2026 Workshop on Machine Learning for Land and Hydrology
Draft programme
Workshop Programme
Day 1 (Tuesday) – Novel ML for Land Surface Processes
| 09:00 – 09:30 | Opening Welcome – Jørn Kristiansen |
| 09:30 – 12:00 | Session 1 – New Methods |
| 09:30 – 10:00 |
Keynote: Pierre Gentine, Columbia University |
| 10:00 – 11:00 |
Four submitted short talks (4 × 15 min) ECMWF speakers |
| 11:00 – 11:30 | ☕ Coffee Break |
| 11:30 – 12:00 | Themed Discussion: "What will the next generation of models bring?" |
| 12:00 – 12:30 |
ECMWF talks on Hydro and Land (activities from the workshop organisers) |
| 12:30 – 13:30 | 🍽️ Lunch |
| 13:30 – 17:00 | Session 2 – Evaluation and Benchmarking |
| 13:30 – 14:00 | Keynote: Vincent Fortin, ECCC |
| 14:00 – 15:00 | Four submitted short talks (4 × 15 min) |
| 15:00 – 15:30 | ☕ Coffee Break |
| 15:30 – 16:00 | Themed Discussion: "Do we need ML-specific evaluation?" |
| 16:00 – 16:15 | Group photo |
| 16:15 – 17:00 | Interactive session on ML for Land and Hydrology |
| 17:00 – 18:00 | 🪧 Poster session 1 & reception (with drinks) |
Day 2 (Wednesday) – Closing the Reality Gap
| 09:00 – 12:00 | Session 3 – Datasets & Observations |
| 09:00 – 09:30 |
Keynote: Rotem Mayo, Google Research |
| 09:30 – 10:30 | Four submitted short talks (4 × 15 min) |
| 10:30 – 11:00 | ☕ Coffee Break |
| 11:00 – 11:30 |
ECMWF talks on hydrology and land (AI-DOP and EarthKit Hydro) |
| 11:30 – 12:00 |
Themed Discussion: "What are the current challenges in assimilating data?" |
| 12:00 - 12:30 |
Interactive session on Early Careers Researchers |
| 12:30 – 13:30 | 🍽️ Lunch |
| 13:30 – 17:00 | Session 4 – ML Applications |
| 13:30 – 14:00 | Keynote - Marcus Reichstein, MPI |
| 14:00 – 15:00 | Four submitted short talks (4 × 15 min) |
| 15:00 – 15:30 | ☕ Coffee Break |
| 15:30 – 16:00 |
Themed Discussion: "What is the role of physical models in land surface ML?" |
| 16:00 – 17:00 |
🪧 Poster session 2 |
| 19:30 |
Dinner - ZeroDegrees (self-funded) |
Day 3 (Thursday) – Moving to Operations (ends at lunch)
| 09:00 – 12:00 | Session 5 – Moving to Operations |
| 09:00 – 09:30 | Keynote: Jean-Christophe Calvet, MétéoFrance |
| 09:30 – 10:30 | Four submitted short talks (4 × 15 min) |
| 10:30 – 11:00 | ☕ Coffee Break |
| 11:00 – 11:30 |
Themed Discussion: "What is still needed from modellers? From users?" |
| 11:30 – 12:00 | Interactive session readouts – Summary slides with bullet points (joint external chair + ECMWF reporter) |
| 12:00 – 12:30 | Workshop Synthesis & Closure – Key takeaways, research priorities, next steps, future editions |
| 12:30 | 🍽️ Lunch & Departure |