TPChange (The Tropopause Region in a Changing Atmosphere, CRC 301).

Scientists from seven German universities and research institutions are working together within TPChange to investigate the tropopause region, a layer that separates the troposphere from the stratosphere above. This region of the atmosphere is of special interest, because it is highly sensitive in terms of climate change. Many people have never heard of the tropopause region, despite society's awareness of climate change. Also the students had limited to no prior knowledge about this topic.
The students had two tasks in the seminar: 1) to understand the  fundamentals up to the specific research questions of TPChange and 2) to present their gained knowledge in a clear way for a broad audience in the form of a video. We included science communication from the beginning of the seminar. The students were given the task to communicate and present newly learned facts. This had two advantages, the students practised their communication skills and we used the task to verify the student‘s comprehension.
With this seminar, we aimed to enhance the students' understanding of the complex interplay of different concepts and to give them a perspective, for what they need the knowledge from the introductory courses. Furthermore, the seminar gave the students the opportunity to get into touch with many scientists at different career levels.
We will discuss the student‘s learning success, both in terms of scientific knowledge as well as science communication, and their opinion on the seminar.

How to cite: Jeske, A., Awater, F. S., Bense, V., Emig, N., Ferrero Calle, E. A., Galow, I. C., Gautam, M., Hoor, P., Miltenberger, A., Paß, G. S., Richter, S., Schwenk, C., Tost, H., Turhal, K., and von Kries, N.: Teaching atmospheric science and science communication hand in hand, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-2236, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-2236, 2025.

Fieldwork is a key learning component of geoscience training and education, providing students with hands-on experience and a deeper understanding of geoscience concepts plus 3D spatial awareness of complex geological structures. Research shows that extended field trips significantly enhance these skills compared to lab- or theory-based activities alone. However, taking students to all world-class outcrops and fascinating geological sites is unfeasible due to cost, logistical challenges, environmental concerns, or restrictions during pandemic events.

To address this challenge, our Geosciences Department introduced the IglooLab in 2024, an innovative immersive learning laboratory (https://lio.univ-lyon1.fr/formation/les-plateformes-pedagogiques/plateforme-pedagogique-igloolab). The IglooLab is a 360-degree projection room, measuring 6 meters in diameter and 2.5 meters in height, equipped with five short-throw projectors and a surround sound system built by Igloo Ltd. It accommodates up to nine students and a teacher, offering high-resolution, interactive 360° media, such as photospheres, 360° videos, virtual tours (created with KRPano), and 3D digital outcrop models displayed using game engine frameworks.

This cutting-edge platform has been integrated into three distinct teaching modules for undergraduate geoscience students:

• Fieldwork Preparation: Training students in essential field practices, including the use of geological compasses, topographic maps, and field notebooks to ensure safety and efficiency in real-life fieldwork.
• Geomorphology and Landscape Deciphering: Through a virtual tour of the Gulf of Corinth, Greece, students analyze markers of active tectonics at multiple scales, from outcrop features and landslide geometries to large-scale terrace extensions.
• Petrology and Volcanology: Using 360°video of eruptions combined to 3D models of explosive and effusive volcanic edifices, students identify and describe morphotectonic features, link volcanic products to eruption dynamics, and analyze how these features relate to geological processes described in previous lectures. Adjacent teaching room allows students to work with geological maps and rock samples to complement (back and forth) the immersive experience.

The IglooLab does not replace traditional field trips but enhances fieldwork teaching in multiple ways. It serves as a multifunctional tool for virtual visits to world-class outcrops, preparation for field safety and best practices, and post-field trip debriefing and report corrections in an immersive, interactive environment. This innovative approach ensures that students receive a well-rounded, practical education while overcoming logistical barriers and expanding their exposure to diverse geological settings.

How to cite: Metois, M., Triantafyllou, A., Martelat, J.-E., Calassou, E., Passot, S., Daniel, I., and Van Reeth, N.: Enhancing And Diversifying Fieldwork Teaching Through Immersive 360 Projection Space, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-2766, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-2766, 2025.

Spatial understanding of complex geological structures is a fundamental component of geoscience expertise. However, when teaching geological mapping, students often face challenges in grasping 3D concepts through ‘traditional’ 2D or projected teaching materials, such as geological maps and cross-sections. In this perspective, we developed a specialized course for Master's students in the Geosciences program at Lyon (https://lyongeologie.fr/m1-geosciences/), using the Visual KARSYS app (https://www.visualkarsys.com/).

Visual KARSYS is a free web-based platform that enables users to construct geological and hydrogeological 3D models by integrating various data types, including those inferred from drillhole logs, field survey observations, structural data (e.g., bedding geometry, unit contacts, fault planes), and geophysical imaging products. Geological models are computed using the GmLib library (implicit approach based on potential-field method), developed by the French Geological Survey (BRGM).

As part of the course, over fifty students were tasked with building a 3D geological model of the Mont-d’Or Lyonnais massif (MOL, northwest of Lyon, France). The MOL massif comprises a monoclinal sedimentary series ranging from Triassic sandstones to Upper Jurassic carbonates, underlain by a Variscan orthogneiss basement and overlain by Quaternary units to the east. Most students had previously visited the MOL during a field trip and were familiar with its geology, providing a solid foundation for their modeling work. The course is structured around three primary learning objectives:

(i) Building a 3D Geological Model: Students learn to construct a geological model using Visual KARSYS, developing an understanding of the fundamental principles of the potential-field method employed by the GmLib library. This involves working with different types of data (e.g., hard data such as drillholes and field measurements, and soft data such as inferred contacts and fault geometries) and defining the lithostratigraphic framework of the model.

(ii) Comparing Model-Driven and Non-Model-Driven Approaches: Students are asked to compare two geological cross-sections with identical endpoints—one derived from the 3D geological model (supported by hard data only) and another hand-drawn by each student using a geological map. Students quantitatively assess the similarities and differences between the two products, evaluating which approach yields a more realistic representation. Interestingly, most students tend to favor their manually drawn cross-sections, often influenced by preconceived notions of the local geology.

(iii) Exploring Model Sensitivity: Students build an initial 3D model using only hard geological data (e.g., boreholes, field observations) and subsequently enhance the model by progressively incorporating ‘softer’ data (e.g., lithological contacts or fault structures extracted from geological maps, geophysical interpretations). With each iteration, students analyze the impact of additional data on the model, gaining insights into its sensitivity and the implications of integrating interpretative datasets.

This teaching approach provides students with practical experience in 3D geological modeling while fostering critical thinking about data integration, model-driven approaches, and geological model sensitivity.

How to cite: Triantafyllou, A., Calassou, E., Malard, A., Watlet, A., Bailly, B., and Van Reeth, N.: Teaching 3D Geological Mapping and Modeling Sensitivity Using Visual KARSYS, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-3865, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-3865, 2025.

How to cite: Horota, R., Vander Kloet, M., Senger, K., Jonassen, M., and Eide, C. H.: Digital Field Representations: Enhancing Accessibility and Technological Integration in High Arctic Geoscience Field Education , EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-4236, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-4236, 2025.

Eruption experiments by mixing an acid solution and baking soda have been used to display how a volcanic eruption works. We have upgraded such experiments to include many volcanological components, from magma mixing to eruption and geophysical observations.

The essential apparatus configuration contains two plastic beverage bottles, plastic tubes, a plug closing the mouth of the tube, and an air compressor. An innovative element of our experiment is the specifically designed connector that allows two insulated vents (IN and OUT) to be hosted on the bottle cap. The plastic tube connected the compressor to the lower bottle IN, its OUT to the upper bottle IN, and its OUT to the vent. Initially, syrups containing acid and sodium bicarbonate (SB) particles are put in the lower and upper bottles, respectively, simulating basaltic magma in a deep reservoir and crystal-baring silicic magma in a shallow reservoir. The vent is sealed by the plug. The acidic syrup is injected into the SB syrup by the compressor. The mixing of the two syrups generates bubbles and increases the system pressure. When the overpressure exceeds the plug strength, an eruption starts. Various styles and sequences of eruptions are generated depending on the viscosities of the two magmas, the positions of the inlet and outlet of the upper reservoir, the plug strength, and so on. We can also install sensors, such as pressure sensors to measure the system pressure, accelerometers to measure the vibration of the bottles, microphones to measure acoustic waves associated with the eruption, and cameras. The audience can monitor these data in real-time.

We use this experiment for various educational needs. Children enjoy watching explosions, fountains, and lava flows. To high-school students and the public, we explain the mechanisms controlling the occurrences and styles of eruptions and the meaning and significance of volcano monitoring. In educating graduate students in volcanology, we let them design the monitoring system and try controlling eruption styles by thinking about their mechanisms. This presentation introduces various eruptions designed by graduate student groups and shows how these experiments are used in education onsite and online.

How to cite: Ichihara, M.: A laboratory volcano: a multi-purpose educational tool for children, the public, and graduate students, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-5396, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-5396, 2025.

Geoscience investigations frequently make use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Nevertheless, becoming proficient in GIS poses significant challenges. It necessitates a foundational understanding of geography and cartography, such as principles of map projections, methods for operating computers, and associated technology, along with skills in graphics, spreadsheets, and database applications. Furthermore, contemporary ideas and technologies, including virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), web mapping, and drones, have been incorporated into modern GIS. Thus, a thorough GIS education for aspiring students and researchers is crucial for advancing geoscience. Given this need, we have created GIS instructional methodologies and online resources. These encompass web-based GIS tools for exploring GIS applications, freely accessible online resources for mastering GIS software, and resources for utilizing drones, AR, and VR in conjunction with GIS. Our latest project focused on hands-on training in disaster risk management by leveraging innovative geomorphological research, concentrating on GIS and associated technologies. Our educational initiatives cater to a diverse range of learners, including graduate and undergraduate students, high school learners, and researchers from various disciplines. We implement practical applications of the educational resources developed by these participants and assess the materials' effectiveness through surveys, among other methods. The findings assist in enhancing the teaching resources. This presentation outlines our initiatives and examines their influence to set future directions.

How to cite: Oguchi, T., Yamauchi, H., Ogura, T., Song, J., and Iizuka, K.: Seeking New Types of GIS Education for Geoscience Students and Researchers, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-5830, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-5830, 2025.

The importance of quantitative education is increasing in environmental sciences. This may entail a systematic restructuring of course offerings and topics in many faculties. At our institute, we also have identified a need for bachelor’s students to demonstrate and communicate their competence in specific quantitative skills that are relevant to their careers beyond university. To achieve this, we have redesigned the quantitative curriculum for bachelor’s environmental science students and are implementing a “Certificate de Compétence,” or a skills portfolio that describes the specific and general quantitative skills they have accumulated over their studies.

The skills portfolio is a formal document that outlines and validates the quantitative competencies acquired by Bachelor students. It emphasizes “hard skills,” such as programming, numerical modeling, statistical data processing, version control, and reproducible workflows, as well as essential “soft skills,” including ethical AI practices, teamwork, and critical code assessment. Additionally, students will develop transferable skills through the creation of a version-controlled eBook hosted on GitHub, which will serve as a portfolio of their work.

We present the process of formulating the skills portfolio within our faculty and the reasons for its potential importance. Our choices in choosing what skills to highlight and the document’s desired outcomes are also discussed.

How to cite: Delaney, I., Beucler, T., Kasier, C., and Lüthi, J.: Developing a Skills Portfolio for Quantitative and Programming Skills in Environmental and Geoscience Education, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-7261, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-7261, 2025.

Our modern society is becoming increasingly dependent on space. The number of satellites launched to Earth’s orbits continues to rise with several mega-constellations in development, efforst to return humans to the Moon are on-going and crewed missions to Mars in planning. While these enhanced space activities come with many sustainability challenges, such as space debris, they on the other hand, play an important role in solving sustainability issues on Earth. Finnish Centre of Excellence in Research of Sustainable Space (FORESAIL), funded by Research Council of Finland, had launched a MOOC course [1] on sustainable use of space, now and in the future. The course is free, no prior knowledge is need and it can be taken any time at own pace. If (multiple choice) excerises are completed, 2 credist will be provided by the Open Univeristy  of the University of Helsinki. The course covers diverse and interdisicplinary  topics, including the Sun and its activity, Earth’s atmosphere, ionosphere and magnetosphere, space weather, satellites and their orbits, launchers and manned space flights, space law and ethics. The last chapter introduces key on-going and future space activities and visions, such as return to the Moon, harvesting the space and space tourism. 

[1] Kilpua, E.K.J., E. Asvestari, M. Grandin, F. Tesema,  and A. Workayehu, Sustainable Space  [MOOC], University of Helsinki, https://courses.mooc.fi/org/uh-physics/courses/sustainable-space (2024)

How to cite: Kilpua, E., Asvestari, E., Grandin, M., Tesema, F., Workayehu, A., and Palmroth, M.: Massive Open Online Course on Sustainable Use of Space, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-7367, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-7367, 2025.

Recent changes in the Spanish Educational System, including the Organic Law 3/2020 (LOMLOE), require universities to integrate sustainability into their study programs to address the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda. The Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (URJC) has been a pioneer in this effort, with the strategic plan URJC 2030 and a dedicated Green Office in place for over a decade. These initiatives aim to incorporate sustainability across all university activities, including teaching, research, and administration. However, developing the necessary skills to achieve the SDGs in higher education remains an ongoing challenge.

This communication describes an innovative educational activity developed during the 2023-24 academic year within the Soil and Water Resource Management subject, aimed at third-year graduate students of Environmental Sciences. The central theme was the analysis of a practical case in a familiar environment: the Móstoles campus of the URJC, where the Environmental Science degree is taught. Here, the URJC Green Office implemented a water conservation project by suspending irrigation in certain areas. Although necessary, this action led to soil erosion in non-irrigated grass areas, highlighting the need for detailed soil property analysis to develop effective water management strategies. At the same time, it provided a natural laboratory to study soil reactions to drought, offering a hands-on learning experience that heightened students’ awareness and engagement with the SDGs.

The learning experience combined practical fieldwork, laboratory analyses, and active methodologies to foster the critical thinking and analytical skills necessary to relate the course content to the SDGs. Case-Based Learning linked sustainability concepts to tangible scenarios, while Cooperative Learning involved a group practical project to evaluate soil conditions and suggest practical solutions for improving campus sustainability. This sustainability analysis required prior Flipped Classroom work, which included analyzing historical or recent soil degradation case studies through concept maps, interactive videos, and text analysis.

This approach enhanced motivation, concept assimilation, and reflection, connecting classroom content with the environmental issues addressed by the 2030 Agenda, particularly SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation) and SDG 15 (Life on Land). It also highlighted how the SDGs are interconnected, demonstrating that achieving one can have positive or negative impacts on others. Therefore, the activity also addressed the direct or indirect contributions to other goals such as Quality Education (SDG 4), Sustainable Cities and Communities (SDG 11), Responsible Consumption (SDG 12), Reduced Inequalities (SDG 10), Climate Action (SDG 13), and Partnerships for the Goals (SDG 17).

The integration of field practices, laboratory analysis, and real-case scenarios provided a practical and tangible learning experience, enabling students to progressively assimilate theoretical concepts and adopt a more active role in their learning process. Student feedback indicates a strong interest in expanding this activity in future iterations, underscoring its potential to enhance the university’s commitment to achieving the SDGs.

How to cite: López-Mir, B., Lillo Ramos, F. J., Martínez Coronado, A., Crespo Martín, C., González Muñoz, S., Guerrero Márquez, J. L., Herrera Espada, R., Najarro De La Parra, M., and Rincón Ramos, M.: Integrating Sustainability into Higher Education through Active Learning: A Case Study from Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (URJC) , EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-8205, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-8205, 2025.

Living labs can be defined as: “a physical or virtual place where partners and users from open innovation networks further develop and test innovations together” (Endedijk et al., 2024). The use of living labs as dynamic teaching tools are increasingly emerging in geosciences as they can integrate real-world challenges and collaborative learning to engage students in addressing societal issues. However, the lack of a unified definition and diverse methodologies for implementing living labs create challenges in programme development, as well as uncertainty for students about expectations and preparation. A key difficulty lies in distinguishing living labs from traditional natural sciences fieldwork while balancing societal and policy aspects to simulate realistic, interdisciplinary environments.

We are developing a Living Lab course within the MSc programme Water Management for Climate Adaptation, aiming to educate students on the integration of natural sciences and governance in water management. This initiative is part of a broader educational effort linked to the newly established Delta Climate Center in Zeeland, fostering transdisciplinary learning around local water management challenges.

We take a three-pronged pedagogical approach:

• Understanding and learning how to undertake research, including the empirical research cycle and designing a proposal
• Development of skills that are required to undertake a thesis during skills labs, including fieldwork, labwork, modelling and qualitative data gathering.
• Management of interdisciplinary projects in a real-world setting, through creation of an policy report in student teams approaching issues from different perspectives.

In the development of the programme, we have run into some interesting questions including: how can these living labs be placed in a broader curriculum? What is the optimum method for assessment in a Living Lab? How can we choose the best locations for field visits or undertaking research?

We are interested in hearing from others in the session about how Living Labs are perceived, challenges, suggestions or ideas from different experiences.

References:

Endedijk, M., Kornet, A., Schipper, T., den Ouden, M. & Schram-Wesselink, N. (2024). Is dit een Learning Community? Een multi-level framework om het concept Learning Communities verder te duiden en vorm te geven in praktijk en onderzoek. TechYourFuture, October, 2024.

How to cite: Cox, J., Kuller, M., and de Boer, H.: How should we design a Living Lab? , EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-8807, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-8807, 2025.

In hydrological modelling classically educators at the MSc and PhD level teach their students using the one model they personally are familiar with. The eWaterCycle platform for Open and FAIR hydrological modelling was developed to allow researchers to more easily work with each other’s models and data. Recently we have started to use eWaterCycle in our MSc level teaching and made our teaching material available as Open Educational Resources using the novel ‘teachbooks’ framework for interactive online educational material. Using eWaterCycle students are able to explore their own hydrological research questions and answer those using models developed at different institutes. The teachbook framework allows us to easily share this educational material with any teacher in the world.

How to cite: Hut, R. and Schilperoort, B.: Sharing educational resources on hydrological modelling between institutes using eWaterCycle and Teachbooks, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-8836, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-8836, 2025.

The WCRP Academy is the research training advisory and coordination arm of the World Climate Research Program. It is the flagship activity for WCRP´s mission: “to develop, share, and apply climate knowledge that contributes to societal well-being” and works to equip current and future climate scientists with the knowledge, skills and attributes required to tackle the world’s most pressing and challenging climate research questions.

The foundation of the Academy is an online portal that connects training providers with users of training materials through a catalogue of climate science training activities and educational materials. The Academy ensures that the training that it shares is of high quality and, as such, is a legitimate source of professional and capacity development. The Academy is also exploring models for effective mentorship, best practice guides for climate science training and a WCRP Future Leaders Programme. The WCRP Academy is building a global community of climate researchers at all career stages to provide global networking and development opportunities to facilitate lifelong learning, global equity, and skills matching for current and future research projects. 

The WCRP Academy encourages and invites all research and expert groups, academic and research institutions, government agencies and non-government organizations who provide climate science training and education to register as training providers and contribute to our online training catalogue.

https://wcrp-academy.org

How to cite: van der Wel, N., Francis, F., Hart, M., Lennard, C., Jamero, Ma. L., and Batino, L.: The World Climate Research Program (WCRP) Academy      , EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-9020, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-9020, 2025.

The Erasmus+ project "Multilevel Local, National, and Regional Education and Training in Climate Services, Climate Change Adaptation, and Mitigation" (ClimED) aims to establish an advanced academic framework dedicated exclusively to climate services education in Ukraine's high education institutions. This project responds to the growing need for highly trained professionals capable of addressing the challenges posed by climate change through innovative and practical solutions.

At the core of this initiative is developing an academic program comprising a PhD and Master’s degree explicitly and specifically tailored around climate services. These programs are designed to align with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Competency Framework for Climate Services, ensuring that graduates possess the critical skills and knowledge required to excel in the field. The project wants to create a specialised, high-level academic curriculum that meets global standards and addresses local and regional needs.

In this communication, we present the course selection that will form the backbone of these programs. The PhD program is specifically designed to advance research and analytical capabilities in climate services, equipping candidates with the expertise to lead in creating, implementing, and evaluating innovative solutions within this specialised field. Meanwhile, the Master's programs are structured into two distinct areas. The first master's degree is for individuals with backgrounds in climate-related disciplines, such as atmospheric sciences, geography, and related fields. The second master approach is designed for professionals from all other disciplines, providing foundational knowledge and targeted skills to integrate climate services into their existing expertise. Additionally, the project extends its scope through professional development courses aimed at disciplines beyond the traditional boundaries of climate services. These courses emphasise integrating climate-related knowledge and practices into other fields, highlighting the universal importance of climate services across sectors. This approach ensures that professionals from diverse backgrounds—ranging from urban planning to public health and beyond—are equipped to incorporate climate considerations into their work, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and resilience.

The programs feature a strong alignment with the competencies outlined by the WMO, establishing a solid foundation for students to create, manage, and apply climate data effectively. Practical application is a central focus, with case studies, projects, and interdisciplinary approaches preparing students to address real-world challenges. The structure of the programs ensures inclusivity and relevance by tailoring educational pathways for climate specialists and professionals from other disciplines, enhancing the accessibility and applicability of climate services education. Finally, the curricula are designed to balance global frameworks with regional priorities, addressing specific challenges in Ukraine while remaining aligned with international standards.

As the project progresses, future communications will detail the development and implementation of these courses, showcasing their impact on building a new generation of climate service professionals. By fostering academic excellence and practical expertise, the ClimEd project aims to contribute significantly to global efforts in climate change adaptation and mitigation.

How to cite: Olano Pozo, J. X., Aguilar, E., Khomenko, I., Stepanenko, S., Boqué-Ciurana, A., Cimolai, C., Vergeles, Y., Diman, T., Malovanyy, M., Voloshkina, O., Ovcharuk, V., and Tyuryakov, S.: Multilevel Local, National, and Regional Education and Training: Building Academic Excellence in Climate Services in Ukraine. , EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-9098, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-9098, 2025.

Interdisciplinary work can be a challenge even for experienced scientists. Integrating different work methodologies, utilizing different skillsets, and effectively communicating across different fields are all essential to successfully completing such projects. How can we then design an interdisciplinary study program that is engaging for the students and clearly presents the challenges of interdisciplinary work without becoming too problematic and disillusioning?

The course Social Hydrology is organized at the Humboldt University of Berlin for students of both social and natural sciences. The goal of the program is to encourage students to engage with water-related problems in a wide interdisciplinary context while conducting an individual research project.

What keeps the course together is the subject: each year the lecture is built around a selected smaller river near the city of Berlin. The course starts with an excursion along the selected river, where walking along the river we visit all the relevant locations along them. The students use this excursion to collect impressions of human-water relations through photos, sound or text. During these excursions, the students come up with research questions which are then further distilled with the help of the lecturers. After the excursions the students are given input on various research methods, which then they can use to carry out independent project work.

The goal of the project work is to create reports in the form of research articles, which are then published online in the form of storymaps. Hence, the generated knowledge remains accessible beyond the lecture, and could be used as a basis for future research in the region. During the last years, the course became popular among the students, many of them choosing to write a master thesis on the topic of hydrology. In a few cases, the study carried out during the course was further developed into an actual research paper.

How to cite: Somogyvári, M., Roggero, M., and Krueger, T.: Social Hydrology: interdisciplinary research as part of higher education, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-11346, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-11346, 2025.

With the increasing reliance on data-driven methods in geosciences and the growing popularity of programming languages such as Python and R, equipping researchers with data science skills has never been more critical. The BMBF-funded project “DataNord” addresses this need by establishing an interdisciplinary data competence center for the Bremen region. The center offers researchers from all disciplines, including geosciences, and career stages a wide range of services to enhance their data handling skills throughout the entire data lifecycle.

As part of the U Bremen Research Alliance – a network comprising the University of Bremen and 12 non-university research institutes –, DataNord leverages extensive expertise in research data management and data science. A central element is the University of Bremen’s Data Science Center (DSC), where an interdisciplinary team of data scientists develops training programs and provides consultation services through the DataNord help-desk. Their target audience includes researchers from renowned institutions in the geosciences, such as the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI), the University of Bremen’s MARUM, the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT), and the Max Planck Institute (MPI). By addressing their specialized needs, DataNord aims to foster a stronger foundation in data science across the geoscientific community.

To connect foundational data science skills with their application in specialized fields like geosciences, DataNord develops domain-specific training modules, for example, focused on analyzing and visualizing climatic and geological time series using Python. These modules use context-relevant datasets and examples, fostering greater engagement and practical impact. However, such domain-specific resources remain underrepresented in many current curricula and online resources.

To address this gap, DataNord has systematically curated open-source digital learning and teaching materials tailored to geoscientists. This includes self-guided training resources, that cover essential data science methods and feature data and code presented alongside tutorials, demonstrations, or combined exercises with solutions – making them directly applicable for researchers in self-study or valuable for teaching in workshops.

By summarizing and offering such readily accessible resources, DataNord aims not only to support more tailored and efficient data science training in higher education but also to reduce redundancy and increase efficiency in developing geoscience-specific training programs across institutions. Ultimately, this approach aims to enhance data literacy in the geosciences and promote sustainable, transparent, and reproducible research across the scientific community.

Finally, domain-specific training material also allows for rethinking the presentation of scientific knowledge in adherence to the FAIR principles – requiring data to be Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reproducible. It exemplifies for researchers how integrating narrative code, data, and methodological explanations (e.g., in Jupyter Notebooks) can result in executable research documents that enable researchers to share their workflows more effectively and, ultimately, become part of promoting data science skills in the geoscience community themselves.

How to cite: Nolte, A., Steinmann, L., and Drechsler, R.: Open Resources for Geoscience Data Science Training: Insights from the Data Competence Center “DataNord”, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-11877, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-11877, 2025.

Computer-based interactive learning environments have the potential to enhance student learning outcomes, perceptions, and employability. This work examines the use of interactive learning resources from the Groundwater Project website to introduce students to the principles of environmental modelling in the context of hydrogeology.

The approach addresses challenges often faced by postgraduate students who generally find the concept of environmental modelling technocentric and daunting. By leveraging computer-based interactive tools, we evidence how teaching technical subjects such as environmental modelling can be made engaging and accessible. It empowers students by simplifying complex scientific concepts, boosting their confidence, and equipping them with practical, job-relevant skills that enhance their employability.

This work demonstrates how contemporary educational strategies and tools can address gaps in technical understanding, create equitable learning opportunities, and position students for professional roles in Environmental Management. The adoption of these approaches within academic programmes contributes to improving educational and career outcomes.

How to cite: Vucinic, L., Ajia, F., Freitas da Silva Vucinic, M. I., and O'Connell, D.: Enhancing environmental modelling education with computer-based interactive learning tools, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-12035, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-12035, 2025.

Communities in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands face unique water-related challenges shaped by a complex web of environmental, political, and cultural factors. Bi-national partnerships are essential for creating sustainable water management solutions. However, a "one size fits all" approach is not feasible, as water needs and governance structures vary significantly across the border region. This project highlights the lived experiences of borderland communities, emphasizing the need for local knowledge and historical context in water decision-making. We discuss the barriers to civic engagement, including community members' lack of confidence and training to engage with civic leaders and the inaccessibility of water science, which complicates the development of effective, community-driven solutions.

Our approach integrates community-based participatory research (CBPR) and citizen science to empower local communities through storytelling, data collection, and analysis. By fostering long-term, trust-based partnerships with communities in La Paz, Baja, and Hermosillo, Sonora, we aim to create a model for inclusive, sustainable water governance. The University of Arizona's close proximity to the border provides a unique opportunity to engage students in interdisciplinary service-learning projects that bridge the gap between scientific research and community action. Our project also aims to develop open-access educational modules, frameworks, and a living archive, leveraging student involvement in data collection, analysis, and communication to ensure that water governance solutions are grounded in community values and needs.

In collaboration with faculty and community leaders, we aim to build community capacity, enhance student learning, and promote lasting partnerships through service-learning, interdisciplinary collaboration, and the development of accessible data and resources for advocacy. Our lessons learned and best practices discussion will contribute to a broader understanding of how to support bi-national civic engagement, providing a framework for future projects aimed at environmental sustainability in the borderlands.

How to cite: Davi, L. and Hall, C. and the University of Arizona - CUES Spanning Boundaries Challenge: Challenge and Barriers to Bi-national Civic Engagement: Lessons Learned and Best Practices, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-12172, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-12172, 2025.

During the last 150 years the average temperature of Earth's atmosphere has increased by 1,3 °C, leading to a significant increase in extreme environmental events and disasters in our densely populated areas. In addition, anthropogenic disasters from large-scale accidents or warfare are on an unfortunate rise.
The ERASMUS+ project SUDEM (2023-1-BG01-KA220-HED-000159479) is establishing and validating a novel interdisciplinary higher education knowledge transfer model and curriculum, with focus on the digitalisation of the overall disaster and emergency handling lifecycle. The international team embeds principles of practice and education from all relevant domains, incl. risk and disaster monitoring and management, decision-making support, disaster handling management, AI, IoT, Data Science, remote sensing (satellites and drones) and data fusion, data management.

SUDEM seeks to prepare students with the skills required to address the efficient management of relevant extreme events’ and disasters’ consequences, and improve the emergency processes. The overarching goal is Europe to create a pool of disaster management experts with an adequately intensive focus on digital tools, through which the disaster-caused life and infrastructure losses to significantly decrease in the long-term perspective.

The project unites a consortium of leading European Higher Education and Research organisations, leveraging international collaboration to align academic programs with the demands of the optimal disaster management, incl. the decision-making support. SUDEM emphasises creating adaptable and accessible educational modules that can be implemented across diverse Higher Education and Life-Long Learning organisations.

This paper represents the results of the SUDEM Foresight study - a core project methodology element, enabling the elaboration and delivery of an efficient response to the identified demands and challenges, potential solutions, a relevant system architecture, and an optimal future development scenario incl. education, process management, policy, and finally a unique knowledge and training package as a core project result.

How to cite: Georgiev, G., Aksit, M., Sachenko, A., Bykovyy, P., Zachko, O., Kobylkin, D., Zafirov, D., and Sikora, A.: A Foresight study on Sustainable Disaster and Emergency Management SUDEM processes digitalisation: the European Higher Education and Life-Long Learning perspective, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-12295, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-12295, 2025.

In an increasingly global society, environmental challenges such as water scarcity and pollution impact everyone. The inextricable link between water and climate change together with population growth and economic development force up to 50% of the world's population into a state of water insecurity by 2050. Sustainable water management is, therefore, a growing challenge around the world. Furthermore, it is imperative to communicate effectively to raise awareness of the global freshwater crisis and to advance water management discourses. 

Here we focus on a recent (winter semester 2024/25) piloting of a course titled A water journey: from glaciers to rivers and lakes through storytelling. The course is part of Global Awareness Education in the Transdisciplinary Course Program at the University of Tübingen in Germany, and is open to bachelor and master students of all disciplines (not just geosciences) from both the University of Tübingen and CIVIS (an alliance of 11 leading universities across Europe). The focus of this course was two-fold: First, students learn about the fundamentals of water resource challenges worldwide also concerning virtual water trades, and how human activities such as damming rivers for hydroelectricity and using water for farming impact the water cycle. Integrated water resource management as a solution to transboundary river management disputes was also explored using a role-play scenario. Second, students were introduced to storytelling communication tools and strategies to inform, educate and influence individuals and communities to tackle water issues. Students then applied gained knowledge to create an audio product related to water using narratives and stories which were integrated into a radio piece for broader impact.

Using a survey questionnaire at the start and end of the course, we assessed students’ knowledge of global water challenges and solutions as well as their level of awareness towards local watersheds, drinking water, and global water footprints. We also assessed students’ confidence and skills in, and attitudes towards water communication through storytelling. In this presentation, we share the survey results, offer samples of students' audio work, and discuss the challenges and opportunities we faced in course implementation.

How to cite: Koch, I., Mohadjer, S., Schwarz, L., Gehrig, C., and Schneider, K.: 'A water journey: from glaciers to rivers and lakes through storytelling' - Learnings from an online transdisciplinary course, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-12363, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-12363, 2025.

Fissured Rock Hydraulics is a crucial aspect of hydrogeological and geophysical education. It is highly relevant in fields such as water management, rock stability, and reservoir engineering. However, teaching this topic presents challenges due to the distinct features of fractures compared to porous media, the scale-dependence of processes like dispersion, and the natural heterogeneity of the systems involved. These factors can make it difficult for students to grasp the concepts fully.

This contribution uses a Problem-Based Learning approach to demonstrate how 3D printing can enhance the teaching of fracture flow. In this approach, student groups were tasked with designing experimental setups to showcase various fracture flow features. The resulting setups were then used in combination with video recordings to highlight specific processes and effects. This work presents solutions for:

• Solute transport along a fracture profile
• Macroscopic dispersion in a fracture network
• Flow channeling along a rough fracture surface

Finally, this contribution reflects on the learning outcomes and provides links to the developed methods for easy adaptation in other courses.

How to cite: Heinze, T.: Using 3D printing in a Problem-Based Learning approach about fissured rock hydraulics, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-12595, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-12595, 2025.

The UN sustainable development goals, of which climate action forms a part, are increasingly being taught within higher education. In France, for example, all institutions receiving students at the undergraduate level are required to provide core education relating to the ecological transition for sustainable development, regardless of the student’s chosen discipline. There is thus a need to communicate basic climate science to students who are not directly studying this topic.

In the geosciences, masters level programmes typically include one, or several, courses on data analysis. However, both the quantity of data available, and the tools that are available to analyse this data have changed dramatically over recent decades. These questions of how to practically manage the analysis of very large quantities of data and how to apply data science techniques are relatively new, and as such have not historically formed part of the typical geoscience data analysis curriculum. Further, these questions may require a knowledge of both computer science and applied mathematics that is substantially beyond that required for simple data analysis tasks.

Motivated by these problems, a course entitled “Big data and cloud computing for climate” has been developed by a multidisciplinary group of educators from different institutions, comprising an IT engineer, a statistician and two physical oceanographers. For the past 10 years, this course has been delivered to a multidisciplinary group of students, composed of engineers and physical oceanography masters students. The aim of the course is for students to learn to use data science tools on appropriate clusters of machines to treat questions related to climate change.

In the initial phase of the course, the students follow around 20 hours of theoretical and practical classes, which cover topics such as cloud computing, the map-reduce concept, some widely-used libraries (xarray, Dask, zarr), as well as descriptive and predictive statistics, applied to ocean data. The students then spend approximately 15 hours working on group projects, mentored by one of the members of the teaching staff, in which they manipulate large data sets to investigate a specific climate question. Because the students are enrolled in different programmes, they have complementary skills for this phase of the course: the engineering students have better knowledge of data science techniques, and the physical oceanography students have better knowledge of climate science. They are thus able to collaborate to address the scientific question more efficiently.

The learning outcomes for the course depend on the students’ backgrounds: for the engineering students, they improve their understanding of the physics of climate change, and gain insight into the potential applications of the data science techniques that they have studied previously. For the oceanography students, they learn to efficiently manipulate large quantities of data and apply modern statistical analysis techniques. Student feedback about the course has been consistently positive, and the teaching collaboration has also led to research collaboration amongst the teaching staff.

How to cite: Close, S., Tandeo, P., and Maze, G.: A multi-disciplinary approach to teaching climate change and data science, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-12914, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-12914, 2025.

Formal and traditional education in hydrology and water management at universities has limitations in achieving practical, beneficial impacts on the ground. Many early career water managers end up in their positions with limited formal training in modern tools and techniques and often lack the necessary transdisciplinary skills. This is especially true for a large part of the world where access to appropriate higher education is severely constrained, while water management issues are complex. The Greater Mekong Region is a case in point. Therefore, alternative approaches to capacity building that utilise short courses, on-the-job training, peer-to-peer learning, and regional international collaboration are greatly needed.

In this contribution, we discuss an initiative to advance groundwater management expertise in the Greater Mekong Region, covering Vietnam, Thailand, Lao PDR and Cambodia, through international collaboration and capacity building. Groundwater in the Greater Mekong Region offers many social, economic, cultural and environmental benefits to areas not in direct access of surface water or during long dry seasons. However, the knowledge and expertise in hydrogeology, groundwater quantity and quality, and its management varies significantly between countries, with some, like Thailand and Vietnam, demonstrating advanced capabilities, while others are beginning to gain momentum and develop their expertise. Recently, new reviews and integration of regional information have advanced national and transnational understanding of similarities and differences in groundwater resources, strengthening the opportunity for improved transboundary water management. Nevertheless, access to expertise in gathering, processing and managing groundwater information is a limiting factor due to a skills shortage. In this initiative, key practitioners from four Mekong countries were trained in transdisciplinary water management in Australia and their home countries. Peer-to-peer learning, regional exchange of information and experiences, exposure to exemplary groundwater management practices, and development of cross-cultural and gender awareness were key components of the training. The participants evaluated the training as highly beneficial due to the intensive, practical and transnational approach.  

The discussed approach to transdisciplinary water education overcomes and extends some of the traditional limits of sectoral science and engineering university education with respect to regional groundwater management. A key outcome is the continued development of a cross-cultural, regional, international community of practitioners that fosters collaboration and exchange of information and expertise needed for effective transnational management.

How to cite: Batelaan, O., Viossanges, M., Pavelic, P., Barnett, S., Noorduijn, S., Ellickson, C., Banks, E., Castellazzi, P., Shanafield, M., and Stewart, S.: Transnational Collaboration and Capacity Building as the Key to Enhancing Greater Mekong Region Groundwater Management, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-13791, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-13791, 2025.

The escalating frequency and complexity of disasters worldwide, driven by climate change, environmental degradation, and societal vulnerabilities, underscores the critical need for highly skilled disaster risk management (DRM) professionals. Postgraduate education has emerged as a cornerstone in developing such expertise, with numerous programmes globally offering advanced qualifications tailored to address specific aspects of DRM. These range from resilience-building and disaster mitigation to crisis response and recovery. Institutions in different parts of the world provide specialised Master's programmes that integrate scientific research, field-based training, and policy-oriented curricula to prepare graduates for interdisciplinary challenges in civil protection, humanitarian action, and disaster governance. Moreover, lifelong learning plays a pivotal role in this field, as it supports professionals in adapting to emerging challenges and new areas of expertise, which are increasingly incorporated into Master's programmes.

Despite these advancements, variations in programme structure, scope, and accessibility have created gaps in standardisation and knowledge exchange across European regions. Recognising this, the aim of this contribution is to provide an overview of existing approaches, with a particular focus on the role of geosciences within DRM, and highlight their potentials and limitations. On this basis, we try to leverage best practices and develop recommendations for the optimisation of postgraduate Master's programmes in the broad field of DRM.

How to cite: Froewis, A., Sophia, S., Philipp, M., and Thomas, G.: Master's Programmes for Disaster Risk Management: Existing Approaches and Future Directions, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-15248, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-15248, 2025.

The rapid development of knowledge and evolving societal demands necessitate an education system that is both flexible and resilient. Such adaptability is crucial for fostering innovation and cultivating an entrepreneurial mindset, ultimately delivering a highly skilled workforce that drives a greener, more sustainable, and inclusive society.

This contribution introduces a novel co-creation method for course development, where stakeholders take an active role in shaping course objectives, content, assessment, and even participating in teaching and evaluation processes. This approach was piloted successfully in two phases, leading to the creation of a course focused on green transition and societal inclusion. Building on this success, the method was later applied to develop two additional courses related to business creation and entrepreneurship, demonstrating its versatility across a broad range of subjects.

In this contribution, we will present the co-creation method, showcase the outcomes of the courses developed using this approach, and discuss its potential to address diverse educational needs. We will also engage with the academic community to explore how this method can be refined and adapted for developing courses in geosciences and environmental studies, further supporting a future-ready education system.

How to cite: Abu-Alam, T., Marinov, A., Garcia, E., Voropai, O., Taylor, R., Roig, R. M., Baeza, A. J. A., Simeonov, S., Garcia, E. S., and Marcilla, A. M.: Co-creation of Flexible and Resilient Courses to Meet Stakeholder Needs, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-16361, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-16361, 2025.

GEOMME (Climate-induced geohazards mitigation, management, and education in Japan, South Korea, and Norway) and NATRISK (Enhancing risk management & resilience to natural hazards in India, Brazil, & Norway through collaborative education, research, & innovation) are international collaboration projects addressing challenges related to natural hazard and risk. The main aim is to foster partnerships to improve education, enhance resilience, and build adaptive capacity. The initiative focuses on international collaboration through educational programs on geohazards and risk management, aiming to improve the resilience of vulnerable communities and infrastructure. A key annual activity in both projects is the development of intensive, research- and experience-based courses designed for graduate students and practitioners. Both consortia are composed of universities, research institutes, local agencies and municipalities. To date, four courses have been conducted across the two projects, with a total of eight planned. Participants have included students from University of Oslo (UiO), University of Bergen (UiB), Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), and University of Tromsø (UiT), as well as representatives from institutes in the partner countries.

GEOMME, a partnership with institutions in Japan (NIED, Niigata University), South Korea (KAIST, KIGAM), and Norway (University of Tromsø, NGI), develops joint education on climate-driven geohazards. The consortium is structured around four areas of scientific advancement: geohazards in a changing climate (2022), modelling over different spatial scales (2023), monitoring and early-warning systems (2024), and sustainability in hazard mitigation (2025). The main activities have included short courses, workshops, field excursions, technical webinars, and researcher exchanges. Courses have been held in Norway, Japan, and South Korea, focusing on climate-change and geohazard regimes, hazard modelling, early-warning systems, and remote sensing applications. Practical exercises and field visits have been used to complement the teaching activities, offering students real-world insights into geohazard management.

NATRISK is a partnership between Brazil (CEMADEN, UFRJ, Nova Friburgo Municipality), India (IITB, IITR, CRRI, BMTPC), and Norway (UiB, Ullensvang municipality, NGI) that addresses the compounding risks posed by climate change, natural hazards, and urbanization – with a partial focus on marginalized communities. NATRISK aims to contribute to societal resilience in regions prone to landslides, earthquakes, and floods. The project is structured around four thematic pillars: understanding natural hazards (2024), risk assessment (2025), risk mitigation and communication (2026), and enhancing resilience (2027). Key achievements during the first year of the project include a training course, field excursion, and workshop in carried out in Bergen, Norway and organized by NGI and UiB. NATRISK has also facilitated international research exchanges for both students and researchers.

GEOMME (322469) and NATRISK (337241) are financed through the INTPART program from the Research Council of Norway and Directorate for Higher Education and Skills.

How to cite: Piciullo, L. and Gilbert, G. L.: International Collaboration in Geohazard Education & Research: Experience from GEOMME and NATRISK Partnership Projects, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-17022, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-17022, 2025.

A pioneering collaboration between the Agricultural University of Iceland (AUI) and Reykjavik University (RU) is establishing a new framework for university education on integrating renewable energy into natural and cultural landscapes. At the heart of this initiative is the innovative "Energy and Landscape" course, which empowers students to holistically assess renewable energy production in pristine environments, balancing ecological preservation, social acceptance, cultural heritage, resource management, and economic feasibility. The current Landscape Architecture framework aims to recognize natural and cultural values in contemporary landscapes. Energy infrastructure must also be considered a necessary part of people's lives in an area. In this sense, integrating models and approaches among different disciplines allows a better integration of these structures within the landscapes in which they are embedded without fragmenting their systems.

The case study of Andakill, a protected habitat near the AUI campus in Hvanneyri, is a cornerstone of educational and research activities. Recognized for its exceptional ecological value, Andakill's pristine landscapes are home to historic landmarks immortalized in Icelandic sagas and abundant renewable energy resources. This unique setting offers students opportunities to explore sustainable energy development while appreciating the interplay between nature and culture. The initiative leverages the complementary strengths of its partner universities. The AUI campus in a Ramsar-protected wetland provides direct access to sensitive ecosystems and serves as a living laboratory for environmental research. In parallel, RU's cutting-edge engineering expertise fosters innovation in energy solutions. The campuses provide a dynamic environment where students can gain theoretical insights, hands-on experience, and a deep connection to nature.

The course has both a theoretical and a practical design component, which takes place in AUI's landscape architecture ateliers. This aims to make the educational offering new and cutting-edge. Through immersive fieldwork and interdisciplinary learning, students are equipped to evaluate and address the environmental impacts, cultural implications, and economic boundaries of renewable energy systems. By combining classroom instruction with practical exposure to Andakill's hydropower systems, geothermal resources, tidal currents, wind energy potential, and biomass initiatives, students comprehensively understand sustainable energy development harmoniously with Iceland's unique natural and cultural heritage. This collaboration advances renewable energy education and inspires the next generation of professionals to create solutions for a climate-neutral society while preserving the delicate balance between energy needs and natural landscapes.

How to cite: Stefàno, D. and Finger, D. C.: Advancing Education on Energy and Landscapes, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-17707, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-17707, 2025.

Geoscience-based jobs in the oil and gas industry are changing; thus, the education students receive must adapt to maintain work relevancy. In Norway, the confluence of changing industry needs to meet net-zero emissions and increased interest in carbon storage combined with decreased student admission in oil and gas education programs prompted the establishment of a research project to investigate the current and changing competence needs in the Norwegian oil and gas industry and to map competence development within the MSc in Energy, Reservoir, and Earth Sciences, offered in the Department of Energy Resources at the University of Stavanger, Norway. The research project, Defining Future Subsurface Education Needs in Collaboration with the Energy Industry (SUBSET), is supported by the Norwegian Directorate for Higher Education and Skills and collaborates with 5 energy companies and 2 trade unions. We applied a multi-method approach to determine the current and future needs within the Norwegian oil and gas industry. Through analysing interviews with company representatives, surveys with the workforce, discussions with trade unions, and workshops between companies and academia, we created a list of 28 thematic topics and competences. We compared this list to the learning outcomes of a master’s degree program and the courses contained therein to determine which competences were addressed and which were not. The study program is equivalent to 90 ECTS of coursework, consisting of 8 core courses and 4 elective courses, and a 30 ECTS thesis. Students are not obligated to the program electives; however, most students concentrate on the program electives. 27 competences were addressed by between 1 and 9 courses, whereas communication skills are addressed by 10 courses in some manner. Only 1 competence – financial management – was not addressed in the program; however, students could take a non-program elective to meet this competence. According to the competence mapping, the master's degree program contains a high-level of work relevant skills development. In this presentation, we discuss the methodological approach applied and the detailed competence mapping of the master’s degree program with a critical look at the content.

How to cite: Watson, L., Pezzotta, M., and Dikilitas, K.: Designing work-relevant geosciences programs, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-18116, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-18116, 2025.

Groundwater represents more than 97% of the globally available freshwater resources. Groundwater is situated in geological structures in the subsurface and is therefore not visible, and difficult to characterize and manage. As a consequence, it is often not adequately considered by authorities, the general public – and in education. However, teaching and learning Hydrogeology and Groundwater Management at universities, as well as continuing education training for professionals, is essential to deal with future challenges. For this reason, it is important to use suitable educational materials to improve understanding of the complex topic of groundwater among these target groups. An ongoing Erasmus+ cooperation project named iNUX – interactive understanding of groundwater hydrogeology aims to address the need for digital teaching material (www.gw-inux.org). The iNUX project aims to achieve an interactive and digital learning environment in hydrogeology and groundwater management with a European but also global target of teachers and students.

Existing experience in teaching relevant groundwater subjects from highly reputable European universities is used to develop provide open source interactive and digital teaching material focusing on fundamental and applied hydrogeology. The teaching material covers basic theory in combination with field and laboratory applications in different European environments (Northern Europe, Central Europe, and the Mediterranean). The teaching material comprises (1) various types of videos (e.g., field experiments, lab experiments, screencasts of calculations and software use), (2) interactive educational documents based on Python  like Streamlit Apps and  Jupyter notebooks that combine explanation with live code, (3) various types of questions and problems that allow different assessments to enhance self-controlled learning of students. All materials are intended as open source and publicly available. The iNUX activities also comprise initiatives to establish interest groups to combine efforts towards larger pools of commonly developed digital teaching material (e.g., open source repositories like https://github.com/gw-inux/, question pools, and more) and to link with other activities like the 'Groundwater project' (https://gw-project.org/). The presentation will include existing examples of digital teaching materials and initial evaluation results to investigate the effect on student learning.

How to cite: Reimann, T., Liedl, R., Barthel, R., Giese, M., Birk, S., Grießer, E., Fernandez-Garcia, D., and Bertran, O.: Interactive understanding of groundwater hydrology and hydrogeology – the iNUX project , EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-18126, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-18126, 2025.

The geosciences have a long association with economic development and growth owing to the legacy of coal, oil and gas exploration, and mining. However, in the 21^st century where geosciences have cleaned up their act and are leading the way in sustainability and climate science, digital technologies, and space exploration globally, it’s often still hard to shake the outdated perceptions of our field, and anecdotally this has been cited as a contributor to the diminishing student numbers seen across university programmes (Stephen et al. 2023; 2024).

This is Geoscience is a new public awareness campaign from the Geological Society of London, designed to challenge current perceptions of geosciences in the public domain by providing additional insights into the breadth & benefits of geoscience, and encouraging the use of the word ‘geoscience’ or ‘geology’ in schools to improve geoscience literacy (Stephen et al. 2024). These unbranded materials focus on the diverse array of geoscience topics that may be overlooked and are simple images or moving graphics with single strapline; this is geoscience. They are made available online, across social media, and in print, and are available to everyone to use.

The main aim of the this is geoscience campaign is to encourage geoscience uptake at university and to future-proof our field with a plentiful supply of new, diverse talent within our pipeline, and to ensure we can reduce the growing skills gap that we face. However, it will take many years, perhaps decades, to be able to determine any meaningful impact at that scale, and therefore in the medium term the focus is on university admission numbers, and on the accuracy and diversity of careers information currently available to our prospective students. This presentation will share the newly available resources, highlight important trends in past data, and discuss what comes next: Geoscience for All.

How to cite: Stephen, N., Akingbade, A., Quinn, S., Jones, K., Harvey, T., Jameson, G., O'Donnell, M., and Thompson, S.: Geoscience is the future, not a dirty word! Rebranding ourselves to encourage geoscience uptake in schools & universities., EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-18366, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-18366, 2025.

Research in the polar sciences demands a wide range of practical engineering and field work skills which many early-career researchers (ECRs) do not learn as a part of their formal education. These skills are often learned directly through field experience or from senior colleagues. This perpetuates a culture where only those who are fortunate or judged capable enough by others will gain the skills they need to work safely and effectively in the polar regions, leading to the systematic exclusion of some groups from field-based polar research.

We developed a week-long residential field course, CryoSkills, to provide experience in engineering and fieldwork in cold environments to ECRs, many of whom might not have an opportunity to learn those skills elsewhere. The first iteration of the course took place in Haugastøl, Norway in April 2024, with all costs covered for those selected to attend. The six day course was structured around participants constructing and deploying a bespoke temperature datalogger and deploying it in a snowfield near to the accommodation. To help them achieve this, participants undertook a mix of indoor and outdoor practical exercises covering electronic, mechanical and software engineering, field skills and teamwork. Course materials and design files will be released as open source for use by the community. 

We conducted an equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) survey of all applicants, and course participants filled out a comprehensive feedback survey on their experience. Course participants reported improved confidence across all areas covered in the course, and particularly noted the positive impact of the inclusive culture on their learning outcomes and experience. The results of the EDI survey show a narrowing in the diversity of participants compared to applicants, which we attribute to the prioritisation conditions of the course funding. Access to funding remains a major barrier to disseminating vital engineering and field skills to the wider polar science community.

How to cite: Craw, L., Bagshaw, E., Doyle, S., Fisher, E., Frater, D., Filhol, S., Hawkins, J., van der Laan, L., Prior-Jones, M., Smith, E., and Young, T. J.: Cryoskills: an inclusive engineering and field skills course for polar scientists, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-18442, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-18442, 2025.

Fieldwork is an essential component of many higher education programs, but in marine sciences fieldwork opportunities are scarce. We have therefore designed a digital learning experience. Our virtual fieldwork is suitable for students, early-career scientist and staff who want to practice conducting an expedition and can openly be adjusted to other fields of research.

Virtual fieldwork is a relatively new concept, often incorporating Virtual Reality (VR). It has the potential to offer many benefits to students, such as being more inclusive, building student skills and confidence, and increasing engagement in the topic studied. The virtual ship classroom has been designed as an authentic learning environment[1] that reflects real-world oceanographic research practices and planning where students are empowered through choice to direct their own learning.

Students formulate a research question, plan and prepare for an expedition, and virtually measure ocean fields. The data is generated by our python tool in such a way that the output closely resembles the datafiles that are generated by the equipment onboard research vessel. This allows students to work with and interpret realistic data files while investigating a phenomenon of their own choice.

We have recently added VR in the form of 360° videos to the virtual ship classroom. We are actively investigating the added value, engagement and immersion students experience though design-based research[2].

We collaborated with course instructors to set intended learning goals and evaluated the virtual fieldwork (in four graduate-level classes so far) using interviews with students, instructors and teaching assistants, surveys, rubrics, and notebooks/assignments.

We find the Virtual Ship Classroom contributes positively to learning outcomes and student satisfaction, because the learning is highly student driven and perceived as authentic. The students reported high levels of engagement in class and with the learning materials. They appreciated their growth in terms of content knowledge, real world research planning skills, data analysis and collaborative problem solving. As such, we believe this type of authentic virtual fieldwork will help students develop critical 21^st century skills and should be transferred to other fields of research as well.

All material is open source and available online: github.com/OceanParcels/virtualship. We welcome anyone in the world to use and contribute to the Virtual Ship Classroom.

How to cite: Daniels, E. and van Sebille, E.: Virtual Fieldwork for Oceanography: the Virtual Ship Classroom, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-18623, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-18623, 2025.

Within the frame of the Master in Oceanography of the University of Liège (Belgium), a two-week research stay is held every year at research station STARESO (Station de Recherches Sous-Marines) in the Bay of Calvi in Corsica (France). During these two weeks, the students can put in practice the theoretical concepts they have acquired during their classes. This includes pelagic and benthic measuring campaigns to measure ocean currents, temperature and salinity, fluorescence, dissolved oxygen, etc. The students also dive to observe the Posidonia meadows, their extension and density, as well as the inhabitants of this rich ecosystem.

Since 2023, and with the support of the University of Liège, we have developed the program “Drifters Do it Yourself” (D²iY), in which the students build deriving platforms (surface drifters) equipped with different sensors, that they deploy during the 2-week field trip. The drifters measure the ocean currents and temperature of the water, and are built out of wood (the mast) and fabric (the sails) in order to keep the price low and prioritising sustainable materials. This project aims at developing a wide array of student competences, going from the conception and building of the platform, the programming of a Raspberry Pi that commands the measurements and communication with the shore, the design of the measuring strategy and the analysis of the results obtained. Working in groups of 3-4 students, cooperation and teamwork are necessary in order to successfully finish the project. The students are driven to think about the best strategies to sample the Bay of Calvi, including the depth and frequency of measurements. The robustness of the drifters is put to a tough test when deriving with the ocean currents, which also makes the students think about the special needs of measuring in harsh environments. Once the drifters are recovered, they analyse the results and compare them with other sources of information, which also allows them to assess the accuracy of their data. Being able to build a project from scratch makes the students much more aware of what it is needed to design a successful measuring campaign and allows them to integrate the knowledge they acquire in the different theoretical lessons and put it to work in a fun and cooperative way. The project keeps evolving year to year to include new sensors and platform designs, and also to integrate suggestions provided by the students after their experience with the drifters. The complete source code to log and send the position via the GSM network and post-processing the data to compute surface currents is available at https://github.com/gher-uliege/drifter-raspberry-pi.

How to cite: Alvera-Azcárate, A., Barth, A., Dechenne, A., Delforge, C., Gobert, S., Laur, L., and Pujol, C.: Drifters Do it Yourself (D2iY), an integrated project to learn oceanography by building and deploying surface drifters., EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-19144, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-19144, 2025.

Understanding geological processes is essential to tackling theenvironmental and social challenges of the future, such as the sustainable management of natural resources and the mitigation of geological hazards. However, the inherent complexity of Earth Sciences and the lack of engaging methodologies to broader audiences make the dissemination of this knowledge to the society a significant challenge. At the same time, the digital transition is transforming science and education, a shift accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which highlighted the limitations of traditional field and laboratory methodologies. This scenario calls for a deeper integration of digital technologies to overcome accessibility barriers, while simultaneously enabling the preservation of ephemeral outcrops, and enhance society’s understanding of geological processes.

Whithin this framework, the UB-GEOMODELS Research Institute of the University of Barcelona leads a series of projects, driven by the GEODIGIT project (TED2021-130602B-I00) funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 for the European Union “NextGenerationEU”/PRTR, which aim to develop, apply and validate advanced methodologies levearing digital and disruptive technologies to transform how geological content is generated, analysed and disseminated. Its primary goals include:

-Generating scientific knowledge through digital and disruptive technologies applied to outcrops, rock samples and 3D analogue models to address the demands of the energy transition.

-Enhancing the dissemination and teaching of geological content for the scientific community, educators and societyat large.

-Promoting scientific culture to inspire future generations to engage with Earth Sciences.

This project combines cutting-edge technologies, including LiDAR, photogrammetry, and UAVs, to build photorealistic 3D digital models of outcrops, rock samples, and sandbox models. It also incorporates disruptive technologies like Virtual Reality and 3D printing, pushing the boundaries of traditional geology dissemination. Furthermore, the project will establish an open-access digital library of geological content designed to benefit students, researchers and professionals. These tools will be tailored to inclusive educational methodologies that integrate individuals with functional diversity.

With this project, a new pathway emerges to connect Earth Sciences with society through the power of the technology, enhancing both scientific knowledge and it dissemination across various societal sectors.

How to cite: Aulinas, M., De Matteis, M., Ferrer, O., Roca, E., Gratacós, O., Albert, H., Arbues, P., Batenburg, S., Borras, F., Carola, E., Garcia-Selles, D., Guinau, M., López-Blanco, M., Granado, P., Massana, E., Molins, J., Muñoz, J. A., and Snidero, M.: Advancing Earth Sciences through digital tools: key challenges from field and laboratory datasets , EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-19173, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-19173, 2025.

In geosciences and civil engineering, a key aspect of professional expertise is gaining experience in perceiving and understanding the three-dimensional interactions within the subsurface, as well as between the subsurface and structures, as part of a complex catalogue of competencies. This is typically achieved through geological fieldwork, mapping, and site inspections. However, students facing various challenges—such as those related to socio-cultural status, insufficient financial resources, or physical and mental impairments—may not benefit equally from educational field programs. Additionally, the number of participants in fieldwork is often limited due to factors like safety regulations, and some teaching content is only temporarily available, especially in the context of construction sites, or may be inaccessible.

DRAGON Ruhr.nrw is an interdisciplinary teaching project aimed at reducing barriers to fieldwork at the nexus of engineering geology and civil engineering by offering digital teaching content.

We have developed a contextualized catalogue of regular and 360° videos, 3D models, games, animations, and digital lectures. In addition to digitally guided recordings of outcrops and sites via 360° tours, samples, and tools, augmented reality (AR) elements and 3D virtual reality (VR) experiences are incorporated. A video game was created to collect discontinuity data from a digitized outcrop, and a VR game guides users through the excavations of an abandoned mine.

The content created within DRAGON Ruhr.nrw complements regular classes and field courses by providing high-quality supplementary teaching materials. It enhances accessibility for a diverse audience, helps to prevent potential discrimination in the curriculum, attracts prospective students, and can be used by authorities or as part of professional training.

How to cite: Duda, M., Bartmann, K., Seiling, A.-D., Pastaschuk, R., Ogan, M., Kosmann, B., Perau, E., Könemann, F., Godlewska, J., Backers, T., Ulbrich, J., and Seifart, J.: DRAGON Ruhr.nrw: reducing barriers in geosciences and civil engineering education through digital innovation, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-20433, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-20433, 2025.

Increasingly adverse effects of climate change, accelerating urbanization, overtaxing of resources and aging infrastructure pose a wide range of challenges for current and future water managers. The scale and urgency of these challenges require innovative, holistic solutions, often surpassing the scope of traditional civil and environmental engineering education. Nonetheless, few educational initiatives or academic programs exist that enable civil and environmental engineering students to develop water management solutions in a transdisciplinary, international environment. The international web seminar Future Water, now in its second iteration, is designed to bridge this gap by offering students, educators, and researchers from all over the world such an environment.

In Future Water, students develop sustainable water management concepts for predefined settings in small, self-organized teams, supported by a set of formal lectures and input from a faculty advisor. This basic idea is the same for both iterations of the seminar; the status quo in academic education, however, has evolved considerably since the first seminar. When Future Water first took place just before the COVID-19 pandemic, working entirely online was novel to most participants. While virtual collaboration has become commonplace since 2020, the recent, yet widespread adoption of generative artificial intelligence (AI) presents another significant paradigm shift in water education, which had to be considered when conceptualizing the 2025 seminar.

In this work, we detail how the rise of AI tools in engineering education, combined with lessons from the first seminar, impacted the second’s conceptualization, materials and outcomes. For this purpose, data from both seminars - i.e., lecture recordings, meeting transcripts and students’ work products, as well as submitted questionnaires, time sheets and AI prompts - is combined. First, an integrated analysis of these materials is used to reveal commonalities, differences and gaps in student teams’ water management solutions. Second, the resulting insights are correlated with team members’ academic backgrounds, seniority, as well as group dynamics and communication characteristics. Third, the collected prompts are used to quantify the degree to which AI was adopted by civil and environmental engineering students and how it impacted their research, solution development and communication of water management concepts to interdisciplinary audiences.

Finally, we address how the compendium of findings affect the goal of establishing Future Water as a permanent forum for innovative water education beyond the limitations of traditional engineering curricula, national or societal boundaries.

How to cite: Pointl, M., Vertommen, I., Lorber, N., Muschalla, D., and Lansey, K.: Future Water: Lessons learned and ways forward for transdisciplinary,cross-cultural water education, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-21575, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-21575, 2025.

Fieldwork is an essential component of geoscience education. However, challenges such as weather, safety concerns, logistical and accessibility problems can impact the overall experience. This study explores the use of Virtual Field Trips (VFTs) to enhance students’ learning experience before, during, and after fieldwork, and in some cases, replacing physical fieldwork. The research was conducted in the alpine region of Finse, Norway, a popular fieldwork destination for several geoscience courses at Norwegian universities.

The VFTs were created using drone-captured photospheres and Digital Outcrop Models, offering immersive simulations of the field environment. Data on the educational potential was collected from students and teaching staff who tried out the VFT outside of a course context. Pre-fieldwork questionnaires were used to gather student expectations, followed by interviews with the same group after some of them used the VFT in the field. The study makes use of the theory of Novelty Space to explore the potential of VFTs; by reducing student uncertainty in areas not related to fieldwork (cognitive, social, psychological and geographical), the students can focus on the educational elements of the fieldtrip.

The VFTs were seen as a potentially valuable tool for preparing for fieldwork by helping students visualize the site and identify areas of interest. VFTs were also considered useful for post-fieldwork activities, such as report preparation and presentations, and were recognized for enhancing inclusivity by providing virtual access to field sites for students who cannot participate in physical fieldwork.

In a field course, students expressed excitement about the upcoming fieldwork, describing it as "exciting" and "interesting," though many also reported feeling "nervous" and "stressed," particularly about missing other courses and the challenging conditions of the field location. Social aspects, such as working in groups with their classmates and establishing good working relationships with teachers, were a common concern. The VFT is particularly useful to address cognitive and geographical concerns prior to fieldwork, and afterwards, students who did not take appropriate photos, or record observations during the field trip, used the VFT post-fieldwork for their projects. Moreover, students who used the VFT as a substitute for fieldwork found that, despite not being physically present, they were able to engage in group discussions and contribute to report writing.

This research highlights the potential of VFTs to overcome barriers in geoscience fieldwork, enhancing accessibility and engagement. The positive feedback indicates that VFTs can enhance preparedness, serve as a supplement or substitute for fieldwork, and support post-fieldwork activities. Additionally, VFTs offer opportunities for knowledge exchange between institutions, enabling broader access to fieldwork experiences. Future work will refine VFT design and explore their use in diverse educational settings based on the users’ feedback.

How to cite: Theodoropoulos, E., Lundmark, A. M., Dunnett, K., Kenji Horota, R., and Staalesen Lilleøren, K.: Virtual Field Trips: Enhancing learning before, during, and post-fieldwork, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-1047, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-1047, 2025.

How to cite: Schlegel, R. and Zuhr, A. M.: Beyond the Bathroom: Hygiene and Comfort (for Women) in Polar Regions, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-1222, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-1222, 2025.

Passive dust traps were installed in summer of 2024 at the Kobbefjord Research station in west Greenland (64°08’ N, 51°23’ W) to capture local and long-range transported dust. The installation included three different types of dust traps for wet and dry deposition as well as vertical flow, following the standard methods for wind erosion research and model development by Webb et al., USA. The Kobbefjord Research station belongs to the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources (GINR). 

Planning and preparations for the installations were carried out with the essential help from the station manager (KR). Materials that could be interesting for the Arctic foxes that live in the station area, e.g., rubber and plastics, needed to be avoided. Also any material that would collect insects rather than aeolian dust, e.g. sticky pads, were advised to be avoided. To ensure the installation materials arrived in time in Greenland, our visiting team (OM and LT) transported everything as personal luggage from Finland to Greenland. There, the research station could be reached only by boat, weather allowing, since there are no roads to the station.

The dust traps were installed by the visiting team on 14 August and they collected dust until the end of September 2024. During the visit, stream samples were also collected and quartz filters for further laboratory analysis (e.g., dust and Black Carbon) at the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) were prepared. At the time of the visit, there was no snow close to the station, but snow on glaciers and mountain tops up to 1300 m could be observed. The snow surfaces were observed to have visible amounts of light-absorbing impurities, most likely due to local dust.

OM and LT gratefully acknowledge H2020 EU INTERACT DUST project (no. 871120).

How to cite: Meinander, O., Thölix, L., and Raundrup, K.: Planning and conducting a field campaign in west Greenland to capture local and long-range transported aeolian dust, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-3994, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-3994, 2025.

South Africa hosts a great many geohistorical sites such as the Vredefort Dome impact structure¹, greenstones and stromatolites of the Barberton Mountains², turbidity sequences of the Tanqua Karoo³, and the Sea Point Contact (visited by Charles Darwin in 1836)⁴. Together they preserve the history of continents and the evolution of life (e.g. the “Cradle of Humankind” in the Sterkfontein Caves)¹. Therefore, South Africa is a geotourism and geo-educational hotspot. However, construction, vandalism, sea-level rise and land-use changes threaten many important outcrops, both in South Africa and worldwide⁵.

To address this, several platforms and initiatives such as Geodyssey (SA)⁶, iGeology (UK), European Geoparks Network (Europe), and GeoTourist (worldwide) have been developed to document specific outcrops for preservation, geotourism, and/or educational purposes. Our team at the University of the Western Cape has used this framework to develop virtual geological tours (VTs) of key Cape Granite, Cape, and Karoo Supergroup outcrops to: 1) add visual material to Geodyssey; 2) create Google Earth-hosted geotourism-focused tours; and 3) build longer, more comprehensive VTs with high resolution imagery, narrated video-links, 3D scans, and scientific references to allow professionals to visually access sites and to prepare students for in-person field trips. The educational efficacy of the latter has been proven with statistical analyses that show significant positive impacts that increase with target population education levels⁷.

Thus far, we have built easily navigable, interactive VTs using a Canon R5 camera (with various lenses and a Syrp Genie II Pan Tilt mechanical camera head), Canon XA 40 camcorder, Insta 360 X-one camera, DJI Mavic 3 Pro Cine drone and an Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max in combination with purchased software packages such as PTGui^©, Agisoft Metashape^© and Pano2VR^© along with freeware/hosting platforms including 3D Scanner (LiDAR), Handbrake, Blender, CapCut, Microsoft Clipchamp, YouTube, Sketchfab, and the web-based version of Google Earth. Although we have used the above expensive equipment and licensed software, freeware such as HitFilm Free, HugIn and Marzipano are available, which may achieve compatible results.

In conclusion, our latest results demonstrate that anyone can create VTs with a good mobile phone with LiDAR capability and a high resolution camera (45 megapixel or more) such as an Apple iPhone 15 or 16 pro, without having to lug heavy backpacks with bulky and expensive camera equipment into the field as we will demonstrate by showing some results.

References:

1) Allen, N. et al. (2022). https://doi.org/10.1029/2022JE007186

2) Tice, M.M. et al. (2004). https://doi.org/10.1130/G19915.1

3) Wickens, H.D., Bouma, A.H. (2000). https://archives.datapages.com/data/specpubs/memoir72/ch14/mem72ch14.htm

4) Bailie, R.H. et al. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1144/SP543-2022-237

5) Helm, C.W. et al. (2024). https://koedoe.co.za/index.php/koedoe/article/view/1786/3381

6) Geological Society of South Africa (2024). https://www.gssawc.org.za/geodyssey

7) Van Bever Donker, J.M. et al. (2024). https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-18133

How to cite: van Bever Donker, J., Cilliers, C., and Huber, M.: Fieldwork education and the use of Virtual Geological Tours, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-4173, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-4173, 2025.

At EGU  2024 the Gorgoneion Collective introduced the project addressing " Gear Hack for women:  Polar Gear Revisited for Female Friendly Field Operations".  

The project market research opened up a wider dialogue around women in Antarctica. These sessions have created a small community and we hope to create discussions to improve working conditions for women in the polar regions.
We drew our first prototypes that were tested in Antarctica. The drawings brought together innovations but also symbolic elements to give a homage to people who live in extreme and hostile environments.

We went to visit two factories that we partnered with Inter plume, Getex and met REAL STAAM. Our approach incorporates eco-responsibility and these three companies are the perfect embodiment of shared values.

 We have been working on testing a Prototype with 

• A company in Chamonix which designed the basic forms for the fieldwork clothing
• a company in France run entirely by women,  for the production of the prototype
• A company in France run entirely in a sustainable way for the production of the duck feathers used in the clothing
• A company in France that produced the merino underclothing that would go under the field clothing.
• The International Polar Foundation which operates the Belgian Station Princess Elisabeth Antarctica
• Partius in Belgium that helps with the Project Management
• Scientists from the Netherlands who tested the clothing and gave their feedback

The prototypes were tested in the deep field by scientists from the project FROID who worked on the Antarctic plateau at temperatures going to -45°C.

At EGU 2025 we will give a report on the prototypes and how well they functioned and what modifications will be necessary in order to produce improved versions for the next testing season.  We will then select a researcher who will be working in the deep field to test the new prototypes in 2025-26 before making these available to a wider community in the season 2026-27.

The Gorgoneion Collective can be followed on the following platforms: Instagram, Linked In

How to cite: Johnson-Amin, N. and Johnson, L. N.: Gear Hack for Women – Field Testing of Prototype , EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-4272, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-4272, 2025.

Virtual field trips (VFTs) have gained considerable importance for education in recent years (Friess et al. 2016, Stainsfield et al. 2000), offering innovative approaches to teaching and learning in higher education and beyond.The presentation will entail different approaches to implementing VFTs in higher education including teacher training and highlights the learning opportunities. The main ways to create a virtual field trip based on digital maps are presented. There are two basic variations of application: First, utilizing existing VFTs, which are available for numerous geoscience topics and places. Second, enabling students to create their own VFT or digital map based on obtained or existing data. A range of tools with varying levels of complexity can be employed for this purpose (Leininger-Frézal & Sprenger, 2022). Selected case studies will be used to show how virtual environments can be developed to explore spatial themes in different places. In addition, first empirical evidence is presented (Leininger-Frézal & Sprenger, 2022) that depicts learning opportunities in VFTs from the perspective of students. The results show that these are seen particularly in the accessibility of places and to promote inclusion. Limitations arise from the perspective of students due to the fact that no direct real experience is possible or also due to inadequate technical equipment. The experiences and results from three virtual field trip projects (Virt-Ex (Leininger-Frézal & Sprenger, 2022), V-Global, and V-GeoSciEd)) will be presented in order to highlight opportunities and challenges for teaching and learning in Higher Education.

Friess, Daniel A., Grahame J. H. Oliver, Michelle S. Y. Quak, and Annie Y. A. Lau. 2016. “Incorporating ‘Virtual’ and ‘Real World’ Field Trips into Introductory Geography Modules.” Journal of Geography in Higher Education 40 (4): 546–564. https://doi.org/10.1080/03098265.2016.1174818.

Leininger-Frézal, Caroline, and Sandra Sprenger. 2022. “Virtual Field Trips in Binational Collaborative Teacher Training: Opportunities and Challenges in the Context of Education for Sustainable Development.” Sustainability 14, 12933. https://doi.org/10.3390/su141912933.

Stainfield, John, Peter Fisher, Bob Ford, and Michael Solem. 2000. “International Virtual Field Trips: A New Direction?” Journal of Geography in Higher Education 24 (2): 255–262. https://doi.org/10.1080/713677387.

How to cite: Sprenger, S., Leininger-Frézal, C., and Heidari, N.: Virtual Field Trips (VFT) - Approaches and Learning Opportunities for Higher Education , EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-6418, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-6418, 2025.

Fieldwork in polar and cryospheric research involves working as a team in a hazardous environment. We developed a residential field course, “CryoSkills”, which ran in Norway in April 2024, with 20 early-career scientists. One of the course objectives was to familiarise the participants with the reality of working in a cold, snow-covered environment, and for the instructor team to model and promote good practice in cryospheric fieldwork. In this presentation we will describe our approach to fieldwork and how, though a mixture of formal teaching, mentoring, and groupwork, we successfully conveyed this approach to our early-career participants. Extensive preparation and planning, including a pilot course, meant that the instructor team were able to create a supportive environment and model good practice in teamwork to the participants.

After the course, several participants who went on to do fieldwork later in the season and told us how much their learning on the course had helped them deal with difficult situations, and we will share some of these experiences.

How to cite: Prior-Jones, M., Bagshaw, E., Craw, L., Doyle, S., Filhol, S., Fisher, E., Frater, D., Hawkins, J., van der Laan, L., Smith, E. C., and Young, T. J.: Sharing good cryospheric fieldwork practice with the next generation of scientists, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-11157, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-11157, 2025.

Inspiring Girls Expeditions (IGE)* is a transformative wilderness science education program designed to empower young women through immersive, hands-on experiences in the natural world. With a focus on fields traditionally underrepresented by women, such as glaciology and mountaineering, IGE fosters leadership, self-confidence, and teamwork while promoting scientific inquiry and artistic expression.

Girls on Ice Austria*, one of the most recent additions to the IGE network, offers a ten-day expedition in the Ötztal Alps, where participants, aged 15-17, engage in scientific research, mountaineering, and artistic projects. These all-female expeditions aim to break down barriers for underrepresented genders in science and outdoor activities by providing a supportive and inclusive environment. Female scientists, artists, and mountain guides lead the expeditions, offering mentorship and expertise while encouraging participants to push their physical and intellectual boundaries.

During the expedition, participants learn basic mountaineering skills (e.g., knot tying and crevasse rescue), conduct scientific experiments, and engage in creative activities such as painting and sketching the alpine landscape. These activities are designed not only to introduce participants to the scientific method but also to help them develop a deeper connection to nature and strengthen their personal resilience. Importantly, the program is tuition-free, removing financial barriers to participation and opening doors for those who might not otherwise have access. Such opportunities can serve as preparatory experiences for subsequent scientific fieldwork.

Here, we present the methods used to foster inclusion and teach participants with a low or mixed experience level how to operate in the field environment. Specific approaches include: (1) clear explanation of expectations for each activity (duration, planning, breaks, etc.); (2) dedicated timeslots for mentor and peer-to-peer guidance on everything from packing a bag to using the toilet; (3) ad hoc mentor and peer-to-peer advice on walking efficiently, coping with fuel and hydration issues, and managing body temperature and the elements (e.g., how not to get wet, and why); (4) formal safety training for critical activities such as glacier travel and crevasse rescue, emphasizing the need to establish a common group approach and communication strategy; (5) encouragement to voice individual needs and discuss how they can be met alongside team needs and goals; and (6) regular check-ins and feedback opportunities.

We discuss how such programs and the tactics deployed within them can be leveraged to increase diversity in scientific leadership, provide hands-on learning experiences, and inspire and equip the next generation of young women to pursue careers in geoscience and beyond.

How to cite: Bertolotti, G., Nicholson, L., Reppert, V., Staudinger, I., and Schlamon, F. and the Girls* on Ice Austria (austria@inspiringgirls.org): Girls* on Ice Austria: strategies for inclusive approaches to field experiences, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-12789, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-12789, 2025.

Fieldwork is inevitably place based and raises the question of how local communities are engaged. We have been working to create venues for communicating research that has addressed community priorities, and that support co-creation with local communities. We will highlight the Community Science Exchange (CSE), a collaboration by a coalition of partner societies. The CSE launched to elevate, share, and expand the reach of science performed by, for, and with communities through the journal Community Science as well as the Hub, designed for sharing various outputs of community science. We will also discuss AGU Publications’ policies aimed at improving transparency and equity for research collaborations in resource-limited settings.

How to cite: Giampoala, M., Schuette, A., Vrouwenvelder, K., Dedej, S., and Ricci, M.: Centering Community: How Scientific Publishers Can Promote Inclusive Research Practices, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-12932, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-12932, 2025.

Fieldwork is an essential part of geoscience training. It teaches spatial reasoning, teamwork, and organizational skills while requiring integration of diverse observations and iterative hypothesis testing. Successful field campaigns demand critical thinking, problem-solving, and adaptability—skills that many students find challenging, particularly when faced with open-ended tasks that lack “correct answers.” Moreover, physical fieldwork can also be exclusionary, particularly for students with health or mental impairments, lower socioeconomic status, or inflexible family obligations that limit their ability to enter the field. To address these barriers, we need inclusive and innovative methods to teach transferable field skills to all students, regardless of their ability to participate in physical fieldwork. Interactive Virtual Field Trips (iVFTs) offer a promising solution by enabling students to explore spatially integrated, data-rich environments and “visit” inaccessible sites at their own pace with fewer external stressors.

We present an iVFT to the Mont Albert ophiolite complex (Québec, Canada), designed to train and assess students in field preparation and critical thinking in an accessible, inclusive setting. We built the iVFT as a “choose your own adventure", challenge-based virtual environment that provides a structured yet flexible framework for cultivating field skills such as strategic planning, data integration, and decision-making in dynamic scenarios. The environment integrates desktop virtual reality with an option of VR/AR compatible glasses for full immersion. To prepare for the 'field' activity, we instruct students to plan an initial field campaign justified by their chosen research problem and terrane accessibility inferred from a topographic map, and "pack a backpack" based on logistical constraints (including weight estimates). Students then enter the virtual environment and test the validity and flexibility of their field plans by making real-time decisions about site selection (i.e., what outcrops to study in detail, and why) and sampling strategies (i.e., what samples to 'collect,' and how much they weigh). The “choose your own adventure” framework allows for embedding unexpected challenges related to weather, health and safety, and active decisions of how and where to spend time. Students keep “field notebooks” to document observations, evolving hypotheses, and modifications to original field plans. During the exercise, we encourage metacognition by guiding student articulation of reasons behind decision making, responses to unexpected challenges, and strengths and weaknesses of original field plans. After the exercise, we captured this cognitive growth through post-activity written reflections. 

Preliminary assessments using pre- and post-surveys and student products, including narrative reflections, indicate that this approach enhances students’ confidence in tackling complex, open-ended problems while fostering skills critical to real-world fieldwork. Leveraging iVFTs as fieldwork preparation tools has the potential to impact geoscience education by providing students with a safe, accessible, and effective platform to develop critical thinking, problem-solving, and field planning skills. Such skills are transferable both to in-person field experiences, and more broadly, to complex problem-solving.

How to cite: Kotowski, A. and van Vuuren, N.: Cultivating Fieldwork Skills Through a “Choose Your Own Adventure” Interactive Virtual Field Trip, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-13672, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-13672, 2025.

The Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN) is Australia's land observatory. With a network of 1000, 1-ha plots across the nation, TERN has over 10 years of experience developing standardised monitoring protocols and implementing on-ground field surveys across Australia's unique environments.

With a dedicated team of experienced ecologists, including plant and soil specialists, students and volunteers, operating independently, camping in remote locations for ~12 days, research infrastructure is created through a suite of standardised, repeatable monitoring methods. Site location, soil, landscape and environmental attributes, vegetation community and floristics data are collected. Herbaria specimens, leaf tissue samples, soil samples, and metagenomic samples are collected for a national repository and freely accessible to the international research community.

Aside from the research data created, TERN has developed best practices for managing field teams who conduct remote fieldwork in challenging environments, including safety and communication procedures, scientific permitting approvals, and biosecurity procedures for transporting samples across jurisdictions. 

Building on TERN's experience, the Ecological Monitoring System of Australia (EMSA) was created in collaboration with the Australian Government Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW). EMSA provides the tooling for natural resource management (NRM) practitioners and ecologists to expand Australia's network, with plot-based monitoring specifically designed to test the effectiveness of NRM investment projects.

EMSA provides on-ground practitioners with a modular suite of standardised survey protocols, comprehensive instruction manuals, a field data collection app, and a centralised data management and storage system for the Australian Government's Biodiversity Data Repository. Support is provided via a help desk, a community of practice with monthly information sessions and opportunities for questions, discussions and shared learning. Multi-day on-ground training programs and outreach activities upskill ecologists from regional delivery partner organisations and contractors. The modular approach encourages and allows project managers to consider their specific project needs when designing the monitoring program. The ongoing learning opportunities and the repeatability of the methods enable ecologists and field practitioners, once experienced in the techniques, to take up job opportunities across the country, applying the skills to different ecosystems.

How to cite: O'Neill, S., Irvine, K., Kilpatrick, E., Tokmakoff, A., Derby, L., Leedman, A., DeChazal, J., Cook, A., and Sparrow, B.: Fieldwork for the collection of ecological monitoring data – learnings from creating research infrastructure in Australia, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-13919, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-13919, 2025.

How to cite: Oikarinen, T., Salovaara, J. J., and Lauri, K. A.: Piloting a course model for blended multisite field course, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-17745, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-17745, 2025.

Fieldwork is the cornerstone of geoscience education. But what kind of work?

Since the late 1990s, has the rise of digital technologies altered its role?

Geologists are increasingly confronted to data that are less and less rooted in their original contexts, raising questions about their validity, critical assessment, and realism of models. It is therefore essential to develop the ability to connect field observations with data processing, fostering the ability to discern which elements must be quantified or qualitatively integrated into databases.

At UniLaSalle, field observation is a pillar of geosciences training. To complement digital advancements, we have embedded it into a continuous, structured pedagogical framework throughout the five years of engineering training (three years for technician training). This "spine" includes a minimum of 18 weeks spread across 10 field camps, allowing students to acquire scientific expertise, geological skills, as well as interpersonal and professional values and skills.

During the first three years, the educational skills focus on analyzing various dimensions (e.g., mineralogy, paleontology, petrology, sedimentology, structural geology...), observing, mapping, characterizing objects methodically, deducing processes and their interrelations, estimating their relative importance, and creating a cartographic or 3D block model as a basis for all future applications.

The chosen field locations cover a wide variety of geological contexts, broadening skills and enabling adaptation to the specificities of each domain. Students gradually progress from interpreting maps to creating them, and by their third year, they produce a "Research Initiation Report."

Over time, students take on managerial responsibilities, including mission management, educational supervision, group safety, data verification, and the development of data acquisition methodologies.

In the master's program, two complementary objectives are emphasized:

• Developing critical distance regarding data quality:M1 students supervise undergraduate students. They must create a map using data collected by undergraduate students. This experience enhances their understanding of data quality, biases, and methodological rigor.
• Integrating multidisciplinary data (log data, geochemical, geophysical, etc.) into cartographic analysis. Cross-referencing and coherence analysis help to verify various hypotheses and encourage reflection on the critical and effective use of collected data depending on the practical problem at hand (environment, energy, materials, etc.). This requires methodological support for scientific approaches.

By establishing the conditions for effective "learning by doing" and "peer tutoring," the structure of the 10 field camps allows students to consolidate their learning through spontaneous questioning and regulation that virtual methods cannot replicate. Similarly, the variety of roles and positions strengthens their understanding and mastery of skills. Lastly, group work fosters inclusion, requiring everyone to collaborate with peers from diverse approaches and cultures.

This level of autonomy, confidence, and competence allows students to see themselves as scientists and professionals, contributing to the success of UniLaSalle teams in various international competitions. Fieldwork remains the ultimate reference in our professions: validation through the field is nearly incontestable—a reality that speaks for itself.

How to cite: Ottavi Pupier, E., Leyrit, H., and Ottavi, S.: The Field: An Essential Foundation for Geologist Training in the Digital Era, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-18098, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-18098, 2025.

Fieldwork is a vital component of geoscience research, providing unique opportunities for data collection, hands-on learning, and team collaboration. While discussions on fieldwork often center around challenges—such as exclusion, harassment, and inequality—it’s equally important to highlight positive experiences and the factors that contribute to them.

I aim to share my personal experiences as an early-career scientist of how respect, trust and inclusion in my teams on various occasions fostered productive and empowering environments. From short field trips in Austria to organizing an international field campaign in Bolivia and managing logistical efforts for a month-long expedition in Greenland, I have consistently felt valued as an equal contributor, regardless of my career stage. I will discuss key practices that made these experiences successful: encouraging early-career researchers to take on responsibilities, fostering open communication, and promoting shared decision-making. These approaches not only helped build my confidence but also contributed to the overall success of the field campaigns.

By sharing lessons learned from these experiences, this contribution aims to suggest practical strategies for building positive and inclusive fieldwork environments. While it is essential to acknowledge and address the difficulties some face, presenting successful examples can inspire teams to create a culture of mutual respect and trust. This perspective encourages reflection on how we can collectively ensure that fieldwork remains a safe, supportive, and enriching experience for all.

How to cite: Schroeder, M., Prinz, R., Abermann, J., and Steiner, J.: Empowering Fieldwork: A Positive Perspective on Respect, Inclusion, and Responsibility, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-18532, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-18532, 2025.

Fieldwork didactics and education for sustainable development (ESD) are integral components of geography teacher training. However, these subjects are often taught separately. Fieldwork in nature provides a wide range of opportunities for experiencing nature, and Nature Bildung is regarded as a central concept in ESD. Moreover, research highlights that a connection to nature is a significant factor in promoting sustainable and responsible actions (Grund & Brock, 2020; Mayer & Frantz, 2004; Roczen, 2011).

We will present a collaborative project between the University of Education Ludwigsburg and University College Copenhagen, exploring how Nature Bildung theory and geographical fieldwork didactics can be combined to enhance Nature Bildung through fieldwork courses in teacher education. As part of the project, five student groups each designed a three-hour fieldwork assignment in the UNESCO Geopark Odsherred. These assignments were developed based on pedagogical and didactical theories, with students tasked to select field trip locations that aligned with their conceptual frameworks.

The project was evaluated to address the question of how geographical fieldwork can be conceptualized in teacher education to foster Nature Bildung through a double-didactic approach. Data for the evaluation includes a questionnaire, observation field notes, student-designed materials, and group interviews conducted post-project.

In our presentation, we will share key findings from the study and discuss their implications for teacher training programs and ESD.

Grund, J., & Brock, A. (2022). Formal Bildung in times of crises: The role of sustainability in schools, vocational education, and universities. Institut Futur, Freie Universität Berlin. Available at https://www.bne-portal.de/bne/shareddocs/downloads/publikationen/FU-Monitoring/fu-monitoring-formale-bildung-in-zeiten-von-krisen.pdf (14.01.2025).

Mayer, F. S., & Frantz, C. M. (2004). The connectedness to nature scale: A measure of individuals’ feeling in community with nature. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 24(4), 503–515. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2004.10.001

Roczen, N. (2011). Environmental competence – the interplay between connection with nature and environmental knowledge in promoting ecological behavior (dissertation). Eindhoven University of Technology.

How to cite: Conrad, D., Heidemann Langhoff, J., Vocilka, A., and Wejdling, T.: Combining Geographic Field Trips and Nature Bildung: A Dual Approach in Danish and German Teacher Training, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-19771, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-19771, 2025.

This study examines the mortality burden associated with heat and cold temperatures, compounded by poor air quality, in two Italian cities. Using a generalized linear model with Poisson regression, we quantify the mortality risk attributable to heat/cold and the air pollutants PM10 and O3 over recent years, focusing on both the general population and the most vulnerable age group. To project future mortality trends up to 2050, a regional climate model coupled with a chemistry-transport model is applied under future climate and air quality scenarios.

The results highlight the critical need to consider the effects of air pollution alongside climate factors. Vulnerable populations, particularly the elderly, are shown to be more susceptible to both extreme temperatures and air pollution. Looking ahead, future mortality patterns will be influenced by two opposing effects: an increase in mortality due to more frequent and intense warm temperatures, particularly in scenarios of climate inaction, and a decrease in cold-related mortality.

The findings underscore the urgent need to integrate climate change mitigation with air quality management to reduce the combined health risks. Effective science transfer into timely and informed policy action is essential for bridging the gap between research findings and practical, actionable solutions.

Drawing on the literature and lessons learnt from several research projects and case studies (e.g., ForestNavigator, RETURN), we demonstrate that this gap between research findings and actionable solutions requires i) engaging local stakeholders (including government authorities, public health organizations, and communities) and ii) analysing the cognitive factors - such as awareness and risk perception - that can act as either barriers or enablers in shaping adaptive capacity and resilience at both the individual and community levels.

Increasing public awareness of the risks associated with temperature extremes and air pollution, and enhancing risk perception through knowledge transfer, will empower individuals and communities to adopt protective measures. In addition to encouraging behavioural shifts, fostering resilience and improving adaptive capacity, such awareness can drive policy changes, ultimately reducing the health burden of climate-related risks.

How to cite: Michetti, M.: Climate change, Air Quality, and Public Health: Integrating Science and Policy for Urban Resilience and Adaptation, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-1627, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-1627, 2025.

Climate change education is essential for driving a shift toward a sustainable and decarbonised society. Environmental observatories and science labs are central to delivering impactful educational experiences by integrating real-world data from monitoring stations and satellite observations. These tools foster scientific inquiry and empower critical thinking about climate change and its effects.

This abstract introduces FyouTURES, an innovative scenario-making game designed to achieve these objectives by combining real-world data, collaborative learning, and scenario-building exercises. At the heart of the game lies the En-ROADS simulator (Energy-Rapid Overview and Decision Support), a global climate simulator developed by Climate Interactive in partnership with the MIT Sloan Sustainability Initiative and Ventana Systems (Rooney-Varga et al., 2021). En-ROADS offers an interactive platform for exploring how climate policies influence long-term outcomes. Based on a system dynamics model grounded in scientific research and calibrated with historical and projected datasets, it employs differential equations to depict the climate-energy system as a dynamic entity characterised by feedback loops, nonlinearities, and time delays. Users can simulate the effects of policies like electrification, carbon pricing, and improved agricultural practices on variables such as energy prices, global temperatures, and sea-level rise.

Using the En-ROADS simulator, FyouTURES guides players through three rounds spanning the present day to 2100, with milestones in 2030 and 2050. The game adapts the simulator’s categories into six thematic areas: conventional energy, emission control, green areas, energy efficiency, electrification, and green energy. These themes allow participants to explore diverse aspects of sustainability, including renewable energy adoption, deforestation, and CO2 removal technologies.

To enhance decision-making and incorporate uncertainties, we introduced wildcards representing possible events tied to climate and societal factors. These cards reflect different types of uncertainties related to Climate Change – epistemic, aleatoric, and reflexive (Shepherd, 2019) – and challenge players to adapt strategies dynamically, encouraging critical engagement with complex climate issues.

Observations from two game implementations demonstrated how the game helped students in dealing with complex sustainability challenges, creating scenarios that balanced environmental, social, and economic sustainability dimensions (Purvis et al., 2019). The game’s structure promoted collaborative problem framing over simplistic solutions, fostering open-ended reasoning and a deeper understanding of "wicked problems."

By integrating the scientific rigour of En-ROADS, interactive simulations, and collaborative learning dynamics, FyouTURES highlights the potential of data-driven educational tools to engage students with the complexity of climate change. This approach equips learners with critical thinking skills while challenging them to navigate uncertainty and envision pathways to sustainable futures.

Purvis, B., Mao, Y. & Robinson, D. (2019). Three pillars of sustainability: in search of conceptual origins. Sustainable Sciences, 14, 681–695. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-018-0627-5

Rooney-Varga, J. N., Hensel, M., McCarthy, C., McNeal, K., Norfles, N., Rath, K., Schnell, A. N., & Sterman, J. D. (2021). Building Consensus for Ambitious Climate Action Through the World Climate Simulation. Earth's Future, 9(12), e2021EF002283. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021EF002283 

Shepherd, T. G. (2019). Storyline approach to the construction of regional climate change information. Proceedings of the Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 475(2225), 20190013. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.2019.0013

How to cite: Miani, L., De Zuani Cassina, F., and Levrini, O.: Exploring the potential of data-driven educational tools to engage students with climate change complexity, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-6925, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-6925, 2025.

Climate change is emerging as one of the most significant challenges facing our planet today, with its effects now visible and negatively impacting ecosystems, human activities, and global health. Addressing climate change and limiting its negative impacts, requires collective action and climate literacy, that encompasses being aware of climate change, its anthropogenic causes and its implications. This work concerns the presentation of the project: Learning and Teaching about Climate Change, under the acronym EDU4Clima (https://edu4clima.gr), which aims to promote the teaching of climate change in secondary education in Greece and to provide teachers and students with new knowledge  and skills to critically approach climate change, to reflect on environmental issues that arise and to develop attitudes for mitigation and adaptation to climate change. It attempts to integrate in the educational process, the scientific knowledge produced by the University of Crete and the Atmospheric Research Station at Finokalia, Crete. In this context, a Research, Innovation and Dissemination of Scientific Knowledge Hub has been established closed to Finokalia Station, where teacher training workshops are held and an educational program for students has been developed and is being implemented. The educational program is based on innovative teaching approaches and includes interactive presentations, experiments that demonstrate climate phenomena in a simple way carried out by the students, access and analysis of real atmospheric data. Additionally, a tour to the Atmospheric Research Station and interaction with scientists included in the program. All activities carried out are compatible with the curricula for Natural Sciences in Senior High School. Before each visit to the Hub, school teachers undertake preparing the students, focusing on basic prerequisite knowledge, while after the visit, the students serve as climate ambassadors and take action by disseminating the results in their school and/or their local communities.

How to cite: Dermitzaki, E., Kalivitis, N., Ginoudi, A., and Kanakidou, M.: Learning and Teaching  about Climate Change, EDU4CLIMA, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-6987, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-6987, 2025.

As part of the ATMO-ACCESS project, an innovative two-week Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) was hosted on the FUN (France Université Numérique) MOOC platform from January 20 to February 16, 2025. 

This course offered an engaging and interactive platform for learners interested in exploring critical challenges related to air pollution and climate change. The first week provided participants with in-depth knowledge about atmospheric constituents such as reactive trace gases and greenhouse gases, aerosols and clouds, their sources, impacts, and complex interactions. The MOOC emphasised the crucial importance of data sharing and collaborative networks within the research community while showcasing advanced atmospheric research methodologies. Additionally, the second week introduced three key Atmospheric Research Infrastructures (ARIs): ACTRIS, IAGOS, and ICOS, providing participants with insights into their high-quality operational workflows. To support active learning, participants could self-assess their knowledge through several quizzes and earn an open badge by successfully completing a final quiz. 

Feedback from participants and analysis of the MOOC's concluding survey revealed valuable insights into learner expectations, which will be presented during the session. These suggestions will guide the development of future iterations of the course, aiming at delivering a more effective, impactful and engaging learning experience.

How to cite: Zogka, A., Riffault, V., Sauvage, S., Portillo, C., De Brito, J., Salameh, T., Font, A., Strunz, C., and Perdrix, E.: The Massive Open Online Course: 'Atmospheric Research Infrastructures: Sharing the Future of Our Atmosphere' as an Innovative Tool for Atmospheric Science & Climate Change Education, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-7015, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-7015, 2025.

The great importance of educating the next generation of citizens in climate change drivers, impacts as well as mitigation and adaptation measures has been highlighted by many international entities like the IPCC and the European Union. Additionally, many research groups have indicated the importance of incorporating real world data in teaching about climate change. This can take the form of educational tools that are aimed at data exploitation and visualization. One initiative exploring the creation of such tools is the Erasmus + project CLIMADEMY. In CLIMADEMY a video game was developed in the Unity engine which implemented real world data (from the NOAA database) for three greenhouse gasses concentrations (CH₄, CO₂, N₂O) as well as the concentrations of scattering and absorbing aerosols. The video game’s primary function is to calculate the planet’s average temperature by 2100 based on the radiative forcing equations of the IPCC and the five aforementioned parameters. Additionally, the game is able to process which RCP scenario the word will be in based on these five parameters. The game is highly interactive, with students able to choose if these parameters will be based on an established database or if they want to explore other RCP scenarios. Furthermore, the game allows students to input custom values for CH₄, CO₂, N₂O and aerosols in order to observe the average temperature of the planet in 2100 as well as the RCP scenario these values lead to. Τhe open source approach, gives students the chance to modify the game and include further features according to the specific educational needs. Finally, the educational value of this game is complemented by its user interface which, due to Unity’s capabilities as an engine, has vibrant colors and themes making the game aesthetically pleasing and interesting.

How to cite: Metaxas, I., Gialesakis, N., Kanakidou, M., and Kalivitis, N.: Data exploitation and visualization in the classroom. The case of CLIMADEMY's video game, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-8711, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-8711, 2025.

The Regional Directorate of Education (RDE) of Crete actively promotes informal
learning to enhance scientific knowledge on climate change and sustainability
through the implementation of European programmes. These initiatives place
significant emphasis on school visits and activities within research and scientific
institutions, offering students interactive and experiential opportunities to deepen
their understanding of environmental issues. Through these activities, students
develop critical thinking, environmental awareness, and collaboration skills while
fostering competencies essential for sustainable development.
Research organisations play an important role as educational hubs, connecting
theoretical knowledge with practical applications. Programmes like the innovative
Horizon 2020 CONNECT project and the Erasmus+ academy CLIMADEMY,
implemented by the RDE of Crete, exemplify this approach. These programmes
facilitate informal learning experiences, including visits to research centres, scientific
laboratories, museums, and natural environments, enabling students to learn
through hands-on activities and problem-solving exercises.
For example, schools in Crete have visited the Natural History Museum of Crete and
the atmospheric measurement station in Filokalia, Lassithi, where students engaged
in educational programmes focused on practical applications of science. Additionally,
schools across the region have implemented science-based scenarios, deepening
their understanding on critical issues such as the climate crisis, renewable energy,
and carbon footprint reduction.
These educational approaches not only bring science to life by allowing students to
work with experts but also foster autonomy, personal initiative, and creativity. By
promoting experiential learning, these programmes equip students with the skills
needed to address contemporary environmental and social challenges effectively.

How to cite: Kartsonakis, E. and Stavrakakis, E.: Supporting Informal Learning on Climate Change and Sustainability ThroughEuropean Programmes: The Case of the RDE of Crete, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-8879, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-8879, 2025.

Keywords: Europe, education, basins, uncertainty, flash flood, climate change, water pollution