Message

President of the JSEG Masahiko Osada

Chairman of the IAEG Japan National Group Masahiro Chigira

 

The Japan Society of Engineering Geology (JSEG) was established in 1958 and it has a goal to facilitate exchange of knowledge and technology among the researchers and professionals of engineering geology. JSEG also aims to pursue the interdisciplinary and comprehensive research as well as technological development along with the specific contribution to the development of science, technology, and culture. Now, JSEG has about 2000 members, which makes the society one of the major academic societies of earth science in Japan.

　JSEG hosted the first Asian Regional Conference on dam geology in 1997 to develop and encourage engineering geology in the Asian region. In 1995, two years before the first Conference, the Kobe Earthquake (Mw 6.9) destructed Kobe city and took the lives of more than 6,000 people. During the last twenty years people in Asia have undergone the 1999 Chichi Earthquake in Taiwan, the 2001 Gujarat earthquake in India, the 2004 Sumatra Earthquake and Tsunami in Indian Ocean, the 2005 Kashmir Earthquake in Pakistan and India, the 2008 Sichuan earthquake in China, the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan and the 2015 Gorkha Earthquake in Nepal. As Asia lies in the Asian Monsoon Zone, typhoons, cyclones and torrent rainfalls have triggered massive floods and landslides every year. Therefore, Geo-disaster Risk Reduction is a very challenging task for engineering geologist in the Asian region.

　JSEG also acts as the IAEG Japan National Group and it hosted the 10th Asian Regional Conference in 2015. Through this conference, JSEG provided opportunities to the academic researchers, engineers and engineering geologists to present and share the state-of-the-art views in the field of applied geology and Geohazard. The 21th century is regarded as a period of rising Asia, but Geo-disasters should not be the barriers for sustainable development in Asia. We expect more contributions of engineering geologists in the field of Geo-Disaster Risk Reduction.