Scientific Sections and Working Groups

DGGV has reacted to the progressive specialization within geology at an early stage by founding specialized sections (FS) and working groups (AK).

The scientific section Engineering Geology has been managed together with the German Society for Geotechnics (DGGT) since 1970; already 4 years later the FS Hydrogeology (FH-DGGV) was founded. In 1994, the Society for Environmental Geosciences (GUG) was added to the DGG, which was active until 2004, when it ceased its work. In 1995, the Geoinformatics Section was established, and in 1996, the Geotope Protection Section was added, which is now called FS Geotopes & GeoParks. Under the umbrella of this FS and the DGGV, respectively, the working group Geoparks has also been active since 2020 as a representation of the interests of GeoParks in Germany.

The FS Sedimentology was founded in 2009 in the Geological Association. This FS originally goes back to the Central European Section (CES) of the Society for Sedimentary Geology (SEPM). The FS Geodidactics and Public Relations is formally integrated into the DGGV and the Hochschulverband für die Geographie und ihre Didaktik (HGD) – in trust for the GeoUnion Alfred-Wegner-Stiftung (AWS). The FS Tectonics – Structural Geology – Crystal Geology (TSK) has been active within the DGGV since 2019.

The working group History of Geosciences in East Germany (1976-1989) and the working group of the same name in West Germany (1984-1989) merged in 1990 to form todays working group of the same name. Today, the AKGGW is formally affiliated with the DGGV and also functions as the German section of the International Commission on the History of Geological Sciences (INHIGEO) of the IUGS. The working group Bergbaufolgen was also formed in 1995, still within the Gesellschaft für Geowissenschaften (GGW), while the working group German Scientific Earth Probing (GESEP), formerly independent as an association, only came under the umbrella of the DGGV in 2020.