From August 4th to 9th 2013 the International Geographic Union (IGU) will hold their 2013 Regional Conference at the International Conference Center in Kyoto. There, at the birthplace of the famous Kyoto Protocol, geographers from all over the world (theoretically – personally I expect a majority of fellows from Asia, hence the “Regional” in the conference name) will gather to discuss, exchange and network for 6 days. The theme of the conference is “Traditional Wisdom and Modern Knowledge for the Earth’s Future”, and what country could be better suited for this dialog between old and new than Japan, where this opposition can be observed everywhere and all the time.

Personally I will be present from the morning of August 5th to the evening of 8th. I will actually present twice in Kyoto, once my personal PhD research, and once about the preliminary results of an ongoing research project at my lab.

August 7, 2013 (Wed) – 10:00-11:30
Room J – Session CS38-5
Spatio-Temporal Analysis of Bicycle Commuting Behavior in the Greater Tokyo Area Using a Micro-Scale Persontrip Database
Konstantin Greger, University of Tsukuba
Yuji Murayama, University of Tsukuba

August 8, 2013 (Thu) – 08:00-09:30
Session CS18-12 – Room554B
Spatial Methodologies for the Analysis of Vulnerability in Urban Areas ー A Case Study for Terrorism in Tokyo, Japan
Konstantin Greger, University of Tsukuba

I’m looking forward very much to the conference, to interesting presentations and stimulating discussions, and also to meeting some old friends and hopefully meeting many new ones. It is my sincere hope that this IGU Conference will be more effective than the Kyoto Protocol…