Pastoralism and agriculture are one of the main drivers of land cover change and affect various components by influencing the process-response characteristics of ecological and geomorphological systems. Agrarian societies established in different ecozones at different times. Phases of increased human impact in Europe are the Greco-Roman period and the late Middle Ages. Significant land cover changes on a global scale established with the onset of colonialism. The extent of global human impact increased during the industrialization and accelerated rapidly after the WW II. The transformation of landforms was paralleled by interferences into most geomorphological systems. The rapid growth of the population and of urban areas resulted in an increasing need of raw materials and in the need to transport large quantities of materials. These interferences were associated with the extension of complex infrastructural measures. Particularly noteworthy in this context are interferences into the fluvial system such as measures for navigability and flood protection along rivers such as those along the Rhine River, but also changes of landforms due to mining and the diversion of rivers which resulted in new unforeseen hazards during extreme rainfall events such as the Ahr and Inde River flooding in July 2021. The examples show that human interferences on landforms and environment are acting largely through the areal extent of land use, infrastructure, urbanization, industrialization and mining and by the acceleration and modification of geomorphic processes which in turn result in multifold feedback loops and complex response in different geomorphic systems.

Floodplains and peatlands across Central Europe have long been subject to human transformation. From early drainage efforts to large-scale engineering projects in the modern era, anthropogenic interventions have altered their hydrology, morphology, and ecological functions. Yet the nature, intensity, and consequences of these changes vary widely depending on local geomorphological and hydrological conditions. Understanding these differences is essential for assessing the long-term impacts of land use on wetland ecosystems and their geomorphological development.

This talk presents a comparative study of land use changes over the past 250 years in two distinct wetland regions of northeastern Germany: the peat-rich Rhinluch and the fluvial Lower Havel floodplain. Both areas have experienced extensive human interventions, including peat extraction, river regulation, mill and canal construction, settlement expansion, and deforestation. By analysing old maps from multiple time periods, we trace the spatial and temporal development of land use changes and their varying impacts on landscape form, surface hydrology, and sediment pathways.

The comparison highlights how geomorphological settings shape both the trajectory and consequences of land use transformation. While palynological studies, confirm considerable human impact in both regions, the old map analysis shows that the nature and focus of interventions differ, reflecting the contrasting characteristics of fen and fluvial environments. This regional perspective underlines the value of old map analysis for reconstructing long-term anthropogenic influences on geomorphic processes.

Since the Industrial Revolution, European rivers have faced increasing anthropogenic pressure through channelisation, rectification, and the construction of dams and weirs. The Vosges Mountains (NE France), a densely populated low-mountain range, exemplify this anthropisation, with approximately 5,000 hydraulic structures (HS), primarily levees and weirs, built across its main streams. Unlike major rivers like the Rhine, the edification periods of HS in smaller catchments remains largely unknown yet, hindering the reconstruction of environmental and human impact timelines.

This study investigates the spatio-temporal development of anthropogenic influence on three major streams in the southern Vosges—Fecht, Vologne, and Moselotte—focusing on morphodynamic changes since the late 18th century. We used extensive archival resources from the “Ponts et Chaussées” administration, including construction requests, plans, and reports from the 18^th to 20^th centuries. We first mapped existing HS to create an updated database, then dated their construction and, in some cases, deconstruction. We also reconstructed the diachronic evolution of the channel pattern, using an 1866 topographic map and orthophotos from 1951 and 2018.

Our analysis provides a first quantification of human influence, revealing that 12% (Fecht), 31% (Moselotte), and 56% (Vologne) of current weirs could be dated—mostly to the mid-19^th century. We also identified a strong correlation between HS construction and channel simplification. Despite archival limitations (e.g., loss or unavailability of documents), this study demonstrates the value of historical records in understanding long-term human impacts on river systems, offering insights that usefully complement field observations and investigations.

Environmental changes in the Indian Himalayas due to human activities remain poorly understood. To investigate this, we analyzed lake sediment cores from the Central and Kashmir Himalayas to reconstruct pollution, eutrophication, and fire history over the past-century. We measured concentrations, compositional variations, and temporal trends of alkylated-polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), monosaccharide anhydrides, fecal biomarkers, and aliphatic hydrocarbons, including n-alkanes, acyclic and cyclic isoprenoids. We hypothesize that pyrogenic processes, particularly low-intensity forest-fires, play a significant role in lake eutrophication by delivering nutrient-rich ash and altering catchment biogeochemistry, thus accelerating ecological changes in these sensitive alpine ecosystems.

Our findings show a steady rise in total PAHs since the 1970s, with compositional shifts reflecting intensified socio-economic activities and pollution. Diagnostic ratios of multiple methylated and non-methylated PAHs suggest that pyrogenic sources are the main contributors to sedimentary PAHs. Botryococcenes (C_31-34) and n-alkanes concentrations also displayed an increasing trend, peaking in the 1980s. This peak coincided with changes in the composition of long (nC_26-36), mid (nC_21-25), and short-chain (<nC₂₁) n-alkanes, reflecting environmental shifts likely driven by both pollution and fire-related inputs. The detection of monosaccharide anhydrides supports the occurrence of regional low-intensity fires, likely contributing to nutrient influx through ash deposition and post-fire runoff, further altering lake trophic states.

This study proposes a fire-induced nutrient enrichment mechanism 'pyroeutrophication', acting in tandem with anthropogenic pollution. As the first of its kind from the Indian subcontinent, our findings offer valuable molecular insights into historical environmental changes and shed light on mitigation strategies for fragile Himalayan landscapes.

Research conducted over the last 30 years has explored the potential of Geomorphology and its emerging subfield, Anthropogenic Geomorphology, in discriminating the origin and magnitude of changes in geomorphological systems over centuries-old time intervals, particularly related to the Great Acceleration stage. The main type of intervention considered was the urbanization of the metropolitan region of São Paulo, in terms of direct interventions and their effects, considering as main references the typical fluvial geomorphological systems of plateaus in the humid tropical environment of southeastern Brazil: river basins, fluvial-lacustrine systems, fluvial channels, floodplains and fluvial terraces. The types of geoindicators used in this methodology were morphological-morphometric, surface materials and process indicators, which revealed significant discriminatory potential in relation to the origin of the changes and their magnitude. In terms of magnitude, the changes observed were compatible with the phases of geomorphological adjustments of the inputs of matter and energy generated by tectonic actions and climate change. Changes were identified in the geoindicators of river channels, such as: decrease of 30% to 47% in the length of channels, increase of 420% in the cross-section area of channels, increase of up to 2233% in the magnitude of extreme flows and loss of floodplain area of up to 99%, among other robust results revealing the high magnitude of direct interventions and their effects. The researches also revealed relevant results for the dimensioning of the magnitude of losses of ecosystem services of river plains in the metropolis of São Paulo.