Analysis, Integration and Modeling of the Earth System (AIMES): Advancing the post-disciplinary understanding of coupled human-environment dynamics in the Anthropocene

Today, society faces interconnected challenges including climate change, financial crises, food security, governance of pandemics, and energy sufficiency. This requires decision makers to understand systemic risks for which the available tools provide insufficient guidance. AIMES is targeting to improve links of science with stakeholders in society to stimulate appropriate societal responses. Under Future Earth, AIMES prioritizes the understanding and modeling of human-environment interactions in the Anthropocene, focusing on gathering consistent data on biophysics and socioeconomics; lessons that can be learnt from past human-environment interactions; and the modeling of planet Earth as a complex system in which human beings are internal components rather than external actors. Key overarching themes include land-use change and the characterization and forecasting of critical transitions (or “tipping points”) in the Earth System.