As part of their sunset process, the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) is co-sponsoring over 60 scientific sessions at the AGU Fall Meeting this December in San Francisco. Some of these sessions may be of particular interest to the urban research community. Please consider submitting an abstract for one of these fascinating sessions!
Deadline is August 5th!
Emerging Perspectives on Land in a Changing World
Description: Earth’s land surface embodies the dynamic interplay of the physical, social and economic processes that constitute global change. For example, deforestation, agriculture and urbanisation all modify the climate, ecosystems and biogeochemical cycles. Such changes, in turn, affect land and the societies that rely on it. Because land is shaped today largely by human activities, it has become an important site of policies aimed at achieving sustainability. Consequently, land is also the site of conflicts and competing claims: land grabs and the competition between crops for food and biofuels are but two manifestations.
This session aims to bring together a diverse group of natural and social scientists to explore emerging perspectives on land. We welcome contributions on topics including but not limited to: 1) drivers, trajectories and implications of historic and future land-use change; 2) trade and teleconnections; 3) novel land-use practices for responding to rapid global change; 4) land-atmosphere-hydrosphere interactions.
Science and the Sustainable Development Goals
Description: In September this year the United Nations will formally launch its post-2015 development agenda in the form of Sustainable Development Goals. By being universally applicable and focusing on such diverse aspects as climate, food, water, health, urbanization and inequality, the goals seek to address development from a holistic perspective. In that respect they embody recent thinking about the interconnected nature of modern problems. At the same time, the sheer number of goals and targets (17 and 169 respectively) will make their implementation challenging. The scientific community can and should play an important role to provide integrated knowledge and innovative solutions for transformation towards sustainability across local, national and global scales.
This session invites contributions that explore how the goals can be effectively implemented by combining monitoring, evaluation and assessment. Contributions that focus on integrative science, the tensions between local and global priorities, and perspectives of developing nations are welcome.
The Interface of Disaster Management and Adaptation
Description: Hydro-meteorological and geophysical extreme events such as floods, tropical cyclones, drought, wild fires, heat waves, volcanoes eruptions, earthquakes and tsunamis form some of the most potent threats to human development. Such events often act in concert with socio-economic factors to trigger disasters that substantially reverse development, especially in the most vulnerable regions. This is the case despite the technological advancement achieved globally to build knowledge and awareness on the nature of extreme events and adaptation strategies. This session will assess the degree to which disaster risk reduction is accommodated by the current development frameworks. It will explore how contemporary policies on disaster management can benefit from effective integration of knowledge from different sources, technologies and experiences – including indigenous knowledge systems. The session will explore the interface between disaster management in all its phases and adaptation to long-term climate change, and the potential for synergies, trade-offs and maladaptation.
Description: Today, ~54% of the world’s population lives in cities, a proportion that is expected to increase to ~66% by 2050. Cities represent the dominant source of human CO2 emissions, roughly 70%. This is nearly triple the available net terrestrial or oceanic carbon sinks. Thus, cities need tools to better understand how to reduce their emissions and improve their resiliency and adaptation approaches to a changing climate and related extreme events. This session is designed to help researchers share information about their climate-related urban projects, including how the project was scoped with stakeholders, lessons-learned and best practices, information and tools used and what they wished they had, and further research recommendations. From this session, we hope to identify common sets of information, tools, and principles that could help researchers and cities deal with these climate-related issues and help identify scientific investments still needed to improve these efforts.
