The 32nd International Geographical Congress (IGC) was held on August 26-30 in Cologne, Germany. About 3000 geographers from countries and regions across the world participated in the IGC, which caused an unprecedented number of attendees in the history of IGU. Organized by The Geographical Society of China (GSC), China had a record over 100 geographers to this congress, including Academician Qin Dahe, Vice President of IGU, and Academician Liu Changming, former Vice President of IGU.

This book, written by Tian-Xiang Yue, on surface modelling, was published by CRC Press. It consists of 20 chapters. Chapter 1 reviews the existing classical methods for surface modeling and analyzes their shortcomings.

Land system change has never been out of human concerns. It is always one of the hottest themes in global environmental change research (Seto et al., 2002; Gutman et al., 2004).

As products of urbanization, cities are focal points for social and economic interaction. Though China is an ancient civilization, only recently has the urban population surpassed that in rural areas. During the last three decades, unprecedented urbanization has reshaped China’s geographical, social, economic and cultural landscapes. Among the social-economic transformations having occurred in China in recent history, urbanization is probably the most impressive and dynamic process; it has changed daily life of Chinese population and profoundly impacted the regional and global economy.

The IGU Regional Conference (UGI 2011) was held on November 14-18, 2011 in Santiago, Chile. It was organized by the Military Geographic Institute (IGM). Nearly 1000 geographers across the world participated in this event. The Geographical Society of China (GSC) sent a delegation consisting of more than 40 members to attend the conference.