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).

Land cover dynamics are driving forces for geomorphic processes in mountain landscape inducing beneficial and adverse effects on landscape. Consequently, detecting and monitoring land cover changes are of fundamental relevance in a wide spectrum of useful applications for adjusting soil protection and land management policies. Moreover, they are necessary to identify hillslope denudation, to quantify the soil loss, and to assess changing environmental conditions (vegetation communities and soil properties). Land cover data can be acquired at local, regional and/or global scales using traditional and/or innovative technologies (from field measurements to remote sensing) with different accuracy. Using such information, most investigations have been focusing on analysing, modelling and predicting geomorphic and landform-shaping processes that have a strong impact on both natural ecosystems and cultivated lands in terms of economic, social and environmental implications. In particular, the alterations of soil properties and vegetation cover in terms of soil aggregation, soil detachment, soil reinforcement and/or soil hydrological processes, are often causes of more complex and extremely difficult to predict landscape processes.
Thus, this session aims to group together the most recent scientific research and activities, especially those paying heed to transient or long-term slope failure mechanism as well as surface/subsurface water flow and soil erosion processes. Research abstracts are invited to address:
1. observation of land cover types, land cover changes (urbanization, road building, forest destruction, etc.), and occurrences of geomorphic processes (erosion, landslides, rockfalls) using a wide spectrum of technologies (field instruments, unmanned aerial vehicles and satellite images);
2. investigation on relationship between land cover change and surface processes at different scales (from hillslope to regional scale);
3. assessment of soil instabilities (erosion, landslides, rockfalls) through innovative modelling approaches (statistical, physical-based and numerical);
4. development of guidelines and regulations for practitioners, technicians, policy and decision makers.
We highly welcome pioneering research from all fields, especially from geomorphology, agricultural science, soil science, geotechnics and environmental engineering. Early career scientists are encouraged to contribute to the session with original and advanced studies.

Biogeomorphology addresses the two-way interaction between abiotic and biotic elements that shape landscapes at various spatio-temporal scales. Yet, developing theory, methods and quantifying processes across the abiotic/biotic interface remains challenging. This is partly due to the interdisciplinarity of biogeomorphology, integrating concepts from biology, climatology, engineering, Earth surface science and geology (amongst other disciplines). Although more and more biogeomorphic feedbacks are being investigated, understood, and applied in practice, many of these remain poorly studied and understood. However, a better understanding of abiotic-biotic interaction across scales is urgently needed for a more holistic understanding of the Earth surface as well as ecological dynamics for sustainable management, and climate change mitigation and adaptation.

This session aims to bring together geoscientists, soil scientists and biologists working at different spatial and temporal scales on how climate, tectonics, soils, flora and fauna affect landscape development, erosion control and thus form the Earth’s surface. Thus, we provide a discussion platform for all aspects of biogeomorphology, including fundamental science and applied studies. Topics may include, but are not limited to, biogeomorphic processes, rates and feedbacks for biotic and/or abiotic processes, climate-tectonics-earth surface dynamics, and biogeomorphology as a tool to sustainably manage natural systems and hazards. We encourage everyone interested in biogeomorphology to contribute to the session to further strengthen the community and stimulate discussion and collaboration across scales.

Geodiversity is a recent relevant topic among Geosciences, and characterizes drainage basins, which record information from a variety of components of the natural environment, relevant for the scientific assessment of both long-term evolutionary processes and interpretation of recent responses to climate change, as well as for the Nature-Human interactions. The establishment of a conceptual/methodological framework for multifactor/multidimensional approaches to Geodiversity of drainage basins is of relevant value for the enhancement of the related geosystem services.
From slope micro-catchments to large drainage systems, river basins are geosystems characterized by a high degree of individuality. Geodiversity assessment at various scales offers advanced knowledge on river catchment functioning by means of many conditioning factors, such as: geology, lithology, tectonics, geomorphology, energy and matter cycle, connectivity between slope and fluvial subsystems, soil, climate, land cover and land use etc. The variety of such environmental features controls the functional connectivity of river basins.
Since each catchment represents a different object, the assessment of geodiversity within river basins (i.e. intrinsic) appears as a complex analytical process of each element; at the same time, it drives the relationships between different basins (i.e. extrinsic geodiversity).
The key issue is the selection of criteria for assessing geodiversity considering the spatial, thematic and temporal resolutions. Another open problem is the assessment of services offered by geodiversity of drainage basins (i.e. geosystem services), particularly those in highly dynamic conditions due to present day climate change.
In this session, we aim to receive contributions on two closely-related concepts in a contemporary challenge for geoscientists. How can geodiversity and the related variable features limit the geosystem services? This question arises in present-day communities as the dilemma of using and exploiting river basin resources while preserving them for future generations. Different morphoclimatic conditions make great landscape, and in the specific drainage basins complexities and different possibilities of providing geosystem services emerges. These issues become particularly powerful in the era of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

The North-Atlantic-Arctic realm hosts vast extended continental shelves bordering old land masses, two Large Igneous Provinces (LIPs), one of which is the largest known sub-marine LIP (Alpha-Mendeleev Ridge) and a complex ocean spreading systems, including the slowest mid-ocean spreading ridge (Gakkel Ridge) and several extinct ocean basins.
Over recent decades, increasing scientific interest has led to the acquisition of vast quantities of geological and geophysical data across the North Atlantic-Arctic realm, yet our understanding of the region has become, if anything, even more controversial than it was before. The geodynamic and geomorphological processes acting here (and globally) are key to the understanding of the structure, geodynamic and paleolandscape evolution, hazards and resources in the region.
This session provides a forum for discussions and reviews of a variety of problems linked to the North Atlanitc-Arctic geodynamics such as plate tectonic, geodynamic, compositional, thermal, structural and landscape models, configuration of sedimentary basin and to propose additional experiments that can test these models. We welcome contributions from all relevant disciplines, including, but not limited to, plate tectonics, geophysics, geodynamic modelling, igneous, metamorphic and structural geology, palaeomagnetism, sedimentology, geomorphology, geochronology, thermochronology, geochemistry and petrology.

Wildfires are a worldwide phenomenon with many environmental, social, and economic implications, which are expected to escalate as a consequence of climate change and land abandonment, management, and planning, further promoting land degradation and decreasing ecosystem services supply.
The current situation demands from the scientific community the study of wildfire effects on the ecosystems and the development of integrated tools for pre- and post-fire land management practices that reduce the vulnerability to wildfires and their impacts. However, this research urges the attention not only from researchers, but also from stakeholders and policy-makers all over the world, since basic resources such as raw materials, water, and soils as well as habitats are at stake.
This session aims at gathering researchers on the effects of wildfires on ecosystems, from wildfire prevention to post-fire mitigation. We kindly invite laboratory, field, and/or modelling studies involving the following topics:
i. prescribed and/or experimental fires;
ii. fire severity and burn severity;
iii. fire effects on vegetation, soil and water;
iv. post-fire hydrological and erosive response;
v. post-fire management and mitigation;
vi. socio-economic studies on pre- and post-fire land management;
vii. fire risk assessment and modelling.

The management of soil and water resources for sustainable development is critical for human well-being. Over the recent decades, many studies have demonstrated the role of water and sediment connectivity processes in relation to watershed management. Habitat and species protection, improved flood resistance and resilience, and ecosystems management are all vital to maintaining the health of ecosystems. Especially when external factors influence watershed processes and characteristics to maintain optimal connectivity or disconnectivity in diverse ecological niches (hydrology, ecology, geomorphology) is the goal of watershed management. Given the high complexity of hydro-geomorphic systems and the different mechanisms that might influence the efficiency of water and sediment flowing through a watershed, understanding the hydrological and sediment connectivity is critical. Meanwhile, analyzing changes in connectivity over time helps to understand the effects of natural and man-made disturbances on water-sediment flux and related processes. However, we still have very little understanding about connectivity and link all the processes involved. Models are valid tools in this task, but they need to be improved. In this session, we welcome studies focused on connectivity with watershed management. Any contributions related to new methods, approaches to the understanding of connectivity are welcomed. Field monitoring, laboratory simulations, development and application of geomorphometric indices and models are included. This session emphasizes the importance of connectivity in appropriately managing sediment and water-related concerns, and aims at providing important information on when, where, and how to managers in order to control hydrological and geomorphic processes and ultimately achieve sustainable watershed management.

Fluvial systems cover much of the Earth’s surface; they convey water, sediments, and essential nutrients from the uplands to the sea, intermittently transferring these materials from the river channel to the adjacent floodplain. The routing of sediment and water through the channel network and into the fluvial-tidal transition zone initiates complex process-form interactions as the river bed and banks adjust to changes in flow conditions. Despite their ubiquity, little is known about the landform-driven morphodynamic interactions taking place within the channel that ultimately determine patterns of sedimentation and changes of channel form. Furthermore, an understanding of how these process-form interactions scale with the size of the fluvial system is also currently lacking. Recent technological and methodological advances now afford us the opportunity to study and to quantify these process-form interactions in detail across a range of spatial and temporal scales.

At the coast, complex physical and ecological interactions coupled with anthropogenic and climate driven changes in sediment supply and hydrological behaviour control net changes in the filling of accommodation space. Sustainably managing these coastal regions requires a holistic understanding of how these processes interact over different timescales.

This session aims to bring together interdisciplinary researchers working across field, experimental, and numerical modelling approaches who are advancing methods and providing new insights into: (i) sediment transport and morphodynamic functioning of fluvial and coastal systems, (ii) evaluating morphological change at variable spatial and temporal scales, such as at event vs. seasonal scales, (iii) investigating the sedimentology of these river systems, and iv) understanding how anthropogenic and climate changes may influence the evolution of these systems. We particularly welcome applications which investigate the morphodynamic response of fluvial systems in all types and sizes and we would specifically like to encourage submissions from early career researchers and students.

The United Nations has designated the 2020s as the decade of ecosystem restoration; and restoration of streams, rivers and their catchments is particularly important to restore ecosystems and halt biodiversity loss, in addition to achieving several sustainable development goals. Within Europe, river restoration is used to meet the EU Water Framework Directive objectives, and EU LIFE projects provide millions of euro per year to physical restoration. Furthermore, restoration of rivers and their catchments will prove both more important in the coming decades in order to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change and more challenging when restoring a moving target with altered flow, sediment, and ice regimes and habitat conditions. Restoration and management of rivers and their catchments will require a holistic view of multiple facets of river systems and will need to be process-based, including geomorphic, hydrological and ecological processes, incorporating an understanding of how these evolve and interact following restoration interventions. In addition, large wood (LW) is a key component of fluvial ecosystems and affects both flow and sediment transport processes. LW jams (i.e., logjams) can be used as a tool for river restoration increasing flow and bed heterogeneity. However, the transportation of LW may significantly increase during floods and LW jams can form at river infrastructure, creating an additional flood risk, which needs to be accounted for in management strategies of rivers. An interdisciplinary effort is required to improve our understanding of the complex interactions of wood with flow and sediment in fluvial ecosystems.

In this session we wish to highlight a broad range of research on methods, success/failure, and follow-up of river and catchment restoration and management. We are particularly interested in studies related to restoration with a changing baseline of climate conditions as well as aspects associated with LW; however, there are also many basic questions on how to manage and restore rivers that also need to be addressed, including time-to-recovery, resilience, relationships between different river facets, the impact of different spatial scales of restoration, etc. We hope this session will spark discussion among an interdisciplinary group of researchers of how to take into account a changing climatic baseline in future river restoration and evaluation of restoration success.

Water is our planet’s most vital resource, and the primary agent in some of the biggest hazards facing society and nature. Recent extreme heat and flood events are clear demonstrations of how our planet’s climate is changing, underlining the significance of water both as a threat and as an increasingly volatile resource.
The accurate and timely measurement of streamflow is therefore more critical than ever to enable the management of water for ecology, for people and industry, for flood risk management and for understanding changes to the hydrological regime. Despite this, effective monitoring networks remain scarce, under-resourced, and often under threat on a global scale. Even where they exist, observational networks are increasingly inadequate when faced with extreme conditions, and lack the precision and spatial coverage to fully represent crucial aspects of the hydrological cycle.

This session aims to tackle this problem by inviting presentations that demonstrate new and improved methods and approaches to streamflow monitoring, including:
1) Innovative methodologies for measuring/modelling/estimating river stream flows;
2) Real-time acquisition of hydrological variables;
3) Remote sensing and earth observation techniques for hydrological & morphological monitoring;
4) Measurement in extreme conditions associated with the changing climate;
5) Measurement of sudden-onset extreme flows associated with catastrophic events;
6) Strategies to quantify and describe hydro-morphological evolution of rivers;
7) New methods to cope with data-scarce environments;
8) Inter-comparison of innovative & classical models and approaches;
9) Evolution and refinement of existing methods;
10) Guidelines and standards for hydro-morphological streamflow monitoring;
11) Quantification of uncertainties;
12) Development of expert networks to advance methods.

Contributions are welcome with an emphasis on innovation, efficiency, operator safety, and meeting the growing challenges associated with the changing climate, and with natural and anthropogenically driven disasters such as dam failures and flash floods.

Additionally, presentations will be welcomed which explore options for greater collaboration in advancing riverflow methods and which link innovative research to operational monitoring.

Coastal wetland ecosystems, such as salt marshes, mangroves, seagrass beds and tidal flats, are under increasing pressure from natural and anthropogenic processes shifting climatic conditions, and are declining in area and habitat quality globally. These environments provide numerous ecosystem services, including flood risk mediation, biodiversity provision and climate change mitigation through carbon storage. Hence, the need to get a deeper understanding of processes and interactions in these environments, and how these may be altered by climate change has never been greater. This is the case for ‘managed’, restored wetlands and natural systems alike.
This session will bring together studies of coastal wetland ecosystems across climates and geomorphic settings, to enhance the understanding of ecosystem service provisioning, interactions between hydrodynamics, sediment and ecology, and identify best future management practices. Studies of all processes occurring within coastal wetlands are invited. This includes, but is not exclusive to, sediment dynamics, hydrology, hydrodynamics, biogeochemistry, morphological characterisation, geotechnical analysis, bio-morphodynamics, ecological change and evolution, impact of climate change, sea level rise, anthropogenic and management implications. Experiences from wetlands restoration projects are welcomed to increase knowledge on how to achieve wetlands long-term resilience. Multidisciplinary approaches across spatial and temporal scales are encouraged, especially in relation to global climate change. This session aims to enhance our understanding of basic processes governing coastal wetland dynamics and to propose sustainable management solutions for contemporary environmental pressures.

Low-lying coastal areas can be an early casualty to sea-level rise, especially where enhanced by land subsidence. An ever increasing number of studies indicates that land subsidence due to natural and anthropogenic causes has induced damage to wetland ecosystems in many countries worldwide, and has increased flooding hazard and risk. Coastal subsidence causes include excessive groundwater extraction from aquifers, peat oxidation due to surface water drainage through land reclamation, urbanization and agricultural use, as well as sediment starvation due to construction of dams and artificial levees. Contrary to the global processes behind sea-level rise, natural and anthropogenic coastal subsidence is primarily a local phenomenon, and its causes and severity may vary substantially from place to place.
The combination of geological and historical measurements with remote sensing data is required to understand all drivers of coastal vertical land motion and the contributions to past, present, and future subsidence.
Understanding coastal subsidence requires multidisciplinary expertise, models, and remote and in-situ observations from geology, geodesy, natural hazards, oceanography, hydrogeology, and geomechanics. In this session, we aim to bring together all the involved disciplines. We invite contributions on all aspects of coastal subsidence research and applications, including recent advances on: i) measurement through ground-based, aerial and satellite remote sensing techniques, ii) numerical models and future projections, iii) their applicability to distinguish between the different drivers contributing to land subsidence, and iv) quantification of coastal hazards associated with relative sea-level rise. In particular, efforts towards characterizing human intervention on coastal vertical land motion are welcomed.

Detailed seabed maps portraying the distribution of geomorphic features, substrates, and habitats are used for a wide range of scientific, maritime industry, and government applications. These maps provide essential information for ocean industry sectors and are used to guide local and regional conservation action. Fundamental to seabed mapping are acoustic remote sensing technologies, including single beam and multibeam echosounders and sidescan, interferometric, and synthetic-aperture sonars. These are deployed on a variety of crewed and robotic surface and underwater platforms. In shallow clear waters, optical sensors including LiDAR, multispectral, and hyperspectral cameras are also increasingly employed from aircraft, drones, and satellites to create maps of the seabed. Innovative data processing, image analysis, and statistical approaches for classification are advancing the field of seabed mapping. These methods are yielding increasingly comprehensive and detailed maps. We welcome submissions that provide insights into the use of advanced technologies, novel processing and analytical approaches, and current and emerging applications in the field of seabed mapping and classification – from shallow coastal waters to the deep seafloor.

Coastal zones worldwide face numerous pressures of anthropogenic impact, including urbanization, pollution, and resource extraction. Associated problems include coastal erosion, often aggravated by hard engineering responses, and pollution of waters and sediments affecting ecology and human health.
This session explores the interactions between natural geomorphic processes and human interventions in the coastal zone. Topics include work on predicting shoreline change and the effects of human activities on the coast, including coastal vulnerability to natural and human-related hazards, coastal and environmental sensitivity classifications and risk assessments, impacts on coastal dune fields, eco-restoration and re-building of coastal environments, Marine Spatial Planning, and Integrated Coastal Management.
The session is sponsored by the Commission on Coastal Systems (CCS) of the International Geographical Union (www.igu-ccs.org).

Examining the morphodynamics of coasts from the nearshore through to inland dune systems, is a fundamental requirement in understanding their short- to long-term behaviour. Operating across large spatial and temporal scales, examination of their resulting landforms is both difficult and complex. Recent methodological advances, however, now enable traditionally isolated coastal disciplines to be examined across various zones, promoting integration along multiple time and space scales, helping to couple processes with landform responses.

At the coast, dunes provide a physical barrier to flooding during high energy storms, while beaches and nearshore areas help dissipate storm impact through a series of dynamic interactions involving sediment transfers and sometimes rapid morphological changes. Examination of complex interactions between these three interconnected systems has become essential for the understanding, analysis and ultimately, the management of our coasts.

This session welcomes contributions from coastal scientists interested in the measurement and modelling of physical processes and responses within the three sub-units over various spatial and temporal scales. It will highlight the latest scientific developments in our understanding of this part of the planet's geomorphic system and will facilitate knowledge exchange between the submerged (e.g., nearshore waves, currents, and sediment transport) and sub-aerial (e.g., beach and aeolian dune dynamics) zones.

This session is supported by the Commission on Coastal Systems (CCS) of the International Geographical Union (www.igu-ccs.org) and by the Spanish working group of the UNESCO IGCP 725 ‘Forecasting coastal change’.

The ocean floor hosts a tremendous variety of forms that reflect the action of a range of tectonic, sedimentary, oceanographic and biological processes at multiple spatio-temporal scales. Many such processes are hazards to coastal populations and offshore installations, and their understanding constitutes a key objective of national and international research programmes and IODP expeditions. High quality bathymetry, especially when combined with sub-seafloor and/or seabed measurements, provides an exciting opportunity to integrate the approaches of geomorphology and geophysics, and to extend quantitative geomorphology offshore. 3D seismic reflection data has also given birth to the discipline of seismic geomorphology, which has provided a 4D perspective to continental margin evolution.

This interdisciplinary session aims to examine the causes and consequences of geomorphic processes shaping underwater landscapes, including submarine erosion and depositional processes, submarine landslides and canyons, sediment transfer and deformation, volcanic activity, fluid migration and escape, faulting and folding, and other processes acting at the seafloor. The general goal of the session is to bring together researchers who characterise the shape of past and present seafloor features, seek to understand the sub-surface and surface processes at work and their impacts, or use bathymetry and/or 3D seismic data as a model input. Contributions to this session can include work from any depth or physiographic region, e.g. oceanic plateaus, abyssal hills, mid-ocean ridges, accretionary wedges, and continental margins (from continental shelves to abyss plains). Datasets of any scale, from satellite-predicted depth to ultra high-resolution swath bathymetry, sub-surface imaging and sampling, are anticipated.

This session is organised by the IAG Submarine Geomorphology Working Group.

Tsunamis can produce catastrophic damage on vulnerable coastlines, essentially following major earthquakes, landslides, extreme volcanic activity or atmospheric disturbances. After the disastrous tsunamis in 2004 and 2011, tsunami science has been continuously growing and expanding its scope to new fields of research in various domains, and also to regions where the tsunami hazard was previously underestimated.

The spectrum of topics addressed by tsunami science nowadays ranges from the “classical” themes, such as analytical and numerical modelling of different generation mechanisms (ranging from large subduction earthquakes to local earthquakes generated in tectonically complex environments, from subaerial/submarine landslides to volcanic eruptions and atmospheric disturbances), propagation and run-up, hazard-vulnerability-risk assessment, especially with probabilistic approaches able to quantify uncertainties, early warning and monitoring, to more “applied” themes such as the societal and economic impact of moderate-to-large events on coastal local and nation-wide communities, as well as the present and future challenges connected to the global climate change.

This session, co-organized with OS4, SM4, GMPV9, GM and AS, welcomes multidisciplinary as well as focused contributions covering any of the aspects mentioned above, encompassing field data, geophysical models, regional and local hazard-vulnerability-risk studies, observation databases, numerical and experimental modeling, real time networks, operational tools and procedures towards a most efficient warning, with the general scope of improving our understanding of the tsunami phenomenon, per se and in the context of the global change, and our capacity to build safer and more resilient communities.

Tsunamis and storm surges pose significant hazards to coastal communities around the world. Geological investigations, including both field studies and modelling approaches, significantly enhance our understanding of these events. Past extreme wave events may be reconstructed based on sedimentary and geomorphological evidence from low and high energy environments, from low and high latitude regions and from coastal and offshore areas. The development of novel approaches to identifying, characterising and dating evidence for these events supplements a range of established methods. Nevertheless, the differentiation between evidence for tsunamis and storms still remains a significant question for the community. Numerical and experimental modelling studies complement and enhance field observations and are crucial to improving deterministic and probabilistic approaches to hazard assessment. This session welcomes contributions on all aspects of paleo-tsunami and paleo-storm surge research, including studies that use established methods or recent interdisciplinary advances to reconstruct records of past events, or forecast the probability of future events.