Categoria: News from members

Martha Navarro Collado Memorial Discussions

NEWS received from
Graziella Devoli (NVE, Norway)

Scientists should have an obligation to make their work useful to society. To fulfill this they need to be engaged with society, including people in their science, right from the concept stages – to the final results, and to ensure that their work comes back into the communities impacted by their work.

UNESCO International Geosciences Projects 692 ‘Geoheritage for Resilience’ (www.geopoderes.com) and partners are initiating a discussion on this to cover three important aspects of scientists in society. One, the relationship between scientists from the global north and those from the global south (the latter have the money but are far removed from their impacted communities, the latter are closer but have less). Two, the relationship between local scientists and their local communities, and how to best respect the needs of both, and integrate them. Three, is it possible to draft a charter to set out the behavior that communities and southern scientists could expect northern scientists to uphold? This latter follows initiatives for ethical Science, like the Research Fairness Initiative (RFI).

These topics will be discussed in person at a session at the Cities on Volcanoes Conference, in Antigua Guatemala (11 – 17 February 2024).

Preparatory discussion will be held, starting on the 28^th November 4PM CET (Spanish Language session), with an on-line discussion. Or on 29^th November 7 AM CET (English Language Session).

Please join us by registering at https://tinyurl.com/yqwchyq9 (Spanish Language session) or by registering at  https://tinyurl.com/mw7pkc (English Language Session) or both!

This session is a Memorial for Martha Navarro Collado, who died in 24th December 2022, and whose life’s work was an embodiment of how support at risk communities, equitable science in Nicaragua. Martha’s life is also an example of the struggle of a woman scientist from a southern (in development) country. She never hesitated to speak her mind forcibly and was very much our conscience in fair engagement across the north – south divide and between scientists and communities.

Organisors: Eveling Espinoza Jaime (Istituto Nicaragüense de Estudios Territoriales, Nicaragua), Nelida Manrique (Instituto Geológico, Minero y Metalúrgico, Peru), Mariana Patricia Jácome (Universidad Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico), Julie Morin (University of Cambridge, UK), Benjamin van Wyk de Vries (Université Clermont Auvergne, France).

NEWS received from
Graziella Devoli (NVE, Norway)

It has been 10 years since the landslide and slushflow early warning service was established in Norway. It has played an important role in increasing awareness and knowledge about landslides (i.e., debris flows, debris avalanches) and slushflows.

Hervé Colleuille, Heidi Grønsten, and Graziella Devoli from NVE prepared a short article to tell the story of the “Jordskredvarslingen” system, describe its strengths and provide information on the tools developed and used in the deployment of the system.

Read the full article here:

NEWS received from
Séverine Bernardie (BRGM, France)

The IGE research unit, Grenoble, France, and BRGM (French geological survey), Orléans, France, welcome applications for a fully-funded PhD position (3 years) dedicated to the design of integrated Territorial early-warning systems for shallow landslides.

This PhD is part of the VIGIMONT project, funded by ANR (National Research Agency), and is expected to start in November 2023 (with some flexibility) ; it will be co-supervised by G. Chambon (INRAE) and S. Bernardie (BRGM) in close collaboration with S. Chave (Predict).

To apply: send an e-mail before the 23th of September, to guillaume.chambon@inrae.fr and s.bernardie@brgm.fr with your CV and an explanation of why you are applying.

NEWS received from
Samuele Segoni & Emanuele Intrieri (University of Florence, Italy)

Dear LandAware members,

this message is for those of you who are attending the 6th World Landslide Forum on November 2023.

In case you will be in Florence, you need to be informed about a side event for which you may want to consider staying in Florence one more day (before or after the congress): some LandAware members from the University of Florence, together with other colleagues, will organize a guided tour on a hill in the center of Florence (3 hours walk), to let you have the best view possible of the city and to tell you some stories about how the geology of the area influenced the development of the city. That will include landslides (of course!) threatening historical buildings and remedial measures planned by Leonardo da Vinci and now forgotten by Florence people!

This activity will be scheduled on Monday (before the congress) and on Saturday (after the congress). It will be offered as a free side event and will be advertised in the near future, but considering that some of you are already booking the flights and the accommodation, it’s better to spread the word in advance.

If you are interested, just program your trip to Florence accordingly, no other action is needed from your side at this moment: you will receive an official mail from WLF6 in the next few weeks. 

Of course, feel free to spread the word among other WLF6 attendees and also keep in mind that accompanying persons will be welcome (the tour is not a technical one).

Here you are the highlights of the guided tour:

• Florence 2000 years ago: Romans Vs. Etrurians in a peculiar geomorphological setting.

• Florence and its river between opportunities and disasters, searching for signs and memories that only trained eyes can see.

• The spectacular “Piazzale Michelangelo” and its incredible history, forgotten even by Florence people [spoiler: landslides involved].

• High exposure: how humanity risked living without ice cream because of a landslide (or was a landslide that gave us ice cream?).

• Palaces and churches: the story of famous ancient buildings spoken by their very stones.