The annual governance meeting for the GM Division containing a report on progress within and across the GM Divison and dialouge between the GM community and the GM President and the Science Division Officer team. 

Landscapes, and how they change over time, provide the foundations of life and affect the ecosystems and human activities that can exist on Earth. Yet, there appears to be no single axis of causality between landscape and Earth surface processes, but rather, each entity can exert a simultaneous influence on the other over a wide range of temporal and spatial scales. We are just starting to realise and explore the modes, trajectories and effects of these coupled systems, and to trace and infer the often non-linear feedback mechanisms.
Geomorphology inevitably stands in the center of an emerging science devoted to the Earth's surface, where strong couplings link human dynamics, biology, biochemistry, geochemistry, geology, hydrology, geomorphology, soil science, and atmospheric dynamics, including past and ongoing climate changes.
Motivated by the importance of understanding Earth surface interactions, couplings and feedbacks on a rapidly changing globe, this session will bring together a series of invited speakers to provide insights and perspectives on this hot topic from across the field of geomorphology.

Flash floods triggered by heavy precipitation in small- to medium-sized catchments often cause catastrophic damages, which are largely explained by the very short response times and high specific peak discharge. Often, they are also associated with geomorphic processes such as erosion, sediment transport, debris flows and shallow landslides. The anticipation of such events is crucial for efficient crisis management. However, their predictability is still affected by large uncertainties, due to the fast evolution of triggering rainfall events, the lack of appropriate observations, the high variability and non-linearity in the physical processes, the high variability of societal exposure, and the complexity of societal vulnerability.
This session aims to illustrate current advances in monitoring, modeling, and short-range forecasting of flash floods and associated geomorphic processes, including their societal impacts.
Contributions related to the floods that occured in July 2021 in Germany and Western Europe, and in October 2020 in France and Italy (Alex storm) are particularly encouraged this year.
Contributions on the following scientific themes are specifically expected:
- Monitoring and nowcasting of heavy precipitation events based on radar and remote sensing (satellite, lightning, etc.) to complement rain gauge networks;
- Short-range (0-6h) heavy precipitation forecasting based on NWP models, with a focus on seamless forecasting strategies and ensemble strategies for the representation of uncertainties;
- Understanding and modeling of flash floods and associated geomorphic processes at appropriate space-time scales;
- Development of integrated hydro-meteorological forecasting chains and new modeling approaches for predicting flash floods and/or rainfall-induced geomorphic hazards in gauged and ungauged basins;
- New direct and indirect (proxy data) observation techniques and strategies for the observation or monitoring of hydrological reactions and geomorphic processes, and the validation of forecasting approaches;
- Development of impact-based modeling and forecasting approaches, including inundation mapping and/or specific impacts modeling approaches for the representation of societal vulnerability.

Sediment transport is a fundamental component of all geomorphic systems (including fluvial, aeolian, coastal, hillslopes and glacial), yet it is something that we still find surprisingly difficult both to monitor and to model. Robust data on where and how sediment transport occurs are needed to address outstanding research questions, including the spatial and temporal controls on critical shear stress, the influence of varying grain size distributions, and the impact of large magnitude events. Recent developments have provided a) new opportunities for measuring sediment transport in the field; and b) new ways to represent sediment transport in both physical laboratory models and in numerical models. These developments include (but are not limited to) the application of techniques such as seismic and acoustic monitoring, 3D imaging (e.g. CT and MRI scanning), deployment of sensors such as accelerometers, replication of field topography using 3D printing, use of luminescence as a sediment tracer, remote sensing of turbidity, discrete numerical modelling, and new statistical approaches.

In this session we welcome contributions from all areas of geomorphology that develop new methods for monitoring and modelling all types of sediment transport, or that showcase an application of such methods. Contributions from ECRs and underrepresented groups are particularly encouraged.

Transport of sediments in geophysical flows occurs in mountainous, fluvial, estuarine, coastal, aeolian and other natural or man-made environments on Earth, while also shapes the surface of planets such as Mars, Titan, and Venus. Understanding the motion of sediments is still one of the most fundamental problems in hydrological and geophysical sciences. Such processes can vary across a wide range of scales - from the particle to the landscape - which can directly impact both the form (geomorphology) and, on Earth, the function (ecology and biology) of natural systems and the built infrastructure surrounding them. In particular, feedback between flow and sediment transport as well as interparticle interactions including size sorting are a key processes in surface dynamics, finding a range of important applications, from hydraulic engineering and natural hazard mitigation to landscape evolution and river ecology.

Specific topics of interest include (but are not restricted to):

A) particle-scale interactions and transport processes:
-mechanics of entrainment and disentrainment (for fluvial and aeolian flows)
-momentum (turbulent impulses) and energy transfer between turbulent flows and particles
-upscaling and averaging techniques for stochastic transport processes
-interaction among grain sizes in poorly sorted mixtures, including particle segregation

B) reach-scale sediment transport and geomorphic processes
-bedform generation, evolution and disintegration dynamics (e.g. for dunes and other formations)
-discrete element modelling of transport processes and upscaling into continuum frameworks
-derivation and solution of equations for multiphase flows (including fluvial and aeolian flows)
-shallow water hydro-sediment-morphodynamic processes

C) large-scale, highly unsteady and complex water-sediment flows:
-flash floods, debris flows and landslides due to extreme rainfall
-natural and build dam failures and compound disasters (due to landslides, debris flow intrusion and downstream flooding)
-reservoir operation schemes and corresponding fluvial processes
-design of hydraulic structures such as fish passages, dam spillways, also considering the impact of sediment
-dredging, maintenance and regulation for large rivers and navigational waterways

Geomorphometry, a science of quantitative land surface analysis, gathers various mathematical, statistical and image processing techniques to quantify morphological, hydrological, ecological and other aspects of a land surface. The typical input to geomorphometric analysis is a square-grid representation of the land surface: a digital elevation model (DEM) or one of its derivatives. DEMs provide the backbone for many studies in Geo sciences, hydrology, land use planning and management, Earth observation and natural hazards.
One topic of active research concerns compromises between the use of global DEMs at 1-3 arc second, ~30-90 m grid spacing, and local LiDAR/structure from motion (SFM) elevation models at 1 m or finer grid spacing. Point clouds from LiDAR, either ground-based or from airborne vehicles, are a generally accepted reference tool to assess the accuracy of other DEMs. SFM data have a resolution comparable to LiDAR point clouds, but can cost significantly less to acquire for smaller areas. Globally available DEMS include the recently published Copernicus GLO-90 and GLO-30. This session provides an exciting forum to show the potential applications of this new DEM and its improvements over SRTM. We would like to investigate the tradeoff between the employment of the two kinds of data, and applications which can benefit from data at both (local and global) scales.
The improvements in the global DEMs, as well as the increasing availability of much finer resolution LiDAR and SFM DEMs, call for new analytical methods and advanced geo-computation techniques, necessary to cope with diverse application contexts. We aim at investigating new methods of analysis and advanced geo-computation techniques, including high-performance and parallel computing implementations of specific approaches.
Commercial applications of DEM data and of geomorphometric techniques can benefit important business sectors. Besides a proliferation of applications that can tolerate low accuracy geographical data and simple GIS applications, a large base of professionals use high-resolution, high-accuracy elevation data and high-performance GIS processing. We would like to survey and investigate professional, commercial and industrial applications, including software packages, from small enterprises to large companies, to ascertain how academic researchers and industry can work together.

Numerical frameworks are essential for understanding and interpreting landscape evolution. Over recent decades, geochronological techniques such as cosmogenic nuclides, thermochronology, radiocarbon and luminescence dating have improved in accuracy, precision, and temporal range. Developments in geochronological methods, data treatment and landscape evolution models have provided new insights into the timing, duration and intensity of landscape evolution processes. The combination of temporal constraints with numerical modelling has enormous potential for improving our understanding of landscape evolution. The focus of this session is to bring together geochronology, data science and models of Quaternary landscape change.

This session includes studies of erosional rates and processes, sediment provenance, burial and transport times, bedrock exposure or cooling histories, landscape dynamics, and the examination of potential biases and discordances in geochronological data and model-data comparisons. We welcome contributions that apply and combine novel geochronological methods and that intersect different geochronological techniques and numerical modelling with landscape evolution analysis. This includes the determination of rates and timing of landscape change as well as stochastic events, or that highlight the latest developments and open questions in the application of geochronometers to landscape evolution problems.

The introduction of cosmogenic nuclides in quantitative geomorphology and geochronology spurred large developments that transformed them into an essential tool in these fields. Cosmogenic nuclides can be used to provide important information on the exposure ages of features at the surface (e.g. river terraces, fault and landslide scarps, glacial moraines), burial ages of deep deposits, as well as quantitative information on the rates and evolution of surface processes (e.g. erosion, weathering, soil mixing), or even a tool for paleoaltimetry or paleotemperature. Continued technique development and creative applications expand the ways we can use cosmogenic nuclides.

This session explores both technique developments and novel applications of cosmogenic nuclides, inviting projects at any stage from early development to well-established methods applied to novel situations. We invite any type of cosmogenic nuclide technique developments, including new laboratory setup, measurement methods, laboratory techniques for extraction, modelling, or theoretical advancements. All cosmogenic nuclide applications in any field are welcome, and we especially encourage contributions using multiple nuclides, nuclides challenging for their extraction or interpretation (e.g. 3He, 36Ar, in situ 14C), combinations with other geochronology techniques, and other creative applications.

We aim herein to focus and illustrate all UAS/drone classical and new techniques and processing in order to study all Geological & Geomorphological objects in terms of 3D geometry (description and localisation, characterisation, quantification, modelisation...) in order to better constrained Earth Sciences processes.
Consequently, dealing with the technical point of view, it takes into account not only classical photogrammetric data processing through aerial photographs but also new techniques such as UAS-Lidar acquisition, and/or new UAS-interferometric acquisitions.
Many resulting dataset should be provided and discussed as key examples such as Very High Resolution Digital Terrain Model and/or Digital Surface Model (VHR DTM/DSM) less than 10cm ground resolution pixels that lead to acquire much more precise geometries, to up-date geological and geomorphological mapping and up-date structural scheme of geological targets. Many case examples could be listed herein such as analogs of sandstones or limestones reservoirs, active sedimentological processes in shoreline areas, or Natural Hazards processes such as landslides, etc...
For instance, in the active tectonic areas the HR UAS DTM may be combined with classical geodetic measurements such as levelings, numerous GPS and RTK surveys... and/or spatial PSInSAR, Smallbase line interferometric analyses in order to decipher and precise the active faults and folds structures and evenmore participate to determine the seismic cycles of major active faults.
We aim in this session to share our UAS/drone experiences on the various geological and geomorphological objects outcropping wherever the place of the Earth.

Recent advances in image collection, e.g. using unoccupied aerial vehicles (UAVs), and topographic measurements, e.g. using terrestrial or airborne LiDAR, are providing an unprecedented insight into landscape and process characterization in geosciences. In parallel, historical data including terrestrial, aerial, and satellite photos as well as historical digital elevation models (DEMs), can extend high-resolution time series and offer exciting potential to distinguish anthropogenic from natural causes of environmental change and to reconstruct the long-term evolution of the surface from local to regional scale.
For both historic and contemporary scenarios, the rise of techniques with ‘structure from motion’ (SfM) processing has democratized data processing and offers a new measurement paradigm to geoscientists. Photogrammetric and remote sensing data are now available on spatial scales from millimetres to kilometres and over durations of single events to lasting time series (e.g. from sub-second to decadal-duration time-lapse), allowing the evaluation of event magnitude and frequency interrelationships.
The session welcomes contributions from a broad range of geoscience disciplines such as geomorphology, cryosphere, volcanology, hydrology, bio-geosciences, and geology, addressing methodological and applied studies. Our goal is to create a diversified and interdisciplinary session to explore the potential, limitations, and challenges of topographic and orthoimage datasets for the reconstruction and interpretation of past and present 2D and 3D changes in different environments and processes. We further encourage contributions describing workflows that optimize data acquisition and processing to guarantee acceptable accuracies and to automate data application (e.g. geomorphic feature detection and tracking), and field-based experimental studies using novel multi-instrument and multi-scale methodologies. This session invites contributions on the state of the art and the latest developments in i) modern photogrammetric and topographic measurements, ii) remote sensing techniques as well as applications, iii) time-series processing and analysis, and iv) modelling and data processing tools, for instance, using machine learning approaches.

Geomorphometry and landform mapping are important tools used for understanding landscape processes and dynamics on Earth and other planetary bodies. The recent rapid advances in technology and data collection methods have made available vast quantities of geospatial data offering unprecedented spatio-temporal range, density, and resolution, but it also created new challenges in terms of data processing and analysis.

This inter-disciplinary session on geomorphometry and landform mapping aims to bridge the gap between process-focused research fields and the technical domain where geospatial products and analytical methods are developed. The increasing availability of a wide range of geospatial datasets requires the continued development of new tools and analytical approaches as well as landform/landscape classifications. However, a potential lack of communication across disciplines results in efforts to be mainly focused on problems within individual fields. We aim to foster collaboration and the sharing of ideas across subject-boundaries, between technique developers and users, enabling us as a community to fully exploit the wealth of geospatial data that is now available.

We welcome perspectives on geomorphometry and landform mapping from ANY discipline (e.g. geomorphology, planetary science, natural hazard assessment, computer science, remote sensing). This session aims to showcase both technical and applied studies, and we welcome contributions that present (a) new techniques for collecting or deriving geospatial data products, (b) novel tools for analysing geospatial data and extracting innovative geomorphometric variables, (c) mapping and/or morphometric analysis of specific landforms as well as whole landscapes, and (d) mapping and/or morphometric analysis of newly available geospatial datasets. Contributions that demonstrate multi-method or inter-disciplinary approaches are particularly encouraged. We also actively encourage contributors to present tools/methods that are “in development”.

One of the key challenges in earthquake geology is the characterization of the spatial distribution of fault-slip and its partitioning during the coseismic, interseismic, and post-seismic periods. We now have new approaches and techniques for validating the assumption that repeated seismic cycles accommodate the long-term tectonic strain and for disentangling such a complex strain partitioning in both time and space. In fact, the temporal and spatial slip accumulation for an active fault is essential to understand the hazard posed by the fault. As a matter of fact, destructive earthquakes are infrequent along any active fault and this is an inherent limitation to knowledge towards reconstructing the seismic cycle. For example, the occurrence of the 2021 Alaska earthquake Mw 8.2 within the rupture zone of the Mw 8.2 1938 Alaska earthquake, and 2021 Haiti earthquake Mw 7.2 within the same fault zone of the 2010 earthquake Mw 7.0 (which claimed 300,000 lives), reflects how much the characterization of the seismic cycle and earthquakes’ recurrence is critical for cities and regions which are under the constant seismic threat.
Modern techniques such as Remote Sensing, Geodesy, Geomorphology, Paleoseismology, and Geochronology play a vital role in constraining part of or full seismic cycles, with increased accuracy and temporal coverage of the long-term deformation. To fully understand these observations there is a need for a better understanding and integration of such techniques to be applied across different fault systems, globally.
The goal of this session is to bring together innovative approaches and techniques, to take a comprehensive look at the earthquake cycle for plate boundary fault systems to fault systems sitting far away from the plate boundary.

A well-designed experiment is a crucial methodology in Soil Science, Geomorphology and Hydrology.
Depending on the specific research topic, a great variety of tempo-spatial scales is addressed.
From raindrop impact and single particle detachment to the shaping of landscapes: experiments are designed and conducted to illustrate problems, clarify research questions, develop and test hypotheses, generate data and deepen process understanding.
Every step involved in design, construction, conduction, processing and interpretation of experiments and experimental data might be a challenge on itself, and discussions within the community can be a substantial and fruitful component for both, researchers and teachers.
This PICO session offers a forum for experimentalists, teachers, students and enthusiasts.
We invite you to present your work, your questions, your results and your method, to meet, to discuss, to exchange ideas and to consider old and new approaches.
Join the experimentalists!

The Quaternary Period (last 2.6 million years) is characterized by frequent and abrupt climate swings that were accompanied by rapid environmental change. Studying these changes requires accurate and precise dating methods that can be effectively applied to environmental archives. A range of different methods or a combination of various dating techniques can be used, depending on the archive, time range, and research question. Varve counting and dendrochronology allow for the construction of high-resolution chronologies, whereas radiometric methods (radiocarbon, cosmogenic in-situ, U-Th) and luminescence dating provide independent anchors for chronologies that span over longer timescales. We particularly welcome contributions that aim to (1) reduce, quantify and express dating uncertainties in any dating method, including high-resolution radiocarbon approaches; (2) use established geochronological methods to answer new questions; (3) use new methods to address longstanding issues, or; (4) combine different chronometric techniques for improved results, including the analysis of chronological datasets with novel methods, e.g. Bayesian age-depth modeling. Applications may aim to understand long-term landscape evolution, quantify rates of geomorphological processes, or provide chronologies for records of climate change.

Age models are applied in paleoclimatological, paleogeographic and geomorphologic studies to understand the timing of climatic and environmental change. Multiple independent geochronological dating methods are available to generate robust age models. For example, different kinds of radio isotopic dating, magneto-, bio-, cyclostratigraphy and sedimentological relationships along stratigraphic successions or in different landscape contexts. The integration of these different kinds of geochronological information often poses challenges.
Age-depth or chronological landscape models are the ultimate result of the integration of different geochronological techniques and range from linear interpolation to more complex Bayesian techniques. Invited speakers will share their experience in several modelling concepts and their application in a range of Quaternary paleoenvironmental and geomorphologic records. The Short Course will provide an overview of age models and the problems one encounters in climate science and geomorphology. Case studies and practical examples are given to present solutions for these challenges. It will prepare the participants from CL, GM and other divisions for independent application of suitable age-depth models to their climate or geomorphologic data.

The purpose of this session is to: (1) showcase the current state-of-the-art in global and continental scale natural hazard risk science, assessment, and application; (2) foster broader exchange of knowledge, datasets, methods, models, and good practice between scientists and practitioners working on different natural hazards and across disciplines globally; and (3) collaboratively identify future research avenues.
Reducing natural hazard risk is high on the global political agenda. For example, it is at the heart of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and the Paris Agreement. In response, the last decade has seen an explosion in the number of scientific datasets, methods, and models for assessing risk at the global and continental scale. More and more, these datasets, methods and models are being applied together with stakeholders in the decision decision-making process.
We invite contributions related to all aspects of natural hazard risk assessment at the continental to global scale, including contributions focusing on single hazards, multiple hazards, or a combination or cascade of hazards. We also encourage contributions examining the use of scientific methods in practice, and the appropriate use of continental to global risk assessment data in efforts to reduce risks. Furthermore, we encourage contributions focusing on globally applicable methods, such as novel methods for using globally available datasets and models to force more local models or inform more local risk assessment.

The action of a fluid moving over a mobile surface often generates bedforms which in turn influence the flow and how particles are transported. On Earth, bedforms are found in many environments: deserts, rivers, estuaries, continental shelves, deep seas, volcanic regions and glacial environments. Bedforms have also been observed in extra-terrestrial environments, such as on Mars and Venus.

Understanding the links between flow, particle transport, and bedform morphodynamics and stratigraphy is of interest for a wide range of applied and fundamental research. For example, this knowledge is used to manage contemporary environments, such as rivers and coastal seas. Recently, the societal relevance of bedform research has been highlighted, as bedforms are shown to interact with offshore structures. Furthermore, bedform morphology and sedimentology can provide insights into fluid movement across modern and ancient, otherwise unknown, landscapes.

This session aims to highlight many aspects of the complex interaction between flow, sediment transport, stratigraphy and bedforms in terrestrial and planetary environments. The session welcomes contributions from theoretical, field, laboratory and numerical approaches related to bedforms found in aeolian, shallow and deep waters, glacial and planetary environments. The session intends to advance our knowledge of how to decipher information contained in terrestrial and extra-terrestrial bedforms and help foster fruitful discussions on understanding bedform morphodynamics and stratigraphy.

Sedimentary processes in aquatic environments, including erosion, transport, and deposition of sediment by hydrodynamic mechanisms, are key features for various research disciplines, e.g., geomorphology and paleoclimatology or hydraulics, river engineering and water resources management and hydrology. Accurate quantification of erosion, transport, and deposition rates, conditioning river channel morphology, and bed composition, is fundamental for adequate development of conceptual sediment budget models and for the calibration and validation of the numerical tools.
The main goal of this session is to bring together the community of scientists, scholars, and engineers, investigating, teaching, and applying novel measurement techniques and monitoring concepts, which are crucial in determining sedimentary and hydro-morphological processes in rivers, lakes, and reservoirs, estuaries as well as in coastal and maritime environments. It focuses on the quantification of bedload and suspended load, bedforms migration, channel horizontal migration, bed armoring and colmation, but also the transport mode, flocculation, settling, and re-suspension of the sediment particles.
Contributions are welcome with a particular focus on single and combined measurement techniques, post-processing methods as well as on innovative and advanced monitoring concepts for field and laboratory applications. We welcome contributions containing recent results in a temporal and spatial scale on sediment budgets as well as on sedimentary and morphodynamic processes in open water environments.
Contributions may refer but are not restricted to:
• Measurements of suspended sediment and/or bedload transport in open water environments, e.g., with classical or novel methods;
• Determination of sediment characteristics, e.g., with mechanical bed material samplers or freeze core technique;
• Innovative measurement approach or techniques aimed for validation and calibration of numerical models;
• Measurements of critical bed shear stress of cohesive sediments, e.g., with benthic flumes or miscellaneous devices;
• Monitoring of morphological changes like lake and reservoir sedimentation, bank erosion or bed armoring, meandering
migration, river bends evolution;
• Measuring networks / multiple point datasets;
• Large- or small-scale monitoring concepts including case studies;
• In-situ or laboratory calibration of measurement data using classical or novel (e.g., machine learning) approaches;

Complex hydro-morphological processes, such as sediment erosion, transport, deposition, or fan development, affect open water environments, including rivers, estuaries as well as lakes and reservoirs. Consequently, many research tasks as well as practical applications rely on the correct prediction of these processes. During the last decades, numerical models have become a powerful tool in the research fields of hydraulic engineering and geosciences to simulate these hydro-morphological processes. With improved algorithms as well as an ever-growing computational power, it became feasible to simulate the interaction of water, sediments, and air with high resolution in space and time. In addition, with an increasing quantity and quality of validation data from laboratory experiments and field studies, numerical models are continuously enhanced so that many good examples of sediment transport modelling offer new insights in multiphase processes, e.g., dune development, river bed armouring or density-driven transport. Hence, new generations of numerical techniques open the possibility to explore numerous outstanding research questions related to hydro-morphologic processes. Artificial Intelligence procedures offer an additional alternative to hydro-morphological studies, e.g., determining particle size or floodplain vegetation cover.
The main goal of this session is to bring together scientists and engineers, who develop, improve, and apply numerical models of multiphase flows for sediment transport in open water environments. We invite contributions that deal with numerical modelling from small-scale, such as bed structure development, to large-scale interactions, such as long-term development of hydro-morphological processes in rivers, lakes, reservoirs, and estuaries.
Contributions may refer, but are not restricted, to:
• Entrainment processes of sediments (from cohesive sediments to armoured river beds)
• Bed load and suspended sediment transport processes (including flocculation processes)
• Simulation of sediment management including planning, operation and maintenance of hydro power plants
• Design and evaluation of restoration measures to revitalize rivers
• Navigation issues, such as sediment replenishment, dredging and erosion induced by ship generated waves
• Flood related issues of long term effects of morphological bed changes on flood security
• Eco-hydraulics such as flow – sediment – vegetation interaction
• Density driven transport

The production, transport, and deposition of sediment and the evolution of hillslopes and river networks govern the fluxes and distribution of solid mass on the surface of the Earth. The frequency, magnitude, and physical and chemical properties of these fluxes are initially controlled by external forcing (climate and tectonics) before being modulated by the complex interplay of surface processes. Understanding the interplay of these processes and how they are affected by external forcing is vital to understanding how sediment fluxes and topography have changed through time.

A growing body of studies continues to develop a process-based understanding of the coupling between climate, tectonics, and the evolution of catchments and the production and transport of solids within them. However, many challenges remain including; (1) fully quantifying the rates and patterns of erosion, sediment transport, and landscape evolution, (2) assessing the importance of large and infrequent events in controlling erosion and sediment transport, (3) bridging the gap between short- and long-term or small- and large-scale records of erosion, deposition, and landscape evolution, and (4) determining the impact of lithology on these records.

In this session we welcome field-based, experimental, and modelling studies, that (1) constrain mechanisms, rates, and scales of erosion, transport, and deposition processes, (2) analyse the influence of internal and external forcing on these processes or resulting landscape evolution, and/or (3) investigate the propagation of geochemical or physical signals across the earth surface (such as changes in river network morphology, sedimentary fluxes, grain size distributions, or cosmogenic nuclide concentrations).Contributions across all temporal and spatial scales are welcome.

Hydro-geomorphic connectivity has emerged as a significant conceptual framework for understanding the transfer of surface water and materials (e.g. sediment, plant propagules, and nutrients) through landscapes. The concept of connectivity has had particular success in the fields of catchment hydrology, fluvial geomorphology and soil erosion, but has also been employed in, for example, studies of hydrochory. Connectivity as applied in various disciplines can be a transformative concept in understanding complex systems, allowing analyses of how such systems behave in terms of scaling, catastrophic/phase transitions, critical nodes, emergence and self-organization, e.g. by applying network-based analyses and modelling. Recent research also highlights the widespread nature of disconnectivity in river and catchment systems, caused by natural and anthropogenic structures including dams, log jams, or agricultural terraces. These and other forms of disconnectivity can have large spatial and temporal implications on ecological, geomorphic, hydrological and biogeochemical processes through buffering water and material fluxes. We aim to create a diverse interdisciplinary session that reflects a broad range of research seeking to illustrate the role of (dis-)connectivity in river and catchment systems. We hope to use the session to develop a discussion of the dual roles of connectivity and disconnectivity to generate a basis for an integrated framework to be applied across different fields of geosciences and for managing river and catchment systems.

Soil erosion is a major global soil degradation threat to land, freshwater and oceans. Scientific understanding of all erosional physical processes controlling soil detachment, transportation, and deposition is vital when developing methods and conservation alternatives to minimize the impacts associated with soil degradation and support decision making.
This session will discuss the latest developments in soil erosion and closely associated land degradation processes in agriculture, forest and rangelands. Providing space for presenting and discussing:
• measurements - from rill to gully erosion, by means of field essays or laboratory experiments;
• monitoring - short to long-term assessments, by mean of local assessments or remote sensing techniques;
• modelling approaches – from plot to global scale, addressing current and future land and climate change demands;
• mitigation and restoration – to address on-site and off-site impacts on soils and water.

Our main objective is to scientifically discuss soil erosion processes and impacts but also to explore strategies that may help land stakeholders (farmers, land managers or policy makers), and support the ongoing initiatives aiming for land degradation neutrality by 2030 and the upcoming UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030).

Soil is the largest carbon (C) reservoir in terrestrial ecosystems with twice the amount of atmospheric C and three times the amount in terrestrial vegetation. Carbon related ecosystem services include retention of water and nutrients, promoting soil fertility and productivity and soil resistance to erosion. In addition, changes in the soil C can have strong implications for greenhouse gas emissions from soil with implications in environmental health.

Drivers controlling C pools and its dynamics are multiple (e.g. land use/vegetation cover, climate, texture and bedrock, topography, soil microbial community, soil erosion rates, soil and other environment management practices, etc. ) and mutually interacting at various time and spatial scales. At the one time, rate of soil C loss can be high due to both climatic constrains or unsuitable management. Thus, investigating C dynamics include the adaptation of the management factors to the actual climate, the climate change and climatic extreme events to provide a better understanding of carbon stabilization processes and thus support decision making in soil management and climate adaptation strategies.


The present session highlights the importance of soil C changes, and the interaction among the mechanisms affecting C concentration and stocks in soil, including soil management. Discussion about proxies of measurement and modelling organic and inorganic C flows, concentration and stocks, with special emphasis to cropping systems and natural/semi-natural areas, is encouraged. These proxies should be approached at varying the availability of soil and environment information, including, e.g., soil texture, rainfall, temperature, bulk density, land use and land management, or proximal and remote sensing properties. Studies presented in this session can aim to a wealth of aims, including soil fertility, provision of ecosystem services, and their changes, and the implication for economy, policy, and decision making.

Types of contribution appreciated include, but are not limited to, definitive and intermediate results; project outcomes; proposal of methods or sampling and modelling strategies, and the assessment of their effectiveness; projection of previous results at the light of climate change and climatic extremes; literature surveys, reviews, and meta-analysis. These works will be evaluated at the light of the organisation of a special issue in an impacted journal

Soils and palaeosols develop under the influence of various environmental factors that produce specific soil features, thus keeping a memory of both current and past environments. They are valuable archives of human activities that shaped environments and affected soil formation over the Holocene period. They can be studied to reconstruct environmental factors that were present during the time of their formation, and to disentangle the relative influences of different environmental conditions, both local and regional, on soil formation. Despite the increasing consideration of palaeosols in sedimentary successions, studies linking pedogenesis and sedimentary processes are still underrepresented. Anthropogenic soils in archaeological settings provide valuable archives for geoarchaeological studies, with their stratigraphy and properties reflecting settlement life cycles (occupation, abandonment, and reoccupation) and land-use history. Land-use legacy soils also have enormous potential for process-related research such as studying the long-term effects on the organic and inorganic carbon budget, physical compaction, aggregation, formation of anthropogenic pedofeatures and more.
This session is open for all contributions focused on the study of palaeosols, anthropogenic soils, and anthropogenically-affected soils, in particular on:
- The use of palaeosols and land-use legacy soils as records of present and former environments, both local and regional;
- Palaeosols and anthropogenically-affected soils and their relationships with sedimentary processes;
- Anthropogenic soils and palaeosols in archaeological contexts;
- The methodological progress in the study of soil records (for example, advances in biochemical, geochemical, and micromorphological (sub-)microscopic techniques in palaeopedology, in the interpretation of palaeoenvironmental data such as biomarker and isotope data, in remote sensing or modelling methods used to map and analyze spatial patterns of palaeosol and land use legacy soil distribution);
- Predictions of future soil changes as a result of changes in environmental conditions and/or land-use, based on observed past soil responses to environmental changes.

Dissolution, precipitation, and chemical reactions between infiltrating fluid and rock matrix alter the composition and structure of the rock, either creating or destroying flow paths. Strong, nonlinear couplings between the chemical reactions at mineral surfaces and fluid motion in the pores often leads to the formation of intricate patterns: networks of caves and sinkholes in karst area, wormholes induced by the acidization of petroleum wells, porous channels created during the ascent of magma through peridotite rocks. Dissolution and precipitation processes are also relevant in many industrial applications: dissolution of carbonate rocks by CO2-saturated water can reduce the efficiency of CO2 sequestration, mineral scaling reduces the effectiveness of heat extraction from thermal reservoirs, acid rain degrades carbonate-stone monuments and building materials.

With the advent of modern experimental techniques, these processes can now be studied at the microscale, with direct visualization of the evolving pore geometry. On the other hand, the increase of computational power and algorithmic improvements now make it possible to simulate laboratory-scale flows while still resolving the flow and transport processes at the pore-scale.

We invite contributions that seek a deeper understanding of reactive flow processes through interdisciplinary work combining experiments or field observations with theoretical or computational modeling. We seek submissions covering a wide range of spatial and temporal scales: from table-top experiments and pore-scale numerical models to the hydrological and geomorphological modelling at the field scale. We also invite contributions from related fields, including the processes involving coupling of the flow with phase transitions (evaporation, sublimation, melting and solidification).

Climate-induced geohazards are known to increase with climate change causing more intense rainfall and more frequent extreme weather events. Use of vegetation on potentially unstable slopes and along stream banks is an example of Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) that can mitigate climate induced geohazards due their role at the soil-atmosphere interface. Vegetating slopes or stream banks are also key for ecological restoration and rewilding, providing several additional co-benefits. However, researchers in different fields of science or practitioners do not easily communicate, even though they are addressing aspects of the same problem.
Interdisciplinary research and bilateral communication are needed to document the effects of vegetation in hazard-prone areas in a measurable and applicable manner. These NBS must have an ecological approach, where in the long-term perspective, a multiple approach for biodiversity and ecosystem services will give mutual synergies.

This session aims to stimulate interdisciplinary communication, knowledge exchange and dissemination on plant-soil-atmosphere interaction, with focus on vegetation mitigating climate-induced geohazards, particularly shallow landslides and erosion.
Contributions documenting how vegetation and roots can be beneficial also in land use planning, restoration ecology, climate change adaptation are welcome within the fields of geotechnical engineering, plant ecology, biodiversity, alpine timberline, hydrogeology and agronomy.
Interaction between research and industry, with involvement of NBS entrepreneurs, are particularly welcome.

Topics of interested are listed, including, but not limited to:
• Experimental, either laboratory or field, or numerical investigation of plant-soil-atmosphere interaction and its relation to slope or bank stability
• How to implement morpho-mechanical parameters of plants in engineering design?
• Measuring and quantifying the effects of vegetation as NBS to mitigate climate-induced geohazards
• Tools, approaches, and frameworks demonstrating how vegetation can be used to mitigate climate-induced geohazards, while providing additional co-benefits
• Investigation on upscaling potential from laboratory to slope and catchment scale
• Case studies of restoration or stabilisation works, especially on design principles and performance assessment
• Ensuring interdisciplinary interaction and mutual synergies for studies containing vegetation as NBS among different disciplines

Rockfalls, rockslides and rock avalanches are among the primary hazards and drivers of landscape evolution in steep terrain. The physics of rock slope degradation and dynamics of failure and transport mechanisms define the hazards and possible mitigation strategies and enable retrodictions and predictions of events and controls.

This session aims to bring together state-of-the-art methods for predicting, assessing, quantifying, and protecting against rock slope hazards across spatial and temporal scales. We seek innovative contributions from investigators dealing with all stages of rock slope hazards, from weathering and/or damage accumulation, through detachment, transport and deposition, and finally to the development of protection and mitigation measures. In particular, we seek studies presenting new theoretical, numerical or probabilistic modelling approaches, novel data sets derived from laboratory, in situ, or remote sensing applications, and state-of-the-art approaches to social, structural, or natural protection measures. We especially encourage contributions from geomechanics/rock physics, geodynamics, geomorphology and tectonics to better understand how rockfall, rockslides and rock avalanches act across scales.

The global increase in damaging landslide events has attracted the attention of governments, practitioners, and scientists to develop functional, reliable and (when possible) low cost monitoring strategies. Numerous case studies have demonstrated how a well-planned monitoring system of landslides is of fundamental importance for long and short-term risk reduction.

Today, the temporal evolution of a landslide is addressed in several ways, encompassing classical and more complex in situ measurements or remotely sensed data acquired from satellite and aerial platforms. All these techniques are adopted for the same final scope: measure landslide motion over time, trying to forecast future evolution or minimally reconstruct its recent past. Real time, near-real time and deferred time strategies can be profitably used for landslide monitoring, depending on the type of phenomenon, the selected monitoring tool, and the acceptable level of risk.

This session follows the general objectives of the International Consortium on Landslides, namely: (i) promote landslide research for the benefit of society, (ii) integrate geosciences and technology within the cultural and social contexts to evaluate landslide risk, and (iii) combine and coordinate international expertise.

Considering these key conceptual drivers, this session aims to present successful monitoring experiences worldwide based on both in situ and/or remotely sensed data. The integration and synergic use of different techniques is welcomed, as well as newly developed tools or data analysis approaches, including big data management strategies. Specifically, a thematic focus will be on applications combining satellite, aerial or ground remote sensing with geophysical data such as electrical, seismic or electromagnetic surveys. The session is expected also to present case studies in which multi-temporal and multi-platform monitoring data are exploited for risk management and Civil Protection aims with positive effects in both social and economic terms.

Debris flows are among the most dangerous natural hazards that threaten people and infrastructures in both mountainous and volcanic areas. The study of the initiation and dynamics of debris flows, along with the characterization of the associated erosion/deposition processes, is of paramount importance for hazard assessment, land-use planning and design of mitigation measures, including early warning systems. In addition, the impacts of climate change on debris-flow activity must be considered and carefully analysed, as the number of mountain areas prone to these events may increase in future.
A growing number of scientists with diverse backgrounds are studying debris flows and lahars. The difficulties in measuring parameters related to their initiation and propagation have progressively prompted research into a wide variety of laboratory experiments and monitoring studies. However, there is a need of improving the quality of instrumental observations that would provide knowledge for more accurate hazards maps and modeling. Nowadays, the combination of distributed sensor networks and remote sensing techniques represents a unique opportunity to gather direct observations of debris flows to better constrain their physical properties.
Scientists working in the field of debris flows are invited to present their recent advancements. In addition, contributions from practitioners and decision makers are also welcome. Topics of the session include: field studies and documentation, mechanics of debris-flow initiation and propagation, laboratory experiments, modeling, monitoring, impacts of climate change on debris-flow activity, hazard and risk assessment and mapping, early warning, and alarm systems.

Landslides are ubiquitous geomorphological phenomena with potentially catastrophic consequences. In several countries, landslide mortality can be higher than that of any other natural hazard. Predicting landslides is a difficult task that is of both scientific interest and societal relevance that may help save lives and protect individual properties and collective resources. The session focuses on innovative methods and techniques to predict landslide occurrence, including the location, time, size, destructiveness of individual and multiple slope failures. All landslide types are considered, from fast rockfalls to rapid debris flows, from slow slides to very rapid rock avalanches. All geographical scales are considered, from the local to the global scale. Of interest are contributions investigating theoretical aspects of natural hazard prediction, with emphasis on landslide forecasting, including conceptual, mathematical, physical, statistical, numerical and computational problems, and applied contributions demonstrating, with examples, the possibility or the lack of a possibility to predict individual or multiple landslides, or specific landslide characteristics. Of particular interest are contributions aimed at: the evaluation of the quality of landslide forecasts; the comparison of the performance of different forecasting models; the use of landslide forecasts in operational systems; and investigations of the potential for the exploitation of new or emerging technologies e.g., monitoring, computational, Earth observation technologies, in order to improve our ability to predict landslides. We anticipate that the most relevant contributions will be collected in the special issue of an international journal.

Obtaining quantitative information on the spatial pattern of soil redistribution during storms and on the spatial sources supplying sediment to rivers is required to improve our understanding of the processes controlling these transfers and to design effective control measures. It is also crucial to quantify the transfer or the residence times of material transiting rivers along the sediment cascade, and to reconstruct the potential changes in sources that may have occurred at various temporal scales. During the last few decades, several sediment tracing or fingerprinting techniques have contributed to provide this information, in association with other methods (including soil erosion modelling and sediment budgeting). However, their widespread application is limited by several challenges that the community should address as priorities.
We invite specific contributions to this session that address any aspects of the following:
• Developments of innovative field measurement and sediment sampling techniques;
• Soil and sediment tracing techniques for quantifying soil erosion and redistribution;
• Sediment source tracing or fingerprinting studies, using conventional (e.g. elemental/isotopic geochemistry, fallout radionuclides, organic matter) or alternative (e.g. colour, infrared, particle morphometry) approaches;
• Investigations of the current limitations associated with sediment tracing studies (e.g. tracer conservativeness, uncertainty analysis, particle size and organic matter corrections);
• Applications of radioisotope tracers to quantify sediment transit times over a broad range of timescales (from the flood to the century);
• The association of conventional techniques with remote sensing and emerging technologies (e.g. LiDAR);
• Integrated approaches to developing catchment sediment budgets: linking different measurement techniques and/or models to understand sediment delivery processes.

Denudational hillslope and fluvial processes, associated source-to-sink fluxes and sedimentary budgets are controlled by a range of environmental drivers and anthropogenic activities, exacerbated by the consequences of climate change. A better understanding of the drivers, mechanisms and rates of contemporary denudational hillslope and fluvial processes as well as of the sediment and hydrological connectivity across a range of different spatio-temporal scales and climatic zones has significant societal implications for water quality, hydraulic infrastructures, aquatic ecosystems, public safety, and biogeochemical cycles.

The session aims to bring together interdisciplinary researchers working across field, experimental, numerical modelling, remote sensing, and dating approaches who are advancing methods and providing new insights into: (i) slope mass movements (e.g., landslides, rockfalls, and debris flows) and related hazard cascades in mountainous environments; (ii) water, sediment and solute source-to-sink processes in different climate zones (e.g., cold climate, temperate, arid and tropical regions) from small headwaters to large river systems at event, seasonal, and multi-decadal scales; and (iii) the anthropogenic impacts and societal implications of changing hillslope and fluvial processes and possible solutions for future sustainable management.

We encourage the participation of early-career researchers and PhD students working in the fields of geomorphology, hydrology, hazard, glaciers, permafrost, and aquatic ecosystems, as we aim to expand and integrate the network of researchers addressing this complex subject across scientific disciplines.

This session is organized by the International Association of Geomorphologists (IAG) Working Group on Denudation and Environmental Changes in Different Morphoclimatic Zones (DENUCHANGE).