History and Background of ICGdR

In the past decades, geo-disasters triggered by earthquake, landslide, debris flow, tsunami, and volcanic eruption frequently occurred all over the world, especially in Asia. These disasters caused great loss of human life as well as huge damage on infrastructure and property. As disasters are serious threats to the human society, reduction of geo-disasters has become an urgent and critical issue for the safety of communities and their economic development.

 

As an initiative from Asia to reduce the geo-disasters, on 4 September 2013, ICGdR was officially registered in Matsue Prefecture with the approval of the Japanese government (Formal Name in Janpanese: 特定非営利活動法人国際地盤災害軽減機構).

 

Before the official establishment of the ICGdR, the core members have 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. This pioneering event drew attention of researchers and engineers from China, Korea and Japan. The second, third and fourth symposia were also held at Kanazawa University. Then, the fifth and sixth symposia were held in Xi’an and Kunming in China, respectively. In 2009 the symposium was renamed as “The International Symposium on Mitigation of Geo-disasters in Asia” (MGDA) to include more countries and cover larger area, and the seventh event was held in Harbin, China. The Eighth and Ninth symposia were held in Vladivostok, Russia in 2010, and Yogyakarta, Indonesia in 2011, respectively. Gradually, the event evolved from a regional meeting to a regular international conference. In 2012, Shimane University, Japan organized the tenth event of the symposium, and about 100 participants attended this event. During the symposium, a field trip from Sendai, via Hotaka and Kyoto, to Matsue was made to investigate the disasters caused by earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, and landslides. To celebrate the tenth anniversary of the continuous event, the core members collaborated to publish “The Progress of Geo-disaster Mitigation Technology in Asia” with Springer to show the progress of geo-disaster mitigation technologies in Asia. In this symposium, most of the participants showed an 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. Then, the legal registration was completed in September 2013 in Matsue, Japan.

In 2013 the 11th MGDA symposium was successfully held in Kathmandu, Nepal. Because the importance of geo-disaster reduction for the Nepalese society, the Nepalese prime minister attended this event signifying the great importance of an active and application oriented research on geoenvironmental hazards.

 

Accompanying to the legal registration of ICGdR, the symposium was officially renamed as “International Symposium on Geo-disaster Reduction (ISGdR)”, and kept the number continually. It is a great step for ICGdR conducting its activity from Asia to the whole world.

 

The 12th to 15th ISGdRs were held in Fullerton (California, USA, 2014), Prague (Czech Republic, 2015), Chengdu (China, 2016), and Oki Islands – Matsue – Kyoto (Japan, 2017). The route crossed America, Europe and Asia. This makes ICGdR as a real international organization.

 

After that, the 16th and 17th ISGdR were held in France and Kyrgyz in 2018 and 2019, respectively. Participants enjoyed the face to face meeting, and the field trip under blue sky and sunshine. However, because of the pandemic of Covid-19, the 18th ISGdR held in Beijing in 2020 only had the Chinese participants on-site, and all of the other participants from other countries attended on-line. 2020 is a hard year for the human beings. It is also a hard year for ICGdR. The 19th ISGdR was jointly organized with the High-Level Academic Forum on Disaster Mitigation and Integrated Risk Defense on the Plateau, 12-15 July 2021, Xining, China. The event was held partially online and partially on site.

 

Besides, a training course for landslide disaster reduction was organized by Taiwan University in Chinese Taipei from 2013 yearly. The course focused on advanced technology of hazard assessment and mitigation of landslide and debris flow hazards with lectures and practices. Another training course on earthquake disaster reduction has also been conducted in China Institute of Disaster Prevention since 2014.


In 2014, with the cooperation from Springer, ICGdR launched its official journal, Geoenvironmental Disasters. It is an open-access journal. ICGdR supports all of the APC (article processing charge). In 2018, it is included in SCOPUS; In 2021, it is included in ESCI, and GEO Base of Engineering Village.

 

In January 2018, cooperating with Shimane University, Japan, “UNESCO Chair on Geoenvironmental Disaster Reduction” was established. The main purpose is to improve the relationship between environment and society. Based on the excellent work accomplished, the renewal of the agreement on the UNESCO Chair was approved in 2022 for four years, 20 February 2026.

 

As a non-profit organization, the ICGdR is devoted actively to reduce geo-disasters in populated areas and make a positive contribution for communities and human society especially in vulnerable areas.

 

Welcome to join us!