INTERPRAEVENT 2014 IN NARA is approaching.

This is to remind you of INTERPRAEVENT 2014 which will be held from 25 to 28 November 2014 in Nara, Japan. It is an international symposium held once every four years since 2002 for the Pacific Rim Region in between the INTERPRAEVENT Congress which is also being held every four years in European countries since 1967.

The purpose of the symposium is to promote sediment-related disaster reduction by sharing knowledge and experiences widely across the world by researchers, engineers, government officials etc. About 200 persons are expected to join.

Under the theme of "Natural Disaster Mitigation to establish Society with the Resilience", the symposium of this year will focus on large scale disasters by heavy rains and typhoons which are becoming more intensive due to climate change as well as those by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

Oral sessions will deal with five topics: Catastrophic disasters, Mechanism and monitoring, Modeling and simulation, Structural measures, and Non-structural measures and risk/crisis management. Additional one session will be a special session where participants will present "recent major disasters" of respective countries.

At the poster session, sixty three (63) posters will be exhibited classified into five topics as in the oral sessions. Photos corner will be arranged where photos of recent large scale disasters in Japan and abroad will be displayed.

One day study tour is arranged in three options: The deep-seated landslide by typhoon No. 12 in September 2011 in Gojo city, Kamenose landslide site and temples in adjacent areas, and sight-seeing in Nara city for accompanying family members.

Panel discussion will be held at the end of the symposium. Referring to deep-seated landslides and landslide dams in each country, panelists from Austria, Indonesia, Japan and Taiwan will discuss the triggering factors of the landslides and mechanism of formation/collapse of landslides dams, measures to be taken urgently to minimize damage, and future direction of research.

At the closing ceremony Chairman of the Organizing Committee will read a message for the 3rd World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Sendai in March 2015 to recommend on priority actions for post 2015 at national and international levels. Finally, the representative of Switzerland will announce that Switzerland will host the next INTERPRAEVENT in 2016.

For more information, please refer to the final circular which will appear on ISN shortly in the middle of September, as well as ISN website http://interpraevent2014.com and my previous message of March 2014. Please contact Secretariat for any question: kyokai@kokusaisabo.or.jp

I look forward to seeing you soon in Sendai.

September 2014

Hidetomi Oi

President, International Sabo Association