ICAR 2026 - Session Descriptions

International Conference on Aeolian Research (ICAR XII)

12 - 18 July 2026, Swakopmund, Namibia

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This session will encompass experimental studies (field and wind tunnel) and numerical modelling efforts that advance our knowledge of the interaction between boundary-layer flow and aeolian sediment transport on Earth. The primary focus is on the motion of particles very near or along the bed surface, as saltation, reptation and creep. Submissions are also encouraged that address the mechanics and implications of ballistic impacts (e.g., crust and aggregate deterioration, particle segregation) and related stratigraphy, ventifact formation, and small-scale bedforms (e.g.  ripples). Work on understanding the role of flow perturbations, turbulence, and stress partitioning over and around non-erodible roughness elements, vegetation, and within complex terrain as it relates to sand transport and morphodynamics is also welcomed.

Aeolian transport leads to the development of dunes that come in a wide variety of shapes, orientations, and sizes in highly diverse environments, from sandy coasts in humid areas to hyper-arid continental basins. The central focus of this session is the presentation of novel observations on dune morphodynamics, along with the transport mechanisms and bedform interactions that result in the formation of the dune pattern hierarchy. The presentations are not limited to sand but encompass all types of dunes, irrespective of the granular material, and naturally include the full range of field studies as well as laboratory and numerical experiments.

Mineral dust, as a consequence of climate, weather, and land uses, has widespread responsive effects back onto climate, weather, ecosystems, and people. The magnitudes of these effects depend on the amount of dust, its spatio-temporal distribution, and properties. We invite contributions using different approaches (theory, modelling, field, and laboratory experiments), spatial extents (local, regional, global), and time frames (present-day, past, future) that characterize the dust cycle from source-to-sink, including:

• Sources and their characteristics
• Emission, transport, and deposition
• Composition, properties, and changes thereof
• Effects on climate, weather, environments, and people

Process studies tell us about the contemporary dynamics of sand dunes and other aeolian features, but longer term (102-106 years) perspectives on the evolution of aeolian landscapes, including the influences of climatic and environmental changes, require other approaches, both empirical and modelled. These include the application of chronometric methods to establish when stacked sediments in dune, dunefield and loess deposits accumulated, while the responses of aeolian landscapes to climatic and environmental variation are also recorded in landform morphology as well as within the sediments themselves, including biomarkers, soils and chemical precipitates.

We invite submissions that showcase approaches and methodological developments that enhance the interpretation of archives of environmental change in aeolian landscapes, both continental and coastal. We welcome papers on new proxies, multi-proxy approaches, geochronology and age modelling, model-data integration and process-informed paleoenvironmental interpretations. We also encourage presentations that illustrate advances in the integrity of palaeoenvironmental reconstructions from aeolian archives.

What we do with the land matters. People utilise aeolian environments and landscapes for a range of purposes, and these activities have consequences. This session focuses on research and applied studies that outline the impact, both positive and negative, of human activity on wind erosion, sand dune dynamics, and dust emission. While there are large areas of natural wind erosion, dune movement, and dust emission, anthropogenic activities are also major contributors to driving aeolian dynamics.

Topics to be considered are:

• Land management practices
• Land use change
• Construction and mining
• Agriculture
• Water management
• Policy
• Education projects

Planets, moons, and comets are home of various phenomena driven by aeolian processes such as particle transport, erosion, and pattern formation. Interestingly, these features develop within atmospheric and planetary conditions (e.g., gravity, flow density and viscosity, grain size and composition) that vary by orders of magnitude. This locates them in rather unusual parameter spaces with respect to Earth’s aeolian systems.

In an effort to identify similarities and differences to terrestrial analogues, this session aims to explore the parameter space of atmosphere-surface interactions on worlds other than Earth. We invite contributions on all relevant aeolian processes using in situ analyses, remote sensing, models, theory, experiments, as well as field work. This includes in particular: wind flows and hydrodynamics, sediment transport, thresholds, erosion and deposition on various surfaces including ice-grain mixtures, coupling of wind flows to ice sublimation and condensation, phenomena involving dust, emergence and properties of landform patterns at various scales.