Sea level rise is one of the most pressing challenges posed by climate change, with significant implications for coastal communities around the world. This comprehensive course on “Sea Level Rise and Coastal Adaptation” provides a deep understanding of the causes and impacts of rising sea levels, delving into the consequences on coastal regions including intensification of extreme events, increased coastal erosion, inundation of low-lying areas and heightened vulnerability to storm surges.

While we keep collecting and storing data over data, understanding and interpreting the underlying processes and relationships between different observations is still a challenge to tackle. The Future Earth Research School on “Data Science and Machine Learning for Climate Research” will provide participants with a comprehensive overview of the mathematical foundations of machine learning, with a particular focus on methods for analysing complex dynamical systems. Topics of interest include model reduction, system identification, estimation of associated transfer operators such as the Koopman operator, control, uncertainty quantification, deep learning, and applications in climate science and sustainability.

The ever-growing effects of climate change are for all to see. Especially in recent years extreme events such as heat waves, heavy rains and floods are becoming more frequent. Based on the results of the IPCC, it is clear that in some regions of the world, there would be fewer extreme climate events if global warming could be limited to 1.5 °C instead of 2 °C by the end of this century. The goal of the course was for participants to understand how risks occur and how they can be assessed and managed to focus on the interaction between the physical and human environment and how risks are shaped by their interactions. This requires understanding both physical and geographical processes and economic and human development under climate change.

The sustainable management of water resources, land and forestry is a key challenge for humanity in the 21st century that is tightly related to the UN sustainable development goals. The nexus between water and ecology is essential to sustainability, economic and environmental development and the well-being of humanity. The growing desire for higher living standards and the concurrent environmental changes – particularly climate change – requires a forward-looking and transdisciplinary approach to managing water and environmental resources. In particular, an innovative approach to adaptation to climate change is required to close the gap between climate change scenarios, policy-making and technical design of adaptation strategies.