Saturday, 9 August 2008

Geohazards: can society cope?
Coordinator: Suzanne Lacasse, Norwegian Geotechnical Institute, NGI (Norway)

Landslides, sea level rise, subsidence in deltas, violent storms, earthquakes, floods and tsunamis hit our communities, causing loss of life and huge damage. Can we protect these communities, should we build in areas threatened by natural hazards? Can we develop effective warning and emergency preparedness systems?
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Geoscience program

08:30-08:33   Introduction
                     Suzanne Lacasse
                     Norwegian Geotechnical Institute, NGI (Norway)

08:33-09:00   Rock Slide Hazards: Detection, Assessment and Warning
                     D. Jean Hutchinson
                     Queen's University (Canada)

09:00-09:30   Earthquake Vulnerability: An Engineer's Perspective with a Difference
                     Tiziana Rossetto
                     University College London (UK)

09:30-10:00   Tsunamis
                     Costas Synolakis
                     University of Southern California, Los Angeles (USA)

10:00-10:30   Coffee break  

10:30-11:00   Volcanoes and their Impact on Human Society
                     Stephen Sparks
                     University of Bristol (UK)

11:00-11:30   Geological Considerations in Quantitative Offshore Geohazards Risk Assessment
                     Philippe Jeanjean
                     BP Corporation (USA)

11:30-12:00   Early Warning Systems for Landslides
                     Farrokh Nadim
                     University of Oslo, International Centre for Geohazards (ICG) and NGI (Norway)

12:00-13:00    Lunch

StatiolHydro lecture

13:00-13:45   Reducing the Risks Associated with Natural Threats
                     Herbert H. Einstein
                     MIT (USA)

Societal program

14:00-14:30   Global Approach to Slope Safety in Hong Kong
                     Raymond Chan
                     GEO Civil Engineering and development Department (Hong Kong)
 
14:30-14:45  Global Patterns of Disaster Risk
                    Bob Chen
                    The Earth Institute, Columbia University (USA)

14:45-15:00  Hazard and Risk Mapping for Landslides 
                    Kjell Karlsrud
                    Norwegian Geotechnical Institute, NGI (Norway)

15:00-15:15  The Ms 8.0 Wenchuan Earthquake of May 12th, 2008, Sichuan, China 
                    Shuwen Dong                    
                    Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences (China)

15:15-15:30   Social Vulnerability and Resilience to Geohazards 
                     Carsten Felgentreff
                     University Osnabrück (Germany)

15:30-16:00   Coffee break

16:00-16:30   Geophysical Risks and Society
                     Tom Beer
                     CSIRO (Australia)

16:30-17:00   Geo-Risks: Global Trends, Losses and Risk Management
                     Anselm Smolka, Dirk Hollnack 
                     Geo Risks Research, Munich Reinsurance Company (Germany)

17:00-17:15  Geohazards in Iceland
                    Thorunn Sveinbjarnardottir
                    Ministry for the Environment, (Iceland)

17:15-17:30  Coffee break

17:30-18:30  Panel debate

18:30            Press conference