BlogISLR18 Conference: Impacts of sea-level rise from past to present
Posted by Eduardo Alarcón in INQUA News & Events on 15 Jan 2019
In 2018, the INQUA conference for early-career researchers (ECR) was held from Sunday 26 to Wednesday 29 August at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. This conference was the first meeting directly co-sponsored in a joint effort by INQUA and PAGES, with the title 'ISLR18: Impacts of sea-level rise from past to present'. This event brought together more than 70 ECR delegates from 23 countries, to showcase worldwide research in a broad range of disciplines working with sea-level change.
The organisation of the conference was led by a local committee of ECRs: Aimée Slangen (NIOZ, Utrecht University), Kay Koster (Geological Survey of the Netherlands), Bas de Boer (IMAU, Utrecht University), Robert Barnett (University of Exeter), Xavier Benito (National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center) and Eduardo Alarcón (UCV), and included renowned academics from the Netherlands, INQUA, and PAGES.
The 'ISLR18' meeting started with an ice-breaker in the Botanical Gardens at Utrecht University. The main event included two days of oral and poster presentations by ECRs and invited keynote lectures in four different sessions: 'Past sea-level changes', 'Recent and future sea-level changes', 'Mitigation, adaptation and coastal impacts' and 'Submerged landscapes'. Two extra activities included a one-day field trip to the Rhine delta and Holland coastal plain, and a successful public event on ‘Science and Society’. The public event attracted over 140 attendees from the scientific community, which facilitated a wonderful opportunity to showcase the consequences of sea-level rise for the Netherlands and elsewhere in the world, and how these changes are managed.
The conference 'ISLR18: Impacts of sea level rise from past to present' was an international collaboration by INQUA and PAGES, with support from Utrecht University, and cooperation from TNO - Geological Survey of the Netherlands, NIOZ, TU Delft, NESSC, Deltares, and the University of Leiden. Photos and details of the event can be found on the webpage: www.islr18.org.
