International Association of Geomorphologists Southeast Asia Conference, 18-23 June 1995
This was a success, starting from the pre-registration and John Wiley reception on the evening of 18 June. The meeting was attended by more than 200 delegates from 32 countries and the one-day workshop for teachers attracted another 250 participants. The papers were good and the exchange of information and ideas lively.
There were four plenary lectures:
- the temporal and spatial significance of humans as geomorphic agents, the Zeitschrift für Geomorphologie lecture (M.G. Wolman);
- geological framework of Southeast Asia (B.K. Tan);
- coastal geomorphology and coastal management: a nexus? (B.G. Thom);
- tectonic, environmental, and human aspects of weathering and erosion (R.F. Stallard).
It would be very long to list the individual papers, even a representative selection. A list of the session is provided instead. The sessions were:
- varieties of fluvial form;
- mass movement;
- sediment production and sedimentary rocks;
- the Quaternary records in the tropics;
- the Marjorie Sweeting special session on tropical karst;
- soil studies - understanding tropical landform genesis;
- tropical coasts;
- climate and landforms;
- paleohydrology and environmental changes in the tropics;
- human impacts and management of river systems in Australia;
- aeolian environments;
- the SCOPE-IUGS-IAG symposium on the effects of human activities on earth surface processes;
- neotectonics and landforms;
- rocks, weathering and landforms;
- geomorphology of coasts;
- geomorphology and management of montane tropical streams;
- volcanic and granitic landforms;
- coastal biogeomorphology and sea-level change.
The conference also included a crowded and lively poster session.
The success of the sessions was due to the planning and organisation of A.J. Miller, M. Crozier, J.R. Flenley, P. Williams, D.C. Ford, H. Brockner, P.P. Wong, V.R. Baker, B. Finlayson, S. Brizga, P. Hesp, I. Douglas, F.N. Scatena, T. Spencer and C.C. Woodroffe. The much appreciated speakers at the teachers' workshop were H.Th. Verstappen, C.R. Twidale, I. Douglas and M. Crozier. The conference co-chairs were Goh Kim Chuan and Avijit Gupta. The SCOPE-IUGS-IAG and the INQUA Shorelines projects held business meeting during the conference. The delegates had to choose from five local field trips. The conference dinner was at Fort Canning on top of Canning Hill where a pleasant tropical evening, excellent regional food, and John Miksic's talk combined to create a wonderful experience. The conference ended with an informal general meeting of the IAG with Dietrich Barsch presiding and Denys Brunsden addressing the meeting.
Six regional field trips were part of this conference:
- Philippines: Taal, Pinatubo and the coast (leaders - E.G. Domingo, R.S. Javelosa, J.J. Nossin)
- Malaysia: Kinta Valley and the Cameron Highlands (Yeap Ee Beng)
- Java: Bandung, Dieng, Yogyakarta, Merapi, Borobudur, Prambanan (Rudi Suhendar, Dikdik Riyadi, J.J. Nossin, R. Voskuil, Rien Dam, Professor Sutikno and the staff of Geography department, Gajah Madah University, Franck Lavigne and Avijit Gupta)
- Sarawak, Mulu (Goh Kim Chuan and Paul Williams)
- Sabah, Mount Kinabalu (Ian Douglas)
- Peninsular Malaysia, west coast (Teh Tiong Sa)
The prevailing impression of this conference was the number and the quality of papers from the tropics and the southern continents. Professor Verstappen said that when he used to work in Southeast Asia it was difficult to find another geomorphologist, and now there are so many.
International Association of Geomorphologists e-mail net
Jeff Lee has very kindly set up the International Association of Geomorphologists Geomorphlist. If you would like to join the list and receive IAG news via internet, please send a message to Jeff Lee at j.lee@ttu.edu. Please provide the following information in the given format without adding any indentation to the lines:
- Postal address (include country)
- Phone number (including country code)
- Fax number (including country code)
- E-mail address
- A few key words (e.g., fluvial, Caribbean) to indicate your area of interest, both topical and geographical.
News from the Israel Geomorphological Research Group (IGRG)
The Israel Geomorphological Research Group was established in 1991 at the first formal national geomorphological conference held at the Ben Gurion University in Beer Shiva. The second conference was held during May 1994 at the University of Haifa where 90 geomorphologists presented posters and oral papers on four topics:
- arid environments;
- human environmental impact;
- coastal processes;
- fluvial processes.
The English version of the abstract volume is available from Moshe Inbar, Department of Geography, University of Haifa, Haifa, 31905, Israel. The national committee for 1994-1996 include M. Inbar (chair), R. Amit, J. Lekach, and H. Ginat. The International Conference on Geomorphic Response of Mediterranean and Arid Areas was held in Israel this May.
Future IAG Conferences
Contact: Dr. Dénes Lóczy, IAG European Regional Conference Organizing Committee, Geographical Research Institute, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 64, Budapest H-1388, Hungary. Tel./Fax: 36-1-111-7814.
The conference organisers are requesting papers on the following topics:
- fundamental issues in geomorphology;
- geomorphological hazards and protection of geo-heritage;
- geomorphological aspects of development projects;
- methods in geomorphology.
The opening ceremony and the plenary session will take place in the main building of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, followed by a tour of the Hungarian capital and its urban geomorphology. The following day the delegates will leave for Vezpr=C8m, an episcopal centre on the Balaton Uplands, where paper and poster sessions have been organised. A half-day excursion will take the participants to the beautiful landscape on the north shore of Lake Balaton, a major tourist attraction. The Carpatho-Balkanic Geomorphological Commission and the International Association for Landscape Ecology, both are organising workshops during the conference.
Post-conference field trips inside Hungary include:
- Quaternary geomorphology and the human impact in the Great Hungarian Plain
- North Hungarian karst - landforms and processes
- Hungarian puszta and Tokaj Mountains
- Geomorphology of the Lake Balaton region and Bakony Mountains.
These excursions will be followed by two international field trips (1) to North Hungary, Slovakian and Polish Carpathians and (2) along the Danube from Budapest to the Wachau.
Hague, the Netherlands, the International Geographical Union Congress, 5 -10 August 1996:
IAG Symposium on Land-Sea Interaction and Geomorphic Hazards.
Contact: Dietrich Barsch, President, IAG, Geographisches Institut, Universität Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 348, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany (Fax: 49-6221-56-4996) or R.J. Allison, Secretary, IAG, Department of Geography, University of Durham, Durham DH1 3LE, U.K. (Fax: 44-191-374-2456)
The objective of the symposium is to reach as broad an audience as possible among the participants of this Congress. The symposium will begin with several invited lectures followed by panel discussions in which contribution from the floor will play an integral part. The topics include:
- Land-sea interaction - sediment transport at nearshore areas, variability in inland erosion affecting marine sediment budgets, sedimentation budgets along the shore, deltas and Wadden Seas, marine erosion, and sea level changes.
- Geomorphic hazards - definition of hazard and risk, the probability of storm floods and tsunamis, changes in coastal environments, stability of coastal landforms, estuarine pollution, and unstable coasts.
- Geomorphic boundary conditions for coastal protection, planning and management.
Contact: IV International Conference on Geomorphology, Planning Congressi s.r.l. Via Crociali 2, I-40138 Bologna, Italy.
The conference is at the University of Bologna. The First Circular of the conference is out and you can get a copy by writing to the conference secretariat at the above address. The conference is based on main lectures, sessions, and symposia. Several invited presentations on certain topical themes will form the main group of lectures. The sessions (both poster and selected oral presentations) will include the following aspects of geomorphology:
- fluvial;
- littoral and submarine;
- glacial;
- periglacial;
- arid and subarid;
- tropical;
- tectonic;
- volcanic;
- applied;
- weathering and soils;
- karst;
- theoretical.
A maximum of six symposia will be organised from the following themes:
- geomorphology and global change;
- landslide management;
- Antarctic geomorphology;
- man-landscape interactions;
- geomorphology and environmental impact assessment;
- Holocene and sea level changes;
- magnitude and frequency in geomorphology;
- new methods and tools in geomorphology;
- geomorphology and global tectonics;
- GIS in geomorphology;
- volcanoes and geomorphology.
The 28th Binghamton Symposium (Changing the Face of the Earth: Engineering Geomorphology) has been planned as part of the conference.
The field trips and excursions are classified as pre-conference meetings with field trips, pre-conference excursions, and post-conference excursions. Five pre-conference meetings as well as three pre- and thirteen post-conference field excursions have been organised. A complete list was provided in the previous number of this newsletter (No. 12, 2/1995). You can also write to the conference organisers for details. The pre-registration form which comes with the first circular should be returned before 30 September 1995.
Material for IAG Newsletter should be sent to Avijit Gupta, Publication Secretary, IAG, Department of Geography, National University of Singapore, Singapore 0511. Fax: 65-777-3091. e-mail: geoagup@nus.sg
© 1995 International Association of Geomorphologists
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