Relations between geosciences and the military are multiple and varied. There is, on the one side, the military using geology, geography and geomatics as tools in their effort to better control their environment. On the other side, professional geographers and geologists also look at military activities, analysing their impacts on the landscape and on the earth itself. The 7th International Conference on Military Geology and Geography will be a unique opportunity to bring together these two contrasting approaches and generate interaction between their respective proponents. Practitioners from military institutions as well as specialists from academe are therefore invited to propose papers or organize sessions for this four-day conference to take place in Quebec City, Canada, from 18 to 21 June 2007. Previous conferences were held at the University of Nottingham, UK (2005), the US Military Academy in West Point, New York (2003), and at the University of Greenwich, UK (2000).

The event will be hosted by the Department of Geography at Université Laval, in cooperation with Defence Research and Development Canada in Valcartier and the Directorate of History and Heritage of the Department of National Defence. Proposals may be submitted in English or French, and participation of graduate students is particularly encouraged. Themes considered include, but are not limited to the following:
Conversion of military facilities
- Critical geography of military activities
- Geospatial intelligence
- Historical military geography - Military cartography
- Military land management
- Military tourism
- Naval geography
- Population movements
- Post-war landscape reconstruction
- Regional military economics
- Soil contamination
- Spatial aspects of peacekeeping
- Spatial dynamics of conflicts
- Situational awareness in the battlespace
- Terrain analysis
- Urban warfare
- Warfare and geology
- etc.

Quebec City is a place of contact and contrast. It is from their capital of Québec that the French first started to develop a long-term relationship with Aboriginal cultures on the North American continent in the early 17th century. A century and a half later, British and French cultures were to have their decisive clash for continental dominion at Québec. Geographically Quebec City is also located at a significant place of contact and contrast: between the river and the estuary, the inland waters of the St. Lawrence and the gateway to the open sea; between the boreal forests of the north and the mixed vegetation of the south; between the Laurentian and Appalachian highlands and the St. Lawrence Valley. Geologists will also observe the line of contact between the metamorphic rocks of the Laurentian foothills and the sedimentary deposits of the lower lands. Three geological provinces come in contact near Québec: Grenville, the St. Lawrence Platform and the Appalachian highlands. The conference program will be equally divided between in-room sessions and various excursions in and around the city. A post-conference field trip is also planned, whose details will be released in a forthcoming announcement. A book containing selected papers presented will be published after the conference. Conference fees are $275 (Canadian), and deadline for submission of abstracts (300 words) is 29 September 2006.