Jürgen Runge (geographer)

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Jürgen Runge, 2004

Jürgen Runge (born February 1, 1962 in Bamberg ) is a German physiogeographer and geomorphologist specializing in sub-Saharan Africa . Since 2000 he has held a professorship for physical geography and geoecology at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main. There he became founding director in 2003, later vice director (2005, 2012) and director (2013) of the Center for Interdisciplinary Africa Research (ZIAF). He has been the chief editor of the scientific journal Palaeoecology of Africa since 2005 and is a member of the board of the Frankfurter Geographische Gesellschaft e. V. (FGG).

Career

Jürgen Runge studied geography , soil science , geology and botany at the Justus Liebig University in Giessen from 1981 to 1983 ; then from 1984 to 1986 geography, botany, tropical agriculture and forestry at the Georg-August University in Göttingen, where he graduated with a diploma. He was a scholarship holder in the graduate support program of the State of Lower Saxony and received his doctorate under Jürgen Hövermann in November 1989 on morphogenesis and morphodynamics in North Togo , West Africa . This was followed from 1990 by a research assistant at the University of Paderborn with Hans-Karl Barth. Here he completed his habilitation in 2000 and in the same year was offered a professorship for physical geography and geoecology at the University of Frankfurt.

Focus of work

From 1991 to 1994, Runge researched several meters thick, multi-layered and heavily weathered pedisediments in the Kivu region in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which were exposed over kilometers in the course of road construction. At a depth of several meters, he was able to identify very rare fossil tree trunks that could be dated to the last ice age (Last Glacial Maximum, LGM, see also Ice Age ). This find proves that there was no morphodynamically stable soil and sediment development in the humid tropical region during the last ice age as there is today. The vegetation cover was therefore not dense to protect against erosion, but allowed erosion and accumulation. This proves that the area had a significantly drier climate than today and that it could not have been a retreat (core area) for the rainforest during the last ice age. In this context, Runge developed a synoptic paleoclimatic map with so-called paleoenvironmental time slices for the Central African region.

Runge had to break off his work in Kivu in April 1994 because of the difficult political conditions that had arisen, which culminated in the Hutu genocide of the Tutsi. From 1995, his further field research concentrated on the Central African Republic and Cameroon . He processed the results of the research in his habilitation thesis (2001). Field research, cooperation, partnerships and projects in Togo , Central African Republic, Cameroon, Nigeria , Burkina Faso , Kenya , South Africa and Benin followed in the next few years. Runge works on topics relating to the history of the environment, rainforests, savannahs and climate, and since 2007 has increasingly focused on the subject of raw materials and sustainability .

Specialist publications (selection)

Publications on raw material and environmental problems

  • Runge, J. (2011): Africa's Natural Resources, Transparency and Sustainable Management: Stories from the Ground. - in: AT Salami & OOI Orimoogunje (eds.): Environmental Research and Challenges of Sustainable Development in Nigeria. Obafemi Awolowo University Press, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, 1-14.
  • Runge, J. & Shikwati, J. (eds.) (2011): Geological Resources and Good Governance in Sub-Saharan Africa. Holistic Approaches to Transparency and Sustainable Development in the Extractive Sector. Taylor & Francis Publ. UK, pp. 1-292. ISBN 978-0-415-58267-4
  • Runge, J. & Becker, E. (eds.) (2011): Africa 2010 - Natural Resources and Sustainable (?) Development. Africa group of German geoscientists (AdG), annual conference 2010 in Frankfurt. - Zbl. Geol. Paleont. Part I, year 2009, 1/2: 1-129.
  • Runge, J. (2010): Geological resources and transparency in the raw materials sector in Central Africa - a GTZ case study. - Zbl. Geol. Paleont. Part I, year 2008, 1/2: 107-126.
  • Runge, J. (ed.) (2001): Africa 2000 - Perspectives for the Geosciences in Research and Practice. Annual meeting of the Africa group of German geoscientists (AdG) in Paderborn 23–24. June 2000. - Zbl. Geol. Paleont. Part 1, 3/4: 275-441.
  • Runge, J. (1994): Traffic development and nature protection in rainforest areas using the example of the Kisangani-Bukavu (Zaire) route. - Zbl. Geol. Paleont., Part I,. 3-4: 357-371.

Publications on landscape development

  • Runge, J. (2010): African Palaeoenvironments and Geomorphic Landscape Evolution. - Palaeoecology of Africa, 30: 1-306 (Taylor & Francis Publ. UK).
  • Runge, J. (2009): Des déserts et des forêts: histoire du paysage et du climat de l'Afrique Centrale au Quaternaire Supérieur. - Géo-Eco-Trop: Revue internationale de géologie, de géographie et d'écologie tropicale, 31: 1-18.
  • Runge, J. (2008): Dynamics of forest ecosystems in Central Africa during the Holocene: Past - Present - Future. - Palaeoecology of Africa, 28: 1-306. (Taylor & Francis Publ., UK).
  • Runge, J., Eisenberg, J. & M. Sangen (2006): Geomorphic evolution of the Ntem alluvial basin and physiogeographic evidence for Holocene environmental changes in the rain forest of SW Cameroon (Central Africa). - Z. Geomorph. NF, Suppl. Vol. 145: 63-79.
  • Runge, J. & Nguimalet, C.-R. (2005): Physiogeographic features of the Oubangui catchment and environmental trends reflected in discharge and floods at Bangui 1911-1999, Central African Republic. - Geomorphology, 70: 311-324.
  • Runge, J., Eisenberg, J. & M. Sangen (2005): Ecological change and cultural upheavals in West and Central Africa. - Geoöko, 26: 135-154.
  • Koko, M. & Runge, J. (2003): La dégradation du milieu naturel en République Centrafricaine. - Z. Geomorph., NF, Suppl. Vol. 133: 19-47.
  • Runge, J. (2002): Holocene landscape history and palaeohydrology evidenced by stable carbon isotope (δ13C) analysis of alluvial sediments in the Mbari valley (5 ° N / 23 ° E), Central African Republic. - Catena, 48: 67-87.
  • Runge, J. (2002): How old is the rainforest? Environmental historical research in the Congo Basin in Central Africa. - Research Frankfurt, 1-2: 22-29.
  • Runge, J. (2001): Landscape genesis and paleoclimate in Central Africa. Physiogeographic studies on the climate-controlled Quaternary vegetation and geomorphodynamics in Congo-Zaire (Kivu, Kasai, Upper Congo) and the Central African Republic (Mbomou) - relief-soil-paleoclimate, 17: 1-294. ISBN 3-443-09017-6
  • Runge, J. (ed.) (2001): Central African Palaeoclimates and Palaeoenvironments. Proceedings of the INQUA-Conference, Durban, South Africa, August 1999. - Palaeoecology of Africa, 27: 1-345, Balkema, Rotterdam, Brookfield.
  • Runge, J. & T. Tchamié (2000): Inselbergs, hull areas and sediments of small catchment areas in northern Togo: Age and morphodynamic landscape history. - Zbl. Geol. Paleont. Part 1, 5/6: 497-508.
  • Runge, J. & M. Neumer (2000): Dynamique du paysage entre 1955 et 1990 à la limite forêt-savane dans le nord du Zaire, par l'étude de photographies aèriennes et de données LANDSAT-TM. - in: Sérvant, M. & S. Servant-Vildary (éds.): Dynamique à long terme des écosystèmes forestiers intertropicaux (ECOFIT). UNESCO, IRD, Paris, 311-317.
  • Runge, J. (2000): Environmental and climatic history of the eastern Kivu area (DR Congo, ex Zaire) from 40 ka to the present. - in: Smolka, P. & W. Volkheimer (eds.): Southern Hemisphere Paleo- and Neoclimates (IGCP 341), 249-262. Springer, Heidelberg.
  • Runge, J. & F. Runge (1998): Phytolite analysis and climatic history studies in the Musisi-Karashoma swamp, Kahuzi-Bièga National Park, Eastern Congo (ex. Zaire). - In: Runge, J. (Ed.): Geoscientific Research in Africa, Paderborner Geographische Schriften 11: 79-104.
  • Runge, J. (1998): Recent and Holocene vegetation and climate dynamics on the rainforest / savanna border in northern Congo (Zaire) and the Central African Republic (4 ° -5 ° 20'N, 23 ° -25 ° E). - Zbl. Geol. Paleont. Part 1, 1-2: 91-113.
  • Runge, J. (1996): Palaeoenvironmental interpretation of geomorphological and pedological studies in the rain forest "core-areas" of eastern Zaire (Central Africa). - South African Geographical Journal, 78: 91-97.
  • Runge, J. (1993): Lateritic crusts as climate-morphological indicators for the development of planation surfaces - possibilities and limits. - Z. Geomorph. NF, Suppl. Vol., 92: 201-216.
  • Runge, J. (1991): Geomorphological depressions (Bas-fonds) and present-day erosion processes on the planation surface of Central-Togo, West Africa. - Geography, 45: 52-65.
  • Runge, J. (1990): Morphogenesis and morphodynamics in northern Togo (9 ° -11 ° N) under the influence of late quaternary climate change. - Göttingen Geogr. Abh., 90: 1-115.
  • Runge, J. (1984): Les bas-fonds dans la Région Centrale, Togo. - Notice explicative de la carte thématique Agriculture I, 2. GTZ / PNUD, Direction Régionale du Plan et du Développement, Sokodé (Togo), 1-24.

Publications on scientific methodology

  • Runge, J. (2002): Morphographic analysis of Inselbergs in Northern Togo (West Africa) using high resolution DEMs derived from aerial photographs. - in: YANG, X. (ed.): Desert and Alpine Environments. Advances in Geomorphology and Palaeoclimatology. China Ocean Press, Beijing, 22-34.
  • Runge, J. & K. Lammers (2001): Bioturbation by termites and Late Quaternary landscape evolution on the Mbomou plateau of the Central African Republic. - Palaeoecology of Africa, 27: 153-169.
  • Runge, J. (2001): ERS-1 SAR data - applied geological and geomorphological mapping for structural and civil engineering in rain forest areas of eastern DR Congo (Kivu), Central Africa. - Z. Geomorph., NF, Suppl. Vol., 124: 69-85.
  • Runge, J. (2000): Balances of moved sediment accumulation and geomorphodynamics on hull areas in central and southern Africa. - Freiburg Geographical Notebooks, 60: 47-60.
  • Runge, J. (1999): Global Change in Africa - Sediment analyzes and carbon isotopes decipher the environmental history of tropical ecosystems. - ForschungsForum Paderborn, 2: 16-19.
  • Runge, J. (1999): Localization and evaluation of solid stone deposits for civil engineering projects in the humid tropics. Examples of applied remote sensing and tropical geomorphology from Cameroon and the DR Congo - Petermanns Geographische Mitteilungen, 143, 5 + 6: 449-464.
  • Runge, F. & J. Runge (1997): Opal phytoliths in East African plants and soils. - Centro de Ciencias Medioambientales, CSIC (Madrid), Monographs 4: 71-82.
  • Runge, J. (1997): Geofactor analysis as a basis for the assessment of land use patterns and erosion processes in northern Togo. - Paderborn Geographical Studies, 6: 89-170.
  • Runge, J. (1991): Agricultural Morphopedological Maps - Aids in Area Analysis in the Humid Tropics of West Africa: Examples from Northern Togo. - Z. Geomorph.NF, Suppl.-Vol, 89: 97-110.

Other publications

  • Republic of Togo. Geographical insights between the Gulf of Guinea and the Sudan Zone in West Africa . Shaker Verlag, Aachen 2013, ISBN 978-3-8440-1709-0 .
  • Runge, J. (Ed.) (2011): 175 years of the Frankfurter Geographische Gesellschaft e. V. - Selected excursions to discover and follow.
  • Runge, J. (2009): The Central African Rainforest: A sensitive ecosystem in the field of tension between forestry use and (sub) recent climate dynamics. - in: R. Glaser, K. Kremb & A. Drescher (eds.), "Africa", Planet Erde, WBG Darmstadt, 199-220.
  • Runge, J. (2007): The Congo River, Central Africa - in: GUPTA, A. (ed.) Large Rivers: Geomorphology and Management, John Wiley & Sons, 293-309.
  • Runge, J. (2005): From Diamond Emperor Bokassa to General Bozizé - a Central African Crisis Region from a Geographic Point of View. - Heidelberger Geogr. Gesellschaft Journal, 19 + 20: 87-98.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ ZIAF  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Website of the University of Frankfurt. Retrieved March 15, 2013@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.ziaf.uni-frankfurt.de  
  2. ↑ Palaeoecology of Africa  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved March 15, 2013@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.crcpress.com  
  3. ^ FGG website of the University of Frankfurt. Retrieved March 15, 2013
  4. ↑ WG Geoecology and Physical Geography, Regional Focus on Africa ( Memento of the original from January 3, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Website of the University of Frankfurt. Retrieved March 15, 2013  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.geo.uni-frankfurt.de
  5. ^ Runge, J. (2001): Landscape genesis and palaeoclimate in Central Africa . Physiogeographic studies on the climate-controlled Quaternary vegetation and geomorphodynamics in Congo-Zaire ( Kivu , Kasai , Upper Congo) and the Central African Republic (Mbomou) - relief-soil-paleoclimate, 17: 1-294. ISBN 3-443-09017-6
personal data
SURNAME Runge, Jürgen
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German physiogeographer and geomorphologist
DATE OF BIRTH February 1, 1962
PLACE OF BIRTH Bamberg