History of IAEG Asian Regional Conference

Japan Society of Engineering Geology (JSEG) was founded in 1958, and celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2008. IAEG Japan National Group was organized in 1974 as for “International Association for Engineering geology and the Environment”. The council meeting was called at Kyoto together with IGC in 1992. Asian Regional Conference (former Asian Symposium) commenced as regular conference after the first conference in Tokyo in 1997.

IAEG Japan National Group proposed the conference to develop and encourage the Engineering Geology in Asian Region. After the first conference in Tokyo, Asian Regional Conference has been held in Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong-Kong, Nepal, Korea, China, and India at intervals of 2 years.

Year Country Place Main Theme
1st 1997 Japan Tokyo Engineering Geology for Dam
2nd 1999 Malaysia Kuala Lumpur 6 themes for Engineering Geology and Environment
3rd 2001 Indonesia Yogyakarta Natural resources Management for Regional Development in Tropical Area
4th 2004 Hong Kong Hong Kong Engineering Geology for Sustainable Development in Mountain Areas
5th 2005 Nepal Katmandu Engineering Geology for Major Infrastructure Development and Natural Hazards Mitigation
6th 2007 Korea Seoul Asian Regional Conference on Geohazards in Engineering Geology
7th 2009 China Chengdu Geological Engineering Problem in Major Construction Projects
8th 2011 India Bangalore Underground Space Technology in Civil Engineering and mining sectors
9th 2013 China Beijing Global View of Engineering Geology and Environment
10th 2015 Japan Kyoto Geohazards and Engineering Geology

 

1st Conference, Tokyo, Japan


Inspection tour on 1st Asian Symposium in 1997. Mr. Chen Deji ; China, Mr.Won Yong Kim; Korea, Mr..Lai Tien-Chang; Taiwan Dr. Daiei Inoue, Dr. Shigeo Kanwo, Mr. Makoto Okada, Mr. Teruo Tahara and Takao Chaishi participated.

1st Asian Symposium was held in 14-15 Nov., 1997 at Tokyo. 1st Asian Symposium of Engineering Geology in Tokyo under main theme for “Engineering Geology for Dam” was proposed by Dr. Daiei Inoue, president of Japan National group at the time. 3 keynote speakers were invited from Korea, China, and Taiwan, and 10 oral presentations were delivered. Post- symposium tour was made on 15 Nov. to visit the construction site of the pumped water storage project.

2nd Conference, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

2nd Asian Symposium was held in 23-25 Sep., 1999 at Kuala Lumpur, just before the IAEG council meeting at Katmandu Nepal. 2nd Asian Symposium was proposed and organized by Prof. Iblahim Komoo, IAEG Vice President for Asia at the time. Over 100 participants attended the symposium, and 75 presentations in 6 themes were delivered (15 out of them were from JSEG). The former presidents of Japan National Group, Dr. Kei Ichikawa, Dr. Daiei Inoue, Dr. Masahiro Chigira participated the symposium.

3rd Conference, Yogyakarta, Indonesia


Inspection tour at Yogyakarta on 3rd Asian Symposium

3rd Asian Symposium was held in 3-6 Sep., 2001 at Yogyakarta, traditional cultural city located near active Merapi volcano in Central Java. The conference was chaired by Dr. Edi Prasetyo Utomo, and was participated by about 200 members. 5 keynote lectures and 44 oral presentations were delivered, and 18 of the presentations were given by Japanese participants. Post-symposium tour was done to Sabo Dam Laboratory and Borobudur Temple which listed in the world Prime Heritage. 3rd Symposium was quite successful for Indonesian Association of Geologists (IAGI) and Indonesian National Group of IAEG. Terrible earthquake struck Yogyakarta in 2006, five years after the 3rd Conference.

4th Conference, Hong Kong


Participants from JSEG in 4th Asian Symposium at Hong Kong Univ.

4th Asian Symposium was held in 2-4 May, 2004 at Hong Kong University in collaboration with Chengdu University of Technology etc. Chairman of the Conference Committee was Prof. Adnan Aydin of Hong Kong University. The symposium are participated by 47 members who were from 8 countries in Asia. 3 keynote lectures, 2 invited lectures and 32 oral and poster presentations were delivered. Dr. Hiroshi Oshima, IAEG Vice President for Asia at the time, participated as a panelist. All members from JSEG enjoyed famous Guilin wonderful area in China.

5th Conferenec, Katmandu, Nepal

The details of 5th Conference, even whether it was held or not, are not known to JSEG.

6th Conference, Seoul, South Korea


Traditional musical performance during a banquet on 6th Asian Regional Conference

th Asian Regional Conference was held in 16-19 Oct., 2007 at Hoam Convention Center, Seoul, South Korea. Chairman of the conference was Dr. Won-Yong Kim and Secretary General was Prof. Hyeong-Dong Park. Total participants of the conference were about 200, and 40 out of them were from Japan. 7 keynote lectures, 49 oral presentation and 30 poster presentation were delivered. 22 oral presentation and 6 poster presentation out of them were made by Japanese participants. Post-conference tour was made to visit the construction sites of road tunneling, railway and Soyang River Dam whose reservoir volume is biggest in East Asia.
From 6th Conference, IAEG recognized Asian Symposium as the official conference of IAEG, and Asian Symposium changed its title to Asian Regional Conference. The success of this improvement of the conference was owed by 2 year effort of Prof. Faquan Wu, past vice-president of IAEG for Asia.

7th Conference, Chengdu, China


Dr. Oshima, Vice-President then, presented as Keynote speaker on 7th Asian regional Conference



Dr. Daiei Inoue, Dr. Fred Baynes, IAEG President, and Prof. Wu Faquan, Vice-President then, on 7th Asian regional Conference

7th Asian Regional Conference chaired by Prof. Runqui Huang was held in 9-11 Sep., 2009 at Chengdu University of Technology in combination with “International Symposium of Geological Engineering Problems in Major Construction Projects”. Over 200 participants from 27 countries attended the conference which contained 6 themes. Dr. Hiroshi Oshima gave his presentation as keynote lecture on “Engineering Geology for Construction of Long Tunnel”. 12 participants from JSEG attended and 7 oral or poster presentation were delivered. Post-conference tour was made to Wenchuan where had suffered serious earthquake disaster.

8th Conference, Bangalore, India

8th Asian Regional Conference cosponsored by IAEG, Indian Society of Engineering Geology (ISEG) and National Institute of Rock Mechanics (NIRM). It was held in combination with ICUST (Intenational Conference on Underground Space Technology) in 17-19 Jan., 2011 at Bangalore. The conference was chaired by Mr. Yogendra Deva, Secretary General of IAEG Indian National Group. Some 200 engineering geologists participated in the conference.

9th Conference, Beijing, China


Prof. Masahiro Chigira, JSEG President then, presented as Keynote speaker on 9th Asian Regional Conference

This conference was held in 24-25 Sep., 2013 at Beijing. The venue was at BICC near the Olympiad national stadium. The main theme of the conference chaired by Prof. Faquan Wu, Secretary General for IAEG, was “Global View of Engineering Geology and the Environment”. Total participants of the conference were about 220. 40 keynote lectures and 46 oral presentations were delivered. The proceedings contained 165 papers classified into 6 topics were issued. Prof. Masahiro Chigira gave keynote lecture in the session of “Mechanism and Risk Reduction of Geohazreds”. 9th Conference in Beijing could encourage and emphasize the globalization of Engineering Geology of China.