  We determine the minimal possible volume of a projective log canonical
surface of general type with prescribed positive geometric genus. As
applications, we provide effecitive Noether type inequalities for log canonical
threefolds and stable surfaces. Also, we obtain a uniform bound on the order of
the symplectic automorphism group $\mathrm{Aut}_s(S)$ of smooth projective
surfaces $S$ of general type.
