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

Commission on "Geography for Future Earth: Coupled Human Earth Systems for Sustainability" (IGU-GFE) has formally established in 2018. The Commission will promote research and innovation in relation to sustainability, and provide a platform for communication among geographers globally.

The mission of the proposed commission of Geography for Future Earth: Coupled Human-Earth Systems for Sustainability is to promote Geography for people to thrive in a sustainable and equitable world. Under the banner of IGU and Future Earth, the commission will serve as the focal point for developing, coordinating, and implementing interdisciplinary research and education related to coupled human-earth system dynamics and sustainable development. The commission will seeks to build and connect knowledge to increase the impact of research, to explore new development paths, and contribute to achieving goals on global sustainable development by finding new ways to sustainable development.

Highly intertwined with humanity, the land systems is the most complex and important sub-systems of the coupled human-Earth systems. The commission of Geography for Future Earth: Coupled Human-Earth Systems for Sustainability will initially focus on the human-land systems and its interfaces with coastal ocean and atmosphere. We will promote wider analysis and innovative thinking about global land sustainability through the bridging and synthesis of physical geography, human geography, ecology, hydrology, atmospheric, climate and social sciences. With this mission, the commission aims at promoting and facilitating the following six thematic areas:

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

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

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

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

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

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

The commission aims to support the purpose of IGU to promote Geography through initiating and coordinating geographical research and teaching around the world. It will endeavor to collaborate with global scholars in the field of ecological services and human needs, natural and anthropogenic processes, human-earth systems dynamics and modelling, sustainability evaluation and sustainable development solutions.

The steering committee for the Commission will be chaired by Dr. Prof. Bojie Fu, Dean of FGS, Beijing Normal University and Professor of Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, with the Vice-chair, Dr. Prof. Mark Stafford Smith, Chief Coordinating Scientist in Institute of Land and Water, CSIRO, Australia.

Link to IGU-GFE: http://igu-gfe.org/

 

Secretariat of UNISDR Asia Science, Technology, and Academia Advisory Group

The increasing importance and role of science-based decision-making was strongly emphasized in the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR). In response to that, the UNISDR Asia Pacific Office has formed the Asia Science Technology and Academia Advisory Group (ASTAAG) in May 2015. Academia, science, and technological communities have a responsibility to be an active partner for providing solutions to problems based on their research findings, to introduce new technology and innovations as well as to improve the dialogue and cooperation with other relevant stakeholders and policy makers.

ASTAAG comprises selected disaster experts from Asian countries: Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia and Philippines. The Group provides policy advisory services to governments and other stakeholders on appropriate technology and its application in decision making. Advisory services include: Risk governance, Community-based Disaster Risk Management, Urban risk management, Earthquake risk mitigation, Private sector involvement, Climate change adaptation, Disaster and environmental education and Disaster resistant building design. The group also provides advices on higher education curriculum development in disaster risk reduction.

Link to ASTAAG：http://apstaag.bnu.edu.cn/

 

International Center for Collaborative Research on Disaster Risk Reduction

International Center for Collaborative Research on Disaster Risk Reduction (ICCR-DRR), as a part of the Sharing and Learning on Community Based Disaster Management in Asia (CBDM Asia) Programme Phase II, was set up by the Academy of Disaster Reduction & Emergency Management (ADREM) (authorized by the Ministry of Civil Affairs and Ministry of Education), Beijing Normal University in December 2015.

CBDM Asia Programme is funded by the Department for International Development (DFID) of the UK, and supported by Ministry of Civil Affairs and Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China. On behalf of DFID, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) China office is the Project Management Unit (PMU), which is responsible for overall coordination and management of the project. This project focuses on strengthening south-south cooperation and partnership with other developing countries within the Sino-UK friendly partnership framework via collaborative research on community based disaster management. The UK, China, Nepal, and Bangladesh, in particular, are major partner countries of this Programme. In Phase I, the Programme has made significant achievements in enhancing the partnership between partner countries, facilitating experience sharing through demonstration communities and exchange activities, and establishing research and communication platforms for sharing and learning among different CBDM partners. Phase I has been successfully ended in June 2015. CBDM Asia, in Phase II, aims to strengthen the regional cooperation and to build a stronger global network for disaster-prone countries in Asia through peer-learning in community based disaster management.

Link to ICCR-DRR: http://iccr-drr.bnu.edu.cn/en/