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.
Thursday, 10 December – 08:00-08:45
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
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
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 – 13:00-14:30
Thursday, 3 December: 06:30-07:30
Innovation Session
All times are noted in Pacific Standard Time.
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.
Visit the landing page for this event here!
Events, Workshops and Town Halls
All times are noted in Pacific Standard Time.
Wednesday, 2 December: 14:00-15:00
We are looking for more mentors to join this event! So if you have wisdom that you’d like to share, please register and send an email to [email protected] to let me know that you’ll be joining.
Thursday, 3 December: 14:00-15:00
Event Cost: Free! Just make sure you are registered for the Fall Meeting
This session presents results from the recently published American Society of Civil Engineers white paper on the hydro-meteorological impacts of climate change on critical infrastructure sectors, and potential mechanisms to prioritize action. We seek to engage a multidisciplinary audience including climate scientists, engineers, emergency managers, resilience and sustainability investigators, insurance experts, and policy makers, to promote dialogue on the topic of climate change and infrastructure. We hope to explore the challenges and opportunities that the engineering profession faces in dealing with these extremes, and to develop a road map for future research in this direction. This is a joint activity of multiple AGU Section (Hydrology, Natural Hazards, Global Environmental Change and Atmospheric Sciences), the AMS Water Resources Committee and the ASCE Committee on Adaptation to a Changing Climate.
Tuesday, 15 December: 16:00 – 17:00
Tuesday, 15 December: 15:00-17:00
Wednesday, 9 December: 10:00 – 11:00
Science to Action in the Scientific Program
Click session links for dates and times.
**Sessions that explicitly call out indigenous knowledges or collaboration with indigenous communities.
U014 How Can We Implement AGU’s “Science for Solutions” to Address Societal Problems
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
SY035 – Science to Action: Enabling Science- and Data-Driven Water Management II Posters
This session will showcase new opportunities for engagement of remote and in-person participants from the four directions who are of high benefit to the AGU community, to include innovative use of technology to engage those who are often unable to attend the Fall Meeting. Connecting geographically diverse locations, the session will consist of panel, poster, and eLightning formats as models for expanding inclusion and engagement, and allowing participants to experience the power of place. As remote sensing tells the larger more holistic story of a place, those on the land, the community of the place, tell another important part of the story. This session will connect researchers working with remotely sensed data with indigenous community members who will share their knowledge, their story, of that place along with visual elements from that location.
These relationships are vital. Relating to and experiencing place, through the lens of the stories and people who have lived those stories, is critical to science communication. The session will highlight the soul of communication – stories that connect people to science and place. We welcome abstracts that bring together multiple ways of knowing; practices that encourage our human responsibilities to the Earth and the life systems that sustain us, and communicate lessons learned through more effective storytelling, artful, compelling media, and more impactful results.
A variety of video conference technologies will be used, along with a variety of presentation formats to best meet the needs of the presenters to be included and the information each will share. The conveners seek to bring together satellite data and ground based observations, many ways of knowing, to encompass diverse presenters and create a more complete picture of research areas. This will also bring about equity among participants by allowing for remote participation in the session.
SY016 – Science and Society: Social and Behavioral Sciences I
SY013 – Science and Society: Social and Behavioral Sciences II Posters
SY010 – Science and Society: Social and Behavioral Sciences III eLightning
SY042 – Science and Society: Community and Citizen Science I
SY011 – Science and Society: Community and Citizen Science II Posters
SY038 – Science and Society: Science Communication Practice, Research, and Reflection I
SY041 – Science and Society: Science Communication Practice, Research, and Reflection II eLightning
SY043 – Science and Society: Science Communication Practice, Research, and Reflection III eLightning
SY032 – Science and Society: Science Communication Practice, Research, and Reflection IV Posters
ED046 – Using Place-Based Approaches to Enhance Geoscience Learning I
ED047 – Using Place-Based Approaches to Enhance Geoscience Learning II
The goal of this session is to showcase work that includes gender or underrepresented groups in their climate service research, design or delivery. In particular, we will consider talks that use remote sensing and or geographic information systems (GIS) to address gendered or minority development issues. These papers will represent the forefront of climate services development and showcase replicable methods for gender and social inclusion in research and applications.
GC027 – Gender and Social Inclusion in Climate Data Services and Analyses I Posters