GECHS

17-20 November 2008
The International Ocean Institute, USA and the city of St. Petersburg, Florida, USA, are hosting a Coastal Cities Summit to address the complex challenges that coastal city leaders face as populations increase, resources are depleted, and the impacts of climate change are felt.  The Coastal Cities Summit intends to bring together 600-700 coastal city leaders, managers and academics to discuss environmental, social, economic, and public policy challenges and viable solutions. The 3 ½ day conference will focus on three themes: Climate Change, Risk and Vulnerability, and Sustainable Development.  The planners are soliciting speakers on areas that are particularly relevant to coastal cities: freshwater, pollution, energy, infrastructure, and port security.  All sessions are intended to give a long-needed voice to those who are on the front lines taking leadership on climate change, providing implementation and response plans and continuing to focus on protecting citizens from possible extreme events and human-induced degradation. Full details are available at the conference website.

14-17 April 2008
Second announcement is out for the conference RESILIENCE 2008: Resilience, Adaptation and Transformation in Turbulent Times. This International Science and Policy Conference in Stockholm, Sweden, views society and nature as interdependent social-ecological systems, which are complex adaptive systems. Furthermore, cross scale and dynamic interactions represent new challenges for governance and management in relation to interdependent sociol-ecological systems and ecosystem services. 9 overall themes have been proposed to help shed light on the issues, and the overview can be found on the conference website. Please also find detailed information on registration.

8-11 July 2008
The international symposium “Coping with global change in marine social-ecological systems” will be held in Rome. Principal sponsors of the symposium are GLOBEC, EUR-OCEANS and FAO. Marine socio-ecological systems have marine and human components which are highly inter-connected and interactive. While the focus is on climate and environmental change, how these interact with other global changes are important considerations. The central goals of the symposium are to share experiences across disciplines and to identify key next steps and common elements and approaches that promote resilience of marine social-ecological systems in he face of global changes. This involves:

• Exploring conceptual issues relating to social-ecological responses in marine systems to global changes;
• Analysing case studies of specific examples of social-ecological responses in marine systems to significant environmental changes manifested locally;
• Synthesising the work of natural and social scientists and building comparisons of social-ecological responses in marine ecosystems subjected to major environmental variability;
• Developing innovative approaches to the use of science and knowledge in management, policy and advice;
• Identifying lessons for governance for building resilient social-ecological systems.

For information and registration, see the symposium website

12-15 October 2008
The 6th International Human Dimensions Workshop will feature four parallel training seminars connected to the 7th IHDP Open Meeting, “Social challenges of Global Change” in New Delhi. IHDP - International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change - is an international, interdisciplinary, non-governmental science programme, studying the human dimensions of global environmental change, which comprise causes and consequences of people’s individual and collective actions. The topics for the upcoming International Human Dimensions Workshop will be the following:

• The human dimension of health and global environmental change: Global change & urban health
• Transitions to sustainability through system innovation
• Urban and regional carbon management
• Sustainable adaptation to climate change

Please note that admission for the presentation of papers or posters to the Open Meeting (16.-19. October 2008) is a prerequisite for acceptance to the workshop. Researchers, stakeholders, and decision makers working in the field of global environmental change are encouraged to apply. The deadline for the workshop registration as well as for the submissions for sessions, oral presentations, and posters for the Open Meeting is the 30. November 2007. For details about the workshop application process, please see the workshop description.

16-19 October 2008
The call for papers is now out for the IHDP Open Meeting - the 7th International Science Conference on the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change. The conference will be organised in Delhi, India, by The International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change, IHDP. The call to submit abstracts opened up August 31 2007, and abstract submissions for sessions, oral presentations, and posters will be accepted until November 30 on the Open Meeting website. The theme of the conference is “Social Challenges of Global Change”. Four core questions on the social aspects of environmental change will be addressed:

• How do we deal with demographic challenges?
• How do we deal with limitations of resources and ecosystem services?
• How do we maintain social cohesion while increasing (global) equity?
• How do we adapt institutions to address global change?

Contributions to the conference will need to relate to one of the questions mentioned above and the numerous cross-cutting issues and topics that intersect them, as laid out in the 7th Open Meeting concept note.

17-20 November 2008 
The Coastal City Summit will be held in St. Petersburg, Florida, USA. One of the most challenging issues facing the ocean today is rapid coastal urbanization whose implications have yet to be assessed. Today, the majority of the world’s population lives within sixty kilometers of the coast line and this is steadily increasing. This profound demographic shift has significant implications for the coastal environment, inhabitants and ecosystem stability. Combined with increasing birth rate and life expectancy, as well as future climate change, the escalating strain on public resources means that coastal city managers face unprecedented challenges. The summit aims to bring together coastal city leaders, managers, and academics to discuss environmental, social, economic, and public policy challenges and viable solutions. Deadline for proposals is 15 May 2008. Completed research papers, case studies, panels and round table discussion papers will be considered. Please find the guidelines for proposals at the conference website.