- Structural Geology, Tectonics and Geodynamics
- Mineralogy, Petrology and Geochemistry
- Stable and radiogenic isotope geochemistry
- Environmental Biogeochemistry of Trace Elements
- Palaeontology
- Stratigraphy and Sedimentology: processes and deposits through time
- Seismic Hazard and Risk in Switzerland: From Science to Mitigation
- Deep geothermal energy, CO2-storage and energy-related exploration of the subsurface.
- Scientific Drilling Through Time and Space: On Land and Under the Sea
- Quaternary environments: landscapes, climate, ecosystems and human activity during the past 2.6 million years
- Geomorphology
- Soil: Formation, Processes, and Conservation
- Hydrology and Hydrogeology
- Limnology in Switzerland
- Cryospheric Sciences
- Atmospheric Composition and Biosphere-Atmosphere Interactions
- Climatology
- Tackling the Climate Crisis: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Climate Change Education and Communication
- Earth Observation and Remote Sensing
- Geoscience and Geoinformation – From data acquisition to modelling and visualisation
- Spatial data science: extracting knowledge from geo-environmental data
- Virtual Representation of Forests: Methods and Applications
- Alpine Hazards: Early Detection, Monitoring, Warning, Modelling, Mitigation
- Human Geographies: Materials, Natures, Politics
- Human Geographies: Bodies, Cultures, Societies
- Human Geographies: Cities, Regions, Economies
- Global change and sustainability issues in mountain areas
1. Structural Geology, Tectonics and Geodynamics
Sandra Borderie, Paul Tackley, Jonas Ruh, Vénice Akker
Swiss Tectonics Studies Group of the Swiss Geological Society
Presentations are invited considering structural geology, tectonics, and geodynamics, including field, experimental and model studies of structures at all scales. The session should also provide a forum for interdisciplinary contributions studying the interplay between surface processes, topography and tectonics. Young researchers are particularly encouraged to participate and present their results.
2. Mineralogy, Petrology and Geochemistry
Francesca Piccoli, Julien Allaz, Florence Bégué
Swiss Society of Mineralogy and Petrology
This session is dedicated to research reports in the fields of mineralogy, petrology, and geochemistry that encompass the investigation of rock-forming processes from the nano- to the orogen-scale and beyond. We welcome contributions involving the use of multiple techniques, including but not limited to field-based studies, petrological and geochemical analysis, experimental petrology, geochronology, and thermodynamic modelling. We particular encourage contributions from MSc/PhD students and young scientists who wish to share their ongoing research projects with the scientific community.
3. Stable and radiogenic isotope geochemistry
Nicolas David Greber, Afifé El Korh, Andres Rüggeberg, Johanna Marin-Carbonne
Swiss Society of Mineralogy and Petrology
Progress in sample preparation techniques and mass spectrometry (with e.g. MC-ICP-MS, TIMS, LA-ICP-MS, SIMS) over the past twenty years allows to measure non-traditional stable isotopes (or “metal stable isotopes”; e.g. Li, B, Mg, Ca, Fe, Ge, Ti, V, Cr, Zn, Ba, Mo, Ni, U), traditional stable isotopes (e.g. O, C, S) and radiogenic isotope systems (e.g. Sr, Nd, Hf, Pb) with unprecedented precision and spatial resolution. This significantly enhanced our understanding of the mechanisms that control stable isotope fractionation and it also opened new research avenues for radiogenic and stable isotope systems. We therefore invite contributions that use stable and/or radiogenic isotopes to discuss questions related to surface and deep Earth geochemical processes, including geochemistry of magmatic and metamorphic rocks, sedimentology, cosmochemistry, oceanography, environmental geochemistry and biogeochemistry.
4. Environmental Biogeochemistry of Trace Elements
Montserrat Filella, Marie Marques, Adrien Mestrot, Andreas Voegelin, Lenny Winkel
Trace elements play crucial roles in aquatic and terrestrial environments as growth-limiting nutrients, but also as highly toxic or radioactive compounds. Trace elements derived from both natural and anthropogenic sources may thus critically affect ecosystem functioning and productivity as well as human health.
The environmental fate and impact of trace elements are controlled by their speciation and the intimate coupling of abiotic and biotic transformation processes at different scales, and are closely linked to the biogeochemical cycling of other elements such as Fe, Mn, Ca, P, S, or C.
To advance the state of knowledge on the biogeochemistry of trace elements from the molecular to the global scale, state-of-the-art analytical methods such as hyphenated and isotope techniques, synchrotron-based X-ray spectroscopies, electron microscopies, theoretical (DFT) methods, as well as (bio)geochemical and geostatistical modeling approaches can be used. For this session, we invite contributions concerned with (bio)geochemical processes and their effects on trace element speciation, mobility, bioavailability, toxicity and distribution in natural and engineered environmental systems on different scales.
5. Palaeontology
Allison Daley, Harriet Drage, Christian Klug, Torsten Scheyer
Schweizerische Paläontologische Gesellschaft,
Kommission des Swiss Journal of Palaeontology (KSJP)
This session is dedicated to all subdisciplines of palaeontology in Switzerland and all other countries. Presentations and posters may deal with macro- and microfossils, all major clades including prokaryotes, eucaryotes, metazoans, plants etc. Preferred topics are evolution, biostratigraphy, palaeobiogeography, palaeoecology including palaeoclimate, bio-events, evo-devo, but results from other fields may be presented as well. Fossils provide essential data to document the history of life and evolution; index fossils provide important data for stratigraphic correlations; recently, fossils (especially of plants) have been widely used in research on palaeoclimate. Session language is English. At the end of the session, a young palaeontologist is awarded the palaeo-prize by the KSJP.
6. Stratigraphy and Sedimentology: processes and deposits through time
Alain Morard, Sébastien Castelltort, Ursula Menkveld-Gfeller, Reto Burkhalter, Oliver Kempf
Swiss Committee for Stratigraphy (SKS/CSS)
Swiss Palaeontological Society (SPG/SPS)
Swiss Geological Survey – swisstopo
This session is dedicated to the presentation and discussion of new results from studies on external processes and deposits in a time perspective. Talks and posters on specific regional stratigraphic and sedimentological questions, on broader scale correlations and reconstitutions (e.g. paleoclimate), as well as on new methodological developments, are most welcome.
7. Seismic Hazard and Risk in Switzerland: From Science to Mitigation
Donat Fäh, Blaise Duvernay, Savvas Saloustros
Earthquake risk mitigation in Switzerland started more than 20 years ago. Since then, several important steps have been taken towards a more systematic implementation of preventive and preparation measures. Scientific studies from different research fields formed the base for decision-making in this continuous process. On-going research includes the estimation and consequences of strong ground shaking, the assessment and improvement of engineered structures, as well as studies on potential earthquake-triggered mass movements, liquefaction in alluvial plains and tsunamis in lakes. We invite researchers working in the fields of seismic hazard, engineering, vulnerability and risk to contribute to this session. The session covers all earthquake-related research topics in natural sciences, structural and civil engineering, and social sciences, and aims at bringing together researchers with practitioners, specialists from industry, and decision makers from cantonal and federal offices.
8. Deep geothermal energy, CO2-storage and energy-related exploration of the subsurface.
Christophe Nussbaum, Marie Violay, Daniela van den Heuvel, Benoît Valley
A current worldwide challenge is to develop renewable energy sources while at the same time reducing atmospheric emissions of greenhouse gases. Clever use of deep geological formations can make a significant contribution to this endeavour. This symposium brings together researchers and industry representatives involved in exploration and exploitation of the sub-surface geology for the energy sector, and focusses on: deep geothermal energy, carbon sequestration and other novel applications. Geothermal heat extracted from depth in excess of 400 meters is defined as deep geothermal energy. The heat is extracted by enhanced geothermal system processes or by drilling into aquifers or tectonic faults. Carbon sequestration aims at permanently storing carbon dioxide from industrial or air-capture sources in saline aquifers. Other relevant applications of the subsurface include, but are not limited to, seasonal storage and retrieval of heat or other energy carriers in the subsurface, such as methane, hydrogen or compressed air. Presentations related to any of these topics are kindly invited. This includes field measurements, data analysis and interpretation, instrumentation, laboratory experiments, inversion and modelling studies at all scales, but also work dealing with legal aspects is welcomed.
9. Scientific Drilling Through Time and Space: On Land and Under the Sea
Miriam Andres, Judith McKenzie, Camille Thomas, Helmut Weissert
As geoscientists, we juggle time from a split second to billions of years and space from the atomic level to the vastness of the outer galaxies. Over the last century, geoscientists have come to understand that the physical processes do not happen without the associated chemical processes and most recently have embraced the impact of geobiology on Earth systems. Fifty years ago, topics in geosciences were dominated by the folding and faulting of rocks, un-puzzling the path of tectonic plates over the globe and reconstructing past climates in their wake. And, it is through scientific drilling that we have furthered much of our understanding of the extremes and the continuum over time to shape the large global events.
After more than two years working under difficult circumstances, we look forward to an in-person meeting of the Swiss Geosciences community and, in our session, welcome the multi-facetted work of geoscientists using the drill string as a tool. Despite the challenging conditions from the field to the lab, extraordinary science has been conducted, novel approaches invented and tested, data crunched, and publications published, thesis completed, and drilling proposals have been funded. We encourage abstract submissions from across the entire Swiss drilling community and especially encourage junior scientists to submit abstracts covering their in-progress work.
10. Quaternary environments: landscapes, climate, ecosystems and human activity during the past 2.6 million years
Catharina Dieleman, Loren Eggenschwiler, Bigna Steiner, Marius Buechi, René Löpfe, Marc Luetscher, Stefanie Wirth
Swiss Society for Quaternary Research (CH-QUAT)
During the Quaternary Period, the last 2.6 million years of Earth’s history, changes in environments and climate shaped human evolution. In particular, large-scale features of atmospheric circulation patterns varied significantly due to the dramatic changes in global boundary conditions which accompanied abrupt changes in climate.
Past variations in the geosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere and in climate were archived in Quaternary deposits and provide critical information for the interpretation of present and future environmental changes. Quaternary research focuses on understanding these changes in environmental conditions, and on assessing their impact on landscapes, ecosystems, and human societies.
Within this context, this session brings together scientists from diverse disciplines in Earth Science, Archaeology and Environmental Science. In addition to studies focusing on the reconstruction and impact of past environmental change, we also invite presentations focusing on human expansions and cultural development, and contributions to methodological improvements in climate proxy studies or in methods of age determination. Topics may include all aspects of Quaternary science and we strongly encourage students and young scientists to present the results of their ongoing research.
11. Geomorphology
Caroline Bolliger, Jonathan Bussard, Dorota Czerski, Reynald Delaloye, Isabelle Gärtner-Roer, Christoph Graf, Nikolaus Kuhn, Isabelle Kull, Christophe Lambiel, Géraldine Regolini, Cristian Scapozza, Julie Wee, Andreas Zischg
Swiss Geomorphological Society (SGmS)
The Swiss Geomorphological Society (SGmS) invites people from research and practice to present their recent studies at the 20th edition of the Swiss Geoscience Meeting. Young scientists, both MSc and PhD students, are particularly encouraged to take the opportunity to present their research and to foster relationships with colleagues. We encourage oral presentations and posters that relate to the study of Earth’s surface processes, landforms, materials and the evolution of landscapes.
Landscapes, landforms and processes of the Earth surface affect the patterns of the World’s habitats, the provision and access to environmental services, and the exposure to natural hazards. Scientists and practitioners in geomorphology, often in close collaboration with related disciplines, seek to understand the shaping of the Earth surface and the associated impacts on geosystems and societies. In particular, geomorphology studies questions related to resource management (water, soil, Earth materials), ecological networks (ecosystems, geodiversity, biodiversity), or the security of the territory and human population (hazards, risks, exposure, health, agriculture, forests, changing climate).
Understanding our relationship with the Earth surface is even more relevant in times when planetary boundaries have been reached or crossed. Looking at other planets, geomorphology also contributes to deciphering their past or present habitability.
Therefore, the conveners of this session at the 20th Swiss Geoscience Meeting encourage contributions from all fields of fundamental and applied geomorphology, including studies of past and present processes and their implications for the evolution of Earth’s surface, the influence of global change and how it may influence the Earth’s surface.
12. Soil: Formation, Processes, and Conservation
Tobias Sprafke, Ophélie Sauzet, Klaus Jarosch, Stéphanie Grand, Tatenda Lemann, Madlene Nussbaum
Bodenkundliche Gesellschaft der Schweiz (Swiss Soil Science Society)
Soil is the interface of all geospheres and involves the complex interaction of weathering, geomorphic processes, biological activity and other processes from the micro to the macroscale. It has central functions for geo-ecosystems and biodiversity, water and nutrient cycles, carbon sequestration, and essential human needs (e.g. food production). Furthermore, soil serves as a record of landscape evolution and human-environment interactions. Physical and chemical threats to the pedosphere (e.g. erosion, compaction, contamination) require multifaceted measures for its protection and conservation. This session is dedicated to soils and paleosols; it is therefore interdisciplinary. It unites soil geographers, soil physicists, -chemists, -biologists as well as agronomists and researchers working on sustainable land use. The aim of this session is to provide a platform of exchange related to the different perspectives on the pedosphere. We welcome contributions using field-based methods, laboratory techniques or modelling approaches related to 1) soil formation, classification and distribution, 2) soil processes on different spatiotemporal scales and 3) assessment of soil threats and sustainable soil management.
13. Hydrology and Hydrogeology
Sandra Pool, Peter Molnar, Daniel Hunkeler, Christophe Lienert, Nadav Peleg, Michael Sinreich, Massimiliano Zappa, Sanja Hosi
Swiss Hydrological Commission CHy,
Swiss Society for Hydrology and Limnology SGHL,
Swiss Hydrogeological Society SGH
Hydrological and hydrogeological processes vary greatly across spatial and temporal scales. Understanding, monitoring and modelling the diversity and similarity of these processes is still a significant ongoing challenge for research and water management, in Switzerland and globally.
As part of this year’s Swiss Geoscience Meeting theme on geosystem transitions and resilience, we would like to particularly encourage contributions that explore hydrological and hydrogeological processes under transient conditions: how do processes respond to changes, how do we define tipping points in hydro(geo)logical systems, how (well) can we predict responses, and what are the implications for the environment and society, i.e. for management and policy making?
The Hydrology and Hydrogeology session is expected to share a keynote and its poster session with the Limnology session to foster an integrated perspective of the water resource.
14. Limnology in Switzerland
Damien Bouffard, Michael Döring, Natacha Tofield-Pasche
Swiss Society for Hydrology and Limnology SGHL
We invite limnologists working on different systems and scales to present their research and exchange with peers. With the symposia being held in the city of Lausanne, we particularly welcome contributions that show first results from the LéXPLORE platform installed on Lake Geneva. Young researchers are particularly encouraged to participate and present their results. To foster an integrated view of research around water, the session will share the poster session and a keynote with the “Hydrology and Hydrogeology” session. We encourage all presenters to consider the link of their work to water research in general in their abstract and presentation.
15. Cryospheric Sciences
Matthias Huss, Kathrin Naegeli, Nadine Salzmann, Theo Jenk, Andreas Vieli
Swiss Snow, Ice and Permafrost Society
This session addresses all topics related to the Alpine and polar cryosphere. We expect contributions covering the whole range of Alpine and polar snow, ice and permafrost research. We encourage theoretical, experimental, as well as practical contributions, especially from young researchers. Presentations that address the aspects of dynamics and thermodynamics of snow, ice and permafrost and impacts related to changes in climate and natural hazards are particularly welcomed.
16. Atmospheric Composition and Biosphere-Atmosphere Interactions
Martin Steinbacher, Christof Ammann, Stefan Brönnimann, Mana Gharun, Ulrich Krieger
ACP – Commission on Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
ProClim (SCNAT)
The aim of this session is to provide a platform for research reports related to atmospheric sciences including biosphere–atmosphere exchange and interactions. The session welcomes contributions that focus on relevant aspects of atmospheric, surface, or anthropogenic and ecosystem processes, which either influence atmospheric composition, cloud formation, greenhouse gas budgets and climate or are influenced by them.
Exchange and feedback processes are of key interest, but also reports from field campaigns, laboratory studies and modelling exercises of specific chemical, physical or ecosystem processes are welcome, as well as insights from long-term monitoring and larger research infrastructures.
The session is suited to researchers working in the field of Climate Sciences, Atmospheric Physics and Chemistry, Physical Geography, Meteorology, Ecology and Agricultural Sciences. We especially encourage young scientists to present their master theses or PhD projects, either in the oral or in the accompanying poster session.
17. Climatology
Stefan Brönnimann, Daniela Domeisen, Jörg Franke, Sven Kotlarski, Martine Rebetez
Commission on Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP)
Swiss Commission for Phenology and Seasonality (CPS)
Verband Geographie Schweiz (ASG)
Unprecedented rates of change characterize 21st century climate. Exceptional amplitudes and rates of warming recorded at global, regional and local scales dominate contemporary instrumental records. The context of longer-term climate variability is crucial in order to assess the uniqueness and mechanisms that contribute to the background of natural climate variability.
For the climatology symposium, we invite studies on any part of the climate system including the atmosphere, the ocean, the hydro- and cryosphere. Analyses can address local to global scale. We are looking forward to contributions on observations, proxies and models alike that contribute to a better general understanding of climate processes as well as interactions and impacts in Switzerland and worldwide.
We welcome contributions from master and PhD students as well as senior scientists likewise to foster a lively discussion.
18. Tackling the Climate Crisis: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Climate Change Education and Communication
Moritz Gubler, Petra Bättig-Frey (ZHAW), Christina Colberg (PHTG), Andreas Linsbauer, Matthias Probst,
Despite high levels of public awareness about anthropogenic climate change and increasing pressure on the political sphere, climate action among large parts of the general public still remains relatively low. However, demonstrations with ten thousand of predominantly young participants, the COVID-19 pandemic, or voting results on environmental issues in the recent past may have uncovered new drivers, processes, and forms of individual as well as collective engagement with climate change. So, what are the individual and societal preconditions, factors, and mechanisms that facilitate or prevent action on climate change among different segments of the population? And what are the potentials and limitations for climate change education and communication efforts? Here, various disciplines within the educational, psychological, social and climate sciences, as well as humanities can provide the theoretical and practical instruments to understand public engagement with climate change.
This session aims to provide multiple perspectives into the challenges and opportunities of climate change communication and education. Inviting contributions from a broad range of disciplines (e.g., education, psychology, communication, public understanding of science, humanities, social and natural sciences), this session focuses on the perception, processing, communication, application, learning, and education of climate information and knowledge. Talks or posters may relate to all approaches (e.g., theoretical and practical, quantitative and qualitative), scales (e.g., local, national, global), and age levels (e.g., children, adolescents, adults). We encourage contributions from young scientists (Master- or PhD-projects), while interdisciplinary projects are especially welcomed too.
19. Earth Observation and Remote Sensing
Alex Damm, Dominik Brunner, Othmar Frey, Claudia Röösli, Stefan Wunderle
Swiss Commission on Remote Sensing
We welcome overviews and in-depth presentations on state-of-the-art Earth Observation methods for measuring chemical, biological and physical constituents on land, atmosphere, aquatic systems, as well as the solid Earth. Particular emphasis should be given to recent advances in characterizing state, dynamics and processes in ecosystems and other spheres of the Earth using remote sensing. We also invite contributions on monitoring aspects such as essential variables for climate (ECVs), biodiversity (EBV) and water (EWV) as well as supporting missions and programs from national and international organizations and agencies.
20. Geoscience and Geoinformation – From data acquisition to modelling and visualisation
Nils Oesterling, Massimiliano Cannata, Michael Sinreich, Elmar Brockmann
Swiss Geological Survey
Swiss Geodetic Commission
Swiss Geophysical Commission
Swiss Hydrogeological Society
Digital data acquisition and modelling of geospatial objects and processes are already standard and are still gaining increasingly importance in geosciences. For instance geodetic data capture in combination with digital geological mapping and sensor observations constitute an important basis for various tasks in engineering geology, underground infrastructure, natural hazard prevention and other geoscientific fields. Moreover, open exchange of such data is crucial for efficiently use in fields such as Building information modelling (BIM). Also, climate change and water related topics are based on digital data and its analysis. The analyses of observations and the prediction of unknown data by machine learning approaches is getting increasingly important in recent years.
In this symposium papers related to geospatial applications in all geosciences (geodesy, geophysics, geology, hydrogeology, hydrology, engineering geology, geomorphology, etc.) will be presented. The focus will be on the following topics:
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- Development and application of digital tools for data capture
- Transformation from field data to digital datasets and time series
- Digital geological mapping and geoscientific information systems
- 3D modelling and analysis of temporal variations
- Visualisation of geospatial objects and processes
- Approaches of data science and machine learning for geoscientific tasks
Papers focusing on methodological aspects in geoscience and geoinformation will be discussed – From data acquisition to modelling and visualisation. Contributions related to the topic of the 20th SGM Plenary Session are especially welcome this year.
21. Spatial data science: extracting knowledge from geo-environmental data
Marj Tonini (UNIL), Tom Beucler (UNIL), David Ginsbourger (UNIBE), Fabian Guignard (UNIBE), Amanda Burton (Agroscope), Cédric Métraux (swisstopo).
Swiss Geocomputing Centre
The ever-improving availability of numerical geo-referenced information is a central issue in geosciences which led scientists to search for new tools able to extract knowledge and insights from data. While current methods proved to be helpful for data reduction and analysis, several issues (e.g., information bias and noise, scale and mapping unit, selection of the predictor variables, uncertainty quantification and representation) still need to be addressed. The main objective of this session is to stimulate a dialogue about the different issues we face when performing and developing quantitative methods for mining, analyzing, modeling and visualizing high-dimensional geo-environmental data.
We welcome theoretical advances such as:
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- Innovative techniques of knowledge extraction based on data mining.
- Spatial modeling using data driven approaches (e.g., geostatistics, spatial and temporal statistics, machine learning).
- Pattern recognition and modeling, with a special emphasis on approaches based on Bayesian spatial statistics and computer vision.
We welcome applications covering the wide domain of geo-environmental science including natural and anthropogenic hazards (e.g., floods, landslides, earthquakes, wildfires); soil, water, and air pollution; weather, hydrologic, and climate predictions; interaction between the geosphere and the anthroposphere (e.g., land and soil degradation, urban sprawl, environmental impact of agriculture).
22. Virtual Representation of Forests: Methods and Applications
Arnadi Murtiyoso, Amanda Mathys, Monika Niederhuber, Verena Griess
With the advent of 3D geospatial data and digital reconstruction technologies in recent decades, there is an increased interest for their use in a forestry setting. In this regard, the use of lidar, photogrammetry, mobile mapping and other techniques have generated much interest within the scientific community. The virtual representation of trees and vegetation in both urban and forest environments may present its own challenges e.g., questions pertaining to 3D modelling, level of detail or platforms such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and 3D geographical information systems (GIS). Furthermore, forestry applications of such virtual representations show great potential in complementing traditional inventory measurements and using forecast models to visualize future forest changes.
In this symposium, we invite research reports and findings about virtual forests. Topics may encompass, but are not limited to, 3D sensors, the use of VR, AR, Mixed Reality (MR), and digital twins, as well as state-of-the-art techniques for 3D data processing and analysis such as the use of artificial intelligence and its applications in forestry.
23. Alpine Hazards: Early Detection, Monitoring, Warning, Modelling, Mitigation
Andrea Manconi, Yves Bühler, Elisabeth Hafner, Cristina Pérez-Guillén, Antonio Abellán, Michel Jaboyedoff, Virginia Ruiz-Villanueva, Saskia Gindraux
Climate change is increasingly impacting alpine regions in terms of frequency and severity of hazardous processes, including floods, debris flows, rock falls and rock avalanches, snow avalanches and glacier related hazards (e.g., ice avalanches, GLOFs, etc.).
With the current state of knowledge, it is very challenging to forecast the exact timing, location and dimensions of extreme events, raising important scientific and societal questions in terms of when, where and how the next disaster will occur. While a complete protection of vulnerable assets (settlements, traffic routes, railways, et.) is not feasible both in terms of technical and financial aspects, novel monitoring approaches and sensors are considerably helping us to increase preparedness by accurately documenting events, continuously recording changes, identifying potential “hotspots” at an early stage, modelling their potential evolution in space and time.
The use of different in-situ and remote sensing sensors (or a combination of both) and from different platforms (ground based, drones, aircrafts, satellites, etc.) are increasingly becoming important tools in natural hazard investigation and assessment. Moreover, the surge of computational power and the continuously increasing data volumes opens up the possibility of employing numerical and statistical models to automatically detect and/or simulate alpine hazards. This session encourages contributions showing how such monitoring and modelling approaches can be designed and applied in alpine environments for the investigation, forecasting and mitigation of alpine hazards. Contributions on new sensors, innovative methodologies, and on the implementation of multidisciplinary approaches are highly encouraged. The conveners of this session will not only be interested in discussing “best-case scenarios”, but also in showcasing problems and lessons learnt from failing approaches.
24. Human Geographies: Materials, Natures, Politics
Swiss Association for Geography (ASG).
Global environmental change reveals the complexity of human-environment relations at and across different scales. Against this background, human geographers have come to analyze the manifold ways in which human life is entangled with its material environment. This symposium brings together three panels that address human geography debates around materials, natures, and politics from different methodological, epistemological and ontological angles. We welcome proposals for panels that engage theoretically-inspired and/or empirically-grounded research on themes such as (but not limited to) the following:
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- Extraction, resources and waste
- Security, risks and hazards
- Environmental governance and politics
- Environmental histories and futures
- Anthropocene and Earth system politics
- Critical political ecology and critical physical geography
- Political geology and political ontology
- Geoscience and sustainability
- Decolonial ecologies and geoscience
- Environmental humanities
- Etc.
Please submit your panel proposal (200-400 words) for a panel to Rony Emmenegger (rony.emmenegger@unibas.ch) by 31 Mai 2022 (12pm).
25. Human Geographies: Bodies, Cultures, Societies
Nora Komposch, Devran Koray Öcal
Swiss Association for Geography (ASG)
The symposium allows timely and innovative research across critical social and cultural geographies. We invite empirically grounded contributions and/or theoretical and methodological interventions from junior, advanced, and established researchers. Panel sessions might include –but are not limited to– the following topics:
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- Bodies, protest and space claiming from an intersectional perspective.
- Bodies, protests, and space-claiming from an intersectional perspective.
- Feminist geopolitics of the global intimate.
- Migration and refugee justice.
- Making, crossing, and unsettling borders
- Spaces of home, family, and community.
- Geographies of care and labor.
- Critical cartography and the social uses of geographical information.
- Participatory/decolonizing methodologies.
- Feminist digital human geographies.
- The environmental crisis, climate justice, and feminist political ecology.
We welcome all your other suggestions!
If you are interested in organizing a session within this symposium, please send an abstract of 250 words to Devran Koray Öcal (devran.ocal@giub.unibe.ch) and Nora Komposch (nora.komposch@giub.unibe.ch) by 31 May 2022. Individual session calls will be announced later. But if you are interested in presenting a paper, you are welcome to contact the symposium organizers to register your initial interest.
26. Human Geographies: Cities, Regions, Economies
Sven Daniel Wolfe, Julio Paulos
Swiss Association for Geography (ASG).
This symposium is devoted to research that involves or interrogates the urban. Over three panel sessions, we invite contributions from urban, economic, and/or political geographers at any career stage. We welcome empirical, theoretical, or methodological interventions covering (but not limited to) urbanizations, gentrifications, mobilities, neoliberalisms, contestations, exclusions, borderings, East/South/North comparative work, etc.
If you are interested in organizing a session within this symposium, please send an abstract of 300 words to Sven Daniel Wolfe (svendaniel.wolfe@unil.ch) and Julio Paulos (julio.paulos@unil.ch) by 31 May 2022. As usual, those interested in presenting a paper should please wait for the individual session calls, but do feel free to get in touch with the symposium organizers to register your initial interest.
27. Global change and sustainability issues in mountain areas
Carolina Adler, Jörg Balsiger, Raffaella Balzarini, Philippe Bourdeau, Mélanie Clivaz, Iago Otero, Emmanuel Reynard*
* correspondence: emmanuel.reynard@unil.ch
The United Nations designated 2022 as the International Year of Sustainable Mountain Development. Despite the efforts made in promoting the sustainable development of mountain regions and the conservation of mountain ecosystems, poverty, food insecurity, social exclusion, limited access to basic services (drinking water, sanitation, energy), environmental degradation and exposure to natural hazards are still increasing. Governments, international organizations and stakeholders are invited to increase awareness on these challenges.
The symposium welcomes in particular abstracts on the following (not limited) topics:
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- How can mountain researchers respond to the demand for systematic findings and monitoring to substantiate assessments (IPCC, IPBES) and conventions (SDGs, Paris Agreement, CBD post-2020 framework, etc.)?
- How can researchers monitor and support the transformation to more sustainable socioeconomic models in mountain regions (tourism, agriculture, energy supply, etc.)?
- Which strategies should be developed to address challenges linked to climate change and ecosystem degradation in mountains?
- How can inter- and transdisciplinary research address challenges for sustainable mountain development?
- How can citizen science and participatory processes help improving sustainable development in mountain regions?
A potential outcome of the symposium is to consolidate key discussion points and reflections on possible research priorities and/or contributions that the Swiss and international geosciences community would like to propose in support of the goals of the Year and the planned strategy roadmap that will follow.