Around this time of the year I always start to turn my attention to the European Geociences Union meeting in April. This is a huge get-together of earth scientists from around the world (last year >8,500 people attended). One of the largest divisions is “Natural Hazards”, and the landslide section, of which I am the secretary, is the biggest single part of NH. Next year (2009) the meeting will be held in Vienna on 19th-24th April and it looks to be the best yet – we have seventeen proposed sessions for which we are inviting abstracts. These are as follows:

NH4.1/GM6.3: Landslides, ground-failures and mass movements induced by earthquakes and volcanic activity
Convener: V. Del Gaudio | Co-Conveners: R. W. Jibson , D. Keefer , J. Wasowski

NH4.2/HS11.7: Hydrological processes in landslide research: analysis and quantification
Convener: T.A. Bogaard | Co-Conveners: L. Borgatti , F. Lindenmaier , J.-P. Malet , E. Zehe

NH4.3: Landslides Triggered by Rainfall Events
Convener: K.-t. Chang | Co-Convener: M. Borga

HS11.1/NH4.4: Rainfall triggered landslides and debris flows and their effect on erosion and sediment yield in river catchments
Convener: J. Bathurst | Co-Conveners: G. Crosta , P. Frattini

GM6.2/NH4.5: Processes and rates of rock slope erosion: weathering, detachment, and transport
Convener: JR Moore | Co-Conveners: M. Krautblacher , S. Loew

NH4.6: Hydrological, hydraulic and mechanical effects of plants for slope stability
Convener: F. Florineth | Co-Conveners: F. Graf , H. P. Rauch , F. Rey

NH4.7/HS2.7: Natural and anthropogenic hazards related to water reservoirs
Convener: J. Rohn | Co-Conveners: L. King , T. Scholten

NH4.8: Large slope instabilities: from dating, triggering, monitoring and evolution modelling to hazard assessment
Convener: G. Crosta | Co-Conveners: L. H. Blikra , M. Jaboyedoff , O. Korup

NH4.9: Landslides monitoring and characterization using high resolution DEM, LIDAR and other DEM techniques
Convener: M. Jaboyedoff | Co-Conveners: R. Couture , M.-H. Derron , C. Froese

NH4.10: Impacts of climate change and land-use change on landslides
Convener: J. Wasowski | Co-Conveners: T. Dijkstra , N. Dixon , M. Winter

NH4.11: Time and intensity prediction in landslide hazard assessment
Convener: F. Catani | Co-Conveners: J.-P. Malet , J. L. Zezere

NH4.12: Remote sensing and geophysical techniques for investigating unstable slopes
Convener: J. Wasowski | Co-Conveners: V. Del Gaudio , H.-B. Havenith

NH4.13: Terrain Instability Analysis and Mass Movement Prevention
Convener: X. Meng | Co-Conveners: J. Ma , D. Wang

NH4.14/HS11.6: Landslide Forecasting
Convener: F. Guzzetti | Co-Conveners: G. G.R. Iovine , M. Parise

NH4.15: Landslide risk assessment methods and strategies
Convener: P. Reichenbach | Co-Conveners: A. Guenther , F. Guzzetti

NH4.16: Documentation and monitoring of landslides and debris flows for mathematical modelling and design of mitigation measures
Convener: L. FRANZI | Co-Conveners: M. Arattano , F. Tagliavini

NH4.17: Rockfalls – Analysis, Simulation and Protection
Convener: A. Volkwein | Co-Conveners: F. Berger , L. Dorren

This covers a vast range of landslide topics. Details are available here. Abstracts need to be submitted by 13th January 2009. Please do come along and join in!