Thriving Earth Exchange

The theme for #AGU20 is Shaping the Future of Science and will feature opportunities, discoveries and solutions that will shape future generations and society.

We envision a future where scientific discovery continues to be valued and celebrated for its role in advancing human knowledge.
We envision a future where knowledge of Earth and space sciences are used in collaboration with advances in natural, physical and social sciences, medicine and engineering.
We envision a future that will shape our science, culture and partnerships for the benefit and prosperity of people and the planet.

#AGU20 is scheduled from 1-17 December to accommodate over a thousand hours of virtual content to minimize conflicts while maximizing global engagement. Scientific program content will be available on-demand, with pre-recorded oral presentations and virtual posters available for attendees to view and peruse outside of the scheduled live Q&A sessions during the meeting.

Visit the AGU Fall Meeting website for the latest information on meeting content and participation.

What is Science to Action at AGU all about?

Annually, a group of AGU members who organize themselves under the banner of Science to Action carry out a collection of sessions, workshops, and networking events that are about how we connect science with action through partnering with communities and working with decision makers. Another group, Native Science, hosts events that explore the connections between science and indigenous ways of knowing. All of us – Thriving Earth Exchange, Science to Action, and Native Science – share the goal of helping all communities thrive by increasing science engagement to improve daily life and better confront concerns posed by extreme events, climate and land cover change, and natural hazards. We share an evidence-based conviction that co-created science or community science is a good way to do this important work.

Email [email protected] for an introduction.

Click here for review Science to Action activities from previous years.

Thriving Earth Exchange Workshops

Thriving Earth Exchange workshops at #AGU20 provide professional development and skills-building for attendees to create solutions to scientific and societal challenges. All times are noted in Pacific Standard Time.

Building Strong Partnerships with Non-Scientists: Community Science and Project Management

This workshop will provide attendees with project management training mapped to AGU Thriving Earth Exchange’s community science process. Attendees will learn best practices for collaborating with non-scientists and leave with a basic toolkit for building strong partnerships. It will include project management, facilitation, and engagement basics which can be applied in any cross-disciplinary initiative.

Thursday, 10 December – 08:00-08:45

Adapting Community Science for International Operations

This workshop will explore ways in which Thriving Earth Exchange’s community science approach is being adapted and implemented by several different countries including Australia, Mongolia and Senegal. It will feature a panel of Thriving Earth Exchange’s international partners from the aforementioned countries describing their motivation to do community science, current projects and expected impact of their community science projects.

Friday, 11 December – 05:00-06:30

How community shapes the rhythm and flow of science in society

The goal of this workshop is to bring together a panel of community leader and scientist teams who are pushing the boundaries of community-driven science in communities ranging from upper-middle class suburbia and inner-city neighborhoods to Latinx, African American, faith-based, indigenous, and other communities throughout the U.S. The panelists will share their experiences working with these various communities, taking a deep dive into how the texture of a community influences the rhythm and flow of community science projects.

Friday, 11 December – 07:30-9:00

Careers in Community Science

This workshop will help people in their search for community science careers. A panel of people who just landed their first community-science job will share their tips and tricks. A second panel of creating jobs at the interface of science and society will talk about the kind of things they look for when they hire. Finally, participants will swap job materials – a resume, a cover letter, or a linked-in profile – and get feedback from each other.

Tuesday, 15 December – 10:00-11:30

Innovation Session

Convergence, Collaboration, Justice, and the Future of the Sciences
Monday, 14 December – 07:00-13:00

The goal of this meeting-within-a-meeting is to unify and elevate three ideas that are important for the future of the sciences, including the geosciences. First, the notion of convergence – that the most innovative and creative spaces in science are at interfaces between traditional disciplines. Second, collaboration: that relevant, useful science depends on our ability to collaborate with people who are not professional scientists, whether that is inviting new stakeholders into the processes of science or contributing science to larger goals. And third, justice: that the sciences have an opportunity to help advance justice by being intentional about who we work with, the way we work, and the topics we choose to work on.

Transforming these ideas into action is not easy. All three challenge traditional ways of working, institutional power, and do not nest neatly into the dominant paradigms for evaluating scientific work. We still have much to learn about how to best leverage and operationalize the transformative potential of each. And, while these three ideas have rich histories outside of the geosciences and thought leaders and champions in the geosciences, they are still emergent and mostly unconnected within the geosciences.

Weaving these three strands together and drawing from experience outside the geosciences would accelerate progress in all three areas and build a coalition for change. We are on the cusp of a paradigm shift in geosciences that is driven by the urgency of current challenges, inspired by the heroic efforts of early champions, and informed by the experiences and wisdom of new partners. This is the time to lean in: these three ideas-convergence, collaboration and justice-have the potential to transform the geosciences and our ability to contribute to society.

Science to Action in the Scientific Program

All times noted in Pacific Standard Time

How can we implement AGU’s “science for solutions” to address societal problems

AGU’s new strategic plan’s emphasizes our joint goals of advancing scientific discovery and using the results to address societal challenges. This need is consistent with recent global activation of younger generations toward projects that address racial/economic inequality and social justice. In this spirit, we invite contributions focusing on using our science in collaboration with decision makers, communities, and other stakeholders to benefit society. These could discuss approaches or examples of what we might do. We hope for discussion of what works, what doesn’t, how we can do better, and how these efforts could contribute to increasing diversity in our ranks.

U014 How Can We Implement AGU’s “Science for Solutions” to Address Societal Problems
Friday, 11 December 2020 – 13:30 – 15:00

Science to Action: Transformative partnerships to advance decision-relevant science

Scientists, practitioners and communities have accelerated their engagement and collaboration to produce decision-relevant and actionable science. In this session, we explore (1) how scientists build and strengthen partnerships with community members and other stakeholders, and (2) how these novel and truly collaborative partnerships lead to decision-relevant tools, resources, or knowledge. We invite on-the-ground stories and experiences, successes and challenges, and best practices that illustrate both increased collaborative capacity and the successful co-production of actionable science including federal, state, local, university, and extension partners, to name a few. Through this collective sharing, we can harness characteristics of effective and transformative partnerships to better understand community needs and deliver stakeholder-driven and decision-relevant science. Together, we continue progress toward interdisciplinary and transformative science that is actionable and equitable.

SY024 Science to Action: Transformative Partnerships and Knowledge Coproduction to Advance Decision-Relevant Science I
Wednesday, 9 December 2020 – 07:00 – 23:59

SY026 – Science to Action: Transformative Partnerships and Knowledge Coproduction to Advance Decision-Relevant Science II
Wednesday, 9 December 2020 – 19:00 – 20:00

SY023 – Science to Action: Transformative Partnerships and Knowledge Coproduction to Advance Decision-Relevant Science III Posters
Wednesday, 9 December 2020 – 07:00 – 23:59

Science to Action: Increasing communities’ resilience to climate change and long-time horizon hazards impacts on the built environment and social infrastructure

Accelerated by climate change, natural disasters can leave communities-built environments and social institutions with destructive and permanent disruptions. Advances have been made to bridge the knowledge gap between science and applications by defining and quantifying the risk and developing capabilities that visualize or communicate the implications on a communityâs built environment and social institutions. However, many challenges remain on quantifying vulnerability and on establishing methods to translate vulnerability and risk to policy actions. Addressing these challenges requires joint efforts between communities, to understand how their social institutions would be affected by hazards, and scientists who can help inform decision-makers about built environment vulnerability. This session aims to highlight and invite presentations showcasing innovative analyses and decision science approaches mitigating the impacts of climate-driven events or long-time horizon hazards on the built environment, consequences on social and economic fabrics; and the role played by community leaders in mitigation and restoration processes.

SY040 – Science to Action: Increasing Communities’ Resilience to Climate Change and Long–Time Horizon Hazards Impacts on the Built Environment and Social Infrastructure I
Friday, 11 December 2020 – 07:00 – 08:00

SY021 – Science to Action: Increasing Communities’ Resilience to Climate Change and Long–Time Horizon Hazards Impacts on the Built Environment and Social Infrastructure II Posters
Wednesday, 9 December 2020 – 07:00 – 23:59

Convergent Science, Decision-Making, and Community Action for Addressing Societal Water and Health Needs

Water plays a vital role in sustaining and regulating the health of ecosystems and societies. Natural variability and human driven alterations to the hydrologic cycle (i.e. water quantity) drive complex dynamics within human-hydrologic systems and pose challenges to understanding and managing the resource. Additionally, water science that informs management and leads to community action can be illusive. To find scientifically sound, ethical, culturally appropriate, socially compelling, and economically viable water related solutions, we need convergence of scientific research across disciplines as well as a better understanding of and responsiveness to the values, needs and priorities of decision makers, community members, and practitioners. This session welcomes research that addresses historic and emerging problems concerning water quantity or quality through transdisciplinary science. Presentations involving citizen science or community engaged research are encouraged, as are those that demonstrate convergence of methods or theory across fields.

SY039 – Convergent Science, Decision-Making, and Community Action for Addressing Societal Water and Health Needs eLightning
Thursday, 10 December 2020 – 22:00 – 23:00

Science to Action: Enabling science- and data-driven water management

Data can inform and transform global and local decision-making. In water management, a lack of useful data and context hampers our ability to understand water resources and decide how best to manage them. Managing water is increasingly difficult thanks to growing demand, population growth and climate change.
Today, water managers not only need more data that are useful, understandable and available long-term. They also need the right data with the right resolution, latency and format, that can easily plug into decision pipelines. Moreover, organizations must be open to ingesting new data.
This session explores data-driven water and watershed management. How can silos between data producers/scientists and decision-makers be broken down? How are decision-maker priorities uncovered, then translated into needs-driven science? How can water managers build their own capacity to use scientific data in decision-making?
Speakers will share successes, challenges and lessons learned. Talks at the water-energy-food nexus are welcome.

SY036 – Science to Action: Enabling Science- and Data-Driven Water Management I
Thursday, 10 December 2020 – 08:30 – 09:30

SY035 – Science to Action: Enabling Science- and Data-Driven Water Management II Posters
Thursday, 10 December 2020 – 07:00 – 23:59

Native Science to Action: How Indigenous Perspectives Inform, Diversify, and Build Capacity in Environmental Science and Policy

Perspectives of Indigenous peoples can bring deep insight to the study and management of complex environmental systems through their holistic approaches to problem solving and ways of knowing. These perspectives can inform and enrich western scientific research and discussions of policy in areas related to sustainability, human-environment interactions, ecosystems, climate adaptation, geohealth, and more. Although western science started to acknowledge the importance of Indigenous knowledges, voices of Indigenous peoples are largely absent from scholarly discourse. With this in mind, we welcome submissions focusing on Indigenous voices and perspectives in environmental sciences and policy emphasizing meaningful collaborations between western scientists and Indigenous communities, or on Indigenous scholars’ experiences walking in both worlds. Submissions may be case studies, syntheses, or other scholarship focusing on one or more Indigenous tribe, group, or organization. We also welcome perspectives discussing relevant issues surrounding community based participation, ethics, data governance, and respect for sacred knowledge.

SY027 – Native Science to Action: How Indigenous Perspectives Inform, Diversify, and Build Capacity in Environmental Science and Policy I
Wednesday, 9 December 2020 – 20:30 – 21:30

SY020 – Native Science to Action: How Indigenous Perspectives Inform, Diversify, and Build Capacity in Environmental Science and Policy II Posters
Wednesday, 9 December 2020 – 07:00 – 23:59

Towards A Generation of Forecast Informed Reservoir Operations–Applicability and Limitations

Operating rules for most US reservoirs were developed and codified decades ago to reduce risks of dam failure, flooding, and other hazards, while providing for reservoir benefits. Historically, rules were developed so that they did not depend on (then almost nonexistent) skillful weather and inflow forecasts for those risk reductions. Consequently they do not explicitly incorporate much, if any, forecast information. With many recent major improvements in weather and flood forecasting, research and management studies are now evaluating the prospects for a new generation of forecast-informed reservoir operations (FIRO) to improve flood-risk management, water-supply reliability, and environmental/ societal benefits. This session seeks presentations on how FIRO moves from scientific and engineering possibility into decisionmaking and implementation, including (1) physical, hydroclimatic, economic, and legal conditions that affect FIRO’s efficacy, (2) regionally-applicable, decision-relevant criteria for triaging reservoir systems for FIRO viability, and (3) viability assessments and case studies for new FIRO applications.

SY015 – Toward a Generation of Forecast-Informed Reservoir Operations: Applicability and Limitations I Posters
Tuesday, 8 December 2020 – 07:00 – 23:59

Science and Society: Social and Behavioral Sciences

The geosciences often strive to produce knowledge that will help solve pressing societal issues. Despite this motivation, this knowledge is not used in decisions as much as is expected. Understanding why knowledge is not used and identifying strategies to overcome these challenges, requires engagement across many disciplines and inclusion of the communities whose issues we would like to address, especially those that relate to social behavior and decision-making. This session welcomes talks that present social and behavioral findings that illuminate how to forge stronger linkages between science and society, and increase the beneficial use of geoscience knowledge. Insights from varied fields that provide helpful lessons for geoscientists is encouraged, including (but not limited to) anthropology, economics, history, political science, decision science, psychology, and sociology.

SY016 – Science and Society: Social and Behavioral Sciences I
Tuesday, 8 December 2020 – 08:30 – 09:30

SY013 – Science and Society: Social and Behavioral Sciences II Posters
Tuesday, 8 December 2020 – 07:00 – 23:59

Science and Society: Community and Citizen Science

This session will share experiences in Community Science and Citizen Science. Community Science, using text from the Thriving Earth Exchange, is âthe processes by which scientists and communities do science together to advance one or more community priorities. It encourages communities, particularly historically marginalized and oppressed communities, to guide, participate in, learn from, and benefit from science.â Citizen Science, similarly, engages the public to collaborate with scientists to assist in research and monitoring, from local to global investigations. We welcome examples from these growing fields of research that illustrate the importance, value and benefit, to both research and the public, of connecting science with society. We also welcome research about citizen and community science – things like learning outcomes, best-practices, and design strategies – particularly in the context of the geosciences.

SY042 – Science and Society: Community and Citizen Science I
Friday, 11 December 2020 – 10:00 – 11:00

SY011 – Science and Society: Community and Citizen Science II Posters
Tuesday, 8 December 2020 – 07:00 – 23:59

Communication of Science – Practice, Research and Reflection

Do you consider yourself a science communicator or science communication researcher? Does your research group or institution participate in public engagement activities? Have you ever evaluated, studied, or published your education, outreach or engagement efforts? Scientists and communication practitioners engage non-peer audiences through numerous pathways including websites, blogs, public lectures, media interviews, and educational and research collaborations. A considerable amount of time and money is invested in these activities and they play an important role in how different publics come to understand scientific topics, issues, and the research process. However, few opportunities and incentives exist to optimize science communication practices and to evaluate the effectiveness of different engagement approaches. This session, run at both AGU and EGU, encourages critical reflection on science communication best practices and provides an opportunity for the community of science communicators and researchers to share best practices and experiences with evaluation and research in this field.

SY038 – Science and Society: Science Communication Practice, Research, and Reflection I
Thursday, 10 December 2020 – 22:00 – 23:00

SY041 – Science and Society: Science Communication Practice, Research, and Reflection II eLightning
Friday, 11 December 2020 – 07:00 – 08:00

SY043 – Science and Society: Science Communication Practice, Research, and Reflection III eLightning
Friday, 11 December 2020 – 19:00 – 20:00

SY032 – Science and Society: Science Communication Practice, Research, and Reflection IV Posters
Thursday, 10 December 2020 – 07:00 – 23:59

Addressing the Need for Earth-Observation Capacity Development at the Local, National, Regional, and Global Scales

There is growing demand for opportunities to build capacity to use and apply Earth observations (EO) and geospatial data for societal benefit. In response, the capacity building community is enabling individuals and institutions to build skills and capabilities through a variety of approaches across a range of scales – from local (e.g., in-person trainings and collaborative feasibility studies) to national (e.g., co-development projects with government ministries) to regional (e.g., regional hubs and capacity building networks) to global (e.g., massive open online courses – MOOCs, online webinars, and hackathons). Working at each scale requires consideration of target audience needs and priorities, appropriate formats, and methods for assessing effectiveness. This session will explore the differences between scales and facilitate a knowledge exchange between those working in the EO capacity building and international development realms. Contributors will present case studies that highlight their target audiences, implementation approach, assessment methods, challenges, and best practices.

SY009 – Addressing the Need for Earth Observation Capacity Development at Local, National, Regional, and Global Scales I
Monday, 7 December 2020 – 20:30 – 21:30

SY002 – Addressing the Need for Earth Observation Capacity Development at Local, National, Regional, and Global Scales II Posters
Monday, 7 December 2020 – 07:00 – 23:59

Beyond Statistics: Providing Science-Based Guidance to Support Resilient Investment in an Uncertain Future

Investors, infrastructure planners, and subnational entities aspire to make climate resilient investments. Presently, uncertainty in future projected climate and weather-related outcomes thwarts their efforts. Practical, scientifically sound guidance is needed to help investors and infrastructure planners make progress toward frameworks and practices that support resilient investments. For example, given a multiplicity of projected futures, should a subset of scenarios be prioritized to promote a more tractable decision-making landscape? How can scientists help convey—while avoiding constraining—uncertainty in projected outcomes? How can scientists contribute to communication of projected variability as well as uncertainty in manner that inspires, rather than overwhelms, efforts toward resilient decision-making? Beyond statistics, what alternative methods and philosophies, such as storylines, have been successful in enabling decision making in the midst of uncertainty? Share success stories of establishment of long-term relationships between scientists and stakeholders; or on production and communication of usable science data, informatics and tools.

SY049 – Beyond Statistics: Providing Science-Based Guidance to Support Resilient Investment in an Uncertain Future I
Monday, 14 December 2020 – 19:00 – 20:00

SY030 – Beyond Statistics: Providing Science-Based Guidance to Support Resilient Investment in an Uncertain Future II Posters
Thursday, 10 December 2020 – 07:00 – 23:59

Science to Action at Fall Meeting 2020

What is Science to Action at AGU all about?

Thriving Earth Exchange Workshops

Innovation Session

Science to Action in the Scientific Program

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