Geodiversity, including surface and subsurface phenomena, objects and processes, reflects the current state of abiotic nature on the Earth. For this purpose, various methods of assessing geodiversity are used, from through mapping to simultaneous monitoring of dynamic elements of the geographical environment.
- Traditionally, rich descriptions of single variables and a static image of geodiversity is obtained through mapping, which registers the current face of the Earth.
- Another solution is a simultaneous record and/or multitemporal assessment of geodiversity through monitoring systems of key environmental elements, including satellite monitoring and geomatics techniques. This approach makes it possible to track changes in geodiversity at different time intervals and thus gain information on dynamic geodiversity.
For both static and dynamic geodiversity, it is essential to choose the right variables and approach that will best reflect the nature of both types of geodiversity as well as will be relevant for issues related to the services offered by geodiversity. Identifying these Essential Geodiversity Variables (EGVs, sensu Schrodt et al. 2019) as geoindicators is the main task of this session.
The large amount of available geoindicators makes it difficult to identify those that would comprehensively meet the expectations of specialists from various disciplines involved in the geodiversity assessment. Nevertheless, geodiversity is now recognized as highly relevant to both scientific and management issues related to Earth surface processes and landscape evolution and an effort for improved EGVs selection should be made. Our EGVs perspective is to contribute to the establishment of a Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) framework associated to environmental issues related to global change, ecosystem services and geoheritage.
This session invites scientific oral and poster contributions on geodiversity in context of geoheritage of natural and cultural landscapes.
The joint session is organized by the IAG Working Group on Landform Assessment for Geodiversity and the IAG Working Group on Geomorphological Sites.

Documenting the diversity of human responses and adaptations to climate, landscapes, ecosystems, natural disasters and the changing natural resources availability in different regions of our planet, cross-disciplinary studies in human-landscape interaction provide valuable opportunities to learn from the past. This session is targeted at providing a platform for scientists with common interests in geomorphology and geoarchaeology and, in particular, the complex and integrated nature of the relationship between landforms, geomorphological processes and societies during the Anthropocene, and how this has developed over time at different spatial and temporal scales.

This session seeks related interdisciplinary papers and specific geomorphological or geoarchaeological case-studies that deploy various approaches and tools to address the reconstruction of former and present human-environmental interactions from the Palaeolithic period through the modern. Topics related to records of the Anthropocene from Earth and archaeological science perspectives are welcome. We are inviting contributions that focus on the two-way interactions between geomorphological processes/landforms and human activity. These should show how the various factors of the physical environment interact with the Anthroposphere, and, in turn, how population and individuals may affect (and change) these factors. Furthermore, contributions may include (but are not limited to) insights about how people have coped with environmental disasters or abrupt changes; defining sustainability thresholds for farming or resource exploitation; distinguishing the baseline natural and human contributions to environmental changes. In this context, topics of different fields may be addressed in the session such as landform evolution, landscape sensitivity and resilience in the overall context of the interrelation between geomorphology and society, geohazards, geoheritage and conservation, geomorphological responses to (and evidence for) environmental change, and applied geomorphology. Moreover, issues of scale and hierarchies may be addressed, and methods and applications of dynamic rather than equilibrium ideas and metaphors. Ultimately, we would like to understand how strategies of human resilience and innovation can inform our modern strategies for addressing the challenges of the emerging Anthropocene, a time frame dominated by human modulation of surface geomorphological processes and hydroclimate.

Human interaction with the environment has gone through several stages of evolution. Being a product of the natural evolution of living organisms in the biosphere, Homo sapiens as a species has evolved in the geochemical conditions of the virgin biosphere. The rapid development of intellectual abilities of this genus allowed, first, to survive in adverse environmental conditions around the whole world, then, to cultivate the land, transform the entire system of biocenoses, and now to create a new habitat for man exclusively. The result was a significant geochemical transformation of the virgin biosphere, but a kind of punishment for the achieved progress was the emergence of a number of endemic diseases of a geochemical nature. Nowadays a variety of anthropogenic sources of pollution and their location in various natural geochemical conditions require not only constant monitoring of the chemical state of soil, water, air and food products, but also the development of spatially differentiated approaches to assessing the risk of provoked diseases. To solve this problem it is necessary concertedly interpreting a geochemical and medical information in order to assess the risks to human health associated with modern natural and anthropogenic geochemical features in urban and rural habitats. During session we propose to discuss:
1) global trends of health transformation in new geochemical environment of modern noosphere;
2) criteria for determining pollution level depending on environmental and geochemical constrains;
3) new approaches to assess the risk of diseases of geochemical nature in different countries;
4) the problem of mapping the risk zones, related to negative medical effects due to deficiency or excess of certain chemical elements or compounds.
Session co-sponsored by the European Association of Geochemistry.

Public information:
Human interaction with the environment has gone through several stages of evolution. Man as a species first survived in adverse environmental conditions around the world, then he began to cultivate the land, exploit other species and develop industry, changing the structure and composition of natural ecosystems, and now creates a new habitat exclusively in accordance with his own requirements. This activity leads to significant chemical pollution of the environment at the local, and in some cases at the regional level, which leads to disruption of natural food chains. This process is followed by the negative biological reactions of living organisms, including the man himself. These reactions and, in particular, endemic diseases of a geochemical nature can be regarded as a kind of punishment for the progress made. Emerging environmental problems require not only constant monitoring of the chemical state of soil, water, air and food products and identification of anthropogenic induced negative reactions, but also the development of spatially differentiated approaches to assessing the risk of triggered negative reactions and diseases. During our session, we will discuss:
1) global trends in health status in the new geochemical environment of the modern noosphere (the anthropogenic stage of biosphere evolution);
2) methods and criteria for determining the level of environmental pollution by metals, pesticides, radionuclides and pharmaceutical substances;
3) new approaches to assessing the risk of pollution and diseases of a geochemical nature in different countries;
4) the problems of identifying and mapping risk zones.
We kindly invite all interested parties to our session.

The session gathers geoscientific aspects such as dynamics, reactions, and environmental/health consequences of radioactive materials that are massively released accidentally (e.g., Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear power plant accidents, wide fires, etc.) and by other human activities (e.g., nuclear tests).

The radioactive materials are known as polluting materials that are hazardous for human society, but are also ideal markers in understanding dynamics and physical/chemical/biological reactions chains in the environment. Thus, the radioactive contamination problem is multi-disciplinary. In fact, this topic involves regional and global transport and local reactions of radioactive materials through atmosphere, soil and water system, ocean, and organic and ecosystem, and its relation with human and non-human biota. The topic also involves hazard prediction and nowcast technology.

By combining 34 years (> halftime of Cesium 137) monitoring data after the Chernobyl Accident in 1986, 9 years dense measurement data by the most advanced instrumentation after the Fukushima Accident in 2011, and other events, we can improve our knowledgebase on the environmental behavior of radioactive materials and its environmental/biological impact. This should lead to improved monitoring systems in the future including emergency response systems, acute sampling/measurement methodology, and remediation schemes for any future nuclear accidents.

The following specific topics have traditionally been discussed:
(a) Atmospheric Science (emissions, transport, deposition, pollution);
(b) Hydrology (transport in surface and ground water system, soil-water interactions);
(c) Oceanology (transport, bio-system interaction);
(d) Soil System (transport, chemical interaction, transfer to organic system);
(e) Forestry;
(f) Natural Hazards (warning systems, health risk assessments, geophysical variability, countermeasure);
(g) Measurement Techniques (instrumentation, multipoint data measurements);
(h) Ecosystems (migration/decay of radionuclides).

The session consists of updated observations, new theoretical developments including simulations, and improved methods or tools which could improve observation and prediction capabilities during eventual future nuclear emergencies. New evaluations of existing tools, past nuclear contamination events and other data sets also welcome.

Public information:
Here is instruction of a live chat,
(1) Convener’s summary at the beginning of Chat 10:45-11:00
(2) We then go each presentation for 5 minutes including discussion.
(3) Each presenter posts their own "a few sentence summary within 80 words" in total, and the discussion. Omit any greeting to save time.
(4) To save time, we even offer to post your summary when we introduce your talk if you send me before hand
Live chat schedule
10:45 Convener summary
— we present one highlight slide from each presentation and give audience to search for presentation to deeply look into.
11:00 10066 Mykola Talerko et al
11:05 15257 Joffrey Dumont Le Brazidec et al
11:10 233 Sheng Fang et al
11:15 5844 Elena Korobova et al
11:20 2252 Misa Yasumiishi et al
11:25 13220 Yuichi Onda et al (solicited/Highlights)
11:30 13965 Fumiaki Makino et al
11:35 12301 Michio Aoyama et al
11:40 22136 Yasuhito Igarashi et al
11:45 12465 Hikaru Iida et al
11:50 19250 Mark Zheleznyak et al
11:55 12477 Yoshifumi Wakiyama et al
12:00 3175 Michio Aoyama et al (solicited)
12:05 11813 Yayoi Inomata and Michio Aoyama
12:10 12627 Daisuke Tsumune et al
12:15 21319 Susumu Yamada (Masahiko Machida) et al
12:20 6987 Hikaru Miura et al
12:25 Closing remark

The session gathers geoscientific aspects such as dynamics, reactions, and environmental/health consequences of radioactive materials that are massively released accidentally (e.g., Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear power plant accidents, wide fires, etc.) and by other human activities (e.g., nuclear tests).

In addition to hazardous aspect for human society, the radioactive materials are used as ideal markers in understanding dynamics and physical/chemical/biological reactions chains in the environment. This multi-disciplinary session gathers all these aspect.

This session aims at a better understanding of the vulnerability of the built environment (building envelop, building content and infrastructure) to different types of natural hazards. The main focus herein is to present different models and approaches to bridge the gap between ex-post loss and damage assessment and ex-ante predictive models. Studies on loss, damage and vulnerability often address different scales and spatial patterns obstructing the comparison and transfer of results and methods. Moreover, although existing models (matrices, indices and functions) demonstrate high variance, analysis of the associated uncertainties remains fragmentary. We invite contributions addressing vulnerability, loss and damage assessment and we provide a platform for scientific exchange and implementation for successful disaster risk reduction strategies focusing on building back better, mitigation and adaptation.

This session addresses knowledge exchange between researchers, the public, policy makers, and practitioners about natural hazards. Although we welcome all contributions in this topic, we are particularly interested in: (i) The communication (by scientists, engineers, the press, civil protection, government agencies, and a multitude other agencies) of natural hazards risk and uncertainty to the general public and other government officials; (ii) Approaches that address barriers and bridges in the science-policy-practice interface that hinder and support application of hazard-related knowledge; (iii) The teaching of natural hazards to university and lower-level students, using innovative techniques to promote understanding. We also are specifically interested in distance education courses on themes related to hazard and risk assessment, and disaster risk management, and in programmes for training in developing countries. We therefore solicit abstracts, particularly dynamic posters, on all aspects of how we communicate and educate the better understanding of natural hazards. We plan on having a PICO session to ensure a lively combination of discussion and poster presentation.