On Monday and Tuesday, 14 – 15 July 2017, as a step to educate the upcoming generations on disaster environmental issues, a general lecture on Disaster Risk Reduction in Tropics was held in collaboration with Faculty of Geography UGM and North Eastern Hill University. Prof. Dr. Sunil Kumar De from North Eastern Hill University, Shillong, India visited the Faculty of Geography UGM to give general lecture. His expertise on major fields of interest on Geomorphological Hazards (especially landslide & soil erosion), fluvial dynamics and human impact on environment. He also teaches courses on Geomorphology, Soil science and GIS in North Eastern Hill University. Prof. Sunil gave a lecture about “Disaster risk Management on Tropics: Geomorphological Perspective”. Attended by more than 130 lectures and graduate as well as postgraduate students, Prof. Sunil explained the understanding of the different basic concept disaster risk management in geomorphological perspective, Develop critical knowledge about the praxis of disaster risk management on tropics, and Develop critical thinking about disaster management of various disaster in geomorphological perspective. The coordinator of this event, Dr. Dyah Rahmawati Hizbaron, M.Sc., M.T (Vice Dean of Research, Community Service, Cooperation and Alumni) hoped that this kind of sharing knowledge activity may be continued in the next science collaboration program.

On Monday, 16 August 2017, the Department of Development Geography conducted a guest lecture under the Urban Study Course coordinated by Dr. Rini Rachmawati, S.Si., M.T and team. The guest lecturer, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Le Thu Hoa, who is also the Dean of the Faculty of Urban and Environment Economics & Management, National Economics University, Hanoi, Vietnam presented a lecture on Urban Green Growth. This guest lecture is also a premier lecture of the semester. It was attended by more than seventy students and lecturers. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Hoa was invited as one of the lecturers on the Smart City, Village and Region Summer Course 2017 which was held by the Department of Development from 7 to 15 August, 2017.

After being conducted for ten days consecutively, on Tuesday, 15 August, 2017, the Smart City, Village and Region Summer Course 2017 is officially closed by Prof. Dr. Muh Aris Marfai, the Dean of the Faculty of Geography. As mentioned by the initiator as well as the coordinator of the Summer Course, Dr. Rini Rachmawati, S.Si., M.T, “During ten days thirty-five participants coming from ten different countries followed in class and fieldwork activities on the theme of smart city, village and region”. The participants learned from eight different countries on how the concepts and implementation of smart city, village and region for example by visiting the Communication and Information Agency of Yogyakarta Special Region to learn the implementation of smart city concept in Yogyakarta. They also visited Solo Technopark and Digital Small and Medium Enterprises Kampong Batik Laweyan in Solo. During the official closing speech, the Dean also emphasized that hopefully the Smart City, Village and Region Summer Course will be conducted again in 2018. The Head of the Office of International Affairs, I Made Andi Arsana, Ph.D who attended the closing ceremony expects that the participants may benefit the experience and knowledge from the Summer Course and expand the networks and mutual collaboration on Smart City, Village and Region thematic.

On Friday, 11 August 2017, Associate Professor Dr. Yan Liu from the University of Queensland (UQ) visited the Faculty of Geography UGM (FGE UGM). Dr Liu is a Human Geographer specializing in Geographical Informational Science (GIS), spatial analysis and modelling. With a long collaboration between the Department of Geographical Information Science and the School of Geography, Planning and Environmental Management (UQ), this general lecture is intended to strengthen the collaboration as well as to improve the students’ exposure towards international event. Attended by more than 70 lectures and graduate as well as postgraduate students, Dr. Liu explained the use of spatial data analysis in different topics such as: analyzing transit smart card data to understand travel pattern costs and behaviors, (ii) spatial mining of large administrative data to identify and understand neighborhood problems, and (iii) identifying and visualizing high risk road segments for Hit-Parked-Vehicle (HPV) crashes. The coordinator of this event, Dr. Muhammad Kamal (Secretary of the Department of Geographical Information Science) who is also the alumnus of the University of Queensland closed the event and hoped that this kind of collaborative activity may be conducted in the future.

Universitas Gadjah Mada eagers to improve national competitiveness through the achievement of the top 500 world ranking conducted by QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) through QS World University Ranking (QS- WUR) as mandated by the Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education (Kemenristekdikti) towards several State Universities including UGM. The impact of international recognition is the improvement of reputation and the role of universities in the development of science and technology. The Summer Course Program is one of UGM strategies in academic internationalization. Along with the development of information and communication technology, the last few years Smart City is increasingly tight talked about and believed will be one solution of various problems arising from the progress and dynamics of an increasingly advanced and modern city. Universities, industry and government institutions play an important role in developing information technology to be implemented in Smart City.

Under the Center for Natural Resources and Development Consortium, the Faculty of Geography, Universitas Gadjah Mada has an opportunity to invite Dr. Abraham Cardenas-Tristan, a lecturer/researcher from the Faculty of Engineering, Universidad Autonoma de San Luis Potosi, Mexico. From 16 to 27 August, 2017, Dr. Cardenas-Tristan conducted several general lectures in the Faculty of Geography (Fig 1) as well as in the Faculty of Agriculture (Fig 2), Universitas Gadjah Mada, including San Luis Potosi, Mexico: Athmospheric Pollution Problem; Spatial Analysis of the Dynamics Urban Growth and Loss of Agricultural Land in San Luis Potosi; and, Water Use Profit Estimation through a Spatial Distribution Model.

On 1^st of August, 2017, the Faculty of Geography UGM conducted a Workshop on International Journal Publication. This activity opened by Dr. Dyah Rahmawati Hizbaron, S.Si., M.Sc., the Vice Dean of Research, Community Services, Cooperation and Alumni. This event was taken as a measure to boost the number of international publication by lecturers and PhD candidates at the Faculty. During this activity, Dr. Cees van Westen from the Faculty of Geo-information Science and Earth Observation, University of Twente, the Netherlands, having more than 30 score of Scopus h-index, and Prof. Dr.rer.nat. Junun Sartohadi, M.Sc. from the Department of Physical Geography, having one of the highest h-indexs at this Faculty, presented some materials on How to Publish a Scientific Paper in International Journal. In addition, Purwani Istiana, S.IP.,M.A., the librarian of the Faculty of Geography also presented a guideline on credit system grading for lecturers’ publications. More than 35 audiences, consisting of lecturers and PhD students participated to this very productive and thought-provoking activity.

Sebanyak tiga dosen Universitas Gadjah Mada yang berasal dari Fakultas Geografi (Dr. Estuning Tyas Wulan Mei) dan Fakultas MIPA (Prodi Geofisika: Dr. Wiwit Suryanto dan Dr. Ade Anggraeni), yang tergabung dalam grup riset gunungapi UGM, dan satu orang mahasiswa Geo-Information for Spatial Planning and Disaster Risk Management (Fatah Yogo Yudhanti) serta satu alumnus Prodi Geofisika (Anas Handaru) mengikuti Pelatihan Pendidikan Kebencanaan Gunungapi di Gunungapi Fuji dan Gunungapi Usu, Jepang.

Pada tanggal  26 Juni hingga 1 Juli 2017, Wirastuti Widyatmanti, S.Si., Ph.D. mengikuti Pedometrics Joint Meeting 2017 – 25 Years yang berlangsung di Belanda. Kegiatan ini merupakan pertemuan gabungan Komisi Pedometrik dan lima Kelompok Kerja terkait (i) Pemetaan Tanah Digital; (ii) Morfometrik Tanah Digital; (iii) Pemodelan Evolusi Tanah dan Lansekap; (iv) Sensitisasi Tanah Proksimal, serta (v) Pemantauan Tanah yang dilaksanakan oleh University of Wageningen, ISRIC World Soil Information, International Union of Soil Sciences, Soilcare, dan Medusa.

Fakultas Geografi Universitas Gadjah Mada kembali menghadiri kegiatan CNRD, yang berjudul “Waste-to-Energy: Assessment and Solutions for Vulnerable Communities Workshop”. Kegiatan ini dilaksanakan pada 3-5 Juli 2017 di University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan. Tujuan kegiatan ini adalah memberikan kesempatan kepada seluruh peserta untuk saling bertukar informasi, ide dan pengetahuan terkait dengan tema waste-to-energy.  Paradigma yang ada saat ini, sampah belum sepenuhnya disebut sebagai valuable goods, sehingga tetap menjadi objek yang harus dikelola dengan optimal karena kurangnya investasi teknologi di dalamnya. Sementara itu, paradigma yang tengah dikembangkan oleh para ahli adalah meningkatkan nilai barang sampah agar menjadi sesuatu yang dapat dimanfaatkan. Mempertimbangkan arti pentingnya keberlanjutan, mengubah sampah menjadi energi merupakan salah satu solusi yang patut mendapatkan perhatian. Hal ini juga sekiranya mampu mengurangi ketergantungan manusia dalam pemanfaatan energi tak terbarukan.