26-3 Towards SAFER fieldwork: building an incident database for accident and near-miss analysis
Session: Current Advances in Geoscience Education Research (Posters)
Poster Booth No.: 64
Presenting Author:
Hannah CothrenAuthors:
Cothren, Hannah1, Cantine, Marjorie2, Rowe, Amanda K.3, Thompson, Katherine E.T.4(1) Department of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA, (2) Department of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA, (3) Department of Anthropology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York, USA; Museum of Natural History, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, USA, (4) Department of Anthropology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA; Department of Anthropology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York, USA,
Abstract:
Are you a field scientist or field educator? We invite you to shape how the community thinks about practicing safe fieldwork by sharing your experience of an adverse field experience anonymously at https://tinyurl.com/SAFERsciencesurvey.
Fieldwork is foundational to geoscience education and research, with most geosciences programs in the U.S. requiring field-based learning experiences. As geoscientists and geoscience educators, we may interact with fieldwork as both a research and teaching tool. Fieldwork carries inherent risks to both physical and mental health of researchers, yet the frequency, number, severity, type, and contributing factors of adverse incidents are not well-documented. Efforts to quantify negative fieldwork outcomes have focused on fatalities or harassment, leaving a critical gap in data on other types of incidents and near-misses (events that could have resulted in an incident but ultimately did not).
Scientist Adverse Field Experiences Research (SAFER), an NSF-funded project (Award SBA/SMA-2314594) that seeks to understand systemic patterns leading to accidents and near misses during field research across disciplines. Using a community-based survey, we are building a database of incidents to understand the who, what, where, why, and how of adverse field experiences and to explore the lasting impacts on scientists’ well-being and career trajectories. We hypothesize that incidents occur in complex sociotechnical systems with multiple contributing factors, not as the result of a single root cause. We employ a systems-based technique for accident analysis to understand the causes of these incidents. These data will form the foundation for future risk identification and mitigation strategies in field practice and education.
Geological Society of America Abstracts with Program. Vol. 57, No. 6, 2025
© Copyright 2025 The Geological Society of America (GSA), all rights reserved.
Towards SAFER fieldwork: building an incident database for accident and near-miss analysis
Category
Topical Sessions
Description
Session Format: Poster
Presentation Date: 10/19/2025
Presentation Room: HGCC, Hall 1
Poster Booth No.: 64
Author Availability: 9:00–11:00 a.m.
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