Description:

Water, energy, food, and health are essential pillars of environmental security and lie at the heart of human well-being and prosperity. However, extreme weather events and climate change deteriorate environmental health and disrupt the availability, access and distribution of water, energy, and food, resulting in societal impacts across scales - from threatening the sustainable development of local communities to triggering regional conflicts over resources and exacerbating global geopolitical risks. Through this session we explore how the AMS community can provide actionable science across the water-energy-food-health (WEFH) nexus to support evidence-based policy and services to increase resilience of ecosystems and communities and achieve environmental security across scales.

In line with the theme of the 105th AMS Annual Meeting, supporting a thriving planet in the context of global environmental change, will require a holistic approach to environmental security and engagement from the physical and social sciences, policy-makers, practitioners, and other stakeholders. Therefore, this session will bring together diverse perspectives to explore the role of the AMS community across the WEFH nexus in support of environmental security. We welcome submissions on, but not limited to, the following topics:

• Impacts of extreme weather and climate events across the WEFH nexus, including economic and human mobility impacts;
• Policy-relevant science that informs decision-making within the WEFH nexus at local, regional and international levels and across geopolitical boundaries;
• Advances in earth-system and data driven modeling and improvements in seasonal to sub-seasonal forecasting and early warning systems for the benefit of WEFH responses to droughts, floods, extreme precipitation, heat waves, etc.;
• Monitoring and observations across the WEFH nexus;
• Communicating scientific uncertainty effectively and engaging with end-users and decision-makers to enhance co-production of knowledge and Research to Operations/Operations to Research across the WEFH nexus;
• Climate change adaptation and mitigation research geared towards the WEFH nexus;
• Addressing systemic risks and cascading crises across the WEFH nexus;
• Enabling humanitarian action and sustainable development to support WEFH security; and
• Environmental justice and equitable access across the WEFH nexus.