The end of 2017 marks a significant milestone for the International Consortium on Landslides (ICL) as we celebrate our first year of publishing 12 monthly issues of our full color journal Landslides. This change indirectly reflects the steady and significant increase in relevance and visibility of the consortium and its trademark publication journal within the global community of practitioners. The history of the ICL and its sister activity, the International Programme on Landslides (IPL), as well as the evolution in the journal have been addressed elsewhere (Sassa 2018a). Nonetheless, it is important to recognize and acknowledge the dedication and hard work of the individuals and institutions that routinely and annually contribute to the consortium, programme, activities and outputs of the ICL and IPL; especially the journal.

First and foremost, the journal has been efficiently managed by its Editor-in-Chief Kyoji Sassa and Assistant Editor-in-Chief Aeljko Arbanas, with able support from the Associate Editors—R. Baum, P. Bobrowsky, N. Casagli, J. Corominas, K. Konagai, M. McSaveney, F. Nadim, L. Picarelli, A. Strom, B. Tiwari and Y. Yin. Guidance for this work has come from the Editorial Board Advisory Members—S. Briceno, P. Canuti, D. Cruden, E. Derbyshire, W. Eder, I. Ishihara, N. Morgenstern, B. Rouhban. R. Schuster and T. Takahasi. Secondly, the member agencies, organizations and bodies listed in the front matter of each issue of the journal have played and continue to play an integral role in the survival, expansion and success of the ICL, IPL and especially the journal. On behalf of the International Consortium on Landslides, I express my sincere gratitude to all the individuals and organizations for their collective support in furthering the science and benefits of landslides to the world at large.

It has been well over a year now since many of us participated in the remarkable and productive 4th World Landslide Forum in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The energy, passion and excitement generated at this last forum continue as we begin preparations for the 5th World Landslide Forum scheduled for Kyoto, Japan (Sassa 2018b). It is essential that all individuals interested in landslide studies now express their intent and interest in the upcoming forum. I invite all those individuals planning to attend the WLF5 in 2020 to contact respective WLF5 Theme Leaders (see ICL/IPL website http://wlf5.iplhq.org/) and identify the topics and subject matters that they will likely present in Kyoto. The forum organizers will be accepting publications in the months to come, processing these for peer review/revisions and will then be submitting the finished papers to Springer for publication in early 2020. To ensure your paper appears in the published volumes slated for distribution at the occasion of the WLF5 in November 2020, the organizing committee and volume editors will adhere to a strict publication schedule.

Also in the near future, the ICL/IPL will be announcing various Calls for Nomination for a suite of awards currently managed by the consortium. It is important that we recognize the “best of the best” for these respective awards. Nominations for the Varnes Medal, Best Paper Award, IPL Award for Success, Special Award for Appreciation, Distinguished Student Awards and the Awards for ICL World Report of Landslides identify those individuals and groups of individuals who have excelled in the criteria outlined for each of the respective awards/medals. The ICL/IPL are pleased to include two new awards to the list of current honors: the Oldrich Hungr Award and the Hiroshi Fukuoka IPL Award that respectively honor two brilliant landslide specialists that strongly contributed to the mandate of the ICL and IPL but who unfortunately passed away (Sassa et al. 2018; VanDine et al. 2018). The details and terms of reference for these two new awards as well as all other existing awards/medals for ICL/IPL are on the consortium website (http://iplhq.org/category/iplhq/award-and-honors/).

Finally, I appeal to various landslide professionals around the world who appreciate the Landslide journal and who have benefited for this publication and the various activities of the ICL and IPL to assist us in the promotion of membership in the ICL. I invite you to examine to the full list of membership benefits and details for the various categories: Full Members, ICL Society Members, ICL Supporters and ICL Associates. Dues for each level of membership varies accordingly as does the benefits: Board of Representative status, officer eligibility, voting rights, Journal Editorial Board recognition, travel support, World Centre of Excellence, IPL Project candidacy, discount registration for WLF, access to hard copies and digital copies of the Journal, etc. These details are clearly outlined on our website at the following: http://icl.iplhq.org/category/icl/registration-and-benefits/.

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Peter Bobrowsky

President – International Consortium on Landslides (ICL)

Sidney, Canada

Email: peter.bobrowsky@canada.ca