As our effort to have more international exposures, Faculty of Geography sends 4 papers to be presented in oral session of International Symposium of Remote Sensing (ISRS) 2017. ISRS has been held since 1994, this year’s ISRS was held in Nagoya University, Japan. ISRS 2017 was organized by Remote Sensing Society of Japan (RSSJ), Korean Society of Remote Sensing (KSRS) and Chinese Society of Photogrammetry (CSPRS). ISRS is an annual symposium that involved hundreds of scientists of Remote Sensing to present their research. This year, Faculty of Geography of UGM sends its delegates, which is Sudaryatno (Dept. of Geographic Information Science) and Disyacitta Awanda (Cartography and Remote Sensing 2013) with the title of “The Use of Remote Sensing for Floods Disaster Mitigation in Kayan Watershed Kalimantan Utara Province”;  Sry Handini Puteri (Cartography and Remote Sensing 2013) and Intan Elvira (Environmental Geography 2013) with the title of “Sea Turtle Friendly Zonation Area, Case Studies Goa Cemara Beach, Yogyakarta, Indonesia”; Muchsin Nur Wahid (Cartography and Remote Sensing 2013), Deha Umarhadi (Cartography and Remote Sensing 2013), Ayuni Nur Fitriani (Cartography and Remote Sensing 2013) with the title of “Mangrove Structure Mapping Model using Sentinel 2A Satellite Imagery”; Pramaditya Wicaksono (Dept. of Geographic Information Science) with the title of “Preliminary Assessment of Sentinel-2A Multispectral Image and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle for Mapping and Validation of Benthic Habitats Composition”. Each presenter is given 15 minutes to present their research and 5 minutes for QnA session. The diversity of the audience makes the discussion more vibrant, so presenters have more perspective to be taken into account.  In addition, two of Faculty of Geography’s lecturers also became the committee of ISRS 2017. They are Sanjiwana Arjasakusuma (Dept. of Geographic Information Science) and Andung Bayu Sekaranom (Dept. of Environmental Geography)

Pada tanggal 17 Mei 2017, Fakultas Geografi mendapatkan kunjungan oleh Prof. Dr. Gerry van Klinen, seorang peneliti senior di KITLV (Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies) dan professor Southeast Asian History di University of Amsterdam (UoA). Dalam kunjungannya yang diterima langsung oleh Dekan Fakultas Geografi (Prof. Dr.rer.nat. Muh Aris Marfai), Wakil Dekan Bidang Penelitian, Pengabdian kepada Masyarakat, Kerjasama dan Alumni (Dr. Dyah Rahmawati Hizbaron, M.T., M.Sc.) dan Ketua Unit Kerja Sama Luar Negeri (Dr. Estuning Tyas Wulan Mei) serta peneliti muda di bidang iklim, Ibu Utia Suarma, S.Si., M.Sc., Prof. van Klinken memaparkan tentang keinginannya melakukan kerjasama penelitian di bidang perubahan iklim dan kaitannya dengan tata pemerintahan (climate change and governance). Harapannya, di masa depan KITLV dan UoA serta FGE UGM dapat bekerjasama lebih erat di bidang penelitian dengan tema tersebut, mengingat sekarangpun salah satu dosen FGE, yakni Annisa Triyanti yang sedang mengenyam pendidikan doktoral di UoA juga melakukan penelitian terkait dengan tema tersebut.

Fakultas Geografi kembali mengadakan kuliah umum pada tanggal 15 Mei. Kuliah umum diisi oleh Prof. Josaphat Tetuko Sri Sumantyo, Ph.D dari Chiba University. Kuliah umum mengangkat tema mengenai Development of Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar onboard Aircraft and Microsatellite for Disaster Monitoring.

On Tuesday, May 3^rd, 2017, the International Affairs Unit of the Faculty of Geography Universitas Gadjah Mada conducted a PhD Talk session, with the participation of two international students from University of Auckland, New Zealand (Tanay Amirapu) and Utrecht University, The Netherlands (Marijke Speelberg). Mr. Amirapu presented his talk entitled “The ‘P’s of participation: A case study on participatory three-dimensional mapping in La Trinidad, the Philippines”, while Mrs. Speelberg gave a talk on her research entitled “Value chain analysis of Washing Nuts in Indonesia”. This event was attended by more than 50 students from undergraduate and master programs who are interested on community development and its implementation on geographical study.

During the last decades, disaster management is one of the priorities aspects being studied in the Faculty of Geography UGM.  Having collaboration with the Faculty of Geography, a PhD student at Institute of Geography, University of Cologne, Germany, Lisa-Michèle Bott, M.Sc. is now conducting a collaborative research on disaster, particularly on migration as adaptation activity towards environmental change. During her research in Indonesia (under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Muh Aris Marfai), Ms. Bott delivered some findings of her research on PhD talk entitled “Migration and Social Capital as A Resources to Adapt to Environmental Change – Case Studies from Pakistan and Indonesia” which was held on Thursday, 20 April 2017, in front of more than 50 participants from undergraduate, master and doctoral students of the Faculty.

Gijs van Roestel, Casper de Vilder, Ruud de Loew, Roelof Lammes, Ankie Meijs and Anne van Dam, six students from Radboud University Nijmegen the Netherlands participated an Exchange Program at the Faculty of Geography from 11 March 2017 to 6 April 2017. During four weeks, the students conducted fieldwork activity for their undergraduate thesis in different subjects, such as urban planning, informal settlement, tourism, Information and Communication Technology, and disaster risk management. These bachelor students from Geografie, Planologie en Milieu Study Program were supervised by lecturers from the Faculty of Geography (according to the students’ research themes), Prof. Dr. Rijanta, M.Sc., Prof. Dr. M. Baiquni, M.A., Dr. Sukamdi, M.A., Dr. Rini Rachmawati, S.Si., M.T., Dr. Djaka Marwasta, M.Si., and Dr. Estuning Tyas Wulan Mei. The student exchange programs were carried out since last four years and will be continued as an attempt to continue the long nurtured collaboration between two Radboud University and Universitas Gadjah Mada.

Faculty of Geography Universitas Gadjah Mada attempts to develop strategic partnerships with various universities abroad in support of Universitas Gadjah Mada to World Class Research. On Monday 13 March 2017, Guest Lecture held at the Geography Faculty of UGM with speaker Dr. Simone Sadholz. Guest Lecture was attended by more than 60 participants consisting of lecturers, undergraduate (S1), master program (S2) and doctoral program (S3) students of Geography Faculty of UGM. Dr. Simone Sandholz general lecture’s theme is: Changing Urban Landscapes of the Global South: Challenges and Opportunities based on Studies from Nepal, Indonesia and Brazil. Dr. Simone Sandholz is a researcher-lecturer at the United Nation University Institute for Environment and Human Security. Her research interests on climate change adaptation, disaster risk reduction, integrated urban regeneration and sustainable urban development. She is actively doing research collaborations with the Faculty of Geography since she was working as assistant professor at the University of Innsbruck and at TH Köln University of Applied Sciences under the Center for Natural Resources and Development.

Nugroho Christanto, S.Si., M.Sc., a lecturer from the Department of Environment Geography, joined the Young Researcher’s School (Prosper.Net) in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam from 5 to 16 March 2017 on the theme “Water Security for Sustainable Development in a Changing Climate”.

Indonesia memiliki sumberdaya laut yang sangat melimpah, namun pengelolaannya masih belum  optimal bahkan negara mengalami kerugian hingga trilyunan rupiah akibat adanya aktivitas perikanan ilegal. Praktek penangkapan ikan tanpa memperhatikan kelestarian, penurunan kualitas habitat, pengolahan bahan makan tidak berstandar dan menghambat pengembangan usaha, merupakan beberapa permasalahan yang juga ditemukan dalam pengelolaan perikanan Indonesia. Salah satu langkah yang diambil oleh Kementerian Kelautan dan Perikanan adalah dengan membuat perundangan mengenai praktek perikanan Illegal, Unreported, Unregulated (IUU). Hal tersebut seiring dengan tujuan menuju Indonesia menjadi poros maritim dan pengelolaan sumberdaya laut dengan mengacu pada pilar Kedaulatan, Kelestarian, dan Kesejahteraan. Berdasarkan Isu tersebut Monash University Australia bekerjasama dengan beberapa universitas di Indonesia, yaitu Universitas Gadjah Mada, Universitas Hasanudin Makasar, dan Universitas Nusa Cendana Kupang, untuk membahas pengelolaan perikanan dan kelautan dari sudut pandang pendidikan atau akademis.

Faculty of Geography students have made achievements in Innovation Debate Competition, organised by Institut Teknologi Kalimantan, Balikpapan, East Kalimantan (Fig 1). One teams from Faculty of Geography, UGM became the winner and earned Best Speaker award. Lukman Hakim from Department of Science Information Geographic and Aditya Pradana from Department of Environmental Geography went through to the finals in the competition that ran from 5-7 March 2017 after getting through elimination phase. “The competition was joined by 16 teams from various universities in Indonesia that had passed elimination in the form of essay selection which raised the theme Technology on Alert in Indonesia,” said Aditya who became Best Speaker of debate competition.