CLISEC news

• Using Volunteered Geographic Information on the COVID-19 pandemic

  New project at CLISEC: Using Volunteered Geographic Information on the COVID-19 pandemic in three Brazilian cities (COVIDGI)

  We are happy to announce that a team of CLISEC members will research the COVID-19 pandemic in a new project. The team, led by Dr. Miguel Rodriguez Lopez, secured a grant from the Volkswagen Foundation at the end of 2020, and will start the project in April 2021. In the meantime, the team will present the project about this relevant emerging field of research to the academic community. Follow the project on Twitter for news and updates: @covidgi. 

  The project is called “Volunteered Geographic Information on the COVID-19 pandemic in the Global South: Mixed-methods toolset for vulnerability, impact, and conflict in three Brazilian cities (COVIDGI)”. The central question of the project is: How can decision-making on coronavirus benefit from more agile and precise information through authoritative, open, and VGI-sourced spatial behavioral data? In synthesis, the project presents a new information management toolbox that integrates timely and fine-scale data to include spatial behavior. This framework focuses on vulnerability, impact, and conflict, considering the social connections, inequalities across space and the dynamics of exposure and resilience to the pandemic across time.  

  To develop this research, the project will combine readily available data sources (e.g., demographics, open data) to volunteered geographic information and qualitative research to set up a replicable toolbox. The aim of the toolbox is to decrease uncertainty on the decision-making process in the responses to the pandemic and will support social spatial behavior modeling using agent-based techniques. Ultimately, the research aims to fill the gaps in COVID-19 exposure models of lacking socioeconomic and territorial vulnerability or including communities and individuals as active agents in response efforts. The project outlines the differences in vulnerability from social and spatial factors and provides geographic science with an integrated authoritative, open and volunteered information toolbox. It also empowers society for decision-making on the fight against present and future pandemics, considering spatial features and behavior in the Global South. 

   

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  Contact:  

  Dr. Juan Miguel Rodriguez Lopez 

  Research Group Climate Change and Security (CLISEC) 

  Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability (CEN) 

  Cluster of Excellence 'Climate, Climatic Change, and Society' (CLICCS) 

  Institute of Geography, Universität Hamburg

  Grindelberg 5-7, 20144 Hamburg, Germany

  miguel.rodriguez@uni-hamburg.de 

• MIT Seminar Series “Global Peace and Insecurity"

  Presentation by Jürgen Scheffran on “Climate Change and International Security”.

  For information see: https://radius.mit.edu/programs/global-peace-and-insecurity-seminar-series 

• A Climate for Change in the UN Security Council?

  New Research Report by Judith Hardt and Alina Viehoff, supported by the German Federal Foreign Office, in cooperation between IFSH and CLISEC at Universität Hamburg.
  See: https://ifsh.de/publikationen/research-report/research-report-005 

  For more info, see:

  English version

  German version

• Scenarios and the Politics of the Future at the Climate-Security Nexus

  International Workshop at the University of Hamburg (14-15 November 2019)

  For more info, see: https://www.cliccs.uni-hamburg.de/research/theme-b/b3/documents/workshop-program.pdf

• Negotiating Migration in the Context of Climate Change

  Book presentation by CLISEC Alumna Sarah Nash

  For more info, see: https://www.clisap.de/de/grad-school/sicss/sicss-events/book-presentation-by-our-alumna-sarah-nash-negotiating-migration-in-the-context-of-climate-change/

• Jürgen Scheffran participates in German government committee

  Jürgen Scheffran participates in German government committee on the drivers of refugee movements (Fachkommission Fluchtursachen).

  For more info, see: https://www.uni-hamburg.de/newsroom/presse/2019/pm49.html

   

• Jürgen Scheffran co-authors Nature article on climate and conflict

  CLISEC Chair Jürgen Scheffran is co-author of an article in Nature on "Climate as a risk factor for armed conflict". It is based on an extensive expert elicitation organized by the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment to explore differences and common ground in the climate-conflict controversy, using quantitative and qualitative approaches.

  Mach KJ, Kraan CM, Adger WN, Buhaug H, Burke M, Fearon JD, Field CB, Hendrix CS, Maystadt JF, O’Loughlin J, Roessler P, Scheffran J, Schultz KA, von Uexkull N (2019): Climate as a risk factor for armed conflict; Nature, Advance Online Publication (June 12, 2019). SharedIt: https://rdcu.be/bGuAV

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1300-6 ; https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1300-6 ;

  Supplementary information at: https://static-content.springer.com/esm/art%3A10.1038%2Fs41586-019-1300-6/MediaObjects/41586_2019_1300_MOESM1_ESM.pdf
  
  Additional comprehensive documents of expert elicitation at Stanford Digital Repository: https://purl.stanford.edu/sy632nx6578

  Nature Editorial: Finding Consensus
  https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01830-2 

  Press releases:

  Stanford University:

  https://news.stanford.edu/2019/06/12/climate-change-cause-armed-conflict/

  Universität Hamburg:

  https://www.uni-hamburg.de/newsroom/presse/2019/pm40.html

• Jürgen Scheffran speaking in German Parliament

  Jürgen Scheffran was invited to speak on „Klimawandel und gesellschaftliche Instabilität“ at Zukunftsforum Öffentliche Sicherheit “Krisenverstärker Klimawandel: Wechselwirkungen zwischen Sicherheit und Solidarität“, in Deutscher Bundestag, Berlin. More information here.

• 2nd CLISEC-PIK workshop 2018

  2nd CLISEC-PIK workshop focussing on "Qualitative and Quantitative Methods for Advancing Research on the Climate-Migration-Conflict Nexus" was conducted in Potsdam on 23 May 2018 from 11 am - 5 pm.

• Hossein Azadi was invited to ELSEDIMA 2018 as a keynote speaker

  Hossein Azadi was invited to the 12th International Conference on Environmental Legislation, Safety Engineering and Disaster Management (ELSEDIMA 2018) on 17-19 May 2018 in Cluj-Napoca, Romania as a keynote speaker. He gave a talk on "Agricultural Land Conversion: Reviewing Drought Impacts and Coping Strategies".