Ongoing global changes bring fundamentally new scientific problems requiring
new concepts and tools. A key issue concerns a vast variety of practically
irreducible uncertainties, which challenge our traditional models and require
new concepts and analytical tools. The uncertainty critically dominates, e.g.,
the climate change debates. In short, the dilemma is concerned with enormous
costs vs. massive uncertainties of potential extreme impacts.
Traditional scientific approaches usually rely on real observations and
experiments. Yet no sufficient observations...

Support for addressing the on-going global changes needs solutions for new scientific problems which in turn require new concepts and tools. A key issue concerns a vast variety of irreducible uncertainties, including extreme events of high multidimensional consequences, e.g., the climate change. The dilemma is concerned with enormous costs versus massive uncertainties of extreme impacts. Traditional scientific approaches rely on real observations and experiments. Yet no sufficient observations exist for new problems, and "pure" experiments, and learning by doing may be expensive,...

Managing safety of diverse systems requires decision-making under uncertainties and risks. Such systems are typically characterized by spatio-temporal heterogeneities, inter-dependencies, externalities, endogenous risks, discontinuities, irreversibility, practically irreducible uncertainties, and rare events with catastrophic consequences. Traditional scientific approaches rely on data from real observations and experiments; yet no sufficient observations exist for new problems, and experiments are usually impossible. Therefore, science-based support for addressing such new class of...