The International Geographical Union (IGU; French: Union géographique internationale, UGI) is an international geographical society. The first International Geographical Congress was held in Antwerp in 1871. Subsequent meetings led to the establishment of the permanent organization in 1922 in Brussels, Belgium.

The International Geographical Union adheres to the International Science Council (ISC), which it recognizes as the coordinating body for the international organisations of science.

Objectives

The IGU has seven objectives or aims:

  1. to promote the study of geographical problems;
  2. to initiate and co-ordinate geographical research requiring international co-operation and to promote its scientific discussion and publication;
  3. to provide for the participation of geographers in the work of relevant international organizations;
  4. to facilitate the collection and diffusion of geographical data and documentation in and between all member countries;
  5. to promote International Geographical Congresses, regional conferences and specialized symposia related to the objectives of the Union;
  6. to participate in any other appropriate form of international co-operation with the object of advancing the study and application of geography;
  7. to promote international standardization or compatibility of methods, nomenclature, and symbols employed in geography.

Senior officers

The following lists contain the senior officers of the IGU from 1922 to present.

Presidents

Secretaries-General and Treasurers

Commissions and Task Forces

The IGU is organized into a number of commissions and task forces that deal with specific topics.

The commission topics include e.g. specific approaches (e.g. Applied Geography), topics (e.g. Climatology, Health and Environment), methods (e.g. Geographical Information Science), and spatial examples (e.g. Mediterranean Basin). There are also commissions for the International Olympiad and Geographical Education.

The two task forces are "Young and Early-Career Geographers" and "Centennial and Sesquicentennial".

IGU-CGE

The IGU-CGE (Commission on Geographical Education) focuses on geography education. It is currently headed by co-chairs Clare Brooks (UK) and Chew-Hung Chang (Singapore).

It publishes the IRGEE journal and organizes yearly conferences. The "International Charter on Geographical Education" constitutes an international agreement on different aspects of geography education with global impacts. The 2016 charter features important geography education research questions and policy recommendations. As such the charter is: Convinced that geographical education is indispensable to the development of responsible and active citizens in the present and future world; Conscious that geography can be an informing, enabling and stimulating subject at all levels in education, and contributes to a lifelong enjoyment and understanding of our world; Aware that students require increasing international competence in order to ensure effective cooperation on a broad range of economic, political, cultural and environmental issues in a shrinking world; Concerned that geographical education is neglected in some parts of the world, and lacks structure and coherence in others; Ready to assist colleagues in counteracting geographical illiteracy in all countries of the world. In the 1992 charter there is also information on geographic questions, key concepts, approaches and the selection of spatial examples.

List of congresses

International Geographical Congresses have been held as follows:

Congress numberYearCity
1st1922French Third Republic Paris
2nd1928United Kingdom Cambridge
3rd1931French Third Republic Paris
4th1934Second Polish Republic Warsaw
5th1938Kingdom of the Netherlands Amsterdam
6th1949Portugal Lisbon
7th1952United States Washington, D.C.
8th1956Brazil Rio de Janeiro
9th1960Sweden Stockholm
10th1964United Kingdom London
11th1968India New Delhi
12th1972Canada Montreal
13th1976Soviet Union Moscow
14th1980Japan Tokyo
15th1984France Paris
16th1988Australia Sydney
17th1992United States Washington, D.C.
18th1996Kingdom of the Netherlands The Hague
19th2000South Korea Seoul
20th2004United Kingdom Glasgow
21st2008Tunisia Tunis
22nd2012Germany Cologne
23rd2016China Beijing
24th2021Turkey Istanbul
*2022France Paris
25th2024Republic of Ireland Dublin
26th2028Australia Melbourne
27th2032Spain

Notes

  • Kish, George (1992) "International Geographical Union: A Brief History" GeoJournal 26, No. 2:224-228 ISSN 0343-2521
  • Marie-Claire Robic, Anne-Marie Briend, Mechtild Rössler (eds.) (1996) Geographers to the world. The International Geographical Union and the International Geographical Congress Paris: L'Harmattan ISBN 9782738445735
  • Dunbar, Gary S. (2001) Kluwer Academic Publishers ISBN 1-4020-0019-7 pg 36
  • Lidstone, John; Williams, Michael (2006) Springer ISBN 978-1-4020-4806-7 pg 39
  • International Geographical Union (IGU)
  • Royal Irish Academy (RIA)

External links