What's New
What’s New? is a current digest of the Population-Environment Research Network (PERN), containing pertinent and up to date information to facilitate research and advance knowledge of population environment relationships. Previous "What’s New" newsletters (pdf) can be found via the "Past Newsletters" menu at the bottom of this page. Also try the top menu links to search/browse Events Calendar, Jobs/Funding, and eLibrary listings by year. Also, check out recent announcements on PERN's Twitter feed and Facebook page
Special Announcements
- A PERN Cyberseminar on “The habitability concept in the field of population-environment studies: relevance and research implications” will take place from 13-17 March 2023. The cyberseminar will be jointly organized with the HABITABLE project and will serve as input for the Columbia Climate School’s 2023 Managed Retreat conference (see next item).
- The Columbia Climate School is organizing its third conference on Managed Retreat from 20-23 June 2023, the theme for which is Habitability and Mobility in an Era of Climate Change. The deadline for the call for sessions is 2 December, and the deadline for the call for paper is 20 January. For more information visit https://adaptation.ei.columbia.edu/managed-retreat-2023.
- Frontiers Forum Planetary Boundaries session with Prof Johan Rockström’s keynote and the discussion with Prof Peng Gong, Prof Felix Dapare Dakora, and Prof Phoebe Koundouri recording is now available here.
Here are the links shared during the session:
• More on the planetary boundaries framework
• Netflix documentary Breaking boundaries: The science of our planet with Johan and Sir David Attenborough
• Books by Johan on the planetary boundaries and how to live within the limits of our planet
• Frontiers in Environmental Economics, focused on research that supports the transition to a sustainable interaction between the economy, society and nature and led by Prof Phoebe Koundouri
The next Forum session takes place November 29 at 11:30-12:45 CET. Climate and coral expert Prof Ove Hoegh-Guldberg will give an update on coral health in his keynote, then discuss how reefs can survive the climate crisis with globally renowned marine scientists.
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Conferences/Workshops/Public Discussions
Call for Submissions: At What Point Managed Retreat?: Habitability and Mobility in an Era of Climate Change (Columbia University)
Building on the success of the 2019 and 2021 conferences on Managed Retreat, the Columbia Climate School is pleased to announce that the next conference, At What Point Managed Retreat?: Habitability and Mobility in an Era of Climate Change, will be held from 20-23 June 2023 at Columbia University. The organizers are inviting session proposals for traditional academic paper sessions, roundtable panels, and workshops, as well as paper and poster presentation abstracts.
The deadline for the call for sessions is 2 December 2022, and the deadline for the call for paper is 20 January 2023.
For a full list of conference themes and submission instructions and forms, visit https://adaptation.ei.columbia.edu/managed-retreat-2023
Call for Papers for Special Issue "Urban Climate and Health"
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Urban and Rural Development".
This Special Issue aims to explore the complex relationships between urban climates and various aspects of human health in cities. Urban climates involve multiple spatial scales such as the building scale, micro scale, and neighborhood scale to larger scales such as the city scale or regional scale. Moreover, the health impact of urban climate ranges from the short term, i.e., days, to the long-term, i.e., decades. This Special Issue represents an effort to better understand the exposure, risks, and different health effects in urban environments considering climate change. We welcome interdisciplinary research that offers new insights into the relationship between urban climates and health issues.
Papers may be submitted from now until 28 February 2023 as papers will be published on an ongoing basis. Submitted papers should not be under consideration for publication elsewhere. We also encourage authors to send a short abstract or tentative title to the Editorial Office in advance (mailto:mada.zhao@mdpi.com).
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
Health risks of air pollution;
Co-exposure to urban pollution and urban heat island;
Heat-related mortality and morbidity;
Urban environment and thermal comfort;
Urban precipitation, flooding, and health risks;
Communicable diseases in urban environments;
Occupational heat exposure, productivity, and concentration;
Climatic change and mental health in cities;
Vulnerability, impact, and adaptation assessments;
Health impact assessments of intervention strategies;
Early warning systems regarding heat health and air pollution
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 28 February 2023
Call for Papers for Special Issue, Vulnerable populations: The role of population dynamics in climate change resilience and adaptation
The proposed special issue of The Journal of Population and Sustainability will focus on population growth as a factor in the resilience and adaptive capacity of communities in facing the impacts of climate change. The editors are interested in publishing papers examining both natural population growth and those considering local growth due to migration, including the effects of urbanisation upon the vulnerability of urban populations to climate change. In addition, papers considering the effects on resilience and adaptation resulting from migration from the Global South to the Global North are welcomed. Moreover, we are particularly interested in papers examining how climate change relates to the vulnerability of particular demographic groups, especially children and women in high fertility countries.
Deadline for full article submissions via the JP&S website: 31 December 2022.
Further enquiries to the editor: editor@jpopsus.org.
Funding/Study/Work Opportunities
Population and Social Data Science Summer Incubator Program at MPIDR, Rostock, Germany
Summer Research Visit: Rostock, Germany, 1 June – 25 August 2023
The Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) Laboratory of Digital and Computational Demography is inviting applications from qualified and highly motivated students for a Summer Research Visit. The goal of the Population and Social Data Science Summer Incubator Program is to enable discovery by bringing together data scientists and population scientists to work on focused, intensive and collaborative projects of broad societal relevance.
For more information, visit the MPIDR website.
Application Deadline: 15 January 2023
IIASA Young Scientist Summer Program 2023 | Call for Applications
The Young Scientist Summer Program (YSSP) at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) is currently accepting applications to its 2023 program.
The program, which takes place from 1 June to 31 August each year, is designed for PhD students (ideally about 2 years prior to receiving their PhD) working on a topic compatible with ongoing research at IIASA and a wish to explore the policy implications of their work. Participants will be working under the direct mentorship of an experienced IIASA scientist in a unique interdisciplinary and international research environment. They will produce a paper (serving as first step towards a publishable journal article) and will get the opportunity to build up contacts for future collaboration within the institute's worldwide network.
Applications of candidates interested in human-centered and population-based approaches to understanding drivers of population change, sustainable development, and wellbeing are particularly welcomed.
More information: https://iiasa.ac.at/train-with-us/yssp-young-scientists-summer-program
Closing date: 12 January 2023, midnight CET)