Thematic Sessions

#1 Carbon emissions, sequestrations and carbon neutrality

Description: Achieving carbon neutrality has been set as the national goals worldwide. In achieving the goal, each country has to cut carbon emission and adjust industry production along a direction of less emission. So carbon neutrality builds up a mechanism of pushing each country to green and sustainable development. In reaching the carbon neutrality goal, cutting emission is one basic venue, which can be embodied in industry production and automotive vehicle driving. On the other hand, enhancing carbon sequestration is the other vital venue in offsetting carbon emission. Especially vegetation can sequester a massive amount of carbon through distribution in an extended area and growing to a larger size. A balanced combination of these venues is necessary in achieving carbon neutrality. The goal of this session is to discuss how to achieve carbon neutrality through cutting down carbon emission, while enhancing carbon sequestration. 

We welcome all types of research centered on the following aspect:

(1) carbon emission accounting and spatial pattern analysis.

(2) Ecosystem carbon processes and the mechanisms, carbon sequestration capacity and the driving forces. 

(3) Policy guidance in decreasing carbon emission or stimulating carbon sequestration. Either oral presentation or wall poster is the accepted format in this session. 

Conveners: 

Yangjian Zhang (Professor, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China)

Jonathan Adams (Professor, Nanjing University, China)

#2 Climate-smart conservation

Description: Changes to the global climate are undermining the global ability to achieve sustainable development, directly impacting Sustainable Development Goals 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 10, 13, 14 and 15. Climate change poses existential threats to wildlife and fauna, including communities that derive their livelihoods from protected areas.  There is therefore a need to establish climate-smart conservation strategies that are capable of building resilient communities and integrated ecosystems within and around PAs. Climate-smart conservation strategies also enables tourism to thrive which is an important livelihood. Likewise, climate smart conservation ensures the sustainable supply of ecosystem services in protected areas that are crucial for human well-being and health. The session seeks to address the complexities surrounding climate change, conservation and tourism nexus in PAs to find solutions to climate change distressed destinations. Distress often emanates from exogenous factors such as climate shocks and stressors. Discussions are open to varied areas, including but not limited to; implications of climate change on Protected Areas, human Responses and climate change effects, limitations to adaptation (physical, economic, social) under future climate scenarios,  the scalability of adaptations, co-benefits of climate change adaptation, maladaptation and adaptive governance, participatory modelling, climate change and artificial intelligence within and around protected areas.

Conveners: 

Walter Musakwa (Professor, University of Johannesburg, South Africa)

Regis Musavengane (Research Fellow, University of Johannesburg, South Africa)

#3 Coupled Human-cultivated land utilization systems

Description: The cultivated land utilization system is a natural-artificial composite system in which agricultural production participants invest a certain amount and quality of labor, seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, farm machinery and other production factors to cultivate crops on a certain quantity and quality of cultivated land, and then obtain agricultural products and corresponding benefits. As an important branch of the land use system, the various elements of the cultivated land utilization system are interrelated and interact more closely with each other. In this session, we will explore the mechanism of "coupling-decoupling-reconstruction" between humans and land in the cultivated land utilization system, reveal the evolutionary laws and spatial differentiation characteristics of human-land coupling, describe the positive and negative effects of cultivated land utilization, simulate moderate management scales and optimal production units under human-land coupling, and propose regional strategies for the sustainable utilization of cultivated land that include restructuring management scales and reconstructing cultivated land production units.

Conveners: 

Xiangbin Kong (Professor, China Agricultural University, China)

Minghong Tan (Research Professor, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China)

Xinli Ke (Professor, Huazhong Agricultural University, China)

#4 Dryland climate change and water cycle

Description: Drylands are the most sensitive to climate change, the most fragile ecological environment and the weakest disaster bearing capacity in global middle latitudes. Under the background of global warming, the acceleration of the water cycle would lead to more extreme climate events in drylands, and the weak disaster bearing ability makes the extreme temperature and precipitation events far more disaster-causing in the drylands than in the humid regions. Therefore, it is important for the sustainable development of the drylands to understand the mechanism of climate change and the causes of extreme climate events. This session provides an opportunity for participants to discuss advances in research on past change and future projections of dryland climate and water cycle. 

The topics of this session include but are not limited to: 

(1) characteristics and mechanism of climate change in drylands

(2) responses of water cycle in global drylands to climate warming

(3) extreme climate events in drylands and their causes

(4) future climate projections of global drylands

Conveners: 

Jianping Huang (Professor, Lanzhou University, China)

Haipeng Yu (Professor, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China)

#5 Dryland Sustainability

Description: Description: Drylands cover 41% of global land surface and support about 30 billion people, 90% of which live in developing countries. They are also home of 28% of endangered species worldwide. In the context of climate change and population increase, drylands are facing critical challenges. Water scarcity, land degradation, biodiversity loss, and decline of key ecosystem services are threatening ecological security and human livelihood. Achieving sustainable development in drylands are vitally important for drylands and the entire globe. This session endeavors to afford attendees an opportunity to discuss their research advances on dryland ecosystem dynamics, their drivers and consequences, and sustainable livelihood pathways. 

The topics of this session include but are not limited to: 

(1) monitoring, modeling and predicting of socio-ecological systems in dryland

(2) responses of structure and function of dryland socio-ecological systems to climate change, e.g., tipping points and mechanisms

(3) multidimensional trade-offs of dryland ecosystem services, e.g., food-water-energy-ecological integrity nexus

(4) dryland ecosystem restoration and management toward land degradation neutrality and sustainable development, e.g., natural based solutions

Conveners: 

Nan Lu (Professor, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences Chinese Academy of Sciences, China)

David Eldridge (Adjunct Professor, UNSW, Australia)

Changliang Shao (Professor, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, China)

Jingyi Ding (Assistant Professor, Beijing Normal University, China)

#6 Earth observation and big earth data for sustainability

Description: The UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is an urgent call to action for all countries. The tracking, monitoring and evaluation of the SDGs requires data and methodological support. Earth observation and geospatial data contain a wealth of spatial and temporal information that can effectively support the dynamic tracking of SDG targets. Today, earth observation and geospatial information are widely used to track poverty, food, water, ecosystems, biodiversity and related SDG assessments. Therefore, this session will focus on the application of earth observation data and geospatial analysis in SDG assessments, covering global and regional data production, big data analysis methods, and case studies of SDGs supported by geospatial information. We look forward to your participation.

Conveners: 

Bingfang Wu (Professor, Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China) 

#7 Ecological Security, Risk, and Sustainability in Urbanization

Description: The complex challenges arising from the rapid urbanization has great impacts on social-ecological systems, which highlighting the urgency of integrating ecological considerations into urban planning and development processes. This session aims to explore the intricate relationship between urban development, ecological security, and sustainable strategies while addressing the ecological risks associated with environmental degradation and climate change. Experts in the field will share their research findings, case studies, and best practices, enabling participants to gain a comprehensive understanding of the sustainability inherent in urbanization. The session will examine the implications of habitat loss, pollution, resource depletion, and climate change on urban ecosystems, emphasizing the need for proactive measures to ensure the long-term health and resilience of cities; and will provide insights into innovative approaches such as green infrastructure, nature-based solutions, and adaptive urban planning, enabling cities to enhance their resilience and reduce ecological risks. 

Topics may include but are not limited to: 

(1) Understanding Ecological Security

(2) Ecological Risk Assessment and Management

(3) Sustainable Strategies in Urban Planning

Conveners: 

Jian Peng (Professor, Peking University, China)

Yanxu Liu (Associate Professor, Beijing Normal University, China)

#8 Ecosystem service flow and payment for ecosystem service

Description: Ecosystem services are the benefits that people derive from ecosystems. Understanding the flow of these services across landscapes and between different ecosystems is crucial for their sustainable use and conservation. Ecological compensation is a mechanism for compensating for the loss or degradation of ecosystem services due to human activities. It involves restoring or enhancing ecosystems to offset the negative impacts of development or other activities. Payment for ecological compensation can incentivize landowners or managers to protect and restore ecosystems and sustain the flow of ecosystem services. In this session, we will explore the relationship between ecosystem service flows and payment for ecological compensation. We will discuss the challenges and opportunities for implementing payment schemes that incentivize the conservation and restoration of ecosystem services.

Conveners:

Jing Li (Professor, Shaanxi Normal University, China) 

Xianfeng Liu (Associated Professor, Shaanxi Normal University, China) 

#9 Geography education and sustainable development

Description: Geography is a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary scientific field that covers many fields, including biophysical, social, economic and political. Geography as a science allows us to understand the similarities and differences and similarities between these areas. For a better understanding of the world, geography is a key science. Recently, we have been facing many challenges, including global conflicts, poverty, hunger, resource overexploitation, energy crisis, land degradation, biodiversity loss, and climate change. Geography education has an important role in understanding the causes and consequences of all these challenges in multiple spatial (e.g., local, regional, national or global) and temporal scales (e.g., decadal, centennial or millennial). To achieve sustainable development, geography education is essential because it deals with all the most important global issues. In this session, we aim to identify and discuss key areas in Geography and how they are important for sustainable development.

Conveners: 

Paulo Pereira (Professor, Mykolas Romeris Univeristy, Lithuania)

Wenwu Zhao (Professor, Beijing Normal University, China)

#10 Human-nature coupling system and sustainability

Description: In the Anthropocene, human enterprise has been driving drastic changes of the Earth’s biosphere and caused multiple environmental challenges, such as climate change, biodiversity degradation, pollution, and habitat destruction. Despite, human wellbeing remains inextricably relying on the biosphere to provide a multitude of ecosystem services. To reconcile the needs for both human prosperity and healthy biosphere, a deep scientific understanding on the key biophysical, societal and interaction processes is commonly called for. To this end, interdisciplinary research approaches that incorporate different perspectives, insights, and methods are paramont. This session aims to provide a forum for presenting the latest research findings in this thriving interdisciplinary field, and exchanging ideas that address human-nature coupling system and sustainability from the ever-growing research group. Any paper that is dedicated to unpack the complexities of the dynamic and deeply entangled human and nature systems, with a focus on either ecological health, social development, or integrated SES sustainability, from either natural scientists or social scientists, are welcomed.

Conveners:

Shuai Wang (Professor, Beijing Normal University, China)

Örjan Bodin (Professor, Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm University, Sweden)

Haibin Chen (Professor, Northwest A&F University, China)

#11 Land Degradation as a Local and Global Challenge

Description: Land degradation is the result of human-induced actions that exploit soil and lead to the degradation of its benefits, biodiversity, soil fertility, and overall health. Land is being rapidly degrading around the world, e.g. current agricultural practices are causing the world's soils to be degraded up to 100 times faster than they are regenerating through natural processes. Land degradation also alters and disrupts rainfall patterns, exacerbates weather extremes such as droughts or floods, and causes accelerated erosion, not to mention influencing climate change. It leads to social and political instability that fosters poverty, conflict, and migration, thus sustainable solutions on local and global levels are needed to address these challenges. The session will be organised by the Commission on Land Degradation and Desertification (COMLAND) of the International Geographical Union, which has been promoting and coordinating interdisciplinary research on land degradation and desertification for three decades to find sustainable solutions.

Conveners: 

Matija Zorn (Head of the Institute, Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Anton Melik Geographical Institute, The Republic of Slovenia)

#12 Landscape Dynamics and Extreme Events in the Himalaya: Experiences and Case Studies

Description: The understanding of the unfolding relationship between climate change, landscape dynamics and disasters in the form of extreme event in the Himalaya are key aspect of achieving sustainability. Extreme events have spatial Mountain ecosystems are fragile and prone to extreme events. Extreme events poses greater risk to mountain ecosystems and communities living in the mountains. Increased global temperature, erratic precipitation pattern, glacial retreat, sea level rise, forest cover decline, biodiversity loss and health hazards are intrinsically linked with the increase in number, frequency and magnitude of extreme events such as cloud bursts, glacial lake outbursts, flash floods, avalanches, landslides, forest fires, floods and droughts in the Himalaya in the last few decades frequently jeopardise social and economic functioning. The purpose of the proposed session is assessing, monitoring, mapping and modelling the spatial and temporal nature of extreme events and ponder upon various strategies, plan and policies and discuss case studies as success stories to mitigate impacts of such disasters on mountain dwellers.

Conveners: 

Pankaj Kumar (Associate Professor University of Delhi, India)

Manish Kumar (Assistant Professor  Central University of Haryana, India)

Shipra Singh (Assistant Professor Miranda House, India)

#13 Land use/Land Cover change and sustainable development

Description: Land use and land cover change (LUCC) is the result of complex human-environmental interactions and one of the main components of global environmental change in the Anthropocene Period through their unprecedented consequences at local, regional, and global levels. Understanding the causes and consequences of LUCC is one of the main goals of global change research. The aim of this session is to promote the study of land-use and land cover change focusing on its key driving forces and various theoretical, methodological and applied aspects in countries with diversified economic, social and political systems. 

The main topics for contributions are: 

(1) LUCC and associated key driving forces 

(2) LUCC impacts in global environmental change context 

(3) Implications of LUCC for spatial management and sustainable development

Conveners: 

Monica Dumitrascu (Institute of Geography, Romanian Academy. Romania; Chair of IGU-LUCC Commission)

Jinwei Dong (Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences)

#14 Nature-based Solutions for disaster risk reduction

Description: Climate change and increasing human pressure on the environment (e.g. urbanization, deforestation) are progressively transforming natural hazards, such as floods and droughts, into disastrous events causing life and economic losses. Disaster risk reduction is the concept and practice of reducing disaster risks through systematic efforts to analyze and reduce the causal factors of disasters. It has received increasing political attention and comprises a fundamental aspect to achieve global targets such as those established in the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the Sustainable Development Goals, and the Paris Climate Agreement. Nature-based solutions (NBS), defined as “'inspired and supported by nature, which are cost-effective, simultaneously provide environmental, social and economic benefits and help build resilience'”, can play an important role on disaster risk reduction. The UNEP State of Finance of Nature report estimated the need to at least triple the investments in NBS if the world was to meet the climate change, biodiversity and land degradation targets. This session aims to examine technical, financial and operational feasibility and performance of NBS solutions for disaster risk reduction. 

Specific topics include, but are not limited to: 

(1) evidence-base of NBS solutions to support disaster risk reduction

(2) new methods and tools to investigate the role of NBS to enhance resilience and adaptation to disaster risk

(3) case studies of inspirational practice for successful implementation and upscaling of NBS projects

(4) financial instruments and business opportunities to stimulate NBS implementation

Conveners: 

Carla Ferreira (Researcher, Coimbra Polytechnic Institute, Portugal)

Zahra Kalantari (Professor, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden)

Pan Haozi (Professor, Shanghai Jiaotong University, China)

Karen Sudmeier-Rieux (Researcher, TH Kéln, University of Cologne, Germany)

Milica Kasanin-Grubin (Researcher, University of Belgrade, Republic of Serbia)

#15 Nature-based Solutions for synergy of social-ecological-economic development

Description: Because of its ability to effectively and adaptively address multiple societal challenges, providing both human well-being and biodiversity benefits, Nature-based Solutions (NbS) has received more and more attention from the international community and been widely applied in recent years. This session aims to promote the research of NbS for supporting sustainable development and the construction of ecological civilization. We welcome research scientists, policy makers and project managers in related fields to discuss the theoretical and technical issues surrounding the development and implementation of NbS. 

Discussion will focus on (but not limited to) following aspects: 

(1) domestic and international frontier progress of NbS theory and technology

(2) localization measures and application paths of NbS

(3) development and system construction of NbS policies and standards

(4) best practices of NbS

Conveners: 

Ming Luo (Director, Key Laboratory of Land Consolidation and Rehabilitation, Ministry of Natural Resources, China)

Jun Wang (Director, Land Consolidation and Rehabilitation Center, MNR; Land Science and Technology Innovation Center, MNR, China)

Yan ZHANG (Country Coordinator, IUCN China Office, China)

Emmanuelle COHEN-SHACHAM  (Lead, Nature-based Solutions Thematic Group, CEM, IUCN, USA)

Zhaowu Yu (Professor, Fudan University, China)

#16 Rural Geography in Achieving Sustainable Development

Description: Rural geography is a pivotal ingredient in the pursuit of sustainable development, furnishing indispensable insights into the unique challenges and opportunities that are peculiar to rural areas. Through disentangling the complexity of the interplay between human activities and the environment in rural areas, rural geography facilitates the recognition of sustainable land use practices, conservation techniques, and methods to alleviate environmental devastation. This session endeavors to afford attendees an occasion to amplify their comprehension of the salience of rural geography in attaining sustainable development. This shall be achieved by scrutinizing the singular obstacles and prospects impinging on rural spaces, sussing out techniques and benchmarks that encourage rural sustainability, as well as fostering knowledge sharing and collaboration among researchers, and policymakers. The session shall delve into numerous facets, encompassing land utilization, management of natural resources, sustainable agricultural practices, rural livelihoods, and community engagement, among others. 

The topics of this session include but are not limited to: 

(1) Introduction to Rural Geography and Sustainable Development 

(2) Geographical Features and Challenges in Rural Areas 

(3) Sustainable Land Use and Natural Resource Management 

(4) Rural Livelihoods and Economic Opportunities 

(5) Community Engagement and Empowerment 

(6) Rural commodification and land use management

Conveners: 

Hualou Long (Professor, Steering Committee Member of IGU Commission on the Sustainability of Rural Systems; Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China) 

Yingnan Zhang (Doctor, Zhejiang University, China)

#17 Smart cities and sustainability in comparative perspective

Description: The answers to many of the world’s challenges in the 21st Century will be found in the nexus of urbanisation, technology, community,  and sustainability. This session proposes to open a dialogue on the topic of smart cities and sustainability. How are governments, business and communities going about the task of creating the "smart city"? Indeed, what is a "smart city"?  Can the successes of one city offer lessons for cities elsewhere? Some of the themes to be explored include big data, food security, supply chains, transport, and technology.

Conveners：

Gary Sigley (Professor, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, China)

Mengmeng Zhang (Assistant Professor, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, China)

Marcus Foth (Professor, Faculty of Creative Industries, Education, and Social Justice, Queensland University of Technology, Australia)

#18 Sustainable Development Goals: assessments, interactions, and advancing pathways

Description: In order to address humanity's most pressing challenges, the United Nations has adopted 17 ambitious Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that encompass critical areas for people, the planet, and prosperity. Tracking progress on the SDGs and understanding their intricate interactions are key to achieving all goals while ensuring that no one is left behind. The objective of this session is to share the latest advancements in SDG studies and explore pathways to sustainable development through the lens of the SDGs. 

The topics covered may include, but are not limited to: 

(1) Measurement of SDGs at various scales

(2) The complex interactions among the SDGs

(3) Influencing factors and mechanisms of different SDGs

(4) Natural resources management in the framework of SDG thematic areas

(5) Transformative pathways to achieve specific SDGs

Conveners: 

Xutong Wu (Doctor, Beijing Normal University, China)

Gabriela Morosanu (Institute of Geography, Romanian Academy, Romania)

#19 Sustainable transformation of agricultural land system

Description: Content: The allocation and utilization of water and land resources for agricultural production is a complex system involving multiple factors at multiple scales, which is affected by feedbacks within and outside the subsystems of land use, climate change, and food supply and demand. Besides, regional agricultural land use systems emphasize more on their spatial and temporal characteristics. Specifically, the complex issues of spatial and temporal heterogeneity, scale sensitivity, natural and social integration, and systemic feedback effects are important to understanding the interaction of climate change effects, carbon reduction, and food security constraints. However, universal theoretical tools are not necessarily applicable to regional agricultural land use system management in practice. Consequently, this proposal focuses on the basic principle of "human-environment relationship research" and encourages the integration of various disciplines (e.g. economics, sociology, ecology, and management, etc.) to develop a comprehensive, intersecting, and regional approach to sustainable transformation of agricultural land systems. Based on theoretical modelling and practical analysis of agricultural land systems with regional characteristics, relevant research focuses on evolution mechanisms of key development factors such as land, ecology, climate, food, and socio-economy, and the systematic integration of cross-scale, sub-regional, sub-dimensional, and remote coupling among multiple systems, to build sustainable agricultural land systems, and promote high-quality regional development. Goals: This proposal aims to give full play to geography's interdisciplinary research advantages in management, economics and other disciplines, to discuss scientific and practical issues including food security under climate change and sustainable development transition of agricultural land systems. Through fully exchange of research findings and experiences, land management strategies and their effects can be analyzed, thus to provide innovative policies and scientific paths for promoting sustainable development.

Conveners: 

Xiangzheng Deng (Professor, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS, China)

Hua Qin (Associate Professor, Division of Applied Social Sciences, University of Missouri-Columbia, USA)

John Gibson (Professor, University of Waikato, New Zealand)

#20 Sustainable water resources management in agriculture under drought scenario

Description: During 2022 exceptionally prolonged droughts affected several countries, posing a significant threat to agriculture and causing socio-economic instability. Drought, because of its extensive spatiotemporal occurrence, can severely impact the food security of entire countries. Therefore, sustainable water resources management solutions must be adopted to preserve the existing agricultural systems and their ecosystem services and guarantee food production and biodiversity values. A lack of response to this will result in progressive land abandonment, degradation, and hydro-conflicts in the worst scenario. The purpose of this session is to welcome submissions that present advanced research and perspectives on strategies to sustainably use water resources to mitigate the impact of drought in agriculture. Real case studies related to recent droughts are also welcomed.

Conveners: 

Paolo Tarolli (Full Professor, University of Padova, Italy)

Eugenio Straffelini (Research Assistant University of Padova, Italy)

#21 Third pole environment and sustainability

Description: Qingzang plateau is a unique ecological regional unit on the Earth, average elevation above 4000 m, has a lot of special ecosystems. Currently, the exacerbated climate change and intensified anthropogenic activities resulted in a series of ecological issues, which seriously undermines the ecological functions, retards the local economy development and limits living improvement. How to accomplish sustainable development goals (SDGs) of the Earth's third pole？It's a challenge for locals, managers, policy-makers and scientists. 

The themes of the conference include but are not limited to the following points: 

(1) The vegetation dynamics, processes and functionings under the climate changes. 

(2)The nexus among ecological process, human activities and ecosystem management. 

(3) SDGs of Qingzang plateau. 

We invite researchers to share the latest findings from questionnaire, field experiments, large-scale transect surveys and combined 3S technology.

Conveners:

Jian Sun (Professor, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research Chinese Academy of Science, China)

Hua Shang (Doctor, Rutgers University, USA)

Xiaoyong Bai (Institute Of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China)

#22 Transitional Geospace and Human-nature Coupling for Sustainability

Description: From the perspective of the coupling of socioeconomic and natural sciences, transitional geospace is the composite zones in coupled socioecological systems, highlighting the particularity and complexity of the regional system of human-nature relationship. The urban-rural transition zone, the agro-pastoral transition zone, the north-south transition zone, the ecological interlaced zone and other transitional geospaces have become an important window for understanding and recognizing the interdependence and change laws of different elements in the coupled socioecological systems, and the emerging uncertainty and dynamics provide important scientific clues for understanding, evaluating and predicting the coupling and evolution mechanism of human-nature systems, and also provide scientific basis for the realization of regional sustainable development goals. This session welcomes incremental research reports and theoretical reviews on various transitional geospaces using various natural, humanistic and GIS theories and methods, especially the latest scientific reports on mountains, wetlands, urban-rural and agro-pastoral transition zones.

Conveners: 

Wei Deng (Professor, Sichuan Normal University, China)

Lianqi Zhu (Professor, Henan University, China)

Junhong Bai (Professor, Beijing Normal University, China)

Jintong Liu (Professor, IGDB, CAS, China)

Yuluan Zhao (Professor, Guizhou Normal University, China)

Shaoyao Zhang (Associate Professor, Sichuan Normal University, China)

#23 Understanding hazards and risks for sustainable development

Description: This session discusses how geographical research contributes to understanding natural and social hazards and reducing disaster risks. People worldwide face hazards, including seismic ground shaking, tsunamis, floods, mass movements, volcanic eruptions, warfare, and terrorism. Future risks of these hazards may increase depending on ongoing changes, such as global warming and urbanization. Therefore, the scientific understanding of hazards and risks is essential to promote disaster risk reduction and sustainable social development. This session deals with relevant topics, including the outcomes of various application studies, with the co-organization of the IGU Commission on Hazard and Risk.

Conveners: 

Takashi Oguchi (Professor, The University of Tokyo, Japan)

#24 Urban Green Spaces and Sustainability

Description: This session aims to explore the role of urban green spaces in promoting sustainability in urban environments. It will examine the various aspects of urban green spaces, including their design, planning, management, and their impact on the environment and human well-being. The session will bring together researchers, practitioners, and policy-makers to discuss innovative ideas, best practices, and challenges related to urban green spaces and sustainability. 

Topics may include but are not limited to: 

(1) Design and planning of urban green spaces for sustainability

(2) Sustainable management practices for urban green spaces

(3) The impact of urban green spaces on air quality, biodiversity, and climate change

(4) The social and economic benefits of urban green spaces

(5) Innovative approaches to integrating green spaces into urban environments

(6) Challenges and opportunities for sustainable urban green spaces in different contexts

The use of geospatial data and techniques for quantitative analysis is welcome.

Conveners: 

Long Li (Associate Professor, China University of Mining and Technology, China)

Xinyang Yu (Lecturer, Shandong Agricultural University, China)

Changlong Li (Lecturer, Guangzhou College of Commerce, China)

#25 Urban sustainability: coupling social-ecological systems to overcome climate and biodiversity crises

Description: In the context of global climate change, urban expansion intensifies the loss, fragmentation, and degradation of habitats, resulting in the loss of biodiversity. Unsustainable urban development has brought challenges to cities, exposing the vulnerability of cities and the inadequacy of management paradigms. In response to the urban climate and biodiversity crises, cities urgently need to couple social-ecological systems and develop comprehensive nature-based solutions to urban climate change adaptation and biodiversity conservation. Building on this GEOSUS workshops, this session aims to bring together Scientists in the Urban sustainability, Urban climate, Urban ecology, Remote sensing & GIS, and related fields to share recent research outcomes and discuss challenges for urban sustainability research. 

We are calling for presentations on all topics related to urban sustainability, including but not limited to: 

(1) Theories for urban system in coupling social-ecological systems to overcome climate and biodiversity crises 

(2) Vulnerability, Exposure, and Equity in urban areas related to climate change and biodiversity loss

(3) Technology and Practices for promoting urban sustainability to overcome climate and biodiversity crises. 

Join us for this hybrid meeting in person or online, we look forward to seeing you virtually and in Beijing, China.

Conveners: 

Michael Meadows  (Professor, Nanjing University, China)

Fanhua Kong (Professor, Nanjing University, China)

Ariane Middel (Associated professor Arizona state University, USA)