Conference of Irish Geographers 2009

06 February 2009, 9:42am

The Geography Department of University College Cork are hosting the Conference of Irish Geographers 2009.

There are sessions dedicated to physical geography and earth environments, rural transformation, food, governance and planning, historical geography, migration and landscape and society and more. Below is the call for papers for the Physical Geography and Earth Environments session.

Conference of Irish Geographers 2009 - Prospect and Retrospect

Call for Papers - Physical geography and earth environments

Many scientists now agree there is unequivocal evidence of climate change as a result of anthropogenic influences on the physical environment. With a population of almost seven billion and growing, humans have claimed enormous demand over the finite resources of space and raw materials shared with countless other species. The effects of emissions, agriculture, pollutants and fuel combustion on the atmosphere are not directly evident to the majority, but detrimentally affect the entire planet. The most glaring of influences can be seen in the physical environment, with very few areas left undisturbed. Settlement and urbanisation, industry, farming, mining, power generation and associated infrastructures alter the earth’s morphology and associated hydrological and geomorphological processes. Some environments have been distorted beyond repair and countless habitats destroyed.

Nowhere is this more evident than on the coast and surrounding areas where 1.2 X 109 people live within 100km of the shoreline. This is nearly three times higher than the average global density [1]. The natural behaviour of coastal environments to shift, expand or contract to maintain its morphology amidst the variety of scale changes from daily fluctuations of tides, currents and waves to annual storms to decadal/century-scale sea level variations and beyond has been hampered. The result of this impediment is becoming all the more apparent as sea levels rise and storm intensities increase. Anthropogenic pressures in the surrounding catchment areas create additional landward strain and coastal squeeze. Unfortunately it is not possible to wipe the earth clean and start again so human adaptation, habitat preservation and restoration measures are necessary!

Geographers have made considerable progress in understanding the complexities of natural and artificially derived geomorphic changes in recent decades supported by advances in monitoring equipment, engineering, geographical information systems, satellite imagery and numerical modelling. This session invites researchers in the field of physical geography to discuss their work on environmental change in coastal, catchment or upland regions.

Please submit a title and 300 word abstract of your paper by March 16th 2009 to Katherine Cronin (katherine.cronin@ucc.ie)

[1] Small, C. & Nicholls, R.J., 2003. A global analysis of human settlement in coastal zones. Journal of Coastal Research, 19, 3, 584-599

Conference of Irish Geographers 2009

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