Call for papers:
³DARK NATURE²: RAPID NATURAL CHANGE AND HUMAN
RESPONSES
Final Meeting, September 6 - 10, 2005, Villa Olmo, Como, Italy
http://scienze-como.uninsubria.it/ambientale/sitodn/index.html
The Como 2005 Congress represents the concluding event of the
ICSU-funded Project ³Dark Nature - Rapid Natural Change and
Human Responses², awarded to a consortium of organizations
headed by IUGS (International Union of Geological Sciences
through its Geoindicator Initiative), and including IGU, IUGG,
INQUA, IGBP (web page: http://www.mun.ca/canqua/ICSU-DN/)
VENUE
The meeting will take place at Villa Olmo, a beatiful historic palace
built in the neoclassic style by Marquis Innocenzo Odescalchi in
(1782 1797), and located directly on the shores of Lake Como.
IMPORTANT DATES AND INFORMATION
Funds to subsidize younger researchers will be available.
Applications, including abstracts, must be received by June 30,
2005. Funds will be allocated and applicants notified by July 15,
2005; please visit the meeting webpage for details.
Deadline for abstract submission: July 15, 2005. Early registration
fees (Congress and Field Trip): July15, 2005. Deadline for hotel
reservations is July 15, 2005; after this date hotel reservation cannot
be guarantee.
For downloading the first circular, and update information on the
scientific program, abstracts submission, registration and hotel
accommodations please check the Meeting Web Page at
http://scienze-como.uninsubria.it/ambientale/sitodn/index.html
RATIONALE
Natural catastophic events, as tragically evidenced by the Sumatra
earthquakes of December 2004 and March 2005, can destabilize
the social and economic status, not only of the people directly hit by
the events, but, due to the present globalized scenario, of the whole
world.
Events such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and tsunamis,
which are not caused by human activities, are usually
underestimated by politicians and local administrators all over the
world, as testified by the consequences of the above mentioned
catastrophes (in terms of damages to properties and loss of life) in
areas where no actions had been taken to reduce the vulnerability
of the populations at serious risk.
In order to attain an adequate degree of sustainability, society needs
to make a major effort aimed at the prediction, prevention and
mitigation of the effects of natural catastrophic events, especially
those capable of causing profound social, economic and even
cultural transformations.
By investigating the effects that rapid natural changes have had on
societies and civilisations that preceded us, we might be able to
contribute to a new perspective, based on a more careful
recognition of the role played by nature in bringing rapid and radical
changes to the Earthıs surface.
The key issues of the Dark Nature project are:
- the need to clearly separate natural causes of environmental
catastrophes, from man-induced ones;
- the elaboration of a new meaning/model of sustainability, that
takes into account the influence of sudden natural changes on
society;
- the need to integrate the implications of such changes into the
general strategy of sustainable development, both at the global and
at the local level.
Papers dealing with all these issues are welcome.
THE COMO MEETING
The meeting will be multdisciplinary. Many participants will be from
the earth and other natural sciences, but they will find themselves in
dialogue with social scientists, scholars from the humanities, end-
users, and experts from the media.
The main topics which will be presented and discussed at the Como
2005 event, are grouped in 2 categories, 1) global perspective and
2) Italy-focused case studies.
1) Specific room will be devoted to the discussion of the lessons
learned during the other meetings of the DN Project in Mauritania
(January 2004), Mozambique (November 2004), Iran (May 2005),
Argentina (March 2005), and Canada (June 2005). The key issues
include:
- the refinement of the record of rapid environmental changes
affecting physical environments and ecosystems during the last
11,500 years (the Holocene);
- the meaning of sustainability in areas subject to rapid natural
changes;
- natural hazards and the media;
- relationships between rapid geological change and the socio-
economical setting of the affected areas.
2) Italian case studies will include:
- the new data collected during recent studies of the great lacustrine
basins of Lombardy (Lario and Sebino);
- the prevention and mitigation of seismic and volcanic risk in Italy;
-the archaeological evidence for human responses to natural events
in Northern Italy.
A special session will be dedicated to the environmental effects of
earthquakes and new approaches to their assessment, including the
new macroseismic intensity scale based on coseismic ground
effects (INQUA Scale Project).
A one-day field trip in the Lake Como area will take place at the end
of the Congress.
The Second Circular will be distributed in late June, with full
information on the scientific program and schedules.
Looking forward to meeting you in Como.
Alessandro Michetti
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