The conference will be largely organized around 12 subthemes, which are indicated below. You are requested to submit an abstract to any of the subthemes. Please note that special sessions will also be accommodated.
1. Geographies of Climate Change Resilience: Contradictions and Opportunities
It is widely acknowledged that a temporary overshot of temporary overshoot in temperatures above 1.5°C is inevitable. The consequences of climate change across different facets, domains, and systems have been felt, are still being felt, and will continue to be felt in the future. Despite sustained research over the last 30 years, there are still contextual issues that remain to be better understood. Various efforts and investments have been undertaken to study and understand climate change at various scales. This subtheme welcomes submissions from researchers, scholars, and practitioners that vividly substantiate the context of climate change through physical, socioeconomic, and sociocultural processes. The subtheme also welcomes submissions on successfully implemented transformative community climate initiatives and innovations that have propelled mitigation, adaptation, and overall resilience.
2. Environmental Risk and the increasing Polycrisis
Natural hazards and extremes are increasingly prevalent in societies and often interact with other processes, creating a polycrisis. Destructive floods, disastrous landslides, recurring drought, land degradation, and extreme weather events exemplify the contemporary geohazards that have intensified and often intersect with vulnerable communities across various geographies, heightening environmental risks that require urgent attention. What progress has been registered in understanding the dynamics of the interacting hazards that are increasing environmental risk and their trajectories under current and future conditions? How do we address the increasing environmental risk in communities? What trade-offs are required to achieve sustainability? How best can we tackle the polycrisis?
3. Geospatial Artificial Intelligence for Sustainability of Livelihood
Artificial intelligence (AI) and geospatial intelligence (GeoAI) are rapidly emerging and hold a great promise in transformation of societies and advancing resilience. There are increasingly many innovations and applications centred on addressing a plethora of challenges and opportunities. This subtheme will accept submissions of abstracts where geospatial artificial intelligence, geospatial technology, machine learning among others have been deployed to address climate neutrality, sustainability and resilience issues across contexts and situations.
4. Emerging Geographic Technologies and Innovations for Resilience
A plethora of geographic technologies and innovations continue to emerge that are critical in resolving place based sustainability and resilience issues. Remote Sensing, Earth Observation, Geographic Information Systems, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles have been at the centre of resolving spatial sustainability issues. This subtheme focusses on how emerging and novel geographic and allied technologies and innovations have been deployed and leveraged to resolve numerous societal issues and transform communities.
5. Green-based transitions for sustainable livelihoods
Green-based transitions are increasingly recognized as a critical pathway for achieving sustainable development, offering significant opportunities for economic transformation, environmental resilience, and social inclusion. The green economy, notably renewable energy, nature-based solutions and circular production systems, is projected to create multiple transformative opportunities by 2030, aiding the desired transitions. In this context, the conference seeks to provide an interdisciplinary platform for researchers, policymakers, practitioners, private sector actors, and development partners to share evidence, innovations, and policy-relevant insights that advance green transitions and inclusive development. We invite original abstracts addressing issues related to green-based transitions, including case studies and best practices.
6. Cities of the Future: Reimagining Urbanity in the Age of Innovation and Sustainability
As the world stands at the threshold of unprecedented urban transformation, urban areas have emerged as living laboratories for innovation, sustainability, and human-centered design. By 2030, close to 80% of the global population will live in cities, bringing both opportunities and complex challenges that demand visionary solutions. This session explores cutting-edge trends, technologies, and transformative approaches reshaping urban landscapes and redefining what it means to build livable, resilient, and inclusive cities for future generations. From artificial intelligence-powered governance to climate-responsive infrastructure, from mobility networks to urban planning through digital twins, cities of the future are being constructed today through experimentation and collaborative innovation. This session brings together leading urban practitioners, policy makers, technology innovators, and researchers to examine how emerging technologies, sustainable practices, and community-centered approaches are converging to create the smart, green, and equitable cities of tomorrow. Participants will explore how cities are leveraging data-driven decision-making and advanced connectivity to enhance public services, improve quality of life, and address pressing challenges such as climate change, social inequality, housing affordability, resource scarcity, and systemic service delivery deficits. The session will: (1) offer critical insights into the forces shaping urban futures and practical strategies for navigating the complex journey toward creating cities that are not only smarter and more sustainable, but also more just, healthy, and vibrant places for all residents to thrive; and (2) highlight real-world case studies, examine implementation challenges, and discuss policy frameworks necessary to guide urban transformative ways that prioritize both technological advancement and human dignity.
7. Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Nature-based Solutions
There is a growing consensus that a combination of Nature-based Solutions (NbS), Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), and indigenous knowledge (IK) is a panacea for societal resilience in light of the multiple exposures, threats, and opportunities connected with climate change, natural hazards, and land degradation, among others. The contributions span conservation of landscapes, rehabilitation and restoration of degraded sites, and the development of viable value chains for enterprise development, bringing prosperity to global citizens. It is estimated that about 55% of the global GDP (55%) is dependent on nature. But is NbS's contribution to socioecological resilience overestimated? Are TEK and IK still relevant in highly changing environments due to climate change? This subtheme welcomes submissions on the contexts and dimensions of NbS, TEK, and IK, highlighting their utility across various settings.
8. Biodiversity, Biogeography and Ecosystem for Societal Resilience
The importance of biodiversity to global prosperity and well-being cannot be underestimated, with estimates indicating that about $44 trillion of global GDP depends on biodiversity. For example, agriculture, which covers nearly 80% of terrestrial land use, depends almost entirely on biodiversity. While the vitality of biodiversity and ecosystem integrity in propelling resilience is undisputed, biodiversity loss is accelerating at an alarming rate. Anthropogenic processes, climate change, land-use and land-cover change, and conversion, as well as natural hazards, are compromising the optimal delivery of products and services from biodiversity systems. As degradation spreads, we might reach the tipping point where land and ocean ecosystems may become less effective as carbon "sinks" in the future, limiting their ability to absorb carbon dioxide and regulate rising temperatures. This subtheme welcomes submissions on all aspects related to biodiversity and ecosystem resilience.
9. Early Warning Systems and Anticipatory Actions for Resilient Communities
The increasing frequency and intensity of extreme events are a prominent feature of the world today. Equally, the costs and damages from various hazards and disasters have been rising. Efficient early warning systems and anticipatory actions are critical for protecting lives, livelihoods, and assets from increasingly extreme geohazards. The evolution of the Internet of Things (IoT) and sensor networks is critical for providing real-time monitoring capabilities for EWS, connecting various sensors and devices to deliver information, which is critical for civil protection. What are the key hazards and disasters obtaining on communities? What underpins their occurrence? How can we have anticipatory planning and effective early warning systems for the old and emerging risks? Together with other processes, disasters are accentuating the polycrisis in communities. What early warning systems have worked in the past, and what early warning g systems do we need now for the safety of communities? What are the points of intersection and departure between scientific and indigenous early warning systems?
10. Geographies of water systems resilience
Water resources hold a near-central and vantage position in accelerating the road to resilience. However, water resources and water systems are under increasing pressure owing to changing socioecological systems, which are increasing uncertainty, conflict, and other undesirable outcomes. Managing the water-energy-food nexus is central to attaining ecological and socioecological resilience. This theme will welcome submissions that address the resilience of water resources and water systems from both physical and socioeconomic perspectives.
11. The changing geography of agrifood systems
Agrifood systems across diverse geographies are increasingly exposed to multiple, interacting stresses arising from both natural and human-induced processes. Soil erosion, depletion of essential soil nutrients, land degradation, and climate extremes are among the key challenges undermining the capacity of agrifood systems to sustainably provide food, nutrition, and ecosystem services. At the same time, agrifood systems exert significant feedback on ecosystems, influencing biodiversity, water resources, and climate regulation. Despite these challenges, a wide range of innovations, best practices, and nature-based solutions is emerging to enhance resilience while balancing productivity and sustainability. However, critical gaps remain in understanding how such innovations can be adapted, scaled, and sustained across heterogeneous socioecological and geographic contexts. This subtheme welcomes abstracts that examine the geography of agrifood systems, including spatial patterns, drivers of vulnerability and resilience, enabling and constraining factors, and innovative practices, technologies, and governance approaches that support sustainable and equitable transformation of agrifood systems.
12. Climate mobility, displacement and natural resource conflict
The intensifying interactions and overlaps among social, economic, and ecological stressors globally are increasingly manifesting in climate-induced mobility, displacement, migration, and conflicts. These processes, which span both source and destination areas, are becoming more complex, multi-directional, and protracted, shaped by compound climate hazards, environmental degradation, livelihood disruptions, governance dynamics, and socio-political contexts. This subtheme invites submissions of abstracts that critically examine climate-related mobility, migration, displacement, and natural resource-based conflicts across diverse spatial and temporal scales. Empirical, conceptual, or methodological contributions that, inter alia, engage with drivers and triggers, actors and institutions, spatial and temporal patterns, typologies of mobility and displacement, governance and policy responses, and the consequences of climate-induced mobility and natural resource conflict are welcome.