Download document (pdf - 305 ko) - 17th JGM

17th Joint Geomorphological Meeting
The geomorphology of natural hazards: mapping, analysis and prevention
Liege, June 30 – July 3, 2014
The Joint Geomorphological Meetings (JGMs) are informal events organized yearly by the official
national geomorphological associations of Romania, Italy, France, Greece, and Belgium (AGR, Associata Geomorfologilor din Romania; AIGeo - Associazione Italiana di Geografia fisica e
Geomorfologia; GFG - Groupe Français de Géomorphologie; HCGE - Hellenic Committee for
Geomorphology and Environment; BAG - Belgian Association of Geomorphologists). Their primary
aim, as agreed upon by the five promoting countries, is to favour exchange of knowledge and to
encourage discussion on different geomorphological topics, directly facing the field reality. The
format of these meetings is designed so as to facilitate participation of young geomorphologists.
The 17th JGM was held in Liege, from June 30 to July 3, 2014. It was devoted to the various
aspects of the geomorphology of natural hazards, notably hazard analysis, mapping, prevention, and
mitigation, and dealt with all kinds of natural hazards. As witnessed by the growing number of
research projects, papers, symposia and conference sessions focusing on hazards, this is clearly more
and more a central issue in geomorphology, and also one that favours integration of geomorphology
within an indispensable multidisciplinary approach.
The 17th JGM was attended and highly appreciated by 81 participants coming from 14 different
countries. Beyond Prof. Morgan De Dapper, current treasurer of the IAG, who had to cancel his
participation in the last minute for medical reasons, most Presidents of the promoting countries'
national associations were present. Prof. Kosmas Pavlopoulos also addressed a welcome message
from Prof Eric Fouache, current President of the IAG, to the audience.
The meeting's first day was dedicated to a scientific session, held in the Geographical Institute of
the University of Liege. Six solicited lectures were given in the morning, one chosen per each
promoting countries plus one by F. Van Dijck, representative of the Walloon Region of Belgium. In
the afternoon, five further oral communications were presented by young geomorphologists. Then, a
poster session gathering several tens of posters took place in the hall of the Geographical Institute.
The high standard of the solicited talks and the excellent quality of all other communications and
posters bore witness to the significant part that geomorphology has to take, and does take, in the
understanding and management of the natural hazards our societies are faced with.
In the early afternoon, the business meeting of the representatives of the five promoting national
associations essentially revolved around the issue of changing the one-year periodicity of the JGMs
to a two-year periodicity. Though the latter seemed to have been agreed upon after the 16th JGM
discussions in Rome, several national representatives insisted to keep the original one-year
periodicity (except every fourth year, when the International Conferences of the IAG are organized).
It was thus decided that, while no meeting will occur in 2015 for practical reasons, the 18th JGM will
take place in Chambéry, France, in 2016 and that, from 2018 onwards, meetings will again be
organized on a yearly basis.
During the second and third days of the meeting, the field trip allowed its 34 attendees to observe
landscape features resulting from various types of natural hazards and discuss them within their
broader geomorphological context in different areas around Liege. We first observed active karstic
features and the induced hazards (ground and infrastructure collapse, flooding) at La Roche aux
Faucons, to the south of Liege, and in the Vallons des Chantoirs, a dry valley cut in the Givetian
limestones of the northern border of the Ardennes massif. Then, we moved to a spoil heap of coal
mining at Retinne, in the NW part of the former Liege mining area, where we discussed about the
link between internal combustion and slope instability. The first day ended with a visit of ancient
landslides in the Pays de Herve, to the east of Liege. Observations in several of the landslides that
affect clays resting on liquefiable sands of the Cretaceous cover allowed us to discuss mechanism and
age of initial landsliding, possible seismic or combined seismic-climatic trigger of the event, and
causes of recent reactivations of some of these landslides. The second field day was devoted to
fluvial geomorphology and (flash) flood hazard. We first observed and discussed changes in fluvial
dynamics caused by the creation of two reservoir dams in the middle Warche River of NE Ardennes.
Then, after a lunch taken in the Stavelot abbey, which hosts a racing car museum celebrating the
nearby Spa-Francorchamps racetrack, we went down the Amblève River and stopped to analyze the
geomorphic traces left by periglacial debris flows and recent flash floods at the confluence of the
Chefna, a small torrential tributary of the Amblève. Finally, we came back in the Meuse floodplain
just upstream of Liege, where we visited a dewatering station. Since more than 80 years, a network
of such stations has been successfully established to pump water from the floodplain, whose ground
subsided by 5-6 m due to underground mining, thus also controlling the flood hazard in the area. We
also discussed the implications of climate change on the effectiveness of the system. The different
stops in this two-day field trip were led by young and confirmed Belgian geomorphologists and
offered ample opportunities for very interesting discussions.
At the end of the field trip, and also through post-meeting e-mails, we received unanimous
positive feedbacks about the science presented in these three days and the general organization of
the meeting. I'm thus very happy to express here my best thanks to the Scientific and Organizing
Committees, and to sincerely acknowledge the huge work accomplished by the team of the
Geography Department of the University of Liege to make the 17th JGM so successful.
Alain Demoulin, President of the BAG (Belgian Association of Geomorphologists) and of the
organizing committee

Download Report