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IAG-Symposium on Sediment Budgets in Geomorphic Systems in conjunction with the 29th International Geographical Congress in Seoul, Korea
The Symposium will be held jointly with that of the IGU Commission on Land Degradation and Desertification (see Second Circular of the 29th IGC, pp. 35 and 42). Its programme will focus on state of the art geomorphic research. At present the following topics are planned with respect to the general potential of the sediment budget approach:
- the state of theory development,
- typologies of sediment budgets,
- analytical, quantitative approaches to sediment budgets in different environments,
- temporal and spatial scales in sediment budget modelling,
- basin-wide response of sediment movement to land use and climate change,
- the sediment budget approach as a unifying concept and problem focus in geomorphology.
For specific information regarding the Symposium, please contact the conveners:
- Richard Dikau, Department of Geography, University of Bonn, Meckenheimer Allee 166, D-53115 Bonn, Germany, E-mail: rdikau@slide.giub.uni-bonn.de;
- Maria Sala, Department of Physical Geography, University of Barcelona, E-08028 Barcelona, Spain, E-mail: sala@trivium.gh.ub.es;
- Olav Slaymaker, Department of Geography, University of British Columbia, 1984 West Mall, Vancouver, BC, Canada, E-mail: olav@geog.ubc.ca
IAG Working Group on Large Rivers Report on the IAG – GLOCOPH International Symposium on Geomorphology and Palaeohydrology of the river Araguaia, 12-21 September 1999, Goiania, Go, Brazil.
The first meeting of the IAG Working Group on Large Rivers started with two full days of papers in Goiania, followed by a seven-day field excursion in the basin of the Araguaia. The 777 308 km2 basin of the Araguaia-Tocantins system discharges to the Atlantic Ocean, mainly via the channel south of the Marajo Island near the mouth of the Amazon. It is the fourth largest river basin in South America. The symposium was efficiently organised by the Institute of Social and Environmental Studies (IESA) of the Federal University of Goias. IAG thanks all those who were involved, especially E. Latrubesse, J.C. Stevaux, S. de Castro S. and A. Borges de Campos. The highlight of the field trip was the stay at the base camp of CENAQUA-IBAMA and the field work by means of small boats on the Araguaia, kindly made possible by the chief of the station, V.H. Cantarelli, and his colleagues.
The papers presented fall into two groups: a collection of case studies on rivers in South and Central America, and assorted papers on rivers outside this region. A striking proportion of both the oral presentations and posters of the first group dealt with the Amazon and the Parana Basins and were given mainly by graduate students from Brazilian universities. The exchange of ideas and information with these young geomorphologists was a characteristic feature of the meeting. Two other studies, namely on the Rio Terraba of Costa Rica (T. Bullard) and on the Bio Bio River of Chile (A. Duyvestein and O. Link) reminded the participants of the nature of tectonics-related steep gradient streams.
Papers from outside the region discussed basins in the Polish Carpathians (T. Kalicki and M. Pietrzak), the Mississippi-Atchafalaya system (J. Mossa), flood hazards in Japan and Bangladesh (S. Kubo), and the Cooper Creek in Australia (G. Nanson). L. Starkel reviewed the regimes of large rivers in the Quaternary. A. Gupta presented an introductory discussion on the nature of large rivers and the problems of their management. The meeting also included a seminar on the management of the Araguaia reflecting some concern about present and future environmental changes.
About 2500 km were covered by bus and boat in this week. The areas visited included the upper Araguaia basin with characteristic geomorphological problems, the Emas National Park, the Bananal Plain, and the lower reaches of the Araguaia. CENAQUA-IBAMA's and the Brazilian Geological Survey's (CPRM) help was invaluable.
A number of incidents enlivened the field excursion: the sight of emus breaking into a rapid trot; fires destroying the cerrado vegetation caused by lightning; the reluctant disappearance of a wolf in the failing light; armadillos scrounging on distant slopes; termite mounds fluorescent in the dark; being pursued by a team of reporters from the local television station; capybaras crowding point bars; camera-carrying geomorphologists crowding a boa-constrictor on a rocky ledge; Araguaia dolphins somersaulting in the sunlight; and four crossings of the river in an open barge, three times in the company of ice cream vendors and the fourth one (on Sunday) in the company of a group of charismatic singers. Prof. Starkel was an enthusiastic participator on all occasions.
This, the first of several planned field meetings on large rivers, informed many of us about the hydrology and fluvial geomorphology of a large part of Brazil and provided a wonderful opportunity for contacts with local researchers. It is hoped that this will happen over and over again at future meetings. Attempts are being made to publish a collection of papers on the rivers of South and Central America.
Avijit Gupta
News from Members
In 1999 several national geomorphological meetings took place. In addition to the annual conferences of long standing, e.g. in the USA (30th Binghamton Symposium, November 1999), in Germany (25th Annual Conference of the "Deutscher Arbeitskreis fuer Geomorphologie", October 1999, Hamburg), in UK (British Geomorphological Research Group Annual Conference, September 1999, Hull) and in Canada (Canadian Geomorphological Research Group Annual Meeting, August 1999, Calgary) there were other events: Japan and Korea organised a joint conference (August 1999, Conju, Korea), in Estonia a field symposium on Pleistocene Stratigraphy and Glacial Chronology (May 1999, Southern Estonia) was held and in Switzerland the recently restructured Geomorphology Group had a meeting in July in Sitten. The list below provides the information currently available on meetings planned by the IAG National Adhering Organisations for 2000:
Brazil: September 3-6, Campinas. Contact: Dr. Archimedes Perez Filho, fax: +55 19 289 1562, e-mail: archi@ige.unicamp.br
Canada: August, 22-27, Montreal. Contact: Michel Lamothe, fax: +1514 987 7749, e-mail: lamothe.michel@uqam.ca
Germany: October, 3-6, Trier. Contact: Brigitta Schuett, fax: +49 651 201 3976, e-mail: schuett@uni-trier.de
Poland: September 11-14, Torun. Contact: Prof. Leon Andrzejewski, fax: +48 56 62 273 07, e-mail: leon@geo.uni.torun.pl
South Africa: July 9-12, Pretoria. Contact: Paul Sumner, fax: +27 12 420 3284, e-mail: saag2000@scientia.up.ac.za, http://www.up.ac.za/science/geog/saag.html
Spain: September 18-19, Madrid. Contact: Alfredo Perez-Gonzalez, fax: +34 91 3944845, e-mail: alfredog@eucmax.sim.ucm.es, http://www.udc.es/seg/seg8i.html
UK: September 12-14, Sheffield. Contact: Dr Giles Wiggs, fax: +44 (0) 114 279 7912; e-mail: g.wiggs@sheffield.ac.uk
USA: (Geographers) April, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Contact: Jon Harbor, fax: +1765 496 1210, e-mail: jharbor@purdue.edu
Forthcoming International Meetings of Interest to Geomorphologists
2000
9th International Conference on Fission Track Dating and Thermochronology
February, 6-11, 2000, Lorne, Australia
FT2000 Conference, fax: +61 3 9344-7761, e-mail: ft2000@unimelb.edu.au, http://ft2000.unimelb.edu.auINQUA, Commission of the Holocene Meeting "Environmental changes in Holocene Sequences - Methods, processes and correlation"
March 27-31, 2000, Seville, Spain
Ana. I. Porras, fax: +34-95-4551351, e-mail: delolmo@cica.es, http://www.ku-eichstaett.de/MGF/geo/inqua1.htmInternational Symposium on Gully Erosion under Global Change
April 16-19, 2000, Leuven, Belgium
Jeroen Nachtergaele, fax: +32 16 326400, e-mail: Jeroen.Nachtergaele@geo.kuleuven.ac.be, http://www.kuleuven.ac.be/facdep/geo/fgk/pages/expgeom.htmModern and Ancient Ice marginal Landsystems
April 29-30, 2000, Keele, UK
Mike Edge, fax +44 (0) 1782 715261, e-mail: gga28@keele.ac.uk, http://pangaea.esci.keele.ac.uk/iceland2000/icemargin.htmlIGU - COMLAND Symposium on Land Degradation and Desertification
April 2000, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
Prof. A. Orme, fax: +131 0206-5976, e-mail: orme@geog.ucla.eduIGU - GERTEC International Symposium "Geomorphic Response to Land Use Changes"
May 29 - June 2, 2000, Smolenice, Slovak Republic
Dr. Milos Stankoviansky, fax: +421 7 52491340, e-mail: suri@savba.sk or cebecauer@savba.sk, http://nic.savba.sk/sav/inst/geog/germeet/International Glaciological Society Symposium: Sea Ice and its Interactions with the Ocean, Atmosphere and Biosphere
June 18-24, 2000, Fairbanks, Alaska, USA
M.Jeffries, fax: +1-907-474-7290, e-mail: martin.jeffries@gi.alaska.edu, http://www.gi.alaska.edu/Weathering 2000
June 26-30, 2000, Belfast, United Kingdom
Prof. B. Whalley, fax: +44 (0) 1232 335140, e-mail: b.whalley@qub.ac.uk, http://boris.qub.ac.uk/bgrg/diary/weathering2k.html8th International Symposium on Landslides
June 26-30, 2000, Cardiff, United Kingdom
Cherrie Summers, fax: +44 (0) 1222 874421, e-mail: SummersC@Cardiff.ac.uk, http://www.king.ac.uk/~ce_s011/isl8-000.htm31st International Geological Congress "Geology and Sustainable Development - Challenges for the Third Millenium"
August 6-17, 2000, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
31st IGC Secretariat Bureau, fax: +55 21 2958094, e-mail: 31igc@31igc.org, http://www.31igc.org29th International Geographical Congress "Living with Diversity"
August 14-18, 2000, Seoul, South Korea
Organizing Committee of the 29th IGC, fax: +82-2-876-0401, e-mail: igcseoul@plaza.snu.ac.kr, http://www.geog.snu.ac.krIAG Thematic Conference "Monsoon Climate, Geomorphic Processes & Human Activities
August 25-29, 2000, Nanjing, China
Prof. Ke X., fax: +86 25 3306387; e-mail: xke@netra.nju.edu.cnKarst 2000 - International Symposium & Field Seminar on Present State and Future Trends of Karst Studies
September 17-27, Marmaris, Turkey
Karst 2000, fax +90 312 299 2136, e-mail: karst@hun.edu.tr, http://www.karst.hacettepe.edu.tr/2001
7th International Conference on Fluvial Sedimentology
August 6-10, 2001, Lincoln, Nebraska, USA
Mike Blum, fax: +1402 472 4917, e-mail: mblum1@unl.edu, http://www.unl.edu/geology/ICFS.htmlFifth International Conference on Geomorphology
August 23-28, 2001, Tokyo, Japan
5th ICG, c/o Convention Linkage, Inc, fax: +81 3 5770 5532, e-mail: 5icg@aptech.co.jp, http://wwwsoc.nacsis.ac.jp/jgu/index.html1st International Conference on Sustainable Development in Karst Regions
August 24-27, 2001, Beijing, China
Mr. Wang Wei, Miss Wang Yanjun, fax: +86 10 68311324, e-mail: CAGSDIC@public.bta.net.cnEditor'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.INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF GEOMORPHOLOGISTS
PRESIDENT: Prof. Olav Slaymaker, Department of Geography, University of British Columbia, 1984 West Mall, Vancouver, V6T 1Z2, Canada. Fax: +1-604-82226150; E-mail: olav@geog.ubc.ca
VICE PRESIDENT: Prof. Mario Panizza, Dip. di Scienze della Terra, Universiti degli Studi di Modena, Largo S. Eufemia, 19, 41 100 Modena, Italia. Fax: +39-059-417399; E-mail: pit@unimo.it
SECRETARY GENERAL: Dr. Piotr Migon, Geographical Institute, University of Wroclaw, Pl. Uniwersytecki 1, 50-137 Wroclaw, Poland. Fax: +48-71-3435184; E-mail: migon@geogr.uni.wroc.pl
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