EnviroInfo-2006: Call for Participation

MANAGING ENVIRONMENTAL KNOWLEDGE
20th International Conference on Informatics for
Environmental Protection (EnviroInfo-2006)

6-8 September 2006
Graz, Austria

http://www.enviroinfo.net/

Since its inception in 1986, the EnviroInfo conference series of the
German Informatics Society developed into the leading European platform
for experts in sustainability and environmental protection. In 2006, the
series' 20th anniversary will be celebrated in Graz, Austria. The online
registration form, preliminary program and list of accepted papers are now
available online. EnviroInfo-2006 will continue the successful tradition
of exchanging environmental knowledge among the scientific community,
public administrations, non-governmental organizations, companies involved
in environmental informatics, and the end-users of environmental
information systems. EnviroInfo-2006 is hosted by the Know-Center and Graz
University of Technology concurrently with the 6th International
Conference on Knowledge Management (www.i-know.at). The program includes
keynotes by a number of internationally renowned experts; please visit the
Web site for scheduled times and the keynoters' short biographies:

* Werner Pillmann, Austrian Health Institute (ÖBIG), AT
 Chairman of the German Computer Society’s TC 4.6.1
 Computer Science in Environmental Protection

* Franz Josef Radermacher, University of Ulm, GE
 Scientific Director, Research Institute
 for Applied Knowledge Processing (FAW)

* David Alan Stainforth, Oxford University, UK
 Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics Department
 Climateprediction.net Chief Scientist

* Bebo White, Stanford University, US
 Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC)
 Fellow of the International WWW Institute

* Rosalie A. Zobel, European Commission, BE
 Director, DG INFSO G Components and Systems
 Directorate General, Information Society and Media

We look forward to welcoming you
to Graz in September 2006!

Best regards,

Arno Scharl & Klaus Tochtermann
Know-Center and Graz University of Technology,
Knowledge Management Institute, Inffeldgasse 21a, A-8010 Graz, Austria
www.know-center.at | kmi.tugraz.at | www.ecoresearch.net

Best,

Jorge Brenner

Marine Mammal Research Internships - Spring 2007

For a detailed description and more information, please see our website
at www.whalecenter.org/intern.htm

The Whale Center of New England, located in Gloucester, MA, is a
non-profit research organization involved with the study of the
behavior, ecology, and natural history of the whales and dolphins found
in the waters off of Massachusetts. The Whale Center is also heavily
involved with habitat conservation and education programs. We are
currently looking to fill research internships for the spring (January
29 - May 26) semester of 2007.

The Whale Center of New England internship provides experience needed to
further pursue fields in marine biology and animal behavior. It is our
goal to provide college students and recent graduates with the
opportunity to collect valuable information important to the marine
mammal field and to see how this information is used in management and
conservation efforts in this area. Each internship session offers
different experiences in marine mammal science that will depend on the
season. These duties may include, but are not limited to: extensive
photo-identification and computer work (training provided), field data
collection aboard commercial whale watching vessels and our 27' research
vessel Silver II, attendance at necropsies (whale autopsies), marine
mammal stranding response, harbor seal surveys and attendance at
conferences and meetings.

Internship applicants should have the following:
* A background in biology, zoology, or related field
* Some knowledge of research methods and design
* An ability to work, live and communicate well with others
* Enthusiasm and dedication to work long days (sometimes 12 hours or
more) in the field or lab
* Completed their freshmen year at the time of application

Information regarding the application process, including application
form, is available on our website.

*Applications for the spring 2007 session will be accepted on a rolling
basis until all positions are filled. All applications should be
submitted by December 20, 2006*

Application materials and questions regarding the internship should be
directed to the intern coordinator:

Cara Pekarcik
P.O. Box 159
Gloucester, MA 01930
978-281-6351 (office)
978-281-5666 (fax)
cara@whalecenter.org

Source: MARINET@LISTSERV.REDIRIS.ES

Best,

Jorge Brenner

Climate Change Actio

This is a very good blog on climate change issues.

It deals with Climate Change, Global Warming, Environmental, Greenhouse Effect, Kyoto Protocol, Aviation, Sustainable Development, Climate Change Mitigation. www.stopclimatechaos.org/ Weather, Carbon Dioxide, Action, Protest, MP, Parliament, Letter Writing, Save Our Planet, Emmisions, Trading, Flexibility, and Species Extinction.

Try at: http://climatechangeaction.blogspot.com/

Best,

Jorge Brenner

statGIS Summer School 2006

Objective

The international Summer School addresses most of all to young researchers (Master students, PhD students, PostDoc researchers) in academie, extra-universitary research and industry, who are interested to learn about recent developments, new methods and applications in spatial statistics and related areeas and to exchange their ideas and results with colleagues. This Summer School will provide a series of lectures given by internationally renowned experts. It will include the following

Main Topics

Spatial Design (W. Mueller, Linz)
MCMC Methods (Ch. Robert, Paris)
Bayes Maximum Entropy Methods (G. Christakos, San Diego)
Spartan Random Fields Modelling (D. Hristopulos, Chania)
Gaussian Markov Random Fields Modeling and Applications (H. Rue, Trondheim)
Recent Developments in spatio-temporal Geostatistics (T. Gneiting, Washington, M. Schlather, Hamburg)
Spatial Point Processes and Applications in Ecology and Epidemiology (R. Waagepetersen, Aalborg)
Geostatistical Simulation (Ch. Lantuejoul, Fontainebleau)
Data Assimilation (D. Cornford, Aston)

The Summer School will be continued by the Third International Workshop StatGIS 07 (Details will be available next year).

Webpage: http://www.uni-klu.ac.at/statgis06/content.html

Dates: September 11-15, 2006

Best,

Jorge Brenner

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SPATIAL DATA INFRASTRUCTURES RESEARCH

Please find attached the call for papers for this new peer-reviewed journal published exclusively on line by DG Joint Research Centre of the European Commission. The aim of the Journal is to further the scientific endeavor underpinning the development, implementation and use of Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDIs).

The Journal encourages articles from broad multi-disciplinary backgrounds including social and environmental sciences, and engineering, deploying also critical and interpretative methodologies. Articles in the following areas are particularly welcome: Spatial and Network Technologies, Distributed Spatial Databases and Metadata, Methods, Applications, and Socio-economic Impacts of SDIs.

The Journal is published free of charge and adheres to the Open Archives Initiative, which aims to facilitate the dissemination of electronic content.

For more information see http://ijsdir.jrc.it

Source: SEA-GIS@LISTSERV.HEANET.IE

Best,

Jorge Brenner

Conservationevindence.com: sharing conservation experience

www.conservationevidence.com is a non-profit website which collates evidence 
on the effectiveness of conservation management practice. A major aim of the 
site is to provide a means for practitioners (such as wardens, site managers 
and conservation volunteers) to document their experiences on the 
effectiveness of different management techniques. It is hoped that this will 
then enable those involved in species or habitat management to improve 
conservation practice by learning lessons from each other.

One way to collate this evidence is for individuals and organisations to 
submit case studies or ‘cases’ via www.conservationevidence.com.  It need 
not be complicated and each of the main sections (Background, Action and 
Consequences) could comprise just a few sentences.  For the case to be 
useful for others, there has to be some information on the consequences of 
the action. This could be, for example: the effect of establishing a no-take 
MPA on fish populations; or coral recruitment on an artificial reef 
substrate.

At present, there are very few tropical marine case studies on the site, and 
all that are on the site are from published journals. We are very keen to 
add more marine cases, particularly from practitioner experience, as there 
is a wealth of knowledge and experience in tropical marine conservation that 
remains unpublished.

Webpage: http://www.conservationevidence.com 

Source: coral-list@coral.aoml.noaa.gov

Best,

Jorge Brenner

GEM Master of Science course

Geo-information Science and Earth Observation for Environmental Modelling and Management (GEM) Master of Science (MSc) course.

This top-quality Masters Course is supported by the prestigious EU Erasmus Mundus programme. We offer EU-funded scholarships to exceptional (non-EU) students, as well as access for full fee-paying students (from the EU and the rest of the world).

It is run sequentially by:

• the University of Southampton (United Kingdom)
• Lund University (Sweden)
• the University of Warsaw (Poland).
• the International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation ITC (the Netherlands)

It combines the best elements from these institutes into one course. World renowned faculty from the four Universities, as well as visiting scholars, teach this course.

Webpage: http://www.gem-msc.org/i_general.aspx

Best,

Jorge Brenner