Geographisches Institut

Expanding cryospheric landform inventories

2025-12-29T10:32:58Z

Expanding cryospheric landform inventories Köhler, Tamara; Schoch-Baumann, Anna; Bell, Rainer; Buckel, Johannes; Ortiz, Diana Agostina; Trombotto Liaudat, Dario; Schrott, Lothar There is a clear spatial discrepancy between the area potentially underlain by permafrost and the landforms recorded in the national inventory of cryospheric landforms in the Dry Andes of Argentina (∼22°–35°S). In the periglacial belt around 30°S, these areas are often covered by extensive block- and talus slopes, whose distribution and potential permafrost content have received little attention so far. We present the first geomorphological mapping and predictive modeling of these underestimated landforms in a semi-arid high Andean catchment with representative cryospheric landform cover (30°S, 69°W). Random forest models produce robust and transferable predictions of both target landforms, demonstrating a high predictive power (mean AUROC values ≥0.95 using non-spatial validation and ≥0.83 using spatial validation). By combining geomorphological mapping, predictive modeling, and geostatistical analysis of block- and talus slopes, we enhance our knowledge of their distribution characteristics, formative controls and potential ground ice content. While both landforms provide suitable site conditions for permafrost occurrence, talus slopes are expected to contain significantly higher ground ice content than blockslopes due to their more favorable characteristics for ice formation and preservation. Given their widespread distribution across almost 79% of the modeled area, block- and talus slopes constitute potentially important ground ice storages and runoff contributors that are not included in current hydrological assessments of mountain permafrost. Our results underscore the need to expand existing cryospheric landform inventories to achieve a more comprehensive quantification of underrepresented periglacial landforms and thus a realistic acquisition of cryospheric water resources in high mountain environments. The newly compiled inventories can serve as a basis for further investigations (e.g., geophysical surveys, hydrochemical analysis, permafrost distribution models) at different spatial scales.

The hard work of future-making

2025-08-12T10:15:28Z

The hard work of future-making Aalders, Theo; Müller-Mahn, Detlef This article proposes that future-making is hard work. Drawing on examples of work on and around infrastructure projects in East Africa, we show how people orient themselves towards the future through both imagination and material practices. We argue that work navigates between apparent opposites, and identify three antagonisms that are particularly relevant to our argument. First, we discuss how labour mediates between material reality and anticipatory imagination, extending this argument to include a mediation between material present and immaterial future imaginaries. Second, we show how labour can oscillate between visible, even spectacular, performance of labour and employment, and the invisible work of often marginalised people. Finally, we argue that while labour is often characterised by exploitative dynamics, it also offers possibilities for resistance – as well as promises of liberation – through organised labour in various forms. We conclude that (organised) labour, particularly around infrastructure projects, has the potential to make marginalised futures visible and real, thus challenging dominant imaginaries and material realities of the future inscribed by infrastructure master plans. These arguments are illustrated by vignettes collected during fieldwork on the Nairobi Express, along the proposed Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia-Transport (LAPSSET) corridor in Kenya and around a dam construction site in Tanzania.

Geographie und Recht

2024-08-16T06:00:39Z

Geographie und Recht Klosterkamp, Sarah Sarah Klosterkamp will in diesem Buch erstens bereits bestehende gerichtsethnographische Methoden für eine Humangeographie fruchtbar machen, die an Recht und seinen multiplen Wechselwirkungen im Sinne von Subjektkonstitutionen und Produktionsweisen gesellschaftlicher Ungleichheit interessiert ist. Hierfür schlägt sie ein methodisch-methodologisches Instrumentarium vor, das geeignet scheint, den spezifischen Besonderheiten des empirischen Forschens im Gericht Rechnung zu tragen. Zweitens geht es ihr um eine konzeptionelle Ausdehnung politisch-geographisch informierter Ansätze und konkret um eine sinnvolle Ergänzung und Erweiterung bereits bestehender politisch-geographischer Untersuchungen aus dem Bereich der Kriminalgeographien um die Komponente der Logiken und Praktiken machtvoller Institutionen im Sinne einer study-up power Forschung. Dies systematisiert und konkretisiert sie am Beispiel eigener Feldforschungen an Amts-, Landes- und Oberlandesgerichten in Celle, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Köln, Frankfurt, München und Stuttgart-Stammheim. So gelingt ihr eine dichte Ethnographie staatlichen Handelns und Bewertens von strafrechtlich relevanten Gegenständen und Personen an der für die Geographie spannenden Schnittstelle der Terrorismusbekämpfung, Kriminalitätskartierung, Migrations- und Fluchtbewegungen und Materialtransporten, die durch den EU-Schengenraum und bis in das (ehemalige) Kalifat des ‚Islamischen Staates' reichen.

Japan 1873-1875

2024-07-26T13:00:38Z

Japan 1873-1875 Nauheim, Tobit; Kusune, Shigekazu; Schenk, Winfried Nach der Publikation des ersten Bandes im 2020 werden in diesem zweiten Band die verbliebenen beiden Tagebbuchbände von Lehrstuhlinhabers für Geographie an Bonner Universität Johannes Justus Rein (1835-1918) vorgelegt.
Die Edition der Tagebücher stellt den Versuch dar, möglichst unmittelbare Eindrücke zu vermitteln – eines Forscherlebens, das sich durch die mannigfaltigen Aufgaben auszeichnet, die sich einem länderkundlich arbeitenden Geographen in dieser Zeit stellten; – insbesondere des Alltagslebens und der Kultur eines sich rasch wandelnden Japans und schließlich der vielen persönlichen Begegnungen und Netzwerke, die den Erfolg des Unterfangens maßgeblich bedingten.