News

Stefan Brönnimann from the PALAEO-RA project of the Institute of Geography (palaeo-ra.unibe.ch) has released an e-learning tool for weather reconstructions. On www.weather-reconstruction.org, students and anyone interested can learn step-by-step how historical manuscript data can eventually lead to complex climate information such as hazard maps. The tool focuses on sources of uncertainty and the application of reanalysis data and other data products in a meaningful way. Data can be downloaded for analyses in statistical software and visualization tools. The sections Climate Data, Global Reanalyses and Downscaling and Applications each starts with a very short text and the video followed by 2–4 subsections, typically with an exercise.

In addition, introduction videos give a concise overview of each section:

Carolin Schurr and Elisabeth Militz have been awarded the Ashby prize for the most innovative papers published in the EPA: Economy and Space journal in the calendar year 2018 for their paper “The affective economy of transnational surrogacy.”

In contrast to pre-industrial climate fluctuations, current, anthropogenic climate change is occurring across the whole world at the same time. In addition, the speed of global warming is higher than it has been in at least 2,000 years. That’s according to two studies led by Raphael Neukom from the Institute of Geography. A third paper from a team from the Institute of Geography shows that volcanoes shaped global climate before the onset of the anthropogenic influence. The three papers appeared simultaneously in «Nature» and «Nature Geoscience», respectively, and led to  media response at a global scale.

Katharina Schroeer (MeteoSwiss)
Colloquium in Climatology, Climate Impact and Remote Sensing
(14:15 – 15:15, seminar room 324, Mittelstrasse 43 / University Mittelstrasse)

Volker Prasuhn (Agroscope)
Forum Sustainability: Achieving Sustainable Land Use and Management in Switzerland?
Sustainable Land Management Group (GIUB) & CDE
(16:15 – 17:45, lecture hall 001, GIUB)

• Gargule Andrew Achiba
  «Renewing Disruption: The state, pastoralism discourses and development practices at the margins of Kenya 1965 – 2015»
  (14:15, room 304, Main Building, Hochschulstrasse 4)
• Roger Bär
  «Supply Potentials of Biomass Cooking Fuels in East Africa»
  (16:15, room 304, Main Building, Hochschulstrasse 4)

Nadine Marquardt (University of Bonn)
Berner Humangeographisches Kolloquium
«DIGITAL GEOGRAPHIES»
(12:15 – 13:45, room 002, GIUB)

Koen Salemink (University of Groningen)
Berner Humangeographisches Kolloquium
«DIGITAL GEOGRAPHIES»
(12:15 – 13:45, room 002, GIUB)