Landslides triggered by earthquake often bring serious threats to people's life, regional infrastructure and lifeline projects, resulting in huge casualties and social and economic losses. To unite experts from all over the world to deeply discuss the issues of seismic resilience, the International Workshop on Seismic Design and Assessment for Resilience, Robustness and Sustainability of Slope Engineering was successfully held at Tongji University in Shanghai, China, from January 13 to 15, 2023. The workshop reached a lot of consensus on the topics of seismic design and evaluation of slope engineering, and issued the "Shanghai Declaration: Design for Seismic Resilience, Robustness and Sustainability of Slope Engineering".

The NSFC (National Natural Science Foundation of China), ICGdR (International Consortium on Geo-disaster Reduction), UNESCO-Chair on Geo-environmental Disaster Reduction, and IAEG (International Association for Engineering Geology and the Environment) have provided strong support to this workshop. This meeting was held online and attracted extensive attention from experts and scholars in related fields around the world. Scholars from more than 10 countries and regions, including China, Japan, Nepal, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, Italy, Australia and Ethiopia, participated in the workshop. More than 230 delegates shared the latest research results of seismic design and evaluation for resilience, robustness and sustainability of slope engineering online.

The opening ceremony was presided over by Prof. Yu Huang of Tongji University, the Chairman of the workshop. Prof. Jianguo Ren, Director of the Earth Science Department of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, attended the opening ceremony. Prof. Fawu Wang, President of the International Consortium on Geo-disaster Reduction, Prof. Rafig Azzam, President of the International Association of Engineering Geology and the Environment, and Prof. Xiaohua Tong, Vice President of Tongji University delivered congratulatory speeches. Prof. Fawu Wang pointed out that the current methods for seismic design of slope engineering have developed from empirical to resilience-based design, and the involved resilience, robustness and sustainability are the latest concepts of disaster prevention and reduction. He hoped that this workshop could strengthen international exchange and cooperation in the field of assessment and design of slope seismic response. Prof. Rafig Azzam stated that in the field of disaster prevention of earthquake-induced landslides, the research and engineering practice based on resilient disaster prevention are still in the preliminary stage, and there remains a lack of corresponding design codes and guidelines, which brings great challenges to the practice of seismic design of slope engineering based on resilience. It is expected that this workshop would provide new ideas for the study of engineering geological hazards. Prof. Xiaohua Tong extended sincere congratulations on the convening of this workshop and warmly welcomed all the representatives from all over the world to attend the workshop on behalf of Tongji University. He looked forward to the scholars attending the workshop aiming at the forefront development of slope engineering resilience and seismic resistance, extensive exchanges and discussions on relevant key scientific issues, and making new contributions to the research on disaster prevention and reduction.

More than 30 keynote presentations and invited presentations focused on major scientific issues and key technologies of aseismic design and evaluation for resilience, robustness and sustainability of slope engineering. The content of the talks covers seismic damage and fortification level of slope engineering, analysis on seismic effect of slope engineering site, evolution mechanism and analysis method of slope instability under seismic dynamic excitation, analysis theory on seismic resilience of slope engineering, the seismic robustness analysis method of slope engineering, research on the seismic method of slope engineering sustainability, the prospect of future seismic design method of slope engineering, the practice of seismic design of major slope engineering projects and other related research fields.

ICGdR-TC1 held a special working meeting on January 14, 2023. This meeting was chaired by Professor Yu Huang, Chairman of the Committee. Experts at the meeting agreed that seismic design of slope, as a key means of landslide prevention and control, has gradually carried out research on seismic design based on resilience, robustness and sustainability, but there are still many challenges in the design and evaluation of seismic resilience of slope engineering. In particular, the concept of resilience in the field of slope engineering lacks a unified understanding and has not formed a global framework and guide. Given the above issues, the expert committee reached a widely consensus after full discussion and adopted the declaration initiative initiated by Tongji University.

Group photo of some representatives of the ICGdR-TC1

At the closing ceremony of the workshop on January 15, "Shanghai Declaration on the Seismic Resilience, Robustness, and Sustainability of Slope Engineering" was released, which was unanimously agreed upon by the delegates. The declaration sets out five key tasks and eight major goals to be achieved by 2030 for the future development of slope seismic engineering worldwide. The Declaration, based on advanced monitoring methods, ecological engineering design concepts and the requirements for sustainable seismic design of slope engineering, is issued to relevant management departments, enterprises and research institutions around the world. The experts at the meeting hoped to increase the global community's attention and research depth on the development of seismic resilience of slope engineering, so as to promote the practice of seismic resilience design of slope engineering, reduce the risk and impact of slope failure and landslide disaster, and proposed a new generation of seismic resilience design and evaluation guidelines for slope engineering, to ensure long-term stability and safety of slope.

Through this seminar, scholars all over the world fully exchanged and shared the latest research results and ideas, and put forward many creative questions and suggestions. It is generally believed that the theme of this workshop is distinctive. Based on the urgent need for earthquake mitigation in slope engineering, the workshop systematically summarized the existing problems in the seismic research of slope engineering, the latest research results and engineering practices, and pointed out the direction of future development for the research and practice of seismic design and evaluation of slope engineering. It is of great value to improve the level of seismic design of slope engineering and the ability to prevent and reduce landslides triggered by the earthquake. The Shanghai Declaration not only embodies the academic achievements of this international symposium but also expresses the future vision and consensus of developing resilient disaster prevention and reduction of global slope engineering, which is of great significance for improving the prevention and control of major engineering geological disasters.