Abstract/Summary

Digital technology is having a major impact on many areas of society and there is equal opportunity for impact on science in addressing grand scientific challenges. This is particularly true in the environmental sciences as we seek to understand the complexities of the natural environment under climate change. This perspective reports on the outcomes from a summit in this area, attended by 42 researchers selected as leading experts operating at the interface between digital technology and the environmental sciences. The key output of this workshop was the Windermere Accord, a collective statement around what is required to achieve a transformative effect through digital technology based around 4 key pillars of investigation, namely: using technology to tame uncertainty; growing advocates and champions to enable, empower and influence; embracing a new open and transparent style of science; enabling integration and sophisticated treatment of feedbacks in complex environmental systems. These pillars all feed into decision-making processes and are supported by a growing community. Looking forward, the accord also identified a pathway with particular emphasis on building an international, cross-disciplinary community to address the key challenges and achieve the real opportunities around digital technology and the environment.