Following the approval of 18 new and 40 ongoing projects by the IGCP Council during their 6th Council session in March 2021, 58 IGCP projects will be delivered by 326 IGCP project leaders from 91 countries in 2021 with the support of UNESCO, IUGS , Jeju Province Development Corporation (JPDC) from the Republic of Korea and the National Commission of the People's Republic of China for UNESCO.
- If you want to join an active IGCP project, do not hesitate to contact a project leader.
IGCP projects by themes:
Earth Resources | Global Change | Geohazards | Hydrogeology | Geodynamic
1. Earth Resources: Sustaining our Society
Knowledge on natural resources - including minerals, hydrocarbons, geothermal energy, and water - and their management is the frontline of the struggle for more sustainable and equitable development. The environmentally responsible exploitation of these resources is a challenge for geoscience research. The progress of technological development is equally bound to this premise.
- IGCP 636- Geothermal resources for energy transition (2020)
- IGCP 637- Heritage Stones: a step towards to widen up the recognition of stones used in the building of heritage in emerging countries (2020)
- IGCP 638- Paleoproterozoic Birimian geology for sustainable development
- IGCP 665- Sustainable use of black soil critical zone
- IGCP 674- Human health impacts of mining activities in Sub-Sahara Africa (2020)
- IGCP 675- Sandstone - Type Uranium Deposits
- IGCP 685- Geology for Sustainable Development
- IGCP 696- Impacts from Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining in the Amazon (2020)
- IGCP 697- Building New Tools for Data Sharing and Re-use through a Transnational Investigation of the Socioeconomic Impacts of Protected Areas (2020)
- IGCP 698- NextMine (2020)
- IGCP 722- Stone for Development Work-integrated learning and action research program (2021)
- IGCP 746- RESOURCES4ALL
Earth Resources | Global Change | Geohazards | Hydrogeology | Geodynamic
2. Global Change and the Evolution of Life: Evidence from the geological record
Changes in the Earth's climate and of life on Earth are preserved in the geologic record. Ice and dust records, terrestrial and ocean sediments, and sequences of fossil plant and animal assemblages all tell the story of our Planet which holds important lessons about present-day environmental challenges and the ways to mitigate and manage environmental damage.
- IGCP 639- Sea Level Changes from minutes to millenia
- IGCP 652- Reading Geologic Time in Paleozoic Sedimentary Rocks
- IGCP 668- Equatorial Gondwanan history and Early Palaeozoic Evolutionary Dynamics
- IGCP 673- The End of A Supereon - Winners and Losers at the Precambrian-Phanerozoic Transition
- IGCP 679- Cretaceous Earth Dynamics and Climate in Asia
- IGCP 681- History of Toxic Phytoplankton in Patagonia
- IGCP 700- Carbonate Build-Ups In South East Asia (2020)
- IGCP 704- Tropical peatland processes and ecosystem services (2020)
- IGCP 739- The Mesozoic Paleogene Hypertermal Events
- IGCP 735 Rocks and the Rise of Ordovician Life (Rocks n' ROL)
- IGCP 732 "LANGUAGE of the Anthropocene
Earth Resources | Global Change | Geohazards | Hydrogeology | Geodynamic
3. Geohazards: Mitigating the risks
Geohazards include earthquakes, volcanic activity, landslides, tsunamis, floods, meteorite impacts and the health hazards of geologic materials, and can range from local events such as a rock slide or coastal erosion to events that threaten humankind such as a supervolcano or meteorite impact. Earth scientists undertake research to better understand these hazards and contribute to risk management policies related to social and technical issues associated with geohazards as well as disaster mitigation.
- IGCP 659- Seismic risk assessment in Africa
- IGCP 669- Identification of seismogenic faults in populated areas of Latin America and its incorporation into seismic hazard assessment (2020)
- IGCP 672- Himalayan glaciers: assessing risks to local communities from debris cover and lake changes using new satellite data
- IGCP 692- Geoheritage for Geohazard Resilience
- IGCP 693- Seismic risk assessment in Haiti (2020)
- IGCP 701- Seismic vulnerability of buildings located on hillsides (2020)
- IGCP 705- Building Global Capacity for the Observation of Volcanic and Atmospheric Change (2020)
- IGCP 713- Changing the paradigm in observational volcano science: Community plan for the Global Volcano Observatory (GloVO) Initiative (2020)
- IGCP 719- Building Research Capacity for Coastal Resilience in West Africa
- IGCP 740- West Makran Paleo-tsunami Investigation (2020-2021)
- IGCP 718- Bringing geology and geoheritage to life
- IGCP 716- Asian Coastal Resilience Network (ACoRN)
- IGCP 725- Forecasting coastal change
- IGCP 734- REFRA-SOS (Realtime Flood Risk Assessment in developing countries using Social media, Optical and SAR satellite data)
- IGCP 724 Fluid geochemistry and earthquake forecasting
Earth Resources | Global Change | Geohazards | Hydrogeology | Geodynamic
4. Hydrogeology: Geoscience of the water cycle
Life on Earth depends on water, and its sustainable use is crucial for continued human activities. Earth’s water cycle involves studying, understanding, and managing groundwater systems, hydrogeology, as well as sources, contamination and vulnerability of water systems.
- IGCP 661- The Critical Zone in Karst Systems
- IGCP 663- Impact, Mechanism, Monitoring of Land Subsidence in Coastal cities
- IGCP 684- The Water-Energy-Food and Groundwater Sustainability Nexus (WEF-GW Nexus) (2019)
- IGCP 689- Study the Ali-Sabieh aquifer recharge (Rep. of Djibouti) (2019)
- IGCP 707- Origin, Distribution, and Biogeochemistry of Arsenic in the Altiplano-Puna plateau of South America (2020)
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IGCP 730- Hydrogeological Significance of Mediterranean Geoparks
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IGCP 715- A new karst modelling approach along different tectonic contacts
Earth Resources | Global Change | Geohazards | Hydrogeology | Geodynamic
5. Geodynamic: Control our environment
Our habitable environment at the Earth's surface is linked and controlled by processes occurring deep within the Earth. Earth scientists use, inter alia, geophysical techniques to study deep Earth processes ranging from changes in the Earth's magnetic field to plate tectonics to understand better the Earth as a dynamic planet. Those processes are also relevant to natural resource exploration, distribution and management of groundwater resources and the study and mitigation of natural hazards such as earthquakes.
- IGCP 662- Orogenic architecture and crustal growth from accretion to collision
- IGCP 667- World Map of the Orogens
- IGCP 683- Pre-Atlantic geological connections among northwest Africa, Iberia and eastern North America: Implications for continental configurations and economic resources (2020)
- IGCP 709- High pressure-Ultrahigh pressure metamorphism and geochemical cycles in subduc tion zones (2020)
- IGCP 710- Western Tethys meets Eastern Tethys (2020)
- IGCP 765-Capacity building networks and improved methodologies for increased interoperability mapping and monitoring carbon stocks
Earth Resources | Global Change | Geohazards | Hydrogeology | Geodynamic
2020 Special topic: Geoheritage for Sustainable Development theme
UNESCO’s mandate acknowledges the research on geological heritage as an important instrument for the holistic approach to sustainable development of UNESCO Member States. The call for proposals under the Geoheritage for Sustainable Development Special Topic will support projects focusing on the protection of geological formations which are essential to:
- keeping the memory of the evolution of the earth;
- learning from evolving processes to solve emerging problems and
- the success of a future sustainable development of local communities, in particular in terms of resource management, renewable energies, energy efficiency, farming, land use and peatland management.
The call for Geoheritage for Sustainable Development will provide seed funding to projects applying best practices and to projects contributing to the strengthening and empowering of local communities to ensure that the geological importance of an area can be preserved and promoted for science, education and culture.
- IGCP 727- Geological heritage - sustainable management of geological hazards and water resources in transboundary region of Kyrgyzstan (2020-2021)
- IGCP 731- IUGS Geological Heritage sites
- IGCP 714- 3GEO – Geoclimbing & Geotrekking in Geoparks provisional for 1 year with funding (2020-2021)
- IGCP 736- SEDSNet - Science and Education for Sustainable Development Networks in UGGp (2020-2021)
- IGCP 737- SMART Geology for better Community
- IGCP 726- GEOfood for sustainable development in UNESCO Global Geoparks
- IGCP 751- 4GEON: Geoparks’ People of Four Continents Connected through Playful Earth Heritage Education
Earth Resources | Global Change | Geohazards | Hydrogeology | Geodynamic
