Looking ahead to the future of GeogEd: creating spaces of exchange between communities of practice

As part of the special issue marking the transition of the Higher Education Research Group to the Geography and Education Research Group, in this final paper we argue that the reformed group has a key role to play in promoting spaces of exchange between the communities of practice that have a stake in the shared endeavours of geography and education. We draw on structured conversations from the group’s launch event, existing literature, and our particular vantage points to identify a range of influences – both heritages that we work with and challenges that we face – that shape the interplay of geography and education in our pedagogical contexts. We argue that the GeogEd Research Group can create spaces of productive exchange between three communities of practice: geographies of education research, geography education research, and pedagogic research. As the research group brings these communities of practice together, it facilitates dialogue, creates new avenues for research, and connects and enhances geography teaching practice across education levels

Looking ahead to the future of GeogEd: Creating spaces of exchange between communities of practice

As part of the special issue marking the transition of the Higher Education Research Group to the Geography and Education Research Group, in this final paper we argue that the reformed group has a key role to play in promoting spaces of exchange between the communities of practice that have a stake in the shared endeavours of geography and education. We draw on structured conversations from the group’s launch event, existing literature, and our particular vantage points to identify a range of influences – both heritages that we work with and challenges that we face – that shape the interplay of geography and education in our pedagogical contexts. We argue that the GeogEd Research Group can create spaces of productive exchange between three communities of practice: geographies of education research, geography education research, and pedagogic research. As the research group brings these communities of practice together, it facilitates dialogue, creates new avenues for research, and connects and enhances geography teaching practice across education levels

Integrating susceptibility maps of multiple hazards and building exposure distribution: A case study of wildfires and floods for Quang Nam province, Vietnam

Natural hazards have serious impacts worldwide on society, economy and environment. In Vietnam, throughout the years, natural hazards have caused significant loss of lives as well as severe devastation to houses, crops, and transportation. This research presents a new approach for multi-hazard (floods and wildfires) exposure estimates using machine learning models, Google Earth Engine, and spatial analysis tools for a typical case study, Quang Nam province in Central Vietnam. A geospatial database is built for multiple hazard modelling, including an inventory of climate-related hazards (floods and wildfires), topography, geology, hydrology, climate features (temperature, rainfall, wind), land use, and building data for exposure assessment. The susceptibility of each hazard is first modelled and then integrated into a multi-hazard exposure matrix to demonstrate a hazard profiling approach for multi-hazard risk assessment. The results are explicitly illustrated for floods and wildfire hazards and the exposure of buildings. Susceptibility models using the random forest approach provide model accuracy of AUC = 0.882 and 0.884 for floods and wildfires, respectively. The flood and wildfire hazards are combined within a semi-quantitative matrix to assess the building exposure to different hazards. Digital multi-hazard exposure maps of floods and wildfires aid the identification of areas exposed to climate-related hazards and the potential impacts of hazards. This approach can be used to inform communities and regulatory authorities on where to develop and implement long-term adaptation solutions

The future of geography field course pedagogy in UK Higher Education

Field courses are widely regarded as integral to geography degree programmes, providing students with opportunities for experiential learning, often in unfamiliar international environments. Yet, this key area of pedagogy appears increasingly unsustainable and complex for Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) within the context of the urgent need for decarbonisation, increasing financial costs, and the institutional challenges of comprehensively embedding necessary Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) considerations into these activities. Here, we report on a national-level workshop (April 2024) that brought together a wide range of HE practitioners to discuss the future of UK field course pedagogy, using the fieldwork principles adopted by the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) (RGS-IBG) in 2020 as a basis for framing future discourse. Using a Three Horizons approach to guide our conversations, we critically explored the (un)sustainability of current academic and institutional practices, alongside future directions and ‘disrupting’ (innovative) practices for promoting transformative change in this area of education. Here, we argue for two sector-wide discussions that require collaborative engagement with practitioners, institutions and students. Firstly, we highlight the urgent need for transparent and critical reflection on the challenges and hypocrisy of aeromobility in academia and the need for more widespread adoption of low-carbon (‘slower’) modes of travel. Secondly, we call for the immediate reconceptualization of field course pedagogy to place EDI considerations at the core of field course design and practice, aiding a transition towards Universal Design for Learning (UDL). As such, we call on the geography community in higher education to engage in critical reflection on how we take meaningful and urgent action to address the disconnect between our stated educational values around environmental sustainability and EDI, and our actual educational practices