Sessions / Workshops

In addition to introductory and concluding plenary sessions, there will be time for discussions in smaller groups

• around the posters that will be presented in the Residence's gallery
• during the various workshops that we are planning:

Program

Provisional Sessions / Workshops

Session Understanding the rift and anticipating its future: Contributions of modelling

Moderators: P. Sepulchre, M. Schuster

Successive IPCC reports highlight the vulnerability of East Africa to the consequences of anthropogenic climate change. In this context, modelling appears as an essential transverse tool for understanding and projecting the future evolution of the Rift socio-ecosystems. This workshop welcomes all contributions whose common point is the use and/or development of models, whether sociological, biological or (geo-)physical, to understand the future evolution of the Rift system. Discussions will focus on the limits and locks of the models, but also on their relevance and predictive capacity. Can we consider enough interactions and factors? What is the impact of the tools and their adaptability to the problems? Finally, what is the role of the researcher if his models can assist political decisions?

Session What is heritage? 

Moderators: J.R. Boisserie, O. Otero, J. Cauliez, M. Bridonneau.

Management, conservation, enhancement: so many terms and practices included in the notion of heritage. What role can scientific research play in heritage policies? Which policies for the multiple faces of heritage?

Session Rift as a factory of diversity

Moderators: J.R. Boisserie, J.B. Eczet

What is the effect of the rift on diversity? How can the unity of a natural and social space be defined by the heterogeneity in which it participates and not by a homogeneous whole?

Session Energy versus Resources

Moderators: B. Hazard, Y. Geraud

Resources have always been essential to our survival, and have had a strong influence on our mobility, innovations, politics, behaviour, and environmental management for millions of years. This workshop will explore energies and resources in time and in their diversity (tourism, water, minerals, ores, etc.). Attention will also be paid to the qualification of these notions, which are defined differently according to the disciplines: is an energy or a resource potential and existing before use, or only produced and defined by use?

Session Wet Places

Moderators: B. Hazard, O. Otero, D. Barboni

Oases, waterholes, rivers, riparian forests, etc., located in the arid landscapes of East Africa, the Rift wetlands are shaped by tectonics, climate, and life. Places of life and exchange, they are at the heart of past, present, and future socio-ecological and bio-geological interactions. This workshop aims to identify the aspects/themes of research on wetlands located in arid environments and the challenges of approaches at the crossroads of disciplines and their potential complementarities.

Session Systems Dynamics

Moderators: P. Sepulchre, C. Tiberi, O. Otero

The rift gathers very diversified systems, whose dynamics are particularly difficult to understand. This complexity is due to the many different types of data and disciplines, the sometimes extremely contrasting scales of time and space, or concepts that are sometimes very distant from one another. This workshop aims to approach the dynamics of systems by addressing, among other things, the question of mobility and connectivity in the rift, but also by questioning how spatial or temporal scales can intertwine and interact. How have and will climatic changes or geodynamic phenomena alter environments? How does the rift structure cultures, populations and their mobility? What is a barrier and how does it affect systems? The expected examples may be from different fields (e.g. linguistics, climatology), or can already integrate several (e.g. geology, biology).

Session Health-Environment Relations 

Moderators: G. Bornette, D. Bompangué

Declination of one health approaches in the Rift: what are the issues, what methods, what hopes?
In recent years, it has become clear that public health issues can no longer be analyzed rigorously without placing them in their ecological context. In particular, the relationships between human societies, fauna and flora, and the ecosystems that the organisms occupy, are key elements determining the health risks to which these living beings are exposed. The One Health concept was born to address this issue: how the health of living organisms (animals and plants) and the functioning of ecosystems interact with humans and contribute to the health risks they face. This workshop aims to address this issue in the geographical context of the African rift, focusing on infectious diseases affecting the populations of these territories. The objective is to take stock of current research and to initiate a brainstorming session on scientific approaches and means to improve the prevention of health risks in the context of increasing anthropogenic pressure on ecosystems and climate change.

Translated with DeepL

Session Definition and management of the risks (merged with Systems dynamics)

Moderators: M. Meghraoui, C. Tiberi

The Rift is characterized by active geodynamic processes (seismicity, volcanism, degassing), but also results in significant contrasts in the relief and in the climatic seasonality, implying the existence of additional natural hazards (floods, landslides, ...). Due to its favorable environmental conditions, this structure has also allowed the development of a high density of human occupation (especially since the Middle Quaternary), implying an increase in risks. A realistic assessment of the risks related to the Rift and an inventory of resilience actions is one of the objectives of this workshop. We will also address the issues of vulnerability, risk, and resilience in the Rift. These aspects will be discussed in the context of environmental change, whether at large spatial and temporal scales (continental and geological) or at regional scales and abrupt changes (soil erosion, lava flows, pollution,...). We expect contributions from all disciplines, whether they address the definition of hazards, their impact on the environment, or the role of scientists in their management. What are the risks present in the rift, their distribution, their impact, and for whom (public policies, inhabitants)? What role can science and local knowledge play in their management? What are the temporalities of the processes, of the crises, and how to approach them?

Workshop Target zones (Turkana and Tanzania) 

Moderators: J.R. Boisserie, C. Tiberi, S. Prat, O. Otero

The aim of these two workshops is to bring together our different disciplines around two target areas that can be defined as interdisciplinary observatories. These areas have extremely rich potential biodiversity, geodynamic processes, sedimentary and fossil records, and are also the site of major societal issues (economic, political, cultural, energy, etc.). We hope to initiate a reflection with all the partners to build common interdisciplinary and participative observatories.

Session Let's meet and build a project !

This interactive session has been specially designed to exchange and meet to develop our scientific networks to create projects, to complete scientific issues on a given region or theme. It can be divided into several small workshops, depending on the speakers and participants. We are counting on your active participation!

Session Student Workshop

Moderators: D. Pleurdeau, F. Le Hebel

The workshop is made by and for students to propose actions that are dedicated to them and beneficial. The idea here is to interact directly with the research actors of tomorrow in order to better promote interdisciplinarity and internationality.