The IYPE is an ambitious programme designed to foster outreach and research activities with the single purpose of raising worldwide public and political awareness of the vast potential of earth sciences for improving the quality of life and safeguarding the planet. It is aimed at ensuring greater and more effective use by society of the knowledge accumulated by the world’s 400,000 earth scientists — a hope expressed in the Year’s subtitle Earth Science for Society. It also aims to contribute to the improvement of everyday life, especially in the less developed countries, by promoting the societal potential of the world’s earth scientists. The IYPE will encourage global appreciation of the earth as the ultimate source of nearly all our everyday needs and as the very foundation of our global society and economy. It will also increase awareness of the dangers posed by the earth, and help build the knowledge we need for these dangers to be more effectively mitigated in future.

Among a range of objectives, the IYPE aims to reduce risks for society caused by natural and human-induced hazards through current knowledge and new research; reduce health problems for mankind by improving understanding of the medical aspects of earth science; discover new natural resources and make them available in a sustainable manner; build safer structures and expand urban areas, utilizing natural subsurface conditions; determine the non-human factor in climatic change; improve knowledge concerning the occurrence of natural resources that are often sources of political tension between neighbouring countries; and improve understanding of the unique conditions on ocean floors relevant to the evolution of life. And, at a more general level, the aim is to stimulate interest in earth science within society at large; expand the number of students in earth science; increase budgets for earth science-related research; and promote exposure and application of geosciences and sustainable extraction of the earth’s resources.

The IYPE has two major lines of activity: an outreach programme and a science programme, each having an estimated budget of $ 9 million. The initiators, founding partners and sponsors jointly covered the preparation costs of the IYPE. Other potential financial sources for the Year include multinational companies and inter-governmental institutions, development banks, scientific organizations and donor organizations, national/regional/local governmental and non-governmental organizations, charitable foundations and trusts, direct solicitation of small contributions from individuals through the internet, and bequests and donors. The project has attracted 12 founding partners: International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG), International Geographical Union (IGU), International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS), International Lithosphere Programme (ILP), Geological Survey of the Netherlands (TNO), Geological Society of London (GSL), International Soil Reference and Information Centre (ISRIC), International Union for Quaternary Research (INQUA), American Geological Institute (AGI), American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG), American Institute of Professional Geologists (AIPG) and a consortium of the International Association of Engineering Geologists and the Environment (IAEG), the International Society of Rock Mechanics (ISRM) and the International Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE).

The prime aim of the outreach programme is to generate interest and greater awareness among the general public, decision-makers and politicians about the effective application, for the benefit of the human society, of the widely available wealth of information in the hands of the earth science community. On the other hand, the science programme has selected themes like groundwater, hazards-minimizing risk and maximizing awareness, earth and health, climate change and so on and so forth.