The profound changes facing our planet are radically transforming how humanity perceives, thinks about, and addresses risk.  The many perils amplified by climate change, and related anthropogenic changes to our world, can only be understood in a geographic context, with geospatial data and innovations that ground the diffuse concept of risk in the real-world lived experiences of people around the world.  After all, we all live our lives in specific geographies which will face an increasing array of hazards that will impose real costs and damage to lives, property, communities, and the natural world over time. Understanding these hazards, and the risks they pose geographically and over time, has become a science, a business, and an art that we all look to for guidance and inspiration as we make decisions about our futures.  

Geography2050: The Changing Map of Risk, Hazards and Finance is the tenth annual symposium of the American Geographical Society, in partnership with the Columbia Climate School, as part of a multi-year strategic dialog about the vital trends that will reshape the geography of our planet over the coming decades.  This event will convene thinkers and innovators from around the world, from every sector of society, to shine a light on the ways we can collectively face the existential challenges of our time by putting geographic thinking and geospatial innovations into action as we shape our future planet.  Understanding the future risks we all face, and the where, when and how they will unfold, is an inherently geographical exercise that requires that we peer into the future based on the projected magnitude, probability, and spatial distribution of these risks over the coming decades.  As it takes financial resources to understand risks, to insure against risk, to invest in mitigation and adaptation strategies, and to recover from the impacts of natural hazards, this year’s Geography2050 will convene diverse communities around questions about the future of public and private finance; (re-) insurance; economic, environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG); natural capital; equity and inequity; and the financial vulnerabilities of marginalized, at risk, well resourced, and the most wealthy segments of populations around the world.