By bringing together fluid and solid Earth physical sciences, and by interconnecting physical sciences with impact sciences, ExtremeEarth will achieve a significant economy of scale. This arises from the development of a common infrastructure that can most effectively predict and prepare for the effects of extremes across all Earth-system components, and that creates a generic technological foundation to allow models, observations, computing and data logistics to provide the best possible information in support of decision-making.

To maximize its economy of scale, ExtremeEarth technologies will be co-designed with users of data related to weather and climate, earthquake and volcano extremes. Within ExtremeEarth these ‘impact communities’ will work with scientists and technologists to develop ExtremeEarth application demonstrators, for six specific sectors: (i) Critical Infrastructures, will focus on the catastrophic consequence of extremes, also for the built environment; (ii) Energy, to provide seamless prediction capability of energy-relevant variables at the site of vulnerable energy assets as well as along the grid; (iii) Hydrology & Water, to provide consistent global probabilistic hydrological modelling at fine resolution, with an explicit treatment of water scarcity and drought; (iv) Food & Agriculture, to provide accurate information on food scarcity induced by extremes globally, at sub-plot scale in ways that also address correlated risks; (v) Health including Air Quality, to link environmental predictions with real-time information on the state of society, to identify at-risk regions; and (vi) Emergency and Disaster Management, to provide an improved capacity to predict the impending occurrence of disastrous events, map their evolution and consequences in real time, and thereby better target first responders and disaster aftermath management.

Although a major focus of ExtremeEarth will be on extremes over Europe, many of the models developed under ExtremeEarth will be global in domain and therefore capable of simulating and predicting extremes in other parts of the world. For example, the African continent experiences some of the most severe and long-term extremes of drought, with devastating consequences. Working with the international development agencies and others, ExtremeEarth will work to ensure that its new simulation and prediction capabilities can help African society become more resilient, helping to reduce the social upheavals of the past.

Demonstrators will exhibit the realisation of the ExtremeEarth Key Objectives through Key Technologies at full scale for the above applications. In achieving these demonstrators, ExtremeEarth will enhance European competitiveness in at least three ways: (i) by improving predictions, data services and their link to impacted sectors, ExtremeEarth will strength its partner institutions, e.g., European, public and private, providers of services on behalf of citizens; (ii) through application-driven, end-to-end, co-design and co-development ExtremeEarth will enhance European competitiveness in HPC and advanced ICT; (iii) through its introduction of EEsC, the project will spawn new user communities in areas that have not yet realized the potential of such information.

Together these efforts will turn the tide on rising costs from natural disasters. Given trends over the past 20 years, this would imply global cost savings of over €50 billion annually [1] by the time ExtremeEarth is completed.