The ICGdR Young Scientist Workshop on Geological Disasters Control and Risk Reduction, organized by the International Consortium on Geo-disaster Reduction, UNESCO Chair on Geoenvironmental Disaster Reduction, and Tsinghua University, was successfully held in Beijing on May 21, 2022. The workshop was co-organized by Tongji University, Dalian University of Technology, Chengdu University of Technology, Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chongqing University, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), Wuhan University, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, Iowa State University, and University of Sheffield. More than 100 participants from 6 countries and regions, including China, USA, UK, Italy, Japan and Hong Kong SAR, attend the workshop virtually.

    The opening ceremony was hosted by Associate Prof. Yifei Cui, Chairman of the Organizing Committee. Firstly, Prof. Fawu Wang, President of International Consortium on Geo-disaster Reduction and Chairholder of UNESCO Chair on Geoenvironmental Disaster Reduction, delivered the opening speech. Prof. Wang pointed out that young scholars played an increasingly important role in geological disaster prevention and mitigation nowadays, and this Youth Workshop highlighted the academic research of young scholars, focused on the exchange of new academic views and ideas, gathered diversified talents and encouraged openness and sharing, which was of great significance. Prof. Xudong Fu, Dean of School of Civil Engineering, Tsinghua University, then delivered a welcome speech on behalf of the organizing committee. He emphasized the outstanding contribution of the ICGdR in promoting geohazard prevention and mitigation. Then, he concluded the contributions of School of Civil Engineering, Tsinghua University on understanding the mechanisms of sediment transport, fluvial processes, and geological hazard chain, especially on Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau in recent years. Prof. Fu believed that this workshop would not only produce a series of high-level achievements, but also provide a strong support to the multi-discipline-based research development of Tsinghua University.

    The workshop invited two well-known experts to deliver the keynote presentations. Prof. Luciano Picarelli (Dean of Civil and Environmental Engineering in University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, Chair of the Joint Technical Committee No. 1 (JTC1) Natural Slopes and Landslides) had delivered a keynote lecture titled “Flow-like landslides: an impeding threat in several different lithological contexts”. He had reviewed the formation and evolution process of different types of flow-like landslides developed in different lithological contexts, which shed new insights into the evolution mechanism of flow-like landslides.

    Prof. Mike Winter, (Director of Winter Associates Limited, Adjunct Professor in the UNESCO-Chair Programme on Geoenvironmental Disaster Reduction (current) Shimane University) had delivered a keynote lecture titled “Quantitative assessment of debris flow risk to road users”. A methodology for the quantitative risk assessment (QRA) of the impact of debris flow in a road environment considering the probability of an event of a typical size and the conditional probabilities of a vehicle being affected was proposed, which had significantly advanced the risk assessment of debirs flow risk to road users.

    The workshop contains three sessions, namely Session 1. Formation and evolution mechanism of geological disasters; Session 2. Monitoring and early warning methods of geological disasters; Session 3. Risk assessment and geological disasters control. For each session, 14 young researchers, including Prof. Luca Schenato form Italian National Research Council, Italy; Assistant Professor Beena Ajmera from Iowa State University, USA; Lecturer Alessandro Leonardi from University of Sheffield, UK; Assistant Professor Chao Zhou from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR; Dr. Yuko Serikawa from Fukui Institute of technology, Japan; Prof. Chong Xu from National Institute of Natural Hazards, Ministry of Emergency Management of China; Prof. Huafu Pei from Dalian University of technology; Prof. Chaojun Ouyang from Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences; Prof. Zijun Cao from Wuhan University; Prof. Haiqing Yang from Chongqing University; Prof. Jidong Teng from Central South University; Prof. Xiaolei Liu from Ocean University of China; Prof. Wenping Gong from China University of Geosciences (Wuhan) and Assistant Professor Xie Hu from Peking University, delivered invited lecture.

    The presenters shared their latest achievements in the formation and evolution mechanism of geological hazards, monitoring and early warning methods of geological hazards, high performance computing and simulation, artificial intelligence and big data processing, risk assessment and disaster prevention and mitigation. In order to better realize the exchange and collision of ideas and views, this workshop innovatively arranged free discussion sections at the end of each session. In this way, it was not only convenient for the academic exchanges between the audience and the presenters, but also conducive to the in-depth discussion among the presenters.  

    At the end of the workshop, Prof. Fan Xuanmei, Chairman of ICGdR Youth Working Committee, gave a closing remark. Firstly, she expressed sincere appreciation to the host, the organizer and all the presenters. Secondly, she pointed out that the ICGdR Youth Workshop aimed to provide a platform for young scholars to exchange ideas and promote cooperation. The success of this workshop was bound to have a far-reaching impact. Finally, in order to help young researchers grow up faster, she suggested that in addition to organizing the Youth workshop, international training courses and joint field investigation could be conducted to enhance regional and global communication and cooperation in ICGdR.