2018年国际地理联合会区域性会议暨加拿大地理学家协会年会分会场提案

Session proposal for 2018 IGU Regional Conference and Annual Meeting of the CAG

Title: Coupled Human-Earth Systems for Sustainability

Description

This session will cover coupled human-earth systems for sustainability. Today, much of the Earth's surface is at the service of humans, with almost no place free of human influence. The consequence has been rapid changes in climate and land use. These changes, driven in part by an increasing per capita consumption rate, are responsible for major problems, such as the loss of biological diversity and ecosystem functions, the spread of invasive species, pollution, food shortages, declining water quality and supply, and the more rapid spread of infectious diseases. Human activities are altering the Earth system and exerting significant impacts on the environment, and undermining improvements in human wellbeing and poverty alleviation. Researches of coupled human-earth systems, without doubt, are playing key roles to secure global prosperity and transform to global sustainability.

In order to promote research and innovation in relation to sustainability, and provide a platform for communication among geographers globally，International Geographical Union(IGU) establish a new commission on Geography for Future Earth: Coupled Human-Earth Systems for Sustainability (IGU-GFE) in November 2017. This commission serve for the global sustainability, and promote innovation of geographical sciences. IGU-GFE will host this session, and the purpose of this session is to examine how global environmental change has affected and will affect the ability of Earth’s ecosystems to provide people with essential goods and services including food, energy, and water. We intend to bring together scientists from different background to identify gaps and limitations in existing information and knowledge that need to be investigated in the future to improve our understanding, predicting, and reacting to changes in coupled human-earth systems across multi-scales from landscape to global. We also expect to establish collaborative research program and partnership among scientists as well as institutions to promote Coupled Human-Earth System Solutions for Global Sustainability.

Session theme

The proposed session will under the theme of the conference. Based the framework of coupled human-earth systems, we will listen from different voices-whether scholars, technicians or police-makers, and try to find different ways to build an enduring human future reflecting interaction between anthropogenic and ecological forces. The detailed session theme are as follows.

l  Fundamentals of Geography for Future Earth, and especially new theories and hypothesis on coupled human-earth systems for sustainability;

l  Open and inclusive platforms for Geospatial Big Data and observations of coupled human-earth systems;

l  Integrated Earth system models to deepen our understanding of complex Earth systems and human dynamics across different scales;

l  Linkages and dynamic analysis among ecological process, services, and human wellbeing;

l  Human Contributions and Responses to global climate/environmental changes and sustainability;

l  Evaluation tools for sustainable development, multi-scale sustainability evaluation, and sustainable scenarios for transformative development pathways.

Intended Audience

This session will present both current research and practical models and applications. This session intends to be of interest to academic scientists and practitioners alike, particularly those working on or near coupled human-earth systems and sustainability. Audience members will expose to the most edge-cutting thinking on research methods of coupled human-earth systems and sustainability.

INVITED SPEAKERS

To Be Determined. The speakers will be the steering committee members of IGU-GFE hopefully.

Session Organizer

Bojie Fu,

Chair of IGU Commission on Geography for Future Earth: Coupled Human-Earth Systems for Sustainability

Distinguished Professor at Research Centre for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University

Beijing, China

Email: bfu@rcees.ac.cn

Session Contact person

Wenwu Zhao,

Secretary of IGU Commission on Geography for Future Earth: Coupled Human-Earth Systems for Sustainability

Professor at Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University

Beijing, China

Email: zhaoww@bnu.edu.cn

Qualifications of Organizer

Dr. Bojie Fu is distinguished professor in geography and landscape ecology at Chinese Academy of Sciences and Beijing Normal University. He is Member of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Fellow of the Academy of Sciences for Developing World (TWAS) and Corresponding Fellow of the Royal Society Edinburgh UK. Prof. Fu is the President of Chinese Geographical Society，Vice President of International Association for Ecology (INTECOL), MEP member of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), Deputy Director of scientific committee of Chinese Ecosystem Research Network and Vice Chair of CNC- Future Earth. His research focuses on interactions between human beings and the environments. He published more than 400 scientific papers and 10 books, over 190 in international journals including Science. He is one of pioneers for the development of landscape ecology in China. His achievements made significant contributions to the understanding of interactions between landscape pattern and ecological processes, land use change and ecological effects, and ecosystem services assessment and management. His researches won the China National Natural Sciences Prize in 2005, National Sciences & Technology Advanced Prize in 2012, and Award of Distinguished Service of International Association for Landscape Ecology in 2011.