The Role of Digital Technologies in Responding to the Grand Challenges of the Natural Environment : The Windermere Accord

Blair, Gordon and Bassett, Richard and Bastin, L and Beevers, Lindsay and Borrajo Garcia, Maribel and Brown, Mike and Dance, Sarah and Dionescu, Ada and Edwards, Liz and Ferrario, Maria Angela and Fraser, Rob and Fraser, Harriet and Gardner, Simon and Henrys, P.A and Hey, Tony and Homann, Stuart and Huijbers, Chantal and Hutchison, James and Jonathan, Philip and Lamb, Rob and Laurie, Sophie and Leeson, Amber and Leslie, David and McMillan, Mal and Nundloll, Vatsala and Oyebamiji, Oluwole and Phillipson, Jordan and Pope, Vicky and Prudden, Rachel and Reis, Stefan and Salama, Maria and Samreen, Faiza and Sejdinovic, D. and Simm, William and Street, Roger and Thornton, Lauren and Towe, Ross and Vande Hey, Joshua D. and Vieno, Massimo and Waller, Joanne and Watkins, John (2021) The Role of Digital Technologies in Responding to the Grand Challenges of the Natural Environment : The Windermere Accord. Patterns, 2 (1): 100156. ISSN 2666-3899

Text (Summit Report (Windermere Accord) ACCEPTED)
Summit_Report_Windermere_Accord_ACCEPTED.pdf - Accepted Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution.
Download (8MB)

Abstract

Digital technology is having a major impact on many areas of society and there is equal opportunity for impact on science. This is particularly true in the environmental sciences as we seek to understand the complexities of the natural environment under climate change. This perspective presents the outcomes of a summit in this area, a unique cross-disciplinary gathering bringing together environmental scientists, data scientists, computer scientists, social scientists and the representatives of the creative arts. The key output of this workshop is an agreed vision in the form of a framework and associated roadmap, captured in the Windermere Accord. This accord envisions a new kind of environmental science underpinned by unprecedented amounts of data, with technological advances leading to breakthroughs in taming uncertainty and complexity, and also supporting openness, transparency and reproducibility in science. The retrospective also includes a call to build an international community working on this important area.