2019

Water Towers of the world ranked on vulnerability

WSL/Utrecht University/National Geographic — Mon, 09 Dec 2019 19:06:25 GMT

Scientists from around the world have assessed the planet's 78 mountain glacier-based water systems and ranked them in order of their importance to adjacent lowland communities, as well as their vulnerability to future environmental and socioeconomic changes.

Himalayan lakes are exacerbating glacial melt

Text: University of St Andrews Communications Office — Tue, 03 Dec 2019 16:30:33 GMT

The rate glaciers are melting in the Himalaya is being significantly accelerated by lakes already formed by glacial retreat, according to recent research conducted at the University of Zurich and the University of St Andrews, Scotland, UK.

Gaming for better data

Tue, 26 Nov 2019 07:31:06 GMT

Citizen scientists collect large amounts of very valuable data, yet the quality of data is an important issue. The CrowdWater game shows a playful way to improve their accuracy.

Poor communication torpedoes a second national park

Franca Siegfried — Fri, 13 Sep 2019 11:05:06 GMT

When planning a nature reserve, you have to engage in a subtle art of communication. This failed in the case of the projected Adula Park, as an ethnographic analysis has now proven.

Black mystery in the Amazon River

Wed, 04 Sep 2019 22:00:00 GMT

Black carbon produced by the burning of fuels and biomass is the most stable carbon compound in nature, yet its path from land to the deep ocean remains mysterious. An international research team under the lead of the Department of Geography characterized the black carbon exported by the Amazon River.

Find your way back with intelligent navigation systems

Tue, 20 Aug 2019 06:33:37 GMT

Navigation systems are ubiquitous tools, but they make us pay less attention to environment properties and thus we acquire less spatial knowledge. However, intelligent navigation systems can influence human navigation behaviour.

The emotional entanglements of smartphones in the field

Sun, 21 Jul 2019 12:11:09 GMT

Smartphones as data collection instruments cause emotions. This was one of the results of the interdisciplinary project "Youth@Night". The effect of such emotions calls for a renewed scrutiny of research ethics, particularly as smartphones increasingly become part of research designs.

From fires to oceans

Thu, 04 Jul 2019 22:00:00 GMT

No life without fire, no light, no culture, and no landscapes. The relics of fire are present in the air, soils, sediments, rivers, and the oceans. A special issue explores the dynamics of fire-derived organic matter in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.

Ice on a stick in soil research

Sun, 23 Jun 2019 22:00:00 GMT

Fertile soils are one of the foundations of life on earth. According to the United Nations, one third has already been lost. Researchers at the Department of Geography have now used a new method to decipher the temporal variations in soil erosion and regeneration over the last 100,000 years in the Sila highlands of southern Italy.

Melting glaciers causing sea levels to rise at ever greater rates

Tue, 09 Apr 2019 07:01:49 GMT

Melting ice sheets in Greenland and the Antarctic as well as ice melt from glaciers all over the world are causing sea levels to rise. Glaciers alone lost more than 9,000 billion tons of ice since 1961, raising water levels by 27 millimeters, an international research team under the lead of UZH have now found.

Do financial incentives motivate farmers to conserve land?

Mon, 08 Apr 2019 10:15:33 GMT

Financial incentives facilitate, but rarely motivate farmers to undertake conservation practices on their land. Instead, their values and relationships are key.

How landscapes contribute to our well-being

Thu, 07 Feb 2019 14:17:49 GMT

The impact of landscapes on human well-being is manifold: We appreciate the beauty, we feel we belong there, we can relax and promote our health. In five landscapes of national importance in Switzerland, researchers from the universities of Zurich and Lausanne assessed how landscape services are perceived.