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EESA Strategic Vision

EESA Strategic Vision

The Earth & Environmental Sciences Area (EESA) Strategic Vision describes a collective vision on how EESA will contribute to solving the most pressing energy and environmental challenges of our time. This plan seeks to harness innovative and diverse EESA talent to take on five ambitious, but achievable, earth and environmental Grand Challenges.

EESA scientists are using collaborative teamwork to discover the scientific underpinnings important for sustaining healthy soil and clean water, sequestering atmospheric carbon, using subsurface resources responsibly, and developing strategies for resilience in a changing world. These advances are changing our predictive understanding of interactions and feedbacks across Earth’s compartments, from atmosphere to ecosystems to deep subsurface.

Companion Report 2020

(Published August 2020)

Three years after EESA’s publication of their strategic plan (see below), this Strategic Vision Companion Report provides a summary of EESA’s progress toward meeting the 10-year goals associated with EESA Grand Challenges, and also introduces related Elements that have emerged over the last few years.

Strategic Vision 2025

(Published January 2017)

EESA’s Strategic Vision outlines five ambitious but achievable Grand Challenges for earth and environmental sciences research in the coming decade.

Grand Challenges

Small circle icon depicting graphic soil layers with root system and microbes.

Earth’s Microbial Engines

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Climate and the Carbon Sink

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Future Water

 Small circle icon depicting graphic subsurface layers with a building on top. A borehole extends the height of the subsurface.

Sustainable Earth

 Small circle icon depicting graphic view of Berkeley Lab's Advanced Light Source and the San Francisco Area.

Resilient Systems

Cross-cutting Technologies and Platforms

Developing a predictive understanding of complex and coupled Earth systems also requires new scientific capabilities, which we describe as four Cross-cutting Technologies and Platforms. These capabilities enhance our ability to observe, understand, and predict integrated Earth system processes over the range of spatial and temporal scales required by the Grand Challenges.

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Machine Learning

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Community Observatories

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Nimble & Networked Sensing Systems

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Scale-Aware Data & Simulation Tools

PLEASE READ

Please be sure to read “Disclaimer, Copyright, and How to Cite” information on the report’s second page. Figure credits are listed on the last page.

© Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

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