| International Association of Geomorphologists |
IAG President's Note With this Newsletter the information activity of IAG on international journal starts again on a regular basis, after the sudden resignation, because of health problems, of the IAG Publication Officer, José Lugo Hubp, mentioned in previous Newsletters. The IAG Executive Committee recently coopted as new Publication Officer Carol Harden from the University of Tennessee (USA). Personally and on behalf of the Executive Committee, as well as of all geomorphologists, I express my thankfulness for her kind availability that enables IAG to overcome a difficult moment. During the transition phase, the Newsletter publication has been taken care of by the IAG Executive Committee Members Dénes Lóczy and Mauro Soldati. In particular, Mauro Soldati edited Newsletters 19 (3/2002) and 19 (4/2002) and resumed relations with all the journals appointed for publication of IAG Newsletters, trying, wherever possible, to fill publication gaps. He has also passed to Carol Harden all the necessary information to carry out this work in 2003. I would like to thank Mauro for his precious contribution. This Newsletter is the first edited by Carol Harden to whom I wish a successful job that will certainly serve to promote IAG activities.
Mario Panizza
Obituary of Prof. Jean Tricart On May 6th Jean TRICART, one of the most renowned geomorphologists of the second half of the 20th century, passed away in Strasbourg. With deep sadness I learned about this grievous loss for world geomorphology, the French school and all of us who, directly or indirectly, met him. His writings have been higly innovative and are still a fundamental basis for geomorphology and its applications. The "Revue de Géomorphologie Dynamique," that he founded and directed for about 30 years has been for many of us a reference point of the most advanced geomorphological learning. From my personal viewpoint, I had the opportunity to appreciate his qualities as ingenious researcher and scientific driving force.
I think I am interpreting the feelings of all Geomorphologists in expressing our most sincere sympathy to his family and the French colleagues.
Mario Panizza
Fifth International Conference on Aeolian Research, Lubbock (Texas, USA), July 2002 In July 2002, Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, USA was the host of a joint meeting of the Fifth International Conference on Aeolian Research and the Global Change & Terrestrial Ecosystem-Soil Erosion Network (ICAR-5/GCTE-SEN). There were 133 papers presented in seven sessions. The meeting, attended by 130 scholars from 18 countries, was held at Texas Tech University. The conference web site is http://www.lbk.ars.usda.gov/wewc/icar5/index.html and the proceedings volume (abstracts and short papers) can be freely downloaded from this page.
The meeting was sponsored by the USA Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service; the International Center for Arid and Semiarid Land Studies, the Soil and Water Conservation Society, Golden Spread Chapter; and United States Geological Survey. Over 40 participants took a pre-meeting field trip to view landforms of the Southern High Plains region of western Texas; pictures and information are found at http://www.lbk.ars.usda.gov/wewc/icar5/field_trip/index.html.
ICAR5/GCTE-SEN was dedicated to the memory of Dr. Harold E. Dregne, a distinguished professor Emeritus of Texas Tech University and former Director of the International Center for Arid and Semiarid Land Studies (ICASALS). Dr. Dregne's major academic interests were arid land development and degradation on a global basis. He authored 10 books and over 170 scientific articles and he received many awards during his distinguished career. He was internationally known for his work on desertification and traveled across the globe consulting for United Nations agencies until shortly before his death earlier in 2002.
The meeting was broken into seven sessions, dealing with Fundamental Aeolian Processes: Field Studies: Instrumentation in the Field and Laboratory: Modeling of Aeolian Processes: Aeolian Palaeoenvironments: Environmental Impacts and Erosion Control: and Dunes and Related Landforms. The meeting lasted for almost four days, and included summaries of aeolian geomorphological research in every corner of the globe and even simulation of Martian geomorphic processes! In addition to the proceedings archived at the meeting web site, special issues of the journals Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, Geomorphology, Journal of Soil and Water Conservation, and Environmental Modelling and Software will soon be issued will full papers derived from the different sessions in the meeting. More information about the meeting also appeared recently in a note published in EOS (Transactions of the American Geophysical Union).
Tom Gill, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas, USA e-mail
International Symposium on Land Use Change and Geomorphic, Soil and Water Processes in Tropical Mountain Areas, Quito-Cuenca (Ecuador), 16-21 December 2002 This symposium offered an excellent opportunity to escape preparations for Christmas for the exciting geomorphology of Ecuador. It was organised by Gerard Govers on behalf of the Laboratory for Experimental Geomorphology, K.U. Leuven; the Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam; PROMAS, University of Cuenca; Projecto Paramo ECOPAR; GCTE Focus 3, Soil Erosion Network and the IGU Commission Geomorphic Challenges of the 21st Century. It attracted participants from a wide range of discipline backgrounds (including Geomorphology, Agriculture, Pedology, Forestry, Geology and Engineering) and countries (including Ecuador, Thailand, Peru, Belgium, the Netherlands, United States, United Kingdom, Colombia, Costa Rica, France, Mexico, Canada, Honduras and Germany), promising stimulating exchanges of ideas and lively discussion.
It began in Quito with a day of papers on the theme of geomorphic, soil and water processes, and the effects of land-use change on these processes. The following day was a field day (13 hours) to Cangahua (Cayambe), where inappropriate land use (cropland) has led to extensive water and tillage erosion resulting in the exposure of duripan (locally named cangahua or tepetate in Mexico). During that day we witnessed the devastating effects of ash fall caused by the November (2002) eruption of the Reventador volcano: e.g. collapsed greenhouse roofs under the weight of 5-10 mm of volcanic ash and eroded teeth of cows grazing rangelands covered by this ash. It also became clear that ash fall significantly contributes to an increase in potential energy of these Andean landscapes! On our way back to Quito, we travelled through the Oyacachi glaciated valley and the Cayambe Coca Reserve with wet parámo landscape.
The final day of the Quito part of the symposium saw us yet again in the field where we had the opportunity to inspect the hazards of road building in a steep mountain environment. Is it wise to stand on the outside of a tension crack to look down into a valley a hundred metres below? We vigorously debated the usefulness of planting eucalyptus forests to sequester carbon, and surprised the local population by appearing in the most unlikely places in our bus. Near La Merced village, we observed extensive cangahua (duripan) exposure and badland development as a consequence of past land use. The last stop of the day, before we boarded the plane to Cuenca, was a lava flow from 1750, now providing a handy source of building material. At the airport we elbowed our way to the front of the queue (no reserved seats) to claim the recommended window seats on the right-hand side for the best views.
In Cuenca, the format was repeated. We began with a day of papers first continuing the theme of the effects of land use change on geomorphic, soil and water processes. The paper session concluded with a general discussion which raised several important issues and which prompted a good deal of participation. The afternoon concluded with a visit to the PROMAS (Programa para el Manejo de Agua y Suelo) centre in the University. In the evening we were entertained at a conference dinner with fireworks and dancing. The fireworks included devices that are a cross between a hot-air balloon and a paper lantern which were released to float up into the sky. They provided an opportunity for budding meteorologists (or meteorologists manqué) among us to study vertical atmospheric profiles.
The next day, a short field excursion of 12 hours, took us first to the Josefina landslide (which we had seen from our well chosen seats as we came into land 2 days before). In 1993, this landslide blocked the valley of the Rio Paute with about 20 million m3 of sediment, causing a lake to accumulate behind it that reached a maximum of 60 m depth and 10 km length. The breach in the dam that was created to drain the lake caused a peak flow discharge 8000 m3s-1 down a channel with an average discharge of 40 m3s-1. Engineering works (drop structures) continue to stabilise the site, but inspection of the valley downstream of the landslide showed that there exist several other similar sites for an event of similar magnitude in the future. Our second stop of the day was to the Burgay catchment, where we inspected channel change in response to recent land-use change, but failed to provide a satisfactory explanation for a deposit we inspected adjacent to old braided channel. Our final visit of the day/evening was to the Machángara catchment where, despite the protestations of our bus driver that he'd not been told it was this far, we climbed through a glaciated valley up to 3500 m to the páramo observing another large landslide that had eroded a kame terrace. The landscape was spectacular, but it was probably a relief that it was dark as we descended the narrow track.
Our final day saw us on the road again, this time to Guayaquil, where the conference ended for those not going on the post-conference excursion back to Quito. There was one planned stop in Santa Isabel to look at the effects of irrigation agriculture on soils and erosion processes. As ever, however, we managed more than the planned number of stops, including Cumbe where, as we stood in the rain, we were informed by Jean Poesen that 'in principle, this is a dry location'. After Santa Isabel we did visit a site dry in practice and in principle. The rainfall gradient from this location (around 200 mm a-1) to the coast was dramatic. In 20 minutes we went from a site with almost no vegetation to a lush tropical vegetation with coffee, cacao and bananas for sale by the roadside. We were late, as usual, arriving in Guayaquil, but none of us cared.
The post-conference excursion made a spectacular transect through several bio-geographical regions: from the coastal plain (port of Guayaquil) through the western and eastern cordillera (over 4000 m a.s.l. with Mount Chimborazo (6310 m a.s.l.), glaciers, wind, sheet and rill erosion) to Riobamba (located at the footslope of the active Tungurahua volcano) where we visited an impressive valley draining to the Oriente (with hanging valleys, old basalt flows, recent lahars, reservoir siltation problems and rather unstable valley sides) before returning to Quito. The landscapes were spectacular, and the field discussions both informative and stimulating.
Tony Parsons, University of Leicester
Jean Poesen, Catholic University, Leuven
IAG Regional Geomorphological Conference, Mexico City, October 27th to November 2nd 2003, "Geomorphic hazards: towards the prevention of disasters" For more details concerning one-day field trips, registration and payment, financial assistance, abstract submission, accomodation and other general information, please see the Conference website: http://www.smg.igeograf.unam.mx/
IAG Regional Conference on Landslides and International Workshop on Landslides in Sikkim and Darjeeling Himalayas, India, February 27th to March 6th, 2004 Contact:
Dr. Sunil Jumar De, desunil@yahoo.com or desunil@rediffmail.com. Phone: +91 33 2542 7159, Fax: +91-33-2844-3164.
Solidarity to Algerian Colleagues In the name of the IAG and personally, I want to express to the Algerian colleagues all our solidarity for the victims and the devastation that your country has suffered because of the disastrous earthquake of 21st of May.
Mario Panizza
Editor's Note The success of the IAG Newsletter depends upon the contributions that we receive. Please assist by sending commentaries, reviews of regional or national meetings and field trips, summaries of issues pertinent to geomorphology, and announcements of future meetings and workshops. Your contributions should be forwarded to the IAG Publications Officer:
Carol Harden, Department of Geography, 304 Burchfiel Geography Building, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA 37996-0925, Fax +1 865 974 6025; E-mail
INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF GEOMORPHOLOGISTS President
Mario PANIZZA
Dip. Scienze Terra
Universita di Modena e Reggio Emilia
Largo S. Eufemia, 19
I-41100 Modena, ITALY
Ph.: +39 059 2055840
Fax: +39 059 2055887Vice President
Andrew GOUDIE
School Geography & Environ.
University of Oxford
Mansfield Road
Oxford OX1 3TB, UNITED KINGDOM
Ph.: +44 1865 271921
Fax: +44 1865 271940Secretary
Dénes LOCZY
Dep. Physical Geography
University of Pécs
Ifúság útja 6
H-7624 Pécs, HUNGARY
Ph.: +36 72 327 622 e4482
Fax: +36 72 327 622 e4480
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Account IBAN: BE 43-0682-3766-6801
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