IAG

International Association of Geomorphologists
Newsletter no. 15 (4/1998)

IAG Regional Conference on Geomorphology in 1999

The 1999 IAG Regional Conference on Geomorphology will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in July 17-22, 1999. The program features invited plenary lectures from internationally recognised experts, round-tables, paper sessions of selected submitted papers, poster sessions and exhibits. One-day field trips around Rio de Janeiro city and several post - conference trips to a variety of interesting geomorphological sites in Brazil are offered. A special symposium on Gully Erosion will be held jointly with the GCTE (Global Change and Terrestrial Ecosystems) of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme. The 1999 IAG Regional Conference can also be combined with the meeting of the IGU Commission on Geomorphological Response to Environmental Change in Rio de Janeiro in July 9-16, 1999.

Main Topics, Call for Papers, Proceedings: The Regional Conference will focus on the following major subjects:

Authors are invited to submit abstracts with no more than 250 words, in English, on any of the conference topics. They can be sent by mail or by e-mail as an attached file (Word for Windows). Detailed information about how to prepare the abstract can be requested at iag99@igeo.ufrj.br or in the conference home-page. Abstracts must be received by April 1, 1999 and should be accompanied by a completed Registration Form and payment. The abstracts submitted and accepted for the conference will be published in a special volume, which all registered delegates will receive upon arrival. The local organisation will make efforts in order to publish special volumes of geoscientific journals with full papers presented during the conference.

Conference Site:
The conference will take place at Hotel Gloria, Rio de Janeiro. It is an old and attractive building located at Praia do Flamengo, very close to the entrance of Guanabara Bay. All the conference activities will be held in its Convention Centre. Hotel Gloria is located very close to many tourist attractions, like the Sugar Loaf, the Corcovado, and the beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema. The local organising committee has made special arrangements with Hotel Gloria, which resulted in very reasonable rates for the participants. For example, individual daily rates will be US $ 45.00 for double occupancy, including a buffet breakfast service. In order to guarantee these low rates, we strongly suggest that residence accommodations should be booked well in advance. The Second Circular will bring additional information regarding other hotels close to the conference site.

Scientific field trips:
The Post Conference field trips A1 - A5 will be 2 or 3 days long. B1 - B5 are one-day field trips during the conference. Detailed information about the field trips will be available in the Second Circular.

A1 - Gully development and geomorphic aspects of the Pantanal do Mato Grosso and Chapada dos Guimar|es
A2 - Fluvial geomorphology of the Parana River Basin (including Iguacu Falls and Itaipu Dam)
A3 - Coastal geomorphology of Rio de Janeiro State
A4 - Quaternary landscape evolution and tectonic processes along the Paraiba do Sul River Basin (S|o Paulo and Rio de Janeiro State)
A5 - Soil-landscape relationships along the Rio de Janeiro State

B1 - Hillslope erosion and landslides in Petropolis
B2 - Evolution and environmental impacts of the Guanabara Bay
B3 - Hydrological processes and landsliding in the Tijuca Massif
B4 - Geomorphological processes along the Rio de Janeiro coast
B5 - Structural geomorphology of Rio de Janeiro city

Registration:
Advance registration fees must be received before April 1, 1999, and are US $ 200,00 for delegates and US $ 100,00 for students. Regular registration fees after this date will be US $ 250 for delegates and US $ 150 for students. The local organising committee will try to provide partial financial support to qualified participants. Preference will be given to delegates from developing countries. A Registration Form including accommodation and field trip booking and information on methods of payment are to be found in the First Circular. If it has not reached you please write to the address below.

Contact: 

IAG 99 - Regional Conference on Geomorphology
Departamento de Geografia, UFRJ
Ilha do Fundao
Rio de Janeiro, CEP 21941-590
Brazil
Fax: (++ 55-21)5983280
e-mail: iag99@igeo.ufrj.br
or
http://www.ufrj.br/eventos/iag99

IAG Executive Committee Meeting, Lisbon, 30 August 1998

On 30 August 1998 the Executive Committee of the Association had its meeting in Lisbon. It was attended by 12 people, including all elected members and five out of the ten co-opted ones. There were eighteen items on the agenda. Four of them are of wider interest.

Due to poor health and previously unexpected formal problems, BERNARD DUMAS stepped down from the Treasureship of the Association, but will continue to serve as an Executive Member without portfolio. He is replaced as Treasurer by DENISE REED who was previously an Executive Member without portfolio. As DENISE REED is an American citizen, the IAG bank account will stay in the USA and have the benefit of excellent interest rates negotiated by the former treasurer VIC BAKER. The decision was unanimously agreed by the attendees. The collection of national body fees for 1997 could not be started at the usual date (1 April); these invoices will be sent as soon as possible.

Two invitations to host regional conferences in 1999 and 2000 were discussed. The Executive approved the proposal to organise the Regional Conference in Brazil in July 17 - 22, 1999. An invitation for August, 2000 was received from China. As the date of this proposed conference closely coincides with that of the IGU-Congress in Seoul, it was suggested to organise the conference in China as an IAG sponsored event in conjunction with the IGU Congress.

Much time was devoted to discussing the two statements on publications policy in Newsletter 15 (1/1998) and the feedback on these statements received from members. A number of additional dimensions of this issue were raised and it became clear that more thought has to be given to defining the guidelines of a transparent publications policy that will cover three inter-related concerns, namely quality of publications, international recognition of the IAG and financial viability. A Sub-committee of the Executive was formed to pursue this matter and to prepare a report for the next Executive meeting in 1999.

Another topic was the distribution of the IAG Newsletter and its costs. The IAG Newsletter is printed in five journals (Zeitschrift fuer Geomorphologie, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, Geomorphology, Geomorphologie, Transactions of the Japanese Geomorphological Union) and an electronic version is disseminated via IAG-GEOMORPHLIST. These six outlets in themselves should guarantee world-wide circulation, but additionally 10 offprints each were sent to the National Representatives for duplication and circulation within the respective countries. To meet the increasing costs of offprints and postage it was decided to send out only one copy to each National Representative in future. The IAG hopes that the National Delegates will agree with this measure and continue to help to reach as many people as possible.

Further issues included the review of minutes of meetings held at the IV International Conference in Bologna in 1997, reports by the IAG officers, a discussion of the current state of the Jan de Ploey Library initiative, a progress report presented by the organisers of the next IAG Congress in Tokyo in 2001, IAG Working Group progress reports, various ways of support for young geomorphologists and/or for financially less fortunate countries, and links with other scientific organisations. A Task Force on IAG and International School on Geomorphological Hazards was initiated and two more Sub-committees were struck to examine alternative ways of expanding the financial base of the IAG and to look at whether or not the IAG Constitution needs amendment. It was decided that the next Executive Committee meeting will be held in July 1999 at the IAG Regional Conference in Brazil.

Forthcoming meetings of interest to geomorphologists:

1999

European Geophysical Society, XXIV General Assembly: April 19-23, 1999, The Hague, The Netherlands. Contact: EGS Office, Max-Planck-Str. 13, 37191 Kaltenburg-Lindau, Germany, tel: +49 5556 1440, fax: +49 55556 - 4709, e-mail: egs@copernicus.org. The EGS website (www.copernicus.org/EGS/egsga/denhaag99/prg.htm) lists several symposia on Tectonics, Seismology, Volcanology and Natural Hazards.

Drainage Basin Dynamics and Morphology: May 22-29, 1999, Jerusalem, Israel. Contact: Dr Marwan Hassan, Department of Geography, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mount Scopus, 91905, Israel, tel: 972 2-5883017, fax: 972 2-5820549, e-mail: mshassan@olive.mscc.huji.ac.il. The meeting is organised by an international scientific committee and co-sponsored by the IAG.

European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers, 61st Conference: June 7-11, 1999, Helsinki, Finland. Contact: Meeting Secretariat, EAGE Business Office, Standerdmolen 10, PO Box 59, 3990 DB Houten, The Netherlands, tel: +31 30 6354066, fax: +31 30 6343534, e-mail: eage@eage.nl or http://www.eage.nl.

IAG Regional Conference on Geomorphology: July 17-21, 1999, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. For details see pages 1 and 2 of this Newsletter.

IUGG99- 22nd General Assembly of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics: July 19-30, 1999, Birmingham, UK. Contact: IUGG99, School of Earth Sciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK, fax: +44 121 414 4942, email: IUGG99@bham.ac.uk or http://www.bham.ac.uk/IUGG99.

INQUA XV International Congress: The Environmental Background to Hominid Evolution in Africa: August 3-11, 1999, Durban, South Africa. Contact: Dr Margaret Avery, South African Museum, PO Box 61,Cape Town, 8000 South Africa, e-mail: mavery@samuseum.ac.za or http://inqua.geoscience.org.za.

Remote Sensing and GIS for Monitoring Soils and Geomorphic Processes to assist Integrated Development of Mountainous Land: August 22-27, 1999, Kathmandu, Nepal. Contact: Mr.Dhruba P. Shrestha, ITC, P.O. Box 6, 7500 AA Enschede, The Netherlands, tel: +31 (0) 53 487 42 64, fax: +31 (0) 53 487 43 99, e-mail: dhruba@itc.nl or Mr. Pramod Pradhan, ICIMOD, P.O. Box 3226, Kathmandu, Nepal, tel: 977 1 525316, fax: 977 1 524509/536747, e-mail: pramod@icimod.org.np or http://www.itc.nl/~shrestha/RS_symp.html. The meeting is sponsored by the International Soil Science Society (ISSS), the IAG, the International Institute for Aerospace Survey and Earth Sciences (ITC) and the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD).

9th International Conference and Field Workshop on Landslides: September 5-17, 1999, Isle of Wight, Dorset, South Wales, Bristol; UK. Contact: R.G.Thomas, 6 The Esplanade, Plymouth PL1 2PJ, UK. tel +44 1752 674291, fax: +44 1752 233117, e-mail: rgthomas@eurobell.co.uk. The field part of the meeting is limited to 45 participants, including accompanying persons, but the conference is open to anyone. The meeting is sponsored by the International Landslide Research Group of the IUGS.

IGU Commission on Land Degradation and Desertification International Meeting: Agriculture, Land Degradation and Desertification: September 20-28, Perth, Australia. Contact: A.Conacher, Department of Geography, University of Western Australia, Nedlands, WA 6907 Australia, tel. 61 (0)8 9380 2705, fax. 61 (0)8 9380 1054, e-mail: ajconach@sunny.gis.uwa.edu.au.

2000

International Glaciological Society Symposium: Sea Ice and its Interactions with the Ocean, Atmosphere and Biosphere: June 18-24, 2000, Fairbanks, Alaska, USA.

31 International Geological Congress "Geology and Sustainable Development: Challenges for the Third Millenium": August 6-17, 2000, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

29th International Geographical Congress: August 14-18, 2000, Seoul, Korea.

Monsoon Climate and Geomorphological Processes: August, 2000, Nanjing, China This conference will be linked to the IGU-Congress in Seoul and sponsored by the IAG.

Karst 2000: September 17-27, 2000, Marmaris, Turkey.

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
C. EMBLETON-HAMANN, Institut fuer Geographie der Universitaet Wien, Universitaetsstrasse 7, A - 1010 Wien, Austria. Fax: (+431) 4277 9486; e-mail: christine.embleton-hamann@univie.ac.at.

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