Natural Slopes and Landslides

MAIN COMMITTEE'S ACTIVITIES 

The Joint Technical Committee no 1 (JTC1) of the Federation of the International Geo-engineering Societies (FedIGS) was established in 2010 and has been twice renewed (in 2014 and in 2018).

The present committee consists of 29 people and of one correspondent member. They come from both advanced and emerging countries of all continents and, in particular, from the areas that present the most severe landslide hazard.

The main committee’s activities consist in:

i) periodic meetings aimed at establishing and modifying, the program, at evaluating the results of the established activities and at examining any specific problem that is submitted to the attention of the community;

ii) selection of the seat of the International Symposia on Landslides (ISLs) and collaboration in the development of the scientific program;

iii) spreading of consolidated information and data on major topics regarding the domain of landslides;

iv) “stimulation” of new ideas to born through ad hoc initiatives;

and any other useful initiative.

Meetings

Considering the difficulty to meet frequently, besides the “institutional” face-to-face meetings which are generally held during international conferences, the committee  organizes periodic “email meetings” which generally last 7-10 days. By this way, the great majority of members can take stock of the established activities and exchange ideas at least two times per year.

 ISLs

The first important role of the JTC1 is to select the seat and to contribute to the scientific program of the International Symposia on Landslides (ISLs).

With reference to this, in 2011 the Committee decided to set up a special lecture, devoted to Albert Heim, to be delivered during the same symposia. As stated by the committee, “The Heim Lecturer should be an active researcher or professional with a strong track record of work on landslides and/or related phenomena. He/she should be a good communicator who can illustrate his/her lecture with advanced ideas that are considered to be innovative at the time of the lecture, highlighting both the strength and the vitality of the field. He/she should have a disciplinary background from one or more of the domains of Soil Mechanics, Rock Mechanics and Engineering Geology, and he/she should be able to communicate at a technical level with those from  other fields”. This initiative was endorsed by the four geo-engineering societies.

The first Heim Lecture, on “Deformation analysis of landslides: progressive failure, rate effects and thermal interactions” was delivered by Eduardo Alonso during the 11^th ISL (2012) held in Banff. The lecture was printed in the proceedings of that symposium. The second Heim Lecture was delivered by Oldrich Hungr during the following ISL (Naples, 2016). The lecture, “A review of landslide hazard and risk assessment methodology”, is in the proceedings of the symposium.

Spreading of information and data on major topics

Since its birth, the committee put strong  attention in the preparation of documents and in the organization of targeted scientific events, of seminars or lectures, called Technical Reports (TRs), around major and “hot” topics, possibly leading to the publication of papers,  proceedings or reports.

The “Technical Reports” which have been finished, or initiated, are described in the following.

The first Technical Report (TR1) is an update of the Varnes classification of landslide types (TR1). Coordinated by the late Oldrich Hungr, this work was presented by the same Hungr at the International Symposium on Landslides held in Banff in 2012, then it was published (Hungr et al., 2014) in the international scientific journal Landslides. The paper has been awarded as the best paper issued by that journal in 2014.

The subsequent report (TR2) is a review of the terminology about the risk of landslides. The idea was suggested by the fact that the available glossary does not totally match the contents of parallel glossaries concerning other natural and anthropogenic hazards. The paper was prepared by a team coordinated by Jordi Corominas, including also people outside the committee, and was presented at the 14^th IAEG Conference (Turin 2014). It may be found in the proceedings of the same conference. The third  report (TR3), titled “Slope Safety Preparedness for Effects of Climate Changes”, is a collection of national contributions presented and discussed in an international Forum held in Naples in November, 2015. The work was initially coordinated by H.N. Wong, then by K. Ho. The TR3 includes 13 reports which present the situation in 17 countries. The material has then be printed as a book edited by K. Ho, S. Lacasse and L. Picarelli.

The fourth initiative (TR4), proposed and coordinated by Ikuo Towhata, is the “1^st International Symposium on Coseismic Landslides”, held in Kyoto in 2018. There, 9 national reports were presented. A couple of volumes with the contents of the event are in print by an international publisher.

The last report (TR5), on “Mechanisms of rapid flow-like landslides”, is a collection of contributions on the main features of rapid flow-like landslides in completely different geomorphological contexts. The goal of this report, which is being coordinated by Luciano Picarelli, is to compare data and results of ongoing research, possibly leading to common analyses and mitigation approaches.

New ideas to born

The general growth of population and infrastructure and the increasing need for security and land management require a strong increase of knowledge in the domain of natural hazard with special reference to landslides. For this reason, the committee decided to promote a series of periodic workshops on advanced topics (the JTC1 workshops), to be held in the mid time between ISLs. The JTC1 WS, which should involve as many young researchers as possible, includes a Hutchinson Lecture, which has been endorsed by the geo-engineering societies, entrusted to a researcher under 42 selected by the committee among candidates chosen by national societies.

Due to organising problems, the first JTC1 WS, focused on “Advances in landslides understanding”, took place only in May, 2017, in Barcelona. The 1^st Hutchinson Lecture, titled “Effects of layering on the hydraulic and mechanical response of unsaturated granular sloping covers”,  was delivered by Emilia Damiano. The 2^nd JTC1 WS, on “Triggering and Propagation of Rapid Flow-Like Landslides”, was held in Hong Kong in December, 2018; the 2^nd Hutchinson Lecture, on “Physics of landslides”, was delivered by Nuria Pinyol. During the Hong Kong workshop a special Hungr Oration was held by Scott McDougall in memory of our dear colleague Oldrich Hungr.

The main contributions in the 1^st JTC1 WS have been published as a special issue in the Canadian Geotechnical Journal (vol. 56(9), 2019, pp. 1215-1365). All contributions in the 2^nd JTC1 WS may be found at www.hkges.org/JTC1_2nd/.

Other

The JTC1 encourages all useful initiatives,  also those promoted by people outside the committee, for the development of the geosciences in the special domain of landslides. In particular, some international conferences and symposia obtained the JTC1’s patronage.

JTC1 workshops

1^st JTC1 workshop: Advances in Landslide Understanding

Barcellona, 24 – 26 May 2017

The main contents of the 1^st JTC1 WS can be found in the workshop website’s http://congress.cimne.com/jtc1/frontal/default.asp. In particular, it includes the workshop Proceedings (http://congress.cimne.com/jtc1/frontal/doc/Ebook.pdf) with extended abstracts of Hutchinson Lecture, keynotes and invited lectures, which can be easily downloaded. Please note that some papers with the same contents as in the workshop have been then published in the Canadian Geotechnical Journal (Vol. 56 (9), 2019).

2^nd JTC1 workshop: Triggering and Propagation of Rapid Flow-Like Landslides

Hong Kong, 2-3 December 2018

The contents of the workshop can be found at this link:

https://www.issmge.org/filemanager/joint_committees/1/2nd_JTC1_Workshop_E-proceedings_20190628.pdf

3^rd JTC1 workshop: Impact of global changes on landslide hazard and risk

Oslo, 7-10 June 2023

The 3^rd JTC1 workshop will be held in Oslo, Norway, 7-10 June, 2023. It will include the 3^rd Hutchinson Lecture. Further information can be found at: https://jtc1-2023.com/

There are no symposiums to show for this joint TC