The Anthropocene: The age of human impact

The effects of human activity on geologic, biologic and atmospheric processes are now larger than at any point in Earth's history. As a consequence, scientists constituted a new geological epoch, called "The Anthropocene". In the present article, Ronald Pöppl, Geographer at the University of Vienna, talks about his research on the geomorphic consequences of river engineering and land cover changes showing examples from Lower Austria. Some of his latest results on the geomorphic legacy of dams he will also present at a press conference entitled "The Anthropocene: are we living in the age of humans?" at the "European Geosciences Union" (EGU) General Assembly 2014 in Vienna. Anthropogeomorphology, which is the study of the human role in creating landforms and modifying geomorphic processes, is a relatively young discipline and one of the research foci of the working group ENGAGE-Geomorphological Systems and Risk Research at the Department of Geography and Regional Research at the University of Vienna. "Humans continuously alter the shape of the Earth's surface - either directly such as by construction or excavation works - or indirectly such as due to land cover conversions that further modify the rates of erosion, transport and deposition of sediment", says Ronald Pöppl, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Geography at the University of Vienna and member of the working group ENGAGE. How humans change the "Face of the Earth - Process and Form" is the main theme of the "European Geosciences Union" (EGU) General Assembly 2014 - the largest conference for geoscientists in Europe. On the geomorphic legacy of dams - case study Kaja River, Lower Austria