Physical Geography | Department of Geography

Climate & Earth

Focus on human-environment interactions in the context of a changing environment and climate.

News in the spotlight

06-05-2024

Soil erosion as Tipping Point - webinar Prof. Amaury Frankl

In this webinar Prof. Amaury Frankl delves deeper into our relationship with nature from a soil-focused perspective and explore the unequal challenges the world faces as land degrades. He employ the lens of "tipping points" and discuss both negative and positive trends.

The discussion series is a joint activity of the Analysis, Integration, and Modeling of the Earth System (AIMES) global research project of Future Earth, the Earth Commission Working Group 1 Earth and Human Systems Intercomparison Modelling Project (EHSMIP) under the Global Commons Alliance, and the Safe Landing Climates Light House Activity of World Climate Research Programme (WCRP).

Watch the webinar here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xij7ESjOR3Q

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Research themes

The research group Climate & Earth (CLEAR) focuses on the impact of human activities on soil-land-atmosphere interactions. A first research pillar comprises geomorphological processes and specifically the influence of land use and climate on land degradation and soil conservation. A second research pillar concentrates on atmospheric science and addresses the impact of soil and land use change on local and regional climate.

The research group investigates fundamental processes related to geomorphology and atmospheric science as well as impacts on society and ecosystems. To do so, advanced and state-of-the-art methods, including erosion and climate modelling, photogrammetry, sediment fingerprinting and data science is used.

Will our farmers soon be without usable land?

On fertile soil and soil erosion

According to geographer Amaury Frankl (UGent), it is not the gold or iron that we extract from the ground that is the most valuable resource, but rather the soil itself. Without realising it, we have been losing many years of our soil for many years. What dangers that poses and how we can solve it, he comes to tell us.
(In Dutch)

Geomorphological survey in the Global South

On land degradation in Ethiopia

Land degradation, and the impact that this has on the geomorphological functioning of the earth's surface, is a global problem, but in countries of the Global South it is particularly severe. With our research at the Department of Geography of Ghent University, we have been active in Ethiopia and are joining forces to restore the country.