Welcome to UGEC

Today, more than half of the world's population lives in cities. It is clear that the development of urban areas holds the key to many of the challenges we face in our interactions with the environment. The International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP) exhibiting its increased focus on urban areas initiated recently the Urbanization and Global Environmental Change core project.

This IHDP core project seeks to provide a better understanding of the interactions and feedbacks between global environmental change and urbanization at the local, regional, and global scales through an innovative conceptual and methodological framework. To capture the benefits of urbanization and mitigate as well as adapt to negative environmental and socioeconomic impacts, a stronger collaboration between academics, political decision-makers and practitioners is encouraged. As urbanization represents a critical topic of special policy relevance in today's world, the UGEC core project represents an unrivalled opportunity for addressing critical issues of worldwide importance that have not received adequate attention so far.

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International Conference on Urbanization and Global Environmental Change: Opportunities and Challenges for Sustainability in an Urbanizing World

The Call for Abstracts is Now Open

This conference is an international effort to bring together scientists, practitioners, policy makers, and stakeholders to understand the multi-faceted interactions between urban areas and global environmental change. The conference seeks to build a forum for reflection, exchange of knowledge, experiences, lessons, ideas, and information, contributing to the creation of efficient strategies for urban sustainability. The structure and approach of the conference is specifically designed to foster dialogue among participants. Oral presentations and posters are encouraged to discuss the knowledge and lessons learned from research projects and practices.

The UGEC conference will work back to back with the Global Land Project (GLP) Open Science Meeting. GLP is a joint research project for land systems for the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) and the International Human Dimensions Programme (IHDP).

Please visit www.UGEC2010.org for more details about the conference and to submit your abstract.

UGEC News

Sustainability Lecturer Position open at Arizona State University

The School of Sustainability at Arizona State University - Tempe, AZ, USA invites applications for a Lecturer position to support the growth of an innovative interdisciplinary undergraduate major in sustainability.

Applicants must be committed to building a program in sustainability. The successful candidate will be responsible for teaching four courses per semester, including sections of SOS 110 (Sustainable World) and SOS 111 (Sustainable Cities), as well as involvement in the internship program, and teaching 300-level core courses relevant to their training. The initial close date is February 14, 2010. Full details of the position and the application process can be viewed here - Download pdf.

First International Conference on Sustainable Urbanization - Call for Abstracts

The Faculty of Construction and Land Use (FCLU) of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) will hold the First International Conference on Sustainable Urbanization (ICSU) from December 15-17, 2010 in Hong Kong. This conference series will provide an international forum for the international scientific/engineering community to examine the challenges and potential solutions for ensuring a sustainable process of urbanization and sustainable operation and management of urbanized areas.

Papers relating to all aspects of sustainable development, operation and management of urban areas are invited and papers directly addressing issues created by urbanization are particularly welcome. The deadline to submit is March 01, 2010. More details about the conference and call for abstracts is available here.

PERN proceedings now available to download

The Population-Environment Research Network (PERN) is pleased to announce the release of the proceedings of its workshop on urban population-development-environment (PDE) dynamics, held in Nairobi Kenya in June 2007 and co-organized with CICRED, APHRC, and CIESIN. The papers include case studies of specific cities as well as some more theoretical contributions on issues such as urban sprawl. To download the papers, please click here.

Another UGEC associate contributes to Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability

Dr. Roberto Sanchez-Rodriguez, UGEC SSC co-chair and Professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences, University of California, Riverside has just recently published in the journal’s second issue an article on the recent approaches to adaptation to climate change in urban areas. This follows Dr. Seto and Dr. J. Marshall Shepherd’s piece on urban land use and the influence on climate which was published in the inaugural issue (see below). Click here to read to the full article, "Learning to Adapt to Climate Change in Urban Areas. A Review of Recent Contributions".

21. European Conference on Modern South Asian Studies Call for Papers

The European Conference on Modern South Asian Studies (ECMSAS) has been an important platform and indicator of contemporary trends in South Asian studies worldwide. The 21. ECMSAS will take place between July 26-29, 2010 at the University of Bonn in Bonn, Germany and will host 44 panels, covering a broad range of research subjects.

Scholars and students from any field of research related to the South Asian region are invited to participate. Anyone interested to present her or his research to an academic public should please click the "Panels" button on the left of the homepage (link is above) to find out where your specialization might fit into. Young researchers are particularly invited to join the conference and present their findings to the academic public.

UGEC members Benjamin Etzold and Markus Keck are the conveners for Panel 39 "Megacities in South Asia as Arenas of Risks and Resilience". Carsten Butsch, Dr. Saravanan V.S., and Patrick Sakdapolrak will be leading Panel 38 "Human Health in Urban and Peri-Urban South Asia". Abstracts for these panels and all others will be accepted through December 01, 2009.

"Urbanization: A Critical Human Dimension of Global Environmental Change"

The second issue of UGEC Viewpoints is now available here online. The issue highlights the social challenges that face urban areas in light of global environmental change and was inspired by the variety of sessions dedicated to the urban theme at the recent IHDP Open Meeting held in Bonn, Germany April 26-30. UGEC is not only happy to see that the human dimension is now at the forefront of global environmental change research, but that there is also a growing interest in urban areas. The articles in the issue represent some of the UGEC related research presented at the Open Meeting, offering a variety of case studies with wide thematic and geographic coverage. We hope you enjoy the read!

Dr. Shepherd and Dr. Seto in contributing to the inaugural issue of Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability – Dr.

Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability is a new journal advanced by the Earth System Science Partnership (ESSP); a tangible output of their strategy to coordinate and make more accessible global environmental change research. This review and synthesis journal integrates environmental sustainability research across disciplines including, climate science, human settlements and habitats, energy use and energy systems, terrestrial systems, ecosystems, carbon and nitrogen cycles, and marine and freshwater systems.

UGEC project associate Dr. J. Marshall Shepherd, Associate Professor in the University of Georgia’s Department of Geography and Atmospheric Sciences and UGEC SSC co-chair Dr. Karen Seto, Associate Professor of the Urban Environment in the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies were asked to contribute a piece on urban land use and the influence on climate for the inaugural issue. Click on the link here to read their newly published article, “Global Urban Land-Use Trends and Climate Impacts”.

International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development Call for Papers

The International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development aims to provide a forum for cutting edge research and rigorous debate for in-depth and holistic understanding of the complex inter-related environmental, social, economic, political, spatial, institutional and physical challenges facing urban areas.

The journal is fully peer reviewed and publishes original research and review papers. It also includes important think pieces and position papers by prominent scholars and practitioners in the broader field of urban sustainable development. It has a global reach covering cities and towns of different sizes, cultures and economies in the North and the South. It strives to bring together views and experience from industrially developed, developing and transition countries for mutual learning. Authors from developing and transition economies are particularly encouraged to submit papers. Please send your submissions to the editor Ramin Keivani: rkeivani@brookes.ac.uk. Learn more here.

UGEC SSC member David Simon chairs UN-HABITAT's Cities and Climate Change Initiative (CCCI) conference

"Professor David Simon, Head of the Department of Geography at Royal Holloway, University of London, chaired the launch conference of the UN-HABITAT’s Cities and Climate Change Initiative (CCCI) in Oslo on 17 March.


Image Source: Royal Holloway, University of London

The event, held at the Felix Conference Centre and supported by the Norwegian government, also saw Professor Simon make a concluding presentation in the plenary strategic session."

For more information click here

UGEC SSC Co-chair Karen C. Seto named Leopold Leadership Fellow

Congratulations Karen!

"Nineteen environmental researchers from across North America have been awarded Leopold Leadership Fellowships for 2009.

Based at Stanford University's Woods Institute for the Environment, the Leopold Leadership Program was founded in 1998 to help academic scientists communicate scientific information more effectively to journalists, policymakers, business leaders and the public. Each year the program selects as many as 20 mid-career academic environmental scientists as fellows."

For more information click here

Other news

UGEC Online Bibliographic Database

If you would like to try out our new online bibliographic database please log in and click the UGEC BiblioDB tab under the MEMBERS category on the left menu bar. The database is a consistently updated from various sources for articles and books on Urbanization and Global Environmental Change.

If you don't see your article or articles you think are important to our theme, feel free to email us and we will add them to the database.

UGEC weblog

Starting in June of 2008, our new mechanism for news distribution is the UGEC weblog. Below you can find the most recent entries in the blog. Clicking on a post title will get you the the main text of the post:

• IHDP OM '09 - UGEC Session: Linking Ecology and Environmental Justice in Urban A (Tue, 13 Jan 2009 23:29:27 +0100)
• New UGEC e-Newsletter (#10) (Fri, 09 Jan 2009 03:24:11 +0100)
• CfP: GECHS Synthesis Conference (Fri, 09 Jan 2009 01:19:10 +0100)
• Job Posting: Science Communicator for the International Geosphere-Biosphere Prog (Fri, 09 Jan 2009 01:13:24 +0100)
• Seventh International Conference on Urban Climate (ICUC-7) - Call for Abstracts (Fri, 09 Jan 2009 00:59:09 +0100)
• Job Opening: UC Santa Cruz - Political Economy of Envt. Change (Thu, 14 Aug 2008 23:40:07 +0100)
• AdaptNet - July 8 (Tue, 08 Jul 2008 18:02:27 +0100)
• Call for papers: Population and Climate Change (Tue, 01 Jul 2008 21:54:09 +0100)
• New UGEC e-Newsletter (#8) (Tue, 24 Jun 2008 22:05:36 +0100)
• Faculty Position in Geography, Nanyang Tech. University, Singapore (Tue, 24 Jun 2008 22:01:05 +0100)

The RSS feed can be found here

News from the Press

What follows is a short selection of news streaming out of popular media sources on the topic of Urbanization and Global Environmental Change...

• Emerging Markets Growth and the Resources Boom - Frank Holmes - Seeking Alpha (blog) (Tue, 09 Feb 2010 08:48:48 GMT+00:00)
• Rapid city growth threat to Africa's development: UN - Reuters South Africa (Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:45:51 GMT+00:00)
• Water demand threatens Bahrain's future - Trade Arabia (Tue, 09 Feb 2010 06:33:16 GMT+00:00)
• Ecological damage may be probed - Gulf Daily News (Mon, 08 Feb 2010 12:03:03 GMT+00:00)
• China is increasingly important - Moneyweb (blog) (Mon, 08 Feb 2010 22:32:21 GMT+00:00)

• Palin likens global warming studies to 'snake oil' - San Jose Mercury News (Tue, 09 Feb 2010 04:52:31 GMT+00:00)
• New federal office for global warming - Washington Times (Tue, 09 Feb 2010 05:00:28 GMT+00:00)
• Climate stance criticized - 2TheAdvocate (Tue, 09 Feb 2010 06:18:19 GMT+00:00)

• Haitian earthquake seems to have had little impact on country's ecosystem - Washington Post (Mon, 08 Feb 2010 23:46:46 GMT+00:00)
• NZ Scientists To Gather Information For Disaster Preparedness In The Pacific - Voxy (Tue, 09 Feb 2010 02:18:46 GMT+00:00)
• Rescuers comb Conn. blast site - istockAnalyst.com (press release) (Tue, 09 Feb 2010 01:53:45 GMT+00:00)
• University of Hawaii to open natural-disaster training center - Honolulu Advertiser (Sun, 07 Feb 2010 12:05:49 GMT+00:00)
• Jakarta`s stray cat population potential health hazard - ANTARA (Mon, 08 Feb 2010 12:19:43 GMT+00:00)