IAG

International Association of Geomorphologists
Newsletter no. 16 (1/1999)

Contents:

Professor Anders Rapp

The passing of Anders Rapp on December 27, 1998 at the age of 71 is an untimely loss for his family in Sweden and for the international community of geomorphologists. From the time of his doctoral research in an arctic-alpine valley in northern Sweden (1952-1960), Anders has been a well known and highly regarded international scientist.

Karkevagge is the name of that arctic-alpine valley; this is the name that will always be associated with ANDERS RAPP. The papers that resulted from Anders' doctoral study, and subsequent research in the same region, have had a formative influence on modern geomorphology. The Kirk Bryan Award from the Geological Society of America in 1962 is one evidence of the significance of the work; a personal recollection of the impact of the 1960 paper on the final year geomorphology class at Cambridge in academic year 1960-61 is another evidence. Most persuasive is the evidence of the torrent of papers that has been influenced by Anders' research at Karkevagge.

Why was the study so influential? There was luck in the timing of the study as post World War II geomorphology was evolving towards a greater emphasis on process studies; there was luck in the timing of the October, 1959 extreme precipitation events; the nine year duration of the study was essential to its successful completion. Nevertheless, the keys to success were the indefatigable field work and the brilliant comprehensive analysis.

What were the essential themes of the study? The use of a drainage basin as the fundamental unit of enquiry; the emphasis on combining form and process studies; the concept of a sediment budget; the necessity of including the role of solution in cold environments and the importance of the geomorphology of extreme events. All these and the insistence on keeping an eye on the "real" landscape were themes that had not previously been combined in one geomorphological study.

What is the ongoing legacy of that research? Perhaps the most important contribution was to substitute a new set of tractable questions for the unanswerable questions that had previously dominated the discipline. Questions such as whether slopes retreat parallel or recline with age or whether tropical rivers behave differently than polar rivers had to be reformulated in such a way that internal and external thresholds governing the distribution of geomorphic work in space and over time were recognised and accounted for.

Anders wrote in 1981 that 30 years of study in northern Sweden had not dampened his enthusiasm for long-term studies and the necessity for improved monitoring. The days of single photo opportunity-based studies and motorcycle reconnaissance Ph.D. theses were strictly numbered after the appearance of the Karkevagge results.

Although Karkevagge is the building block around which ANDERS RAPP's career was developed, many other substantive contributions were made by him. Soil erosion, reservoir siltation and watershed management in East Africa, the desertification problem in sub-Sahara Africa, debris flows and erosive slush avalanches in the Scandinavian Highlands and, in the last decade, an understanding of the early Holocene geomorphology of southern Sweden all came within his purview. He was a scientific realist who was highly suspicious of the positivist functionalist tradition. He was guided by the primacy of field observations, programmes of measurement and careful evaluation of the magnitude and frequency of occurrence of geomorphic work.

At the level of wise counsellor to international agencies, governments and university administrations, Anders was widely respected. In his capacity as a member of the Swedish Academy of Sciences he exercised the rare role of a geomorphologist who is credible at the most senior national academic levels.

Anders was one of the I.A.G.'s seven Senior Fellows: we will miss his leadership, integrity and wisdom.

OLAV SLAYMAKER

Fifth International Conference on Geomorphology, Tokyo, 23-28 August, 2001

The First Circular is out and provides some information on the venue, on the conference themes and on the various field trips proposed. Seven pre- and seven post-conference field trips are offered within Japan, with four more in the People's Republic of China, one in Taiwan and one in South Korea. A form for preliminary (not binding) registration is included. The Second Circular with full registration details and firm prices will be sent in February 2000 to all colleagues returning the preliminary form.

The Web Page of the Conference for up to date information and on-line registration is located at: http://wwwsoc.nacsis.ac.jp/jgu/. The First Circular is also available from the JGU office 

Disaster Prevention Research Institute
Kyoto University
Uji
Kyoto 610-0011
Japan
Tel: +81-774-38-4097, Fax: +81-774-37-41505
E-mail: jgu@slope.dpri.kyoto-u.ac.jp.
Further details of the Fifth International Conference on Geomorphology will be published in the forthcoming issues of the IAG Newsletter.

IAG-GEOMORPHLIST and IAG Web Page

In Autumn 1998 the responsibility for IAG-GEOMORPHLIST and the IAG Web Page changed hands from JEFF LEE to WILLIAM LOCKE. The IAG wishes to thank JEFF LEE for his effective and reliable services to the geomorphological community. He performed a unique service for five and a half years. Thanks also to WILLIAM LOCKE who volunteered to succeed Jeff Lee in this challenging task. Attached to this transition are new addresses: To post messages to GEOMORPHLIST send mail to: GEOMORPH-L@listserv.montana.edu. The IAG Web Page is now hosted at http://www.homepage.montana.edu/~ueswl/geomorphlist/index.htm.

IAG-GEOMORPHLIST, which currently has over 900 members, is a moderated electronic mail distribution list for geomorphologists as a free service of the IAG. If you want to join the list and receive IAG news including the IAG Newsletter via internet please contact Dr WILLIAM LOCKE at wlocke@montana.edu and provide the following information for the directory: your name, mailing address, phone, fax, e-mail address, (personal Web page URL) and a few keywords to identify your interests in geomorphology (topical and/or geographical). If you are already a member of GEOMORPHLIST please make sure that your original subscription address to the list is the same as your current e-mail address and inform the moderator about any changes.

Working Group on Large Rivers, notice of two conferences

The objective of this IAG Working Group is to provide a field conference approach for discussing the complexities of large rivers. Three meetings have by now been planned: the Araguaia-Tocantins system (September 1999), the Yangtze (October 1999) and the Mekong (late 2000). This is an invitation to attend the first two of these field conferences. Space on both trips is extremely limited for logistical reasons, and an early response to this notice is essential in order to avoid disappointment. Preference will be given to participants with abstracts accepted for presentation at the field conferences.

International Symposium on Palaeohydrology and Geomorphology of Large Rivers and Field Conference, Araguaia, 12-21 September, 1999 (organised by the Large Rivers Group of the IAG and the GLOCOPH-INQUA Working Group on Geomorphology of Large Rivers). The Tocantins-Araguaia system is the 4th largest (900 000 km2) in South America and includes both the Brazilian savannah and the Amazonian rain forest. The course of the river exhibits strong geological control, extensive Quaternary alluviation (the Bananal Plain), palaeochannels and palaeoalluvium, and the effects of deforestation and land use changes. For a river of such complexity, it receives little international recognition. The trip will include travelling along the river and two days of paper and poster sessions. Papers and posters should deal with geomorphology, sedimentation and palaeohydrology of large rivers. For details and registration please write to Prof. EDGARDO M. LATRUBESSE, Universidade Federal de Goias-IESA, Campus Samambaia, 74001-970, Goiania, GO, Brazil. E-mail: latrubes@virtualhouse.com.br or latrubes@iesa.ufg.br.

IAG Working Group - Yangtze River Conference, Shanghai, 28 Oct. - 5 Nov., 1999. The conference will start at Shanghai with a day of paper sessions. Another day of papers will be arranged at a location on the Yangtze. The field sites include the three gorges and the dam site, the Jingjiang section on the meandering middle Yangtze subject to flooding, the narrow reach of the Yangtze upstream of Shanghai, and the estuary. Papers on the following topics are encouraged: fluvial geomorphology, fluvial dynamics and associated sedimentation, human impact on fluvial processes, interplay among factors affecting the fluvial environment. For details and registration please contact Dr ZHONGYUAN CHEN, Department of Geography, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China. Fax: +86-21-62233660/62576217, E-mail: Z.Chen@gislab.ecnu.edu.cn or Geog1@ecnu.edu.cn.

Currently, both trips are estimated to cost US $ 600. The official language will be English. Abstracts (Araguaia: max. 1500 words, Yangtze: max.: 500 words) should be sent, preferably via e-mail, to the contact addresses given above. Post-conference publications are expected. For general information on the IAG Working Group on Large Rivers please contact its chair, AVIJIT GUPTA, School of Geography, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK. Fax: +44-113-278-5661, E-mail: avijit@foxhill.demon.co.uk.

AVIJIT GUPTA

News from Members: SAAG 1998 conference in Grahamstown

The Southern African Association of Geomorphologists held its biennial conference in Grahamstown from the 28th June to the 1st July. The conference was organised by the SAAG council, with Prof. KATE ROWNTREE and EVAN DOLLAR of the Geography Department, Rhodes University as convener and conference secretary respectively.

The conference opened with a session on Environmental Change which looked at the geomorphological impacts of climatic change in particular over the last 50 000 years or so. Prof. MEADOWS in his key note address stressed the importance of humans as geomorphic agents over the last 200 years in southern Africa. This message was reinforced by the last session which focused on soil erosion. Many papers stressed the importance of land use change and showed how a sudden change in land use could have grave on-site consequences for land degradation through soil erosion as well as having serious impacts downslope and downstream.

A number of papers stressed the applied aspects of geomorphology, showing how theoretical studies could be used to guide management of the natural environment. Prof. HELEN WATSON of UDW and Prof. KATE ROWNTREE of Rhodes both placed their work in the context of government environmental policy, land transfers and the new Water Bill respectively. The second key note speaker, Prof. GEOFF PETTS, examined the lessons to be learnt from river management problems. His paper considered river processes at three different scales, the cobble bar, the meander bend and the catchment, and stressed the need to link processes over a range of time and space scales.

The winners of the SAAG Certificate of Excellence, an award given to the student who produces the best Honours dissertation on a geomorphological topic, presented their work at the conference. CATHERINE GRAY of the University of Cape Town, the 1996 winner, presented a paper on "Characterising the Namaqualand mudbelt: chronological palynology and palaeoenvironments". ALEX SHAW, also of the University of Cape Town and the winner for 1997, presented a paper on "Palaeoenvironments in the headward vicinity of Dias beach, Cape Point, South Africa". Ten of the thirty scheduled papers were presented by current or recent postgraduate students. It was encouraging to see so many active young researchers.

In conclusion, the conference stressed the need for basic research into distributions of geomorphological phenomena and process mechanisms. Furthermore, the results of this research must be made accessible to environmental managers to guide environmental conservation and rehabilitation programmes.

The Conference proceedings included all papers received by the time of going to press a few weeks before the conference. In addition a volume was produced including abstracts of all papers. Spare copies are still available to interested parties from KATE ROWNTREE at ggkr@giraffe.ru.ac.za.

At the AGM the new committee was elected. PAUL SUMNER of the Department of Geography, Pretoria University took over the position of President. Paul can be contacted at Sumner@scientia.up.ac.za for further information about the association.

KATE ROWNTREE

Meetings of interest to geomorphologists in 1999 - Update

International Symposium towards Cooperative Utilisation and Coordinated Management of International Rivers (ISCUCMIR'99): June 25-30, 1999, Kunming, Yunnan Province, China. Contact: GUOYOU ZHANG and GUIHUA CHEN, The Geographical Society of China, Building 917, Datun Road, Beijing, 100101, China, Fax: 86-10-64889598, E-mail: gsc@dls.iog.ac.cn.

Tidal Action, Tidal Processes and Tidal Effects on Coastal Evolution: October 3-9, 1999, Porto Seguro, Bahia State, Brazil. Contact: Dr GUILHERME LESSA, Instituto de Geociencias - UFBA, Rua Caetano Moura 123, Federac|o, 40210-340, Salvador, Brazil, Fax: 71-247-3004, E-mail: glessa@pppg.ufba.br or http://www.pppg.ufba.br/~pgeol/abequa7 The meeting is sponsored by the IGU Commission on Coastal Systems.

The International Symposium of Sedimentological & Dynamic Processes in Estuaries and on Coasts: November 10-15, 1999, Shanghai, China. Contact: Prof. JIANJIAN LU, SKLEC, East China Normal University, No. 3663 R (N) Zhongshan, 200062, Shanghai, P.R. China, Fax: 86-21-62546441, E-mail: office@sklec.ecnu.edu.cn or http://nt.sklec.ecnu.edu.cn.

Editor's Note

The success of the IAG-Newsletter depends upon the contributions that we receive. Please assist by sending commentaries, reviews of regional or national meetings and field trips, summaries of issues pertinent to geomorphology, and announcements of future meetings and workshops.
Your contributions should be forwarded to
C. EMBLETON-HAMANN, Institut fuer Geographie der Universitaet Wien, Universitaetsstrasse 7, A - 1010 Wien, Austria. Fax: (+431) 4277 9486; e-mail: christine.embleton-hamann@univie.ac.at.

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