Disaster risk assessment and management strategies are increasingly challenged by systemic and evolving impacts of extremes, variability and change across time and space. By definition, systemic risks are emergent, and not necessarily obvious using contemporary hazard-plus-hazard approaches, until the disaster occurs. Some feedbacks and potential state shifts can be modeled and quantified; others can be modeled or identified but not quantified; and some are probably still unknown. Knowledge about the nature of complex, systemic risks needs to be collaboratively developed and shared across communities, sectors, institutional hierarchies. This knowledge includes the deeper and longer-term drivers of landscape changes, the nature and consequences of transitions from risk to resilience, and where resistance from entrenched interest groups will be encountered. White et al (2001), Fischoff (2020), Peek et al (2020) and many others outline several barriers to the effective development and applications of usable knowledge to prospectively and proactively address such risks: (1) knowledge use continues to be flawed by limited data and uncertainty; (2) knowledge is available but not used effectively or with results contrary to those planned or expected; (3) knowledge is used effectively but takes a long time to have effect; and (4) knowledge is used effectively in some respects but is overwhelmed by the scale and rate of increases in exposure and vulnerability. Effectively fostering positive transitions requires fundamental changes in the knowledge system supporting governance, implying shifts in skills, methods, processes and cultures. Such skills will need to include capabilities for

• Developing observations and applied research to better match scientific capability to societal needs
• Foster strategic partnerships and catalyse innovation
• Develop knowledge and skills for transitions governance and practice

Keeping common purpose in sight requires more than policy entrepreneurs but innovators who keep the norms of the process and system complexity in frame at each step- playing instrumental roles in partnerships in which social learning and shared values are developed. However, in spite many years of scholarship supporting those aspirations, there is still the resistance across institutions in public, private, academia, professional societies, and other settings to the nurturing and support of individuals who move towards use-inspired knowledge and across disciplines. The challenges include sources of locked-in practices, perspectives, and resistance to change at system level that is likely to slow down transition efforts, and underestimate the complexities of enabling a sustainable future. Most critical is the need for transdisciplinary researchers and practitioners who are trained to and can broaden the solution space including public, private and civil society and engage with the multiple dimensions of innovation and system change more systematically. In this session we will explore the need, types, and support for transdisciplinary researchers and practitioners who can broaden the solution space, address barriers on the science-policy interface, and engage in anticipating and guiding knowledge-based equitable transitions.

• AMS: American Meteorological Society -
• EGU: European Geosciences Union -
• WCRP: World Climate Research Programme -