Hufeng Yang, Qiangong Cheng

Department of Geological Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, Sichuan 610031, China

The 14th International Symposium on Geo-disaster Reduction (ISGdR) was held on 10-13 October 2016 in Chengdu, China. The 15th ISGdR is to be held at the Shimane University in Matsue, Japan from 26 to 31 August 2017. This article firstly outlines the background and aims of the ISGdR, reports on the 14th ISGdR in Chengdu, China, and then announces the plans for the 15th ISGdR in Matsue, Japan. Finally, it acknowledges for contributions for the organization of the 14th ISGdR.

1.Introduction

1.1 Background of the ICGdR and ISGdR

The International Consortium on Geo-disaster Reduction (ICGdR) is an international non-governmental and non-profit scientific organization legally registered as a non-profit organization in 2013 in the Shimane Prefecture according to the Japanese law (Wang, 2014). Before the official establishment of the ICGdR, the core members had conducted preparatory activities for 10 years. In 2003, the first symposium was held at Kanazawa University, Japan for the mitigation of geo-disasters in the areas around Japan Sea, which drew attention of researchers and engineers from China, Korea and Japan. The second, third and fourth symposiums were also held at Kanazawa University. Then, the fifth and sixth symposiums were held at Chang’an University and Kunming University of Science and Technology in China, respectively. In 2009, the symposium was renamed as “The International Symposium on Mitigation of Geo-disasters in Asia” in order to include more countries and to cover a larger area. The seventh event was then held in Northeast Forestry University, China. The eighth and ninth symposiums were held in National Far-East Technology University, Vladivostok, Russia in 2010, and Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia in 2011, respectively. Gradually, the event transformed from regional to international. In 2012, Shimane University, Japan organized the 10^th symposium, and about 100 participants attended this event. According to a regional initiative from Asia, the participants, of which most are experts on geo-disaster reductions, had intent to establish an international consortium on geo-disaster reduction. In May 2013, the organizing meeting of the International Consortium on Geo-disaster Reduction (ICGdR) was held in China Institute of Disaster Prevention, Beijing, China. And later, the legal registration was completed in August 2013 in Matsue, Japan.

In 2013, the 11^th symposium was successfully held in Kathmandu, Nepal. The Nepalese Prime Minister (the Chairman of the Interim Council of Ministers) inaugurated this event and gave great concern to geo-disaster reduction in the region. Based on the success of the last ten symposia, the core members of ICGdR have agreed to open the symposium to now include the whole world, as well as Asia. At this time the symposium was officially renamed the “International Symposium on Geo-disaster Reduction (ISGdR)”. The 12^th and 13^th ISGdR was held in Fullerton, California, USA in 2014 and in Prague, Czech Republic in 2015, respectively.

1.2 Objectives of the ICGdR and ISGdR

1. Promote geo-disaster reduction for the benefit of human society and the natural environment, and capacity development, including education;
2. Combine international expertise and coordinate their efforts in geo-disaster reduction, thereby resulting in an effective international organization which will act as a partner in various projects;
3. Promote regional and global, multidisciplinary activity on geo-disaster reduction.

2.Organizers and Organizing Committee of the 14th ISGdR

Organizers: State-province Joint Engineering Laboratory of Spatial Information Technology for High Speed Railway Safety (Southwest Jiaotong University, China) and International Consortium on Geo-disaster Reduction (ICGdR).

In cooperation with: State Key Laboratory of Geohazard Prevention and Geoenvironment Protection, (Chengdu University of Technology, China), Key Laboratory of Mountain Hazards and Earth Surface Processes (Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences), State Key Laboratory of Hydraulic and Mountain River Engineering (Sichuan University, China), State Key Laboratory of Frozen Soil Engineering (Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences), Kunming University of Science and Technology (China), and National Natural Science Foundation of China.

Organizing Committee:

Chair Person: Fei Xu (President, Southwest Jiaotong University, China)

Vice Chair Persons: Heming Cheng (Vice President, Kunming University of Science and Technology, China), Wei Deng (Director, Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences), Wei Ma (Director, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences), Qiang Xu (Executive Vice Director, State Key Laboratory of Geohazard Prevention and Geoenvironment Protection, Chengdu University of Technology, China), Weiling Xu (Vice President, Sichuan University, China), Fawu Wang (Director-General, International Consortium on Geo-disaster Reduction), Wengui Zhang (Vice President, Southwest Jiaotong University, China).

Committee Members: Xiaoqing Chen, Ranjan Kumar Dahal, Chuan He, Xiewen Hu, Huijun Jin, Bo Li, Tianbin Li, Guoxiang Liu, Xinnian Liu, Yu Liu, Fujun Niu, Shengwen Qi, Ruitang Xu, Juhua Xiong, Yupeng Yao, Qing Zhu.

Secretariat:

Chair Person: Qiangong Cheng.

Vice Chair Persons: Hongbo Cai, Guangzhu Cao, Wei Hu, Guoyu Li, Shiguo Xiao, Lu Zheng, Gongdan Zhou.

Members: Tao Chen, Zili Dai, Xuanmei Fan, Lanxin Huang, Fang Lin, Zhanju Lin, Chaojun Ouyang, Ronggao Qin, Yufeng Wang, Duqiang Yang, Hufeng Yang.

3.Report of the 14th ISGdR

State-province Joint Engineering Laboratory of Spatial Information Technology for High Speed Railway Safety, Southwest Jiaotong University organized the 14th International Symposium on Geo-Disaster Reduction (ISGdR) in Chengdu, China on 10-13 October 2016 (Fig. 1). This series of international symposiums has been an instrumental forum for the“Global Strategy for Geo-disaster Reduction” which attracted more than one hundred geoscientists and engineers working in the field of geo-disasters from six countries and 63 excellent academic presentations. The symposium has been divided into four major sections: High Level Forum, Keynote Lectures, Invited Lectures and Young Researcher Forum, offering an opportunity to discuss the latest developments in the field of Geo-disaster Reduction. In addition to the main sessions of the symposium, pre-event, side-events and post-event were also organized before, during and after the symposium.

3.1 Pre-event

The 2016 General Meeting of ICGdR took place at the Xinhua Hotel on 10 October 2016. Prof. Miyajima, the president of ICGdR, delivered an opening address. During the meeting, current membership, financial condition and annual report of each committee (Annual Symposium Committee, Training Course Committee, Journal Editorial Committee, Project Collaboration Committee, Database Committee and Award Committee) for 2016 were reported by each responsible person. The working plan for 2017 was discussed at the end of the general meeting. Prof. Xuanmei Fan, from the State Key Laboratory of Geohazard Prevention and Geoenvironment Protection (Chengdu University of Technology, China), was elected as the director of Young Researcher Committee of ICGdR. Shimane University (Japan) was voted as the organizer of the 15th ISGdR, and the symposium will be held on 26-31 August 2017.

3.2 Plenary sessions of the symposium

Opening Ceremony

The opening ceremony was hosted by Prof. Fawu Wang, the Director-General of ICGdR. Prof. Fei Xu has declared the conference open on behalf of the organizer, Southwest Jiaotong University (SWJTU), and delivered an opening speech to welcome all the distinguished scholars and experts from all over the world. Prof. Xu also expressed his hope that this symposium could provide a platform for researches to forefront research into the mechanism of geological hazards and promote the further development of disaster prevention and mitigation technology. Prof. Masakatsu Miyajima, the president of ICGdR, and Dr. Sheng Xian, the associated director of Disaster Mitigation Center of Sichuan Province, also delivered greeting speeches to welcome all the researchers and their appreciation to organizers.
 

Award Ceremony

Prof. Masakatsu Miyajima and Prof. Fei Xu presented awards and certificates to recipients (Fig. 3). These awards included the 2015 Outstanding Events, 2015 Outstanding ICGdR Member of the Year and 2015 Outstanding Paper. Due to the absence of Prof. Vit Vilimek, his award ceremony is not shown in Fig. 3. The awards details are list in Table 1.
 

High Level Forum

The High Level Forum was chaired by Prof. Fawu Wang. Five famous experts delivered their plenary lectures focusing on the theme of “Global Strategy for Geo-disaster Reduction” (Fig. 4): “Importance of communicating natural hazards to the public - an Oregon, USA example” by Prof. Scott Burns (President of IAEG), “Disaster risk reduction in one belt one road area” by Prof. Peng Cui (Academician, Chinese Academy of Sciences), “Study on control theory of landslide based on the evolution process” by Prof. Huiming Tang (Vice President, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, China), “New technologies for landslide monitoring and rapid mapping” by Prof. Nicola Casagli (Deputy Director of UNESCO Chair on the Prevention & Sustainable management of Geo-Hydrological Hazards, University of Florence, Italy), “Lessons learned from recent damaging earthquakes in Taiwan, Japan and Italy” by Prof. Masakatsu Miyajima (Kanazawa University, President of ICGdR).
 

Keynote Lectures

The Keynote Lectures included 8 plenary lectures which were divided into two sections. The first section was chaired by Prof. Masakatsu Miyajima and Prof. Qiangong Cheng. Firstly, Prof. Fawu Wang presented their research on landslide dam to predict the failure time through in-door and out-door landslide dam model tests and field investigation. The second keynote lecture from Prof. Guoxiang Liu concentrated on a case study for mapping and inventorying active rock glaciers in the Northern Tien Shan (China) by InSAR. Prof. Qiang Xu introduced their study on diffuse failure landslides including a landfill flow-slide, some loess landslides and a landslide of loose deposits, and attempted to assess the initiation of diffuse failure landslides. At the end of first section, Prof. Hengxing Lan gave a lecture on geo-hazards risk assessment for Sichuan-Tibet interconnection project of state grid based on the engineering geological conditions, regional geological condition, geological hazards investigation, project design, the remote sensing interpretation and numerical modelling.

The second section of Keynote Lectures was chaired by Prof. Huiming Tang and Prof. Nicola Casagli. Prof. Xianzhang Ling’s lecture highlighted two important research topics on vibration response of railway traffic subgrade and vibration response of road traffic subgrade with heavy load in cold regions. Furthermore, the finished fundamental work on above-mentioned topic was discussed and elaborated. Prof. Yu Huang presented research on the flow slides in MSW landfills and provided a scientific basis for hazard prevention and risk evaluation in the landfill area. Two kinds of mesh free method, a smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) model, and a modified moving particle semi-implicit (MPS) model were proposed to predict the propagation of the flow slides in MSW landfill in two dimensional and three dimensional. Prof. Ranjan Kumar Dahal introduced major geological and geomorphological issues in central Nepal after the Gorkha Earthquake and conducted detail analysis to understand liquefaction problem, landslide problem and topographic and basin effect. At the end of Keynote Lecture, Prof. Guangqi Cheng proposed a practical 3D coupled solid-fluid simulation technique by using DDA and SPH to analyze the formation and failure characteristics of the landslide dam. The developed simulation technique has been successfully applied to simulate a practical landslide dam and its effectiveness and practicality have also been validated.

The titles of presentations of Keynote Lectures are list in Table 2. Fig. 5 shows photos of each presenter during Keynote Lectures.
 

Fig. 5 Plenary lectures presented by Prof. Fawu Wang (a), Prof. Guoxiang Liu (b), Prof. Qiang Xu (c), Prof. Hengxing Lan (d), Prof. Xianzhang Ling (e), Prof. Yu Huang (f), Prof. Ranjan Kumar Dahal (g) and Prof. Guangqi Chen (h) during the Keynote Lectures.

Poster Session

The poster session was held at the plenary meeting hall. The authors of four posters took part in the discussion and exchange views with other participants during the tea and lunch break time on 11 October. The details of poster session are listed in Table 3.

3.3. Parallel Sessions

The Parallel Sessions included Invited Lectures and Young Researcher Forum. Totally, there were 50 presentations. The topics are related to landslides, geo-disasters caused by earthquake, social resilience to disasters and new technologies for geo-disaster reduction. The details of presentations are listed in Tables 4 and 5.

3.4 Side-events

Chengdu is a historical city and famous for the giant pandas in the world. During the symposium, two side-events, Giant Panda Base Visiting and Sichuan Art Performance, were organized for participants, especially for foreigners. It was a good opportunity for them to take a close contact with the Chinese culture.

3.5 Closing Session

Prof. Fawu Wang, on behalf of ICGdR, gave a closing speech and appreciation to the organizer and co-organizers. At the end, Prof. Masakatsu Miyajima and Prof. Scott Burns presented awards of “Outstanding Young Researcher Forum” to the recipients from the Young Researcher Forum.

3.6 Post-event

With the contribution of State Key Laboratory of Geohazard Prevention and Geoenvironment Protection (Chengdu University of Technology, China), 19 participants joined the field trip to Old Beichuan County after 2008.5.12 Wenchuan Earthquake. During the field trip, Prof. Wei Hu introduced the situation of Old Beichuan County before and after 2008.5.12 Wenchuan Earthquake (Fig. 6). At the location of earthquake fault, an in-situ discussion was conducted to have more knowledge about earthquake based on landform and vegetation (Fig. 7).
 

4.Invitation

The 15th ISGdR will be held on 26-31 August 2017 in Matsue City, Shimane Prefecture, Japan. The ICGdR will invite all entities and individuals which are willing to contribute to the geo-disaster reduction to join ICGdR.

5.Acknowledgements

The organization of the 14th ISGdR was strongly supported by all joint organizers and cosponsors in many aspects. Thanks for financial support go to the State-province Joint Engineering Laboratory of Spatial Information Technology for High Speed Railway Safety (Southwest Jiaotong University, China), Key Laboratory of Mountain Hazards and Earth Surface Processes (Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences), and State Key Laboratory of Frozen Soil Engineering (Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences). Also, we extend our sincere thanks to State Key Laboratory of Geohazard Prevention and Geoenvironment Protection (Chengdu University of Technology, China) for their contribution to the field trip to Old Beichuan County after the 2008.5.12 Wenchuan Earthquake.

References

Wang F (2014) Reducing geo-disasters for improving the relationships between geoenvironment and society. Geoenvironmental Disasters, 1(1): 1-3

Table 1 Lists of awards for the 14th ISGdR

Table 2 Lists of Keynote Lectures

Table 3 Lists of Poster Session

Table 4 Lists of lectures presented in Invited Lectures

Table 5 Lists of lectures presented in Young Researcher Forum