Sea-level science has seen many recent developments in observations
and modelling of the different contributions and the total mean sea-level
change. In this talk I will discuss past developments in sea-level
modelling (going from IPCC AR5 to SROCC and AR6), and what are the
main differences in methods and in results. I will then show how the
models compare to observations, and present thoughts on extending
these comparisons back into the 20th century. Finally, I will discuss the
outlook for further improvements in sea-level projections.
Dr. Aimée Slangen is senior researcher at the Royal Netherlands Institute
for Sea Research (NIOZ) in Yerseke. Her research focus is sea-level
change, both in the open ocean and the interaction at the coast. With her
research group, she aims to improve our understanding of sea-level
change in the past, as well as making better projections for the future.
She was Lead Author of the IPCC AR6 report, on Chapter 9: Oceans,
Cryosphere and Sea Level Change.

Plakat

Geography H₂0: Compounding water studies
The topic of water has been consistently afflicted with binary thinking even as geographic work has sought to challenge it, and indigenous scholarship has long spoken of entanglements that move beyond dualisms. The marginalisation of the sea in much geographic work, for example, has been a result of the centrality of ‘earthly’, grounded thinking, creating a land/sea binary that has long endured. The study of rivers has been characterised by a predominant focus on landed processes of erosion and deposition over that of liquid flow itself. Ironically, even where water is now taking centre stage, binaries persist with a lack of dialogue between ‘salt’ and ‘fresh’ water studies where the two rarely meet, mix or mingle. Even work on oceanic excess, fails to extend to other watery domains (the politics of drinking water, questions of supply,  instances of toxicity and pollution). However, rather than positing that we simply move beyond binaries or echo (or worse claim) ontologies of watery relation, this paper argues – controversially – that we split water further, (re)configuring it by its chemical composition – H20. In doing so it asks whether it might be possible to reframe the question of what water is (salt; fresh; solid, liquid, gas, its socio-cultural and political connotations, and our relations with its character), to instead ask what water’s formulation of two-parts hydrogen and one-part oxygen does or can do through its complex material form. Focusing on a perhaps surprising case study of fire - this paper demonstrates how H20 has been harnessed and applied – not as an either/or, but as a compound with unique capacities for society and space. 

Plakat

Jonathan Crary argues that one of the forms of disempowerment of the 24/7 capitalist economy is its ‘incapacitation of daydream … that would otherwise occur in intervals of slow or vacant time‘ (Crary 2014, p. 88). This begs the question: what sort of space could be helpful in resisting the restless demands and continuous interface of the new digital economy? Urban gardens, for instance, can offer citizens the opportunity to tune into the cyclical rhythms of the seasons, allowing for multi-modal sensorial explorations of naturecultures, a slowing down, a temporary escape from the pressures of paid work and social obligations (Crouch and Ward 1997, Schoneboom and May 2013, Odell 2019). This paper develops a nuanced understanding of the intersecting, overlapping and conflicting temporalities enacted whilst volunteers garden together at the Prinzessingarten in Berlin. It discusses the shaping and falling apart of more-than-human collectives, and the new temporalities that emerge in the intricate processes of this ‘becoming-with’ (Haraway 2008, Phillips 2020), whilst responding to that other temporality of the climate emergency.

Plakat

Extreme Hochwasserereignisse wie die Juli-Flut 2021 verän-
dern nicht nur die Morphologie eines Gewässers, sondern
erodieren, transportieren und akkumulierten auch sediment-
gebundene Schadstoffe. Zukünftige Renaturierungen und
andere wasserbauliche Maßnahmen sollten die Morphodynamik
und Entwicklungsgeschichte der Flussauen sowie die poten-
tielle Verlagerung von Schadstoffen aus Altlasten während
extremer Hochwasserereignisse berücksichtigen.
Der Vortrag schließt mit einer ersten Analyse der enormen
Erosionsleistungen der Neuen Inde in den Tagebau Inden ab.
Es wurden über 500.000 m³ Sedimente innerhalb kürzester Zeit
umgelagert. Erste Angaben dazu finden sich in einem
Themenheft der RWTH zum Hochwasser:

Plakat

Bremer Geographisches Kolloquium

Dreißig Jahre nach dem Welterdgipfel in Rio de Janeiro ist die Bilanz vieler Bildungsexpert:innen nüchtern. Es wird kritisiert, dass eine Bildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung (BNE) bislang nicht ausreichend strukturell in der deutschen Bildungslandschaft implementiert wurde. Rieß und Apel forderten bereits 2006, dass Bestehendes erfasst und analysiert werden muss. Diesen Forderungen ist man aus wissenschaftlicher Sicht aber bislang nicht ausreichend nachgegangen. In schulischen wie außerschulischen Bildungskontexten sollten die Chancen ergriffen werden, das Fachwissen zu vermitteln, welches nachhaltiges Denken und Handeln zum Ziel hat. Dies kann durch schulische Trägerfächer einer Bildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung wie durch ein Lernen an außerschulischen Lernorten geschehen. Mit Fokussierung auf den außerschulischen Bereich stellt sich die Frage, inwiefern eine außerschulische BNE überhaupt existiert. Am Beispiel von Rheinland-Pfalz und einer selbst entwickelten Methodik zur Sichtbarmachung von BNE-Implementierungsprozessen beleuchtet der Vortrag diese Fragestellung. Dabei wird auch die Wirksamkeit von BNE-Bildungsmaßnahmen in den Blick genommen.

Alle Interessierten sind herzlich willkommen!

Datum: Mittwoch, 18. Mai 2022
Uhrzeit: 16:15 Uhr
Ort: GW2, B1150

Plakat