News — Geography

January 2024 - Successful doctorate at the Chair of Physical Geography

Franck Schätz successfully completed his dispuation on "Prerequisites and limits of the evaluation of climate-relevant information of historical text sources with the help of automation processes" on 24.01.2024. Congratulations to him!

January 2024 - Findings from study project on neighborhood life in Strasbourg

A group of 16 students from the Master program in Geography of Global Change conducted a study project on neighborhood life in Strasbourg in the summer term of 2023. Using the districts of Hautepierre, Krutenau, Neudorf and the city center as examples, the students analyzed how these districts are socially (re)produced by everyday activities of the inhabitants. The findings from the study project have now been documented in the form of short texts and illustrative videos dokumentiert.

January 2024 – 14. D-A-CH Permafrost Conference

Lucia Götz and Lisa Rehn from the Working Group for Geomorphology and Recent Morphodynamics participated in the 14th D-A-CH Permafrost Conference in the Rhön region at the beginning of January. Lucia Götz presented preliminary results of her bachelor's thesis. The feedback was very positive, providing a solid foundation for lively professional exchange with scientists at various career levels.

January 2024 – A new face in the degree program coordination team

We are delighted to welcome Anne-Julchen Müller as our new degree program coordinator. She took over this important task at the turn of the year from Monika Nethe, who had worked in this role for many years. We would like to thank Monika Nethe warmly for her coordination work - and we are delighted to have a new face in our midst and look forward to working with Anne-Julchen!

January 2024 – Guest researcher at the chair of Geography of Global Change

Line Kvartborg Vestergaard will spend 2 months as a guest researcher at the chair of Geography of Global Change. Line is a PhD fellow with the project RE-ANIMATE and researches the use of Doughnut Economics in the city of Amsterdam within the city government and in civil-led neighborhood initiatives.

January 2024 – Coline Chardon is our new staff member in the Geography of Global Change

Coline Chardon has joined the Geography of Global Change team as research assistant at the beginning of January. She is employed in the MUTUAL project "Municipal Transformative Communities for Local Economies Beyond Growth", which is funded by the DFG and started on 01.01.2024. More information about the project here.

November 2023 – Clim'Ability CARE Meeting

Sarah Gruner, Svenja Wittpoth and Rüdiger Glaser presented the climate adaptation concept for the industrial corridor in the Murg Valley at the Clim'Ability CARE Work seminar on 22 November 2023 at Offenburg University of Applied Sciences.

October 2023 – Sarah Gruner is our new staff member in Physical Geography

Sarah Gruner

Since last summer Sarah Gruner has joined the Physical Geography team as a research assistant. She is employed on the two INTERREG projects Clim'Ability Care – Transformation of business parks and industrial clusters in view of climate change: towards a new transnational corporate culture in the Upper Rhine Region"and RiverDiv – Protection of aquatic diversity and reduction of water pollution on the Wieslauter – Climate change-adapted management.

September 2023 – Strasbourg study project now on Instagram

The study project on neighborhood life in Strasbourg can now be followed on Instagram. A group of master's students in geography are exploring how several neighborhoods are shaped and socially (re)constructed through practices, discourses and representations in everyday life. more ...

September 2023 – Climate Academy 2023 focussing on 'planned relocation'

Funded by Munich Re Foundation and co-organized by United Nations University, the Climate Academy called together researchers, practitioners and policy makers from all over the world to push forward critical understanding of 'planned relocation'. Friedrich Neu was invited to join both the virtual sessions (see playlist on YouTube) and the in-person meeting week in Dakar, Senegal. In three working groups, the 25 participants jointly produced a commentary paper that will be published soon, wrote a policy brief for practitioners, and are about to launch an online depository with useful data for decision makers. For further information please see the download center.

August 2023 – Joint student field trip to/in Ghana with graduate geography students & lecturers of UFR and University of Ghana

The Ghana field trip of the graduate program led UFR students and lecturers for the first time in the entire history to West Africa. The field trip had been organized by Prof. Hartmut Fünfgeld and Friedrich Neu in collaboration with Dr. Austin Ablo, Dr. Ernest Agyemang and Dr. Bismark Asitoakor (all from UG). A group of 18 German and 13 Ghanaian students spent two weeks in the southern part of Ghana and explored questions of resource geographies during interactions with company representatives (e.g. gold miners), basic workers (e.g. cocoa farmers or fish mongers), and decision makers (e.g. local council officials or chiefs). A blog on the field trip will soon be available. more ...

July 2023 – Lecture at the Bildungswerk Vogtsburg about climate change n southwest Germany

Rüdiger Glaser gives a lecture at the Bildungswerk Vogtsburg on 12.7.2023 about "Climate change in southwest Germany: consequences and options for action in agriculture". The heat wave and the increasing drought of recent weeks, which is also becoming more and more obvious in the landscape in the Kaiserstuhl, the storm the day before and the hot and humid weather provided the appropriate setting for the very well-attended event. The audience was correspondingly eager for discussion.

July 2023 – Friedrich Neu presents insights about (im)mobilities in Ghana’s Volta Delta at ECM Network

The newly created ‘Environmental and Climate Mobilities Network’ was launched with a conference hosted at the Department of Geography and Regional Research of University of Vienna. In a perfectly organized setting, where most sessions were accessible via zoom and even recorded for future public access, Friedrich Neu gave a talk named '(Im)Mobilities in the face of coastal erosion and flooding: Insights from Anlo-Ewe communities at the shores of Ghana’s Volta River Delta’. He contrasted two case studies of coastal communities – one with state-led resettlement on reclaimed land, and another one with autonomous types of adaptation. mehr ...“.

June 2023 – Carola Fricke changes to Saarland University

Dr. Carola Fricke accepted the appointment to Saarland University. She leaves the University of Freiburg to take up her post as junior professor of Human Geography with a special focus on Europe on 15 May 2023. This also marks the end of her funding as a research assistant and fellow in the Margarete von Wrangell habilitation program.

June 2023 – Jan Blöthe on 3SAT and SWR on the glacier collapse in the Dolomites

On the afternoon of 11.06.2023, a large part of the southern summit of the Fluchthorn in Tyrol collapsed. The rockfall comprised more than 100000 m3 of material, which shifted rapidly to the valley below - fortunately, no one was injured in this event. Are such events becoming more likely due to climate change and what effects on the high mountain landscape of the Alps should we expect in the future? Jan Blöthe talked about this with Gregor Steinbrenner in "3sat Magazin NANO" and with Ralf Caspary in the programme "SWR2 Impuls".