IGU Commission
Diversity in
Mountain Systems
Chairman:
Prof. Dr. Jörg Stadelbauer
Dept. of Cultural Geography
University of Freiburg
D-79085 Freiburg
Fax: +49 761 203 3575
e-mail:
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Newsletter 11 / June 2006
1 Editorial
Dear Colleagues,
I am really pleased to send you the newest edition of the Newsletter. Welcome to everyone who conducts research on mountains and wants to become member of our commission! Please send me an e-mail so that I can include you into the list of members. Of course, membership should not be written only on a paper: Please feel motivated to conduct mountain research, to inform other members about it and to participate in the activities and meetings of the Commission! This is said especially to those who are member of national specialty groups on (high-)mountain research.
Members of the Steering Committee 2004 – 2008 of our commission are:
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Professor Dr. Jörg Stadelbauer (chair) (Germany)
University of Freiburg
Department of Cultural Geography
D-79085 Freiburg
E-mail:
PD Dr. Jörg Löffler (Secretary) (Germany)
University of Bonn
Department of Geography
Meckenheimer Allee 166
D-53115 Bonn
E-mail:
Prof. Dr. Yuri Badenkov (Russia)
Institut Geografii Rossijskoy Akademii Nauk
Staromonetnyy pereulok, 29
Moskva
E-mail:
Prof. Dr. Monique Fort
UFR GHSS, Case 7001
Centre de Géographie Physique
Université Paris 7 – Denis Diderot
2 Place Jussieu
F-75 251 Paris Cedex 05
E-mail:
Prof. Donald A. Friend, Ph.D. (USA)
Department of Geography
Minnesota State University
Armstrong Hall 7
Mankato, MN 56001
E-mail:
Professor Dr. Hans Hurni (Switzerland)
Department of Geography
University of Berne
Hallerstrasse 12
CH-3012 Bern
E-mail:
Professor Dr. Martin Price (UK)
Director, Centre for Mountain Studies
Perth College
UHI Millennium Institute
Crieff Road
Perth PH1 2NX, UK
Tel: +44 (0) 1738-877217
Fax: +44 (0) 1738-877018
URL: http://www.cms.uhi.ac.uk
E-mail:
Ass. Prof. Fausto Sarmiento, Ph.D.
The University of Georgia
Office of International Education
Phone: +706 583 0477
Fax: +706 542 7102
E-mail: fsarmien@ uga.edu
URL: http://www.uga.edu/oie/sarmiento/htm
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The Commission continues to register all interested scholars in an e-mailing list. Please, feel free to contact us if you wish to get our newsletter which is mainly based on informations from the internet. We also suggest to contact the Mountain Forum, unless you already did before.
Please also visit our website: http://www.geographie.uni-freiburg.de/ikg/igu-mountain/
There, you will find all Newsletters edited by the IGU Commission “Diversity of Mountain Systems” since 2000.
Sorry, there has been some confusion in counting the Newsletter … The correct enumeration should be
2001: Newsletter #1, Dec.
2002: Newsletter #2, June, #3 Dec.
2003: Newsletter #4, March, #5 Nov.
2004: Newsletter #6, July, #7 Dec.
2005: Newsletter #8, July, #9 Sept., #10 Dec.
2006: Newsletter #11, June
2 Main event forthcoming: The International Geographical Union: Regional Conference 2006, Brisbane / Australia
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As announced in the last issue of the Newsletter, the next regional conference of the IGU will take place at Brisbane, Australia, 3-7.7.2006. There will be one session of our Commission on Tuesday. We are inviting all mountain geographers to participate in the Regional Conference.
The IGU 2006 Brisbane Conference will focus on regional responses in a changing world with emphasis on equatorial and tropical zones, particularly in south-east Asia and the south-west Pacific.
Key symposia will include:
· local and regional impact of resource exploitation and community responses
· mobilisation of regional capabilities to sustain and enhance social, cultural and environmental values
· constructive responses to natural disasters, climatic change and other global-scale processes.
Analysis of contemporary development issues will be a key theme, including the role of indigenous/non-indigenous co-management of resources. The Conference enables a timely audit and review of these issues and an opportunity for agenda-setting research discussion. These necessarily involve debate over the cross-national engagements geographers seek to nurture and over the policy and political outcomes of geographers' work.
3 Awards, extraordinary events
On June 5, 2006, Professor Jack Ives, honorary member of the IGU Commission “Diversity in Mountain Systems”, received the Patron's Medal of the Royal Geographical Society approved by Her Majesty the Queen. - Congratulations!
4 Conferences, Workshops in the future...
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A regular service on forthcoming conferences and workshops is provided by the Mountain Forum. Please contact the website: http://www.mtnforum.org/calendar/calendar.htm
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4.1 Mountain to Mountain Cooperation between the Andes and Himalaya
Mountain Partnership e-consultation on 'Mountain to Mountain Cooperation: Sustainable Use of Biodiversity, including Genetic Resources in the Andes and Himalaya’ has begun. Running from 12-30 June, the e-consultation aims to generate a valuable exchange of ideas, experiences and lessons learnt in the management of two critical mountain regions of the world, and help to strengthen existing alliances to conserve and manage biodiversity now and in the future. This e-consultation between the Andes and Himalaya in fact builds on the various on-going activities of Mountain Partnership members to learn from other models of development and to enhance dialogue and engage in a process of mutual exchange of experiences between the world’s mountain regions, including the Andes,Carpathians, Balkans, Caucasus, European Alps and the Hindu-Kush Himalaya. It is also in line with the recently adopted work programme on mountain biodiversity of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which aims to establish ‘regional and transboundary collaboration and the establishment of cooperative agreements’ and also recommends strengthening collaboration with the Mountain Partnership and regional conventions on mountains. The Mountain Partnership -- a voluntary alliance of diverse stakeholders from five continents -- is indeed a valuable framework in which to focus and define our joint efforts, and the Secretariat looks forward to a rich and constructive debate over the coming weeks.
The e-consultation is being managed by the Mountain Forum Secretariat, in association with the Mountain Partnership Secretariat, the Himal-Andes Initiative, the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), the Asia-Pacific Mountain Network (the Asia-Pacific regional node of the Mountain Forum) and InfoAndina (the Latin American regional node of the Mountain Forum).
4.2 International, interdisciplinary seminar on social fragility
June 16-18, 2006, at the American University in Bulgaria, in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria
Organized by The Social Capital Foundation
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
1. Definitions of social fragility,
2. Components and factors of fragility and precariousness in our societies,
3. Assessment of social fragility. Is social fragility on the rise?
4. Mutations in community links, family links and social networks,
5. Moral values and social cohesion,
6. Mental and physiological public health issues,
7. Economic precariousness and social bond,
8. Ethnic and cultural contradictions,
9. Mechanisms of the emergence of new major risks.
Additionally, the THRACE project (Targeting Human Research for Anchoring Cooperative Evolutions in Europe) supported by The Social Capital Foundation will be presented at the seminar. It is an investigation on how to use social capital to favour transborder cooperation in the border regions of Europe, and to elaborate appropriate tools for doing so.
For more information please go to http://www.socialcapital-foundation.org/conferences/synopsis.htm
The Social Capital Foundation Head Office: Ave. Eugene Castaigne 16 B - 1310 La Hulpe Tel: + 32-2-654.10.86 Fax: + 32-2-654.10.86
Website: http://www.socialcapital-foundation.org
4.3 12th Conference on Mountain Meteorology
28 August–1 September 2006, Santa Fe, New Mexico
The 12th Conference on Mountain Meteorology, sponsored by the American Meteorological Society, endorsed by the European Meteorological Society (EMS), and organized by the AMS Committee on Mountain Meteorology, will be held 28 August–1 September 2006 at the historic La Fonda Hotel in Santa Fe, New Mexico. ** The Mountain Meteorology Conference provides a forum for discussing the influence of the mountains on the atmosphere on a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. Authors are invited to submit theoretical, observational and modeling papers in all areas of mountain meteorology, including forecasting mountain weather, the role of mountains in climate and climate change, orographic clouds and precipitation, orographically induced convection, lee cyclogenesis, mountain waves and wakes, terrain-induced rotors, gap and foehn winds, topographically trapped disturbances, boundary layers in complex terrain, air quality and dispersion in mountainous regions. Papers that foster interdisciplinary links with other areas of the geosciences are particularly encouraged, as well as presentations related to MAP (the Mesoscale Alpine Programme).
An enhanced online collection of conference proceedings will be posted on the AMS website. This will consist of two parts: extended abstracts submitted prior to the meeting and the author's powerpoint, plus recorded audio and mouse movements, as presented at the conference itself. Authors of accepted papers will have the opportunity to contribute to either or both parts of this collection for a single fee of $65. Extended abstracts must be uploaded in pdf format by 21 July 2006 (instructions will be posted to the AMS Web page at http://www.ametsoc.org/meet/meetinfo.html in mid-May). No hardcopy preprints or CD-ROM will be distributed at the conference.
4.4 2nd International Congress “ ‘Water in Mountains’. Integrated Management of High Watersheds.”
Megève, France, 20-22 September 2006
The International Congress “ ‘Water in Mountains’ - Integrated Management of High Watersheds” aims to provide support to mountain areas in implementing integrated sustainable water resources management (IWRM) policies, notably through the exchange of current experiences, actions and policies, and input on updated knowledge and research outcomes. The ‘Water in Mountains’ Congress will deal particularly with the following main areas of focus: i) water-related habitats (including forests, grasslands, and wetlands); ii) governance, stakeholders, approaches and measures (including participation, involvement, co-management, responsibilities, benefits, valuations, payments for ecosystem services, contracts); and iii) uses and conflicts (including hydroelectricity, agriculture, forestry, fisheries, tourism and sporting). The Congress is being co-organized by local groups and administrations, the International Office for Water, the European Observatory of Mountain Forests (EOMF), a Mountain Partnership member, and the UNESCO-IHP HELP Programme.
In coming weeks, the Mountain Partnership Secretariat and EOMF will open up an area on Discussion on-line to help prepare for the ‘Water in Mountains’ Congress. This informal discussion area will allow people who will not be able to attend the Congress (and as well those who will) to contribute to the overall objective and, more specifically, tackle the Congress’ focus areas, through sharing local or national concrete experiences, case studies, measures and mechanisms, and identifying replicable winning solutions to reinforce and empower mountain people and regions in water and watershed policies. Further information on the discussion area and the Congress itself will be forwarded to members as details become available over the following weeks. In the meantime, visit the official Web site of the ‘Water in Mountains’ Congress.
4.5 International and Interdisciplinary Workshop: "Adaptation to the Impacts of Climatic Change in the European Alps"
Hotel Regina, Wengen, Switzerland, October 4-6, 2006
Co-organized by:
Shardul Agrawala, OECD, Paris, France;
Martin Beniston, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
http://www.unifr.ch/geosciences/geographie/EVENTS/Wengen/06/Wengen2006.html
OR http://tinyurl.com/zvvrl
4.6 Alpine*Snow*Workshop
Munich (Germany), October 5-6, 2006.
This is the first call for papers. Latest deadline for abstract submission and registration is June 30, 2006. Both oral and poster presentations will be welcome. The contributions will be published as conference proceedings in the series of the National Park research reports.
The workshop is organized by the Section Geography of the Faculty of Geosciences, University of Munich, and supported by the Berchtesgaden National Park administration (both Germany). The aim of the meeting is to bring together the snow research community for the exchange of ideas, experiences and visions. Meeting language is English. There are no registration fees.
Further details including workshop topics, milestones, the program and the venue can be found at http://www.alpinesnowworkshop.org/.
Dr. Ulrich Strasser
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Munich
Luisenstr. 37
D-80333 München
Germany
Tel. +49-89-2180-6682
Fax +49-89-2180-6675
Cell. +49-171-1954587
E-Mail:
Internet: http://www.geographie.uni-muenchen.de/strasser.htm
Internet: http://www.glowa-danube.de
4.7 Symposium on mountain hazards as they relate to mountain tourism.
November 4-5, 2006, Hotel de l'Annapurna, Durbar Marg, Kathmandu, Nepal.
Prior to the conference, Mountain Legacy will lead a tea-house trek to Tsho Rolpa, a moraine-dammed glacial lake that has been the subject of panic and controversy for fifteen years.
Full information available online at
http://www.rolwalingconference.com
Registration Fee: $45. Early registration discounted fee: $30 (until July 15). Includes lunch and dinner on Nov. 4, and lunch on Nov. 5. A limited number of registration fee subsidies will be available. There will be no subsidies of travel or other expenses. Register online at www.rolwalingconference.com.
Who should participate: Tourism planners and professionals; researchers; anyone with an interest in Rolwaling Valley, tourism development, mountain studies. Proposals for papers, displays, or other presentations on pertinent topics are welcome.
Agenda: The larger purpose of the event is to scrutinize the state of our understanding and ability to forecast large-scale natural hazards in remote mountainous destinations and to develop strategies for the mitigation of these hazards that will take into account the losses and disruption incurred by inaccurate predictions.
A specific area of major attention will be the hazard of glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs), and, as a geographic example, Rolwaling Valley, Nepal. However, the scope of the conference is global and not limited to any particular hazard.
We anticipante presentations on:
* Tsho Rolpa case history
* prediction and mitigation of hazards
* impact of climate change on mountain hazards
* adventure tourism, mountaineering, and the pursuit of danger
* proposal for a Rolwaling Mountain Legacy Institute, which would facilitate long-term research on and development of tourism in an unstable and remote destination.
Hillary Medal:
On the occasion of the Rolwaling Conference, Mountain
Legacy will present the second Hillary Medal "for
remarkable service in the conservation of culture and
nature in remote mountainous regions." Nominations are
now being accepted; the deadline for complete dossiers
is September 29, 2006. The nomination form can be
downloaded at the Mountain Legacy Web site:
http://www.mountainlegacy.org