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.
Special Announcements
• PERN is pleased to announce that Raya Muttarak, Senior Lecturer at the University of East Anglia and a Research Scholar with the World Population program of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), has agreed to serve as the chairperson of the scientific committee for 2019-2020. In addition, the scientific committee has nine new members. We wish to thank the outgoing chairperson, Landy Lisbeth Sanchez, and members Richard Bilsborrow, Dominic Kniveton, and Leo C. Zulu for their service on the scientific committee over the past four years.
• PERN co-sponsors the Population Dynamics and Environmental Change Seminar Series in New York City with the Population Council, UN Population Division, CIESIN at Columbia University, and the CUNY Institute for Demographic Research. Seminars occur approximately every two months in the fall and spring. Anyone is welcome to attend (see announcement for the 1 April seminar below). For more information visit: https://www.popcouncil.org/news/population-dynamics-and-environmental-change-seminar-series
• If PERN members are planning to attend the annual meetings of the American Association of Geographers (3-7 April in Washington DC) or the Population Association of America (10-13 April in Auston TX), let us know by emailing pernadmin @ciesin.columbia.edu and we will organize a meet up or outing. Co-coordinator Alex de Sherbinin is presenting during the AAG session on “Environmental Migration” Thursday 4 April at 9:55am, and co-coordinator Susana Adamo is chair of PAA session 234 on Climate Change and Population Health, and is co-author of papers in PAA session 61 on Geographic Patterns of Morbidity and Mortality and session 156 on Environmental Factors Associated with Health and Mortality. PERN is also contributing to a pre-conference workshop on demographic and environmental data integration.
• PERN co-coordinator Alex de Sherbinin is organizing a special issue of the journal Sustainability dedicated to Vulnerability & Risk Mapping. For more information see below.
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Conferences/Workshops/Public Discussions
Call for papers on Vulnerability & Risk Mapping - Sustainability special issue
Measuring, analyzing, and mapping the societal risks and vulnerabilities of climate change has become part of the standard toolkit of climate risk and vulnerability assessments. This Special Issue focuses on the spatial assessment of climate risks and related vulnerabilities and the use of spatial data and analysis in field-based assessments. Papers may cover a range of spatial scales–from local to global–and represent any world region, and may be produced by authors from any discipline. The deadline for submission is 30 November 2019.
Papers must:
• Define the problem space–that is, the system of analysis (what is vulnerable or at risk?), the valued attributes of concern (why are they important?), the external hazard (to what is the system vulnerable and exposed?), and a temporal reference (when?)–and the purpose of the assessment;
• Describe the analytical framework applied;
• Provide adequate detail regarding the data and methods used;
• Address the uncertainty in underlying data and methods;
• Present one or more maps portraying results;
• Address the policy relevance of the mapping/spatial analysis.
Case studies and mapping projects are especially encouraged that:
• were developed in conjunction with stakeholders (i.e., transdisciplinary science) and/or where mapping results were applied in planning and decision-making contexts;
• utilize statistical techniques/novel methods to identify the drivers of risk and vulnerability;
• use future scenarios for climate and/or socioeconomic systems;
• integrate various streams of data (ranging from survey data and official statistics to Earth observation data);
• seek to validate mapping results.
In addition to case study or location-specific applications, we invite papers that explore spatial methods as well as papers critically reflecting on climate risk and vulnerability mapping.
For further information or to submit a manuscript, please visit: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability/special_issues/Climate_Risk_Mapping
Call for Papers for Wittgenstein Centre Conference 2019 "Demographic Aspects of Human Wellbeing”
Event Dates: 11-12 November 2019
The Wittgenstein Centre is pleased to announce the Call for Papers for its 2019 conference “Demographic Aspects of Human Wellbeing”.
Researchers at the Wittgenstein Centre are currently involved in several studies around economic and health aspects of human wellbeing and an ERC Advanced Grant on “The demography of sustainable human wellbeing”. In this context and with partial funding from this grant the conference wants to bring together researchers from around the world working on different aspects of human wellbeing with a specifically demographic perspective. The aim is to put demography more prominently on the table as a discipline that has much to contribute to the scientific study of human wellbeing, both in terms of its measurement and the analysis of its determinants. There will be invited speakers as well as an open call for papers and posters. Travel funding will be available for a limited number of selected speakers.
Examples of topics include:
• Life expectancy based indicators of wellbeing
• Wellbeing over the life course and over time
• Applying demographic metabolism model to forecast wellbeing along cohort lines
• Demographic differentials/inequalities in wellbeing
• What matters more for wellbeing: age or gender, education or income?
• Wellbeing and intergenerational support
• Feed-backs from environmental change to human wellbeing
Detailed information on the call is to be found at: https://www.oeaw.ac.at/en/vid/events/calendar/conferences/demographic-aspects-of-human-wellbeing/