Second world landslide forum

Background 

The World Landslide Forum (WLF) is a triennial mainstream conference aimed at gathering scientists, stakeholders, policy makers and industry dealing with the management of landslide risk. The first edition of WLF was organized in 2008 by the International
Consortium of Landslides (ICL), UNESCO, WMO, FAO, UNISDR, UNU, UNEP, IBRD, UNDP, ICSU, WFEO, KU and the Japan Landslide
Society at the United Nations University, Tokyo, and ended with the adoption of the 2008 Tokyo Declaration “Strengthening the
International Programme on Landslides with UNISDR”. Since then, many recent disasters due to mass movements have shown that there is an urgent need to translate science into practical applications for the benefit of local communities, governments and disaster relief organisations.

Objectives

The Second World Landslide Forum has the objective to further develop the outcomes of the First Forum in Tokyo 2008 by providing
a global cross-cutting information and cooperation platform for all types of organizations representing academia, United Nations
organisations, governments, private enterprises and individuals that contribute to landslide research, practice, education and
decision making and are willing to strengthen landslide and other related Earth system risk reduction strategies.
The emphasis of this forum will be “Putting science into practice” with special attention given to actual implementation of technology
and research in everyday applications and procedures with the direct involvement of researchers, engineers, private enterprises,
stakeholders as well as policy and decision makers.

Technology marketplace

A technology marketplace will be organised within the Forum in the form of an open and dynamic Technical Exhibition of the most
recent technologies, systems and solutions to fight landslide risks at every scale and in every environmental and social context. The
Exhibition will be located in a large area at the very centre of the Forum and will be integrated with the Poster and the Coffee Break
area so as to maximise attendance and to build up a marketplace space open to every participant.

Forum format and topics 

The Forum will host, for five full days, a series of Plenary and Parallel Sessions devoted to high level interaction and discussion among world-wide actors on landslide risk reduction such as stakeholders, end-users together with researchers, engineers and industry.
To stimulate the knowlodge sharing, the Forum will also promote a large interactive Exhibition of technologies and services
for landslide risk mitigation (Technology marketplace). 

Topical and thematic sessions are envisaged on:
- Landslides and global change
- Emerging technologies in landslide research and practice
- Advances in landslide mapping and hazard assessment
- Landslide risk assessment and management
- Impact of landslides
- Landslide awarness 

Other thematic and general topics:
A mid-forum half-day technical visit to the Roman Aqueducts and underground archaeological sites will be held on
Wednesday, whilst a two-day post-forum field trip will be organized in central Italy to visit famous landslide landscapes in
Civita Bagnoregio, Orvieto and Ancona (Saturday and Sunday).