Keywords

Objectives and Management

The objectives of the International Programme on Landslides (IPL) are to provide international authorization and advice to the projects proposed and implemented by ICL members. ICL was initially planned to create an International Programme on Landslides, namely a version focusing on the study on landslides of the UNESCO-IUGS joint project, International Geological Correlation Programme (IGCP).

The implementation of IGCP-425 “Landslide Hazard Assessment and Mitigation for Cultural Heritage Sites and Other Locations of High Societal Value” provided a higher evaluation and greater fund raising for most of the thirty-one subproject members. They are very active in research, but suffer from lower evaluations and funding because landslide research is a minor or a very marginal study within the organizations they belong to, and also within established scientific fields in funding programmes. The IGCP project will terminate within 5 years. Continuation is not easy, and a number of landslide projects will not be adopted in IGCP (a very wide Geoscience Programme). The funding of IGCP425 was around 4000 USD per year, which was shared among 31 subproject leaders as partial travel support fees. The aim of the International Programme on Landslides (IPL) is not to support research funding itself, but provide partial travel fees for members to attend ICL-IPL meetings, propose projects, evaluate projects, report project results, and terminate or continue the projects. The membership fee funds the sustainable and basic financial resources. All management of projects, including proposal, evaluation, and decision on ongoing status is implemented by the IPL Global Promotion Committee of ICL (IPL-GPC). The committee consists of all ICL member organizations and IPL partner organizations (UNESCO, UNISDR, WMO, FAO, UNU, ICSU, WFEO and IUGS). During the first phase from 2008 to 2013, the Chair of IPL-GPC was Salvano Briceno (Former Director of UNISDR for 2001–2011), and the Deputy Chairs were Badaoui Rouhban (Former Director of Section for Disaster Reduction, UNESCO) and Kyoji Sassa (Executive Director of ICL). For the current phase from 2014 to the present, the Chair of the Committee is Qunli Han, Director of Ecological and Earth Sciences, UNESCO, and Deputy chairs are Feng Min Kan, Chief of UNISDR Asia-Pacific Office in Bangkok and Claudio Margottini (Vice President of ICL).

Development of International Programme on Landslides (IPL)

The initial stage of IPL was from the First Board of Representatives (BOR) meeting in 2002 to the First World Landslide Forum in 2008. When the initial thirty-three ICL members gathered in this first BOR meeting, IPL projects were classified in two categories. One category is coordinating projects which are planned by ICL multiple members, e.g., the whole ICL project to found a new landslide journal: IPL C100: Landslides: Journal of the International Consortium on Landslides, and the project succeeding the IGCP-412: C101: Landslide risk evaluation and mitigation in cultural and natural heritage sites. One subproject of C101 was C101-1: Landslide investigation and capacity building in Machu Pichu—Aguas Calientes area. Another category is member projects proposed by a single member organization together with its partners.

Initially the ICL board decided to allocate 2000 USD for IPL projects proposed by developing countries, funded by membership fees from developed countries. However, the research result was not cost-effective for the initial three years’ experiences. In the Steering Committee meeting in Kyoto just before the UN World Conference on Disaster Reduction in Kobe, 2005, how to use the limited funds effectively was initially examined. The concept was to provide research funds, but to give authorization to each project, and ICL-IPL will evaluate each project at each World Landslide Forum and give an IPL Award for Success in one to three projects. The Award (3000 USD) for one project will be given to its leader. The IPL Award for Success is not an award for the best IPL project, as funding, research facilities and research infrastructure differ in various countries. The award will be given to those projects with success within the given social, technical and financial conditions.

This award was approved in Tokyo, 2008 and applied in the Second World Landslide Forum in Rome, 2011.

The IPL Awards for Success were given at the Second World Landslide Forum at FAO Headquarters, Rome, October 2011, to:

  1. (1)

    Lynn Highland: U.S. Geological Survey, and Peter Bobrowsky: Geological Survey of Canada (Publication)

    IPL 106 Best Practice handbook for landslide hazard mitigation (2002–2007)

  2. (2)

    Farrokh Nadim and Bjørn Kalsnes: International Centre for Geohazards, Norway (Research)

    IPL 102 Assessment of global high-risk landslide disaster hotspots (2002–2004)

    IPL 144 Changing pattern of landslide risk and strategies for its management (2009–present)

  3. (3)

    Dwikorita Karnawati and Faisal Fathani: Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia (Capacity Building)

    IPL 158 Development of Community-based Landslide Early Warning System (2009–present)

    IPL 159 Development of Education Program for Sustainable Development in Landslide Vulnerable Area through Student Community Service (2009–present).

  • The IPL Awards for Success were given at the Third World Landslide Forum at China National Convention Center, Beijing, China, 2014, to:

  1. (1)

    Wei Shan: Research Center of Cold Regions Landslide, China

    IPL-132 Research on vegetation protection system for highway soil slope in seasonal frozen regions (2008-present)

    IPL-167 The effect of freezing-thawing on the stability of ancient landslide of North-Black highway (2009–present)

  2. (2)

    Ogbonnaya Igwe: Department of Geology, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria

    IPL-150 Capacity building and the impact of climate-driven changes on regional landslide distribution, frequency and scale of catastrophe (2010–present)

    IPL-183 Landslides in West Africa: impacts, mechanism and management (2012–present).

The Second Stage of the International Programme on Landslides (IPL)

The Round Table Discussion, Strengthening Research and Learning on Earth System Risk Analysis and Sustainable Disaster Management within UN-ISDR as Regards “Landslides”, was co-organized by ICL, UNESCO, WMO, FAO, UNISDR, UNEP, UNU and Kyoto University at United Nations University, Tokyo, Japan on 18–20 January 2006. This discussion aimed to implement the 2005 Letter of Intent agreed at thematic session 3.8 New International Initiatives for Research and Risk Mitigation of Foods (IFI) International programme on Landslides (IPL) at the 2nd United Nations World Conference on Disaster Reduction in 2005. During this Round Table Discussion, the 2006 Tokyo Action Plan on Landslides was adopted. This plan defined the International Programme on Landslides (IPL) as a programme of ICL for the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR), which is managed by the IPL Global Promotion Committee consisting of ICL and ICL partners. To promote the 2006 Tokyo Action Plan and to implement the International Programme on Landslides, ICL exchanged Memorandums of Understanding with UNESCO, WMO, FAO, UNISDR, UNU, ICSU and WFEO in 2006. The IPL logo then included those organizations.

New initiatives under the Tokyo Action Plan were to identify the World Centre of Excellence on Landslide Risk Mitigation and to organize a triannual World Landslide Forum. In addition, two categories of IPL (Coordinating Project and Member project) were combined and it was termed as IPL-101, 150, and 200.

World Landslide Forum

In order to report and disseminate the activities and achievements of ICL, a World Landslide Forum (WLF) shall be convened once every three years by inviting ICL Members and ICL Supporting organizations, individual members within those organizations, and all levels of co-operating organizations and individual researchers, engineers and administrators. The World Landslide Forum will receive reports on ICL’s activities and provide a forum for open discussion and new initiatives from all participants. This role of the meeting was defined as a General Assembly. The first General Assembly was organized at Keck Center of the National Academy of Sciences in Washington DC on 12–14 October 2005. The second General Assembly was organized as the First World Landslide Forum.

World Centres of Excellence

The World Centres of Excellence on Landslide Risk Reduction were established by the 2006 Tokyo Action Plan; the Global Promotion Committee (GPC) of the International Programme on Landslides (IPL) will identify at the World Landslide Forum, organized every 3 years, eligible organizations such as universities, institutes, NGOs, government ministries and local governments, contributing to “Risk Reduction for Landslides and Related Earth System Disasters”. An independent Panel of Experts, set up by the Global Promotion Committee of International Programme on Landslides (IPL-GPC), endorses the WCoEs. Twelve World Centres of Excellence (WCoEs) 2008–2011 were identified at the First World Landslide Forum in November 2008 at UNU in Tokyo, Japan. Fifteen WCoEs for 2011–2014 were identified at the Second World Landslide Forum in October 2011 at FAO, Rome, Italy. Fifteen WCoEs for 2014–2017 were identified at the Third World Landslide Forum in June 2014 at Beijing, China. Certificates of WCoEs were awarded in Beijing to each leader of the WCoEs by Ms. Irina Bokova, UNESCO Director General.

Objectives of WCoE

  • To strengthen the International Programme on Landslides (IPL) and IPL Global Promotion Committee;

  • To create “A Global Network of entities contributing to landslide risk reduction”;

  • To implement the ISDR-ICL Sendai Partnerships 2015–2025 for global promotion of understanding and reducing landslide disaster risk; and

  • To improve the global recognition of “Landslide Risk Reduction” and its social-economic relevance, and entities contributing to this field.

Criteria for WCoE Candidates

Governmental and non-governmental entities such as universities, agencies, and other institutions, and their subsidiary entities (faculties, departments, centres, divisions or others) which meet the following two conditions:

  • Contributing to “Landslide Disaster Risk Reduction”; and

  • Willing to support IPL intellectually, practically and financially by either joining ICL or/and contributing to IPL-GPC and promote “landslide research and disaster risk reduction” on a regional and/or global scale in a mutually beneficial manner.

Guidelines for WCoE

  1. (1)

    Candidates of WCoEs must submit the application form to the Secretariat of the IPL Global Promotion Committee.

  2. (2)

    Candidates will be evaluated from their achievements and current activities (scientific, technical and educational capacity, training courses, publications, dissemination of knowledge and information) and planned activities contributing to IPL.

  3. (3)

    WCoEs will be identified at every World Landslide Forum (held every 3 years). The status as a WCoE will be given for 3 years until the next Forum.

  4. (4)

    Each WCoE must submit an annual activity report each year which is uploaded in the IPL web and also report its activities in Landslides: Journal of the International Consortium on Landslides or/and a World Landslide Forum.

  5. (5)

    The status as a WCoE may be extended for another 3 years in the same topics or in a revised topic by the IPL Global Promotion Committee, based on the activities carried out as a WCoE.

Procedure for Identification of WCoEs

  1. (1)

    The application form from an eligible entity will be submitted to the Secretariat of the IPL-GPC (IPL World Centre).

  2. (2)

    Preliminary screening of received applications will be conducted according to the Criteria by the secretariat of IPL World Centre. Feasible applications will be passed on for in-depth evaluation.

  3. (3)

    Candidates of WCoEs passing to in-depth evaluation will be invited to orally present their proposals in the IPL Global Promotion Committee. Revision of application may be advised by the committee to avoid duplication of activities with other proposals or to improve the proposals when necessary.

  4. (4)

    Final application forms will be evaluated by the technical evaluation committee of the IPL World Centre.

  5. (5)

    Summarizing all evaluation values, appropriate candidates will be selected, and a list of recommendations will be submitted to the Independent Panel of Experts which consists of experts outside of ICL.

  6. (6)

    The Independent Panel of Experts will review the recommendation, and endorse appropriate WCoEs.

  7. (7)

    The Endorsement of WCoEs by the Independent Panel of Experts will be reported to the IPL Global Promotion Committee. WCoEs endorsed by the Panel must be approved by the vote of more than half of the participating members of the IPL Global Promotion Committee.

  8. (8)

    The WCoE for the next 3 years will be announced at the World Landslide Forum.