CONVENERS:

Shinji Sassa, Irasema Alcántara-Ayala, Matjaž Mikoš, Kyoji Sassa

The International Programme on Landslides (IPL) is a Programme of the International Consortium on Landslides (ICL) for Landslide Disaster Risk Reduction. It was originally launched in November 2002. The new IPL was defined and established by the 2006 Tokyo Action Plan “Strengthening Research and Learning on Landslides and Related Earth System Disasters for Global Risk Preparedness.” In order to promote the IPL and the 2006 Tokyo Action Plan, ICL exchanged a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with each of the seven United Nations and International Stakeholders: UNESCO, WMO, FAO, UNDRR, UNU, ISC, WFEO. The logo of IPL includes the ICL and seven global stakeholders.

The IPL is managed by the Global Promotion Committee of the International Programme on Landslides and the Kyoto Landslide Commitment 2020 (GPC/IPL-KLC). The IPL activities include IPL projects proposed by ICL members and ICL Network coordinators being approved by GPC/IPL-KLC every year, and the World Centers of Excellence on Landslide Risk Reduction (WCOEs) are proposed and approved by GPC/IPL-KLC every 3 years. This session is devoted to activity reports of ongoing IPL projects, ICL Networks, ongoing WCOEs (2023-2026), and new proposals of IPL projects and WCOE (2026-2029).

CONVENERS:

Shinji Sassa, Xuanmei Fan, David Huntley, David Tappin

Understanding and Reducing Landslide Disaster Risks as Cascading and Multi-Geohazards are the key and important perspective to promote landslide risk reduction on a global scale. This session addresses cascading multi-hazard risks involving landslides, tsunamis and impacts on infrastructures. The landslides that trigger tsunamis represent coastal and submarine landslides, river landslides, reservoir landslides, lake landslides, as well as fjord landslides. The origins range widely from earthquakes to volcanoes, rainfalls, rising water levels, and others. The combined effects of triggering factors, including rainfall, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions, can lead to greater impacts through disastrous landslides such as lahars, debris flows, rock falls, and megaslides across the earth surface. Critical infrastructures in mountains, coastal and offshore areas are at risks from cascading multi-hazards that include landslides, tsunamis, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Understanding and reducing such multi-hazard risks will require developing a better understanding of the multiple mechanisms and multi-phased physics of the relevant cascading multi-hazard phenomena pertaining to landslides including landslide tsunami hazard. An international collaborative network and platform would be important for such a multi-hazard risk reduction. In this framework, this session promotes understanding and reducing landslide disaster risks as cascading and multi-geohazards at both the regional and global scales.

CONVENERS:

Matjaž Mikoš, Irasema Alcántara-Ayala, Beena Ajmera, Giuseppe Di Capua

By definition, landslide related studies are often subject to many factors that can negatively influence the impartiality, transparency, inclusivity, and standards of conduct of individuals. Today more than ever before, landslide researchers need to critically evaluate all stages of their work from site selection, project goals, participation, output dissemination, quality control, data sharing, authorship, accountability, and other issues based on a foundation of ethical values and practice. This session provides an opportunity to present and discuss a suite of topics, case studies and strategies that are germane to ethical landslide research. We encourage practitioners to submit contributions related to landslide ethics as examples include conflicts of interest, gender/ageism biases, questionable peer reviewing, breaches of standards, work safety avoidance, developed country favoritism, information hoarding, rumor impacts, social media abuse, limiting education, and respecting privacy are but a few examples of the many ethical issues that can impede the positive growth and progress in landslide studies.

KLC2020 also defines in its Action 5 «Promote open communication with local governments and society through integrated research, capacity building, knowledge transfer, awareness-raising, training, and educational activities, to enable societies and local communities to develop effective policies and strategies for reducing landslide disaster risk, to strengthen their capacities for preventing hazards from developing into major disasters, and to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of relief programs.”

This Session therefore also aims at knowledge exchange among diverse stakeholders (from academic institutions, research institutions, international organizations, non-governmental organizations, engineers, policy makers, local communities, …), including ICL community how Open Science and Open Educational Resources can and should be developed in the field of capacity development and education for landslide risk reduction. Reports and expertise papers, case studies and best practices papers are welcome to shed light on how these new educational and research ways have already been or may be successfully applied worldwide in future to meet Sendai Framework 2015-2030 for Disaster Risk Reduction and Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals in the field of Landslide Disaster Risk Reduction.

CONVENERS:

Roberto Sarro, Mateja Jemec Auflič, Mauro Rossi, Guadalupe Bru, Eleftheria Poyiadji

Landslides often occur in emergency contexts triggered by extreme weather, seismic events, as well as a results of cascading hazards, requiring rapid response and coordinated action to reduce residual risk. Currently in Europe, this is addressed by the EU Preparedness Union Strategy, while similar frameworks exist in Asia (AADMER), America (Regional Disaster Assistance Program), and Oceania (Pacific Resilience Development Framework). In addition, different countries implemented their national landslide risk reduction strategies. Despite regional differences, all share the common goal of enhancing multi-hazard preparedness and fostering collaboration across research, technical and social dimensions.

This session invites contributions that show innovative methodologies, tools, products, and strategies for managing landslides in emergency contexts, particularly those with severe impacts on urban areas, infrastructures and inhabited areas.

We welcome both research contributions and applied case studies addressing:

• Methodological and technical approaches, including Earth Observation (EO), Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications, early warning systems, and landslide modelling.
• Operational and decision-support tools for emergency management.
• Social and institutional aspects, aspects like risk communication, community-based preparedness, and institutional coordination mechanisms.

Through this session, interdisciplinary exchange will strengthen evidence-based approaches to landslide emergency response and risk reduction.

CONVENERS:

Basanta Raj Adhikari, Antoinette Tordesillas, Federico Raspini, Maximillian Van Wyk de Vries, Sanjaya Devkota, Dharam Raj Upreti, Austin Lord

Landslides are major hazards in mountainous regions worldwide, particularly in climate-sensitive and seismically active zones such as the Himalayas. Landslides in the Himalayas are triggered by a combination of intense monsoon rainfall, seismic activity, land-use changes, and anthropogenic interventions. While Earth Observation (EO) technologies and Artificial Intelligence (AI) have rapidly advanced our capacity to monitor and predict landslide, these tools alone are not sufficient to build truly resilient communities. We need low-cost and low-tech monitoring systems that leverage local community engagement and expertise.

This session emphasizes the sustainable and actionable landslide risk reduction approaches such as understanding of slope behavior, weather patterns, water flow, and early warning signs. Therefore, we welcome interdisciplinary contributions that explore synergistic and equitable approaches to landslide risk reduction, including but not limited to:

• Joint use of EO, AI, and indigenous indicators for hazard mapping and early warning
• Community-led monitoring systems and participatory model development
• Risk communication strategies embedded in local language, stories, and practices
• Institutional frameworks that recognize and embed indigenous knowledge in formal disaster risk reduction (DRR) policies aligned with EWS4All.
• Case studies that demonstrate co-designed, people-centered approaches to slope stability and disaster preparedness

CONVENERS:

Tadikonda Venkata Bharat, Claudia Zapata, Partha Das, Dhanesh Sing Das

Rainfall-induced landslides represent a major natural hazard, causing significant loss of life, damage to infrastructure, and disruption of socio-economic activities, particularly in mountainous and rainfall-prone regions. In India, impacts are especially severe in the North-Eastern states and the Western Ghats region of Kerala, where steep terrain, intense monsoonal rainfall, complex geology, and increasing human interventions combine to produce frequent and destructive landslide events. Increasing rainfall intensity and variability associated with climate change further exacerbate landslide occurrence, highlighting the urgent need for integrated and adaptive risk reduction strategies. This session focuses on the combined application of structured (hard) and non-structured (soft) measures for the mitigation and management of rainfall-triggered landslides and debris flows.

The session will address a wide range of structural countermeasures, including slope stabilization techniques such as retaining structures, soil nailing, rock bolting, anchoring systems, and surface and subsurface drainage measures, as well as debris-flow control structures such as check dams, sabo dams, and other channel-based mitigation works. Contributions examining the effectiveness of these measures under extreme rainfall conditions, their role in controlling slope instability and sediment transport, and issues related to design performance, long-term maintenance, and post-event assessment are encouraged.

In parallel, the session emphasizes non-structural measures, with a focus on Early Warning Systems (EWS) for rainfall-induced landslides. These include rainfall threshold definition, real-time monitoring using ground-based sensor networks such as rain gauges, suction sensors, soil moisture and pore-water pressure sensors, and inclinometers, integration with remote sensing data, and numerical modelling. Attention will also be given to warning dissemination, decision-making processes, and evacuation support under extreme rainfall conditions.

The session aims to promote an integrated risk management perspective, demonstrating how soft and hard measures can complement each other to reduce landslide risk sustainably. Regional and site-specific case studies, innovative methodologies, and interdisciplinary approaches linking science, engineering, and policy are particularly welcome. The session will provide a valuable forum for researchers, engineers, and practitioners to exchange knowledge and advance best practices in rainfall-induced landslide risk reduction.

CONVENERS:

Matteo Del Soldato, Lorenzo Solari, John Dehls, Lorenzo Nava, Cristina Reyes-Carmona, Lu Ping

Landslides represent a pervasive geohazard with severe implications for infrastructure, human safety, and economic systems. In the context of increasing anthropogenic pressure on unstable slopes – often exacerbated by climate change and land-use transformations – the demand for robust, scalable, and operational tools for landslide mapping and monitoring has become critical.

This session focuses on the exploitation of Earth Observation (EO) technologies for the detection, characterization, and temporal analysis of slope instabilities across diverse geomorphological contexts. In particular, we invite contributions leveraging spaceborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) time series (e.g., from satellite missions such as Sentinel-1, TerraSAR-X, SAOCOM), multispectral and hyperspectral imagery (e.g., from satellite missions such as Sentinel-2, PRISMA), and high-resolution optical data for both event based and long-term monitoring of gravitational processes.

We encourage studies demonstrating methodological advances in SAR interferometry (InSAR), digital image correlation, pixel-level change detection, and segmentation-based approaches for landslide recognition and kinematic analysis. Submissions employing machine learning (ML), and hybrid physical-statistical models to fuse EO data with ancillary datasets (e.g., DEM derivatives, precipitation records, soil and lithological maps) are particularly welcome.

Special emphasis will be placed on the integration of EO products with ground-based and in situ monitoring systems (e.g., GB-InSAR, LiDAR, GNSS, inclinometers), with the aim of developing near-real-time early warning protocols, deformation models, and hazard scenarios. Case studies demonstrating the operational uptake of EO-derived landslide information by civil protection authorities, risk governance entities, and engineering practice are strongly encouraged.

CONVENERS:

John F. Dehls, Laura Pedretti, Vikram Gupta, María I. Navarro-Hernández, Ebrahim Ghaderpour

Ground motion due to landslides, glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs), and slope instability linked to permafrost thaw presents growing challenges in many regions, particularly in a changing climate. Thawing permafrost and shifting precipitation patterns are increasing the frequency and severity of landslides, especially in high mountain and polar environments, making wide-area hazard monitoring more urgent than ever. In recent years, open-access Earth observation data, particularly from SAR missions like Sentinel-1 and NISAR, have enabled wide-area ground deformation monitoring using InSAR methods. Some countries and regions have begun transforming these data into operational ground motion services, such as InSAR Norway, the European Ground Motion Service (EGMS), and pilot efforts in Canada and the United States.

This session focuses on the next logical step: developing coordinated continental and eventually global ground motion services that support landslide hazard assessment, early warning, and long-term risk reduction. Presentations will include:

• Examples of operational or pilot-scale ground motion services
• Applications of wide-area InSAR data for landslide inventory and risk mapping
• Integration of open SAR data with ground-based monitoring for early warning
• Use of open-access satellite missions to enable national-scale deformation analysis
• Identification of technical, institutional, and capacity barriers to global coverage

CONVENERS:

Samuele Segoni, Graziella Devoli, Ting Xiao, Stefano Luigi Gariano, Neelima Satyam

Landslide Early Warning Systems (LEWS) are operated worldwide to assess the imminent landslide danger and allow the timely implementation of countermeasures. Operational and prototypal LEWS have been proposed and applied at different spatial scales, ranging from a single slope to nation- and global-wide. In addition to a competent and reliable operation, warning services face the great challenge of integrating new methods and technologies into proven systems to enhance their accuracy and performance. This session aims at discussing recent innovations to overcome current deficits in the successful operation of LEWS. Innovations may include new techniques for landslide detection and monitoring, novel approaches and data for landslide modeling and (spatial and temporal) prediction, and enhanced technologies for ingesting and disseminating landslide information. This session addresses LEWS at all scales and stages of maturity: test cases describing operational application of consolidated approaches are welcome, as well as works dealing with promising recent scientific and technical innovations, even if still at an experimental stage. The session will also welcome contributions highlighting how operators deal with the implementation of new methods: a particular focus will be on the integration of innovations into established workflows and on the exploration of the trade-off between reliability and technical advancement. In addition, the session will cover all the LEWS aspects closely connected with social sciences, including communication strategies and the social perception of warnings and uncertainties. Ultimately, we would like to stimulate a discussion between developers of innovations and those who are in charge of making the best possible use of them.

The session is supported by LandAware, the international network that connects researchers, professionals, and administrators working on LEWS.

CONVENERS:

Stefano Morelli, Claudio Margottini, Daniele Spizzichino, Luhui Li

Tangible Cultural Heritage serves as a cornerstone in shaping collective memory and identity. However, immovable heritage sites frequently face risks from natural hazard, such as landslides, floods, hurricane and earthquakes, as well as anthropogenic threats stemming from structural fragility, inappropriate urban development, or intentional destruction (e.g. conflict, vandalism). Protecting cultural heritage from these events contributes to building a sense of belonging, strengthens the bond between generations, and fosters sustainable development at worldwide level. Effective conservation requires collaboration across disciplines and community involvement to ensure the long-term sustainability of these valuable resources. The complexity and variety of cultural heritage requires the collaboration of various skills to ensure their effective protection from emergency situations to ordinary subsequent condition of evolution and therefore enhancement over time. This can be achieved through working approaches that consider the physical characteristics of the site (topography, geomorphological-geological, and lithological context), the structural characteristics of the cultural property and their connections, as well as the type of the related hazards. To develop an effective operative strategy, the overarching methodology should begin with targeted remote-sensing initiatives and comprehensive on-site investigations aimed at the adoption of low environmental impact monitoring systems up to the implementation of sustainable mitigation and valorisation measures. These must be complemented by laboratory analyses, rock and soil mechanics studies, and stability modelling, integrating traditional and cutting-edge approaches.

The aim of this session is to invite high‑quality, original contributions and case studies focusing on the protection and ultimate conservation of tangible cultural heritage sites that are exposed to landslide hazards. The session highlights the significance of the procedures employed during the various phases of intervention and management. Particular attention will be given to the full range of established and innovative techniques capable of ensuring the long‑term sustainability of the actions undertaken.

CONVENERS:

Alok Bhardwaj, Akanksha Tyagi, N. K. Samadhiya, Anand Prem P K, Praveen K

In recent decades, landslide-monitoring research has produced valuable insights by applying techniques from geotechnical, geophysical, and geospatial fields. This session aims to bring together researchers, practitioners, and policymakers working on the applications of geotechnical, geophysical, and geospatial technologies for comprehensive landslide monitoring and early warning, while also highlighting the role of advanced sensing technologies such as radar systems, photonic sensors, and intelligent sensor networks for real-time detection, data integration, and predictive risk assessment.

This session welcomes contributions on the following topics:

• Innovations in landslide monitoring techniques in Geophysical, Geotechnical, or Geospatial fields
• Use of in-situ sensors and instrumentation for landslide monitoring
• Geotechnical numerical modelling for landslide prediction
• Use of Remote Sensing and Geospatial technologies for landslide detection
• Use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) / Drones and LiDAR to detect landslide motion
• Application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in landslide monitoring or analysis
• Communication technologies for effective and timely dissemination of landslide-related information such as digital dashboards, social media platforms, automatic alarms, radio, SMS, etc.
• Frameworks and best practices for landslide monitoring, including cost-effective and scalable monitoring solutions
• Integration of conventional monitoring approaches with advanced sensing technologies, including radar systems, photonic sensors, and intelligent sensor networks

The session seeks to showcase advanced technologies, illustrative case studies, and integrative frameworks that reveal how multidisciplinary approaches can improve landslide monitoring and strengthen cross-disciplinary collaboration.

CONVENERS:

Maria Teresa Brunetti, Silvia Peruccacci, Mateja Jemec Auflič

Comprehensive landslide catalogues and inventories are fundamental tools for predicting landslide occurrence, identifying their triggering mechanisms, understanding spatial and temporal patterns, and assessing landslide hazards and mitigation strategies. In recent years, significant advances have been made in the compilation of landslide catalogues and inventories. These advances have been driven by the increasing availability of remote sensing data, crowd-sourced information, automated and semi-automated mapping techniques, and artificial intelligence–based approaches.

Simultaneously, significant challenges remain pertaining to data completeness, heterogeneity, uncertainty, spatial and temporal accuracy, and interoperability among different datasets.

The objective of this session is to foster collaboration among researchers, practitioners, and stakeholders engaged in the development, maintenance, and application of landslide catalogues and inventories at various geographical scales, ranging from local to global.

The session will explore current practices, emerging technologies, and innovative approaches in landslide data collection, storage, standardization, and dissemination. We encourage presentations that address challenges and opportunities in creating interoperable databases and integrating multi-source data such as field surveys, remote sensing, historical archives, and citizen science.

The session welcomes contributions addressing, but not limited to, the following topics:

• Open data policies and ethical considerations in landslide data sharing
• Development and maintenance of landslide catalogues at various scales (local to global)
• Data standardization, quality control, and metadata protocols
• Integration of multi-source data: field mapping, remote sensing, historical archives, and citizen science
• Novel technologies for data collection: UAVs, satellite imagery, LiDAR, machine learning, and artificial intelligence
• Database interoperability and data sharing platforms
• Applications of landslide databases in hazard assessment, susceptibility mapping, and risk analysis
• Use of catalogues for temporal and spatial analysis of landslide occurrence
• Case studies of national and regional landslide information systems
• Challenges in long-term database maintenance and sustainability

CONVENERS:

Sabari Ramesh, Aravind S. Nair, Nitin Kumar Mohanan, Balmukund Singh

This session focuses on the role of geophysical methods in landslide site investigation, monitoring, and early warning, addressing the need for reliable subsurface characterization and detection of precursory failure signals. Landslide initiation is strongly influenced by hidden geological structures, weathering profiles, groundwater dynamics, and progressive deformation, which are often inadequately captured by surface-based observations alone. Geophysical techniques provide non-invasive, spatially continuous, and repeatable tools for resolving these critical subsurface controls.

The session will highlight advances in near-surface and passive geophysical methods, including electrical resistivity tomography (ERT), time-lapse ERT, seismic refraction, multichannel analysis of surface waves (MASW), ambient noise interferometry, self-potential, and microtremor measurements. Particular emphasis will be placed on monitoring-driven approaches, where temporal variations in resistivity, seismic velocity, or electrical potential are used as indicators of changes in moisture content, pore pressure, stiffness degradation, and deformation preceding slope failure.

Contributions demonstrating the integration of geophysical monitoring with rainfall thresholds, ground instrumentation, and GIS-based platforms for operational landslide early warning systems are strongly encouraged. Case studies covering rainfall-induced landslides, slow-moving slopes, deep-seated instabilities, and debris-flow source areas across diverse geological and climatic settings are welcome. The session aims to foster interdisciplinary dialogue among geophysicists, geotechnical engineers, and hazard practitioners, and to advance geophysical methods from site investigation tools to actionable components of landslide monitoring and early warning frameworks, supporting proactive risk reduction and informed decision-making.

CONVENERS:

Tapas Ranjan Martha, Priyom Roy, Nirmala Jain

Remote sensing data has an inherent advantage of observing landslides, which mostly occur in inaccessible and remote mountain terrains. Climatic extremes such as increase in precipitation and rise in temperature have resulted in more occurrences in known landslide prone areas and in new areas such as glaciated mountains. Availability of satellite data (both optical and SAR of high resolution and repetivity) in public domain has now given an opportunity to address these challenges those were hitherto difficult a decade ago. Supported by remote sensing data from multitude platforms, new techniques such as AI/ML, InSAR, Flow models have provided promising results to map, measure and monitor landslides which are essential for disaster risk reduction.

CONVENERS:

Sasahara Katsuo, Suvam Das, Rajesh Kumar Dash

Remote sensing technologies have rapidly transformed the way landslides are detected, mapped, and monitored at local to global scales. Advances in satellite-based Earth observation (e.g., optical, SAR, hyperspectral), UAV/drone photogrammetry, LiDAR, and InSAR have significantly enhanced our ability to characterize slope conditions, quantify deformation, detect precursors, and support early warning. This session aims to bring together researchers and practitioners working on innovative remote sensing methods for landslide mapping and long-term monitoring. The session focuses on contributions that present methodological advances, case studies, data fusion techniques, and AI/ML approaches, as well as operational or near-real-time monitoring systems. Special emphasis is placed on integrating multi-sensor information to improve spatial and temporal resolution, uncertainty assessment, and the practical use of remote sensing outputs for decision-making, risk mitigation, and emergency response.

The session will provide a platform to discuss challenges associated with cloud interference, vegetation cover, limited temporal revisit cycles, and big-data processing demands. Also, it will explore new opportunities enabled by emerging sensor constellations and open-access datasets. The session aims to promote collaboration between academia, agencies, and practitioners to advance remote sensing-based landslide mapping and monitoring capabilities worldwide..

CONVENERS:

Beena Ajmera, S. S. Chandrasekaran, Mandip Subedi

Knowing the properties of soil and rock as well as the ground conditions is important while performing analysis to design the mitigation measures. With the advancement in sensor technology and computing facilities, there have been significant advancements in material testing – both in the laboratory as well as in-situ. More importantly, test data analysis method has also been advanced so that the test data can be inputted directly into the numerical analysis in the format expected in the analysis. This session invites abstracts from researchers/practitioners particular on the studies pertinent to material testing in laboratory – to evaluate material properties including but not limited to shear strength, elastic and shear modulus, compressibility, permeability, Poisson’s ratio, suction, tensile strength, pore pressure, dynamic properties, mineralogical and chemical properties, and durability. Moreover, abstracts are also invited from researchers/practitioners for potential presentation in the area of in-situ testing to evaluate various soil, rock and ground parameters such as material resistance, compressibility, pore pressures, in-situ stresses, seismic properties, permeability, and many other properties generally needed for the analysis of landslide and other mass movements.

CONVENERS:

Binod Tiwari, Sabatino Cuomo, Keshab Sharma

Stability analysis of slopes plays a significant role in understanding the behavior of slopes so that appropriate protection measures can be designed. With the advancement in analysis methods, computing technology, and speed of computer processors, we have seen a significant advancement in slope stability and deformation analysis methods. In particular, several 3-D and 4-D analyses methods have been successfully implemented in the recent decades. Even for 2-D analysis methods, approach to input soil/ground properties in reasonable ways have made our slope stability analyses more accurate and closer to the field situation. In this session, we invite abstracts from practitioners/researchers who have developed or practiced different slope stability analysis methods in the evaluation of landslides or mass movements, or worked in case studies of landslide hazard mitigation where slope stability analyses were performed to design and monitor the protection measures.

CONVENERS:

Sabatino Cuomo, Beena Ajmera, Clarence Choi

Understanding and predicting landslides and debris flows require robust modeling techniques that capture their complex initiation and movement processes. Recent advancements in both physical and numerical modeling have significantly improved our ability to analyze these hazards with greater accuracy and realism. Enhanced physical modeling techniques, including advanced laboratory setups, better sensing technologies, and instrumented field-scale studies, now allow for better replication of the behaviors of landslides and debris flows in the real-world. Meanwhile, numerical modeling has benefited from high-speed computing, enhanced geotechnical data integration, and the incorporation of artificial intelligence and machine learning to refine simulations. This session invites abstracts that showcase cutting-edge developments in physical and numerical modeling of landslides and debris flows including but not limited to multi-scale and/or multi-phase modeling of landslide dynamics, approaches that combine physical and numerical models, case studies demonstrating the advancements, computational advances in 3D and 4D landslide simulations, new insights from experiments and simulations, etc.

CONVENERS:

S. S. Chandrasekaran, Binod Tiwari, Josip Peranić

Landslides and debris flows annually cause a significant loss of lives and properties globally. Mitigation of such hazards not only saves lives and properties, but also help in developing resilience against landslides and their associated hazards both in the urban as well as rural settlement and infrastructures. There are various mitigation measures available in practice – both soft and hard measures. With the improvement in global networking, sensing technology, and manufacturing as well as construction technology, there have been significant improvements in both soft and hard measures to mitigate landslide hazards. This session is intended to provide a sharing and discussion platform for those who are currently performing research, designing, or implementing landslide mitigation works in practice. We request researchers/practitioners to submit abstracts on any research or case studies pertinent to landslide and debris flow mitigation.

CONVENERS:

Sabatino Cuomo, Vikas Thakur, Clarence Choi, Mario Martinelli

Many geo-disasters in the world are related to landslides. They endanger the resident populations, and cause severe economic and functional losses, especially in urbanized areas, due to direct damage to the existing structures and indirect costs related to the disruption of strategic corridors.

Landslide-Structure Interaction (LSI) is a topical issue, and the new challenges consist in how to reconcile prevention and remediation actions with the Sustainability Development Goals of UN Agenda 2030.

In such a framework, the recourse to innovative materials, new technical solutions, and low-carbon options require a clear understanding of the interaction mechanisms.

In this session, different types of landslides are very welcome: from slow-moving deep-seated landslides to shallow flowslides and rock-falls. The consequent impact on pipelines, railways corridors or roads, houses (single or in a cluster) is also of interest.

Especially a focus on deformation mechanisms along the slope, in the landslide body, and for the structure will be appreciated. Very welcome are also a comparison of models towards field measurements and monitoring.

This session aims at bringing together laboratory and numerical experts to discuss the state of the art, sharing present and future perspectives.

CONVENERS:

Sabari Ramesh, Sudesh Kumar Wadhawan, Viswanth P, Krishnan K

This session explores nature-based solutions (NbS) as sustainable, cost-effective, and community-oriented approaches for landslide mitigation and slope stabilization. With increasing landslide risk driven by climate change, deforestation, and unplanned development, there is a growing need to complement conventional engineering measures with ecosystem-based strategies that enhance slope resilience while delivering co-benefits for biodiversity, water regulation, and livelihoods.

The session will examine the scientific basis, design principles, and performance evaluation of NbS such as vegetative reinforcement, bioengineering techniques, ecological slope restoration, soil bio-stabilization, and watershed-based interventions. Emphasis will be placed on understanding root–soil interactions, hydrological regulation by vegetation, and the role of native and climate-resilient species in stabilizing slopes across different geomorphological contexts.

Contributions integrating NbS with hybrid engineering solutions, numerical and physical modeling, long-term monitoring, and policy frameworks are particularly welcome. Case studies demonstrating successful implementation in mountainous, coastal, and tropical regions—especially those involving community participation and indigenous knowledge—will be highlighted.

This session aims to advance NbS from conceptual advocacy to evidence-based, scalable mitigation strategies, supported by testing, modeling, and performance assessment. By fostering interdisciplinary dialogue among engineers, ecologists, planners, and social scientists, the session seeks to position nature-based solutions as a core component of future landslide risk reduction and sustainable development pathways.

CONVENERS:

Łukasz Pawlik, Akshay Raj Manocha, Dinesh Kumar Sahu, Paweł Kroh

Mass movements such as landslides and debris flows dramatically reshape landscapes, disrupt ecosystems, and pose serious risks to communities and infrastructure. Between them, landslides and debris flows are responsible for the most serious consequences, posing a challenge even to the most prepared societies. In addition, large-scale events involving multiple landslide forms and their clusters require a slightly different yet systematic approach precisely adapted to different environmental conditions. Advances in remote sensing (e.g., LiDAR, InSAR), UAVs, and high-resolution satellite imagery, combined with powerful computational tools such as machine learning and physics-based models, now enable more precise monitoring and predictive modeling of these hazards; however, several limitations still exist, posing a significant barrier to further progress in landslide studies.

Remote sensing and field-based technologies and data have already proven their ability to aid in mapping, monitoring, and modelling. They are still a subject of active development and optimization, especially in regions historically affected by the most severe landslide events, where access to the latest technological solutions may not have been fully available.

The proposed session brings together innovative monitoring technologies and advanced modelling approaches to address major landslide and debris-flow events characterised by significant size, density, severity, and widespread impacts. As observational data from satellites, airborne platforms, UAVs, ground-based sensors, and in situ measurements continue to expand rapidly, researchers can now examine landslide hazards with unprecedented depth and from multiple complementary viewpoints. To capture this growing potential, the session will feature a broad range of methods and analytical perspectives, encouraging contributions from varied environmental settings that showcase practical, solution-oriented approaches. We invite studies utilising remote sensing, field-based observations, conventional geomorphological techniques, statistical frameworks, and modern machine-learning tools. Work centred on modelling, mapping, monitoring, prediction, and integrated workflows for understanding large-scale and frequent mass-movement processes is especially encouraged.

CONVENERS:

Beena Ajmera, Josip Peranić

Landslide analysis and risk assessment rely fundamentally on the geotechnical characterization of slope materials. However, a persistent challenge in landslide science and engineering is the translation of geotechnical test data into models capable of reproducing observable behavior and supporting forward predictions. Laboratory and in-situ testing routinely provide detailed information on material properties, while numerical and analytical models are increasingly used to interpret landslide mechanisms and explore future responses. However, the assumptions, simplifications, and methodological choices made when linking these two components are often implicit and rarely discussed. This session is intended to address this gap through contributions that explicitly examine how geotechnical testing informs landslide models and the associated predictions.

This session will emphasize the conceptual and methodological links between geotechnical testing and numerical/analytical models including parameter selection, scaling from sample to slope, model calibration, sensitivity, and uncertainty. Submissions of interest include research and case histories that demonstrate how laboratory or in-situ geotechnical data are incorporated into landslide models, studies that explore the implications of geotechnical assumptions on predicted landslide behavior, and case-histories were geotechnical characterization is used to interpret past performance or to support forward-looking responses. Contributions should have a clear emphasis on the testing-modelling-prediction chain.

The session is specifically designed to highlight the perspectives of young researchers, including PhD candidates, post-doctoral researchers and early-career professionals. By prioritizing young researchers, this sessions aims to foster technical discussion and community building among emerging scientists and engineers working at the interface of geotechnical testing and landslide modelling.

CONVENERS:

Vipin Kumar, Hans-Balder Havenith, Vikram Gupta, Imlirenla Jamir, Won Young Lee

Landslides remain a significant global geohazard, characterized by complex mechanisms that require diverse analytical frameworks. To move beyond general observation, this session focuses on the integration of geophysical and geological modelling and process-based numerical analysis. A comprehensive approach combining simulations with geospatial technologies. It provides the high-resolution data necessary to characterize the subsurface and surface dynamics governing slope failure.

The technical core of this session emphasizes the synergy between subsurface characterization and predictive modeling. Rather than simple mapping, we focus on geomodelling for the 3D visualisation of surface, geophysical, and geological data. These models provide the precise structural and mechanical input parameters required for sophisticated numerical simulations, such as slope stability and debris-flow/rock-fall/avalanche modeling.

Finally, the session explores how geospatial technologies and remote sensing act as the integrating platform for these diverse datasets. By merging high-resolution satellite and UAV-derived data with 3D geomodelling outputs, we can accurately predict runout distances and failure mechanisms. This transition from raw data to actionable geological modelling enhances our ability to simulate active slopes in high resolution, providing the rigorous scientific foundation necessary for testing and developing advanced mitigation techniques.

CONVENORS:

Dario Peduto, Claudia Meisina, Olga Mavrouli, Mike Winter, Paola Salvati, Roberto Sarro Trigueros, Mateja Jemec Auflič

CO-CONVENORS:

Filippo Catani, Yazidhi Bamutaze, Rosa Marìa Mateos Ruiz, Eleftheria Poyiadji, Thomas Glade

Effective landslide risk reduction increasingly relies on impact-based assessment frameworks that integrate both hazard processes and the vulnerability of people, infrastructure, and the environment. This session highlights recent advances in understanding landslide impacts, with emphasis on multi-scale vulnerability evaluation spanning physical, social, economic, functional, and environmental dimensions. Contributions address concepts, methods, and tools for assessing risk, loss, and damage—including empirical and numerical approaches that model dynamic spatio-temporal impacts and associated uncertainties. Innovative applications of satellite-based remote sensing, ground-based monitoring such as fibre-optic systems, laser scanning, and UAV platforms are of particular interest. A second focus concerns the interactions between land use, slope-management practices, and landslide occurrence in cultivated landscapes. Agricultural and forestry activities modify soil physical, hydrological, chemical, and biological properties, influencing slope stability and amplifying the impacts of intense rainfall or combined snowmelt–precipitation events. Recent work explores measurement and monitoring techniques, model parameterization and uncertainty, climate- and land-use-change scenario modelling, and mitigation or adaptation strategies aimed at reducing susceptibility in managed terrains. The session also addresses landslides in rapidly urbanizing regions, where uncontrolled land consumption, deforestation, altered drainage, and slope modification increase exposure to hazards. Climate-driven changes in precipitation further heighten risks, underscoring the need for new tools and stronger integration of landslide hazard information into urban planning frameworks. At the continental scale, recent assessments report nearly 4,000 damaging landslides in Europe between 2015 and 2017, resulting in fatalities, injuries, and widespread damage, with approximately 48 million people living in areas of high to very high susceptibility. Collectively, the contributions in this session aim to advance methodologies, monitoring technologies, and policy-relevant insights to better characterize vulnerability and support effective landslide-risk mitigation worldwide.

CONVENORS:

Sudesh Kumar Wadhawan, Massimiliano Alvioli, Federica Fiorucci, Paola Salvati, Aadityan Sridharan, Balmukund Singh, Arvind Nair

CO-CONVENORS:

Ivan Marchesini, Mauro Rossi, Sabari Ramesh

This Session aims to examine significance of drainage basin morphometric catchment approach to understand the mechanisms behind slope instability and sediment yield and transport in varied geological and tectonic settings. We attempt to collate integrated analysis from recent catastrophic events, where we will explore the synergetic impacts amongst extreme climate event, fragile lithology, structural setting and growing anthropogenic pressures on hill-slope developmental activities.

CONVENORS:

Basanta Raj Adhikari, Stella Moreiras, Christian Huggel, Simon Allen, Edier Aristazábal

CO-CONVENORS:

Keshab Sharma, Sergio Sepúlveda, Jessica Munch

High mountain regions such as the Alps, Andes, Himalayas, and Rockies are highly susceptible to cascading and compounding landslide hazards due to their steep terrain, high relief, and rapidly changing climatic conditions. Extreme rainfall, earthquakes, rapid snowmelt, lake outburst events, and other triggers can initiate slope failures that evolve into complex, multi-stage hazard chains. Ongoing climate warming is accelerating the upward shift of glacier and permafrost boundaries, exposing previously stable, ice-covered materials that are now prone to failure. These newly exposed and often highly erodible surfaces increase the likelihood and magnitude of future cascading events involving mass movements, channelized flows, and sediment-rich floods. This session addresses the processes, impacts, and risk implications of cascading landslide hazards across diverse mountain environments. Key themes include the initiation and evolution of landslide cascades, catastrophic sediment mobilization, runout behaviour, and the connectivity between hillslopes and river networks. Contributions are encouraged that advance understanding of the physical mechanisms governing these events, including stabilizing and destabilizing feedback cycles, as well as modelling approaches capable of capturing compounding dynamics. Many mountainous regions—particularly in tectonically active and data-limited settings such as the Andes and Himalayas—face heightened vulnerability due to limited monitoring capacity and complex terrain. Landslide-triggered hazard chains in these areas may form debris flows, landslide dams, or outburst floods, with potentially severe downstream consequences. Improved knowledge of these systems is essential for developing effective risk-mitigation strategies. We welcome observational, analytical, and methodological studies that enhance the assessment, modelling, and prediction of cascading hazards, as well as research on early-warning approaches, case studies of modern or palaeo dammed lakes, and implications for long-term landscape evolution and community resilience.

CONVENORS:

Mauro Rossi, Massimiliano Bordoni, Sandra Melzner, Roberto J. Marin, Stella Moreiras

CO-CONVENORS:

Jie Dou, Renato Macciotta

Rockfall and shallow-landslide data collection varies widely with project objectives, resources, and site conditions, while the resulting catalogue quality depends on mapping accuracy, data sources, investigator expertise, and available technology. This session highlights methods for documenting rockfalls, including field mapping, archival research, cliff monitoring, remote sensing, photogrammetry, dating techniques, and analyses linking rockfalls to triggers such as earthquakes or intense rainfall. We welcome studies advancing monitoring, modelling, prediction, and mitigation of shallow landslides, including laboratory and field investigations, remote sensing, model development, and assessments of climate and land-use change. Climate-driven increases in extreme rainfall are expected to raise the frequency of shallow landslides, altering regional susceptibility, damaging landscapes, and reducing nutrient-rich soils. Understanding these processes requires hydrological monitoring of predisposing and triggering conditions and robust modelling of landslide initiation. We also invite statistical approaches addressing spatial, temporal, and size distributions and their implications for hazard and risk assessment.

CONVENORS:

Geol. Silvia Bianchini, Mihai Micu, Valerio Vivaldi, Roberta Bonì, Guadalupe Bru, Olivier Dewitte, Laura Pedretti

CO-CONVENORS:

Veronica Zumpano, Judith Uwihirwe, Olena Ivanik, Philip LeSueur, Stefano Morelli

Many regions around the world are increasingly vulnerable to landslides due to climate change, environmental pressures, and population growth. However, many of these high‑risk areas lack the continuous, harmonized datasets required for proactive risk‑management strategies. Data scarcity—whether from inconsistent quality, spatial or temporal gaps, or heterogeneous formats—forces reliance on reactive approaches and increases uncertainty in predictive modelling. These limitations highlight the need for open, integrated platforms that support consistent data collection and monitoring of landslide processes. Transdisciplinary collaboration is essential: policymakers, researchers, funders, and practitioners must work together to co‑design tools and services that support sustainable and effective landslide risk reduction. Ultimately, improving access to accurate and continuous data is critical for developing robust, forward‑looking risk‑management measures. This session invites contributions that share lessons learned from data‑scarce environments and present strategies for designing or improving landslide risk‑management frameworks under such constraints. Submissions may address methodological advances, practical experiences, or recommendations to strengthen decision‑making despite limited data availability. Aligned with Theme 4, the session emphasizes state‑of‑the‑art approaches to landslide and geohazard mapping amid accelerating climate‑driven change. As extreme precipitation, temperature variability, and rapid environmental transformation intensify slope instability, the demand for accurate, timely, and scalable detection methods continues to grow. We encourage contributions featuring innovative remote‑sensing and analytical approaches, such as pixel‑based and object‑based image analysis, satellite and drone data, and automated or semi‑automated detection techniques. Studies involving multi‑temporal analyses, updated landslide inventories, or integrated workflows that enhance spatial and temporal resolution are welcome. Submissions demonstrating how these advances support modelling, prediction, and operational risk‑management—for example, tools for civil protection or public agencies—are especially encouraged.

CONVENORS:

Paola Revellino, Corrado Cencetti, Mariano Focareta, Mirko Francioni

CO-CONVENORS:

Claudia Meisina, Paola Revellino, Nicola Sciarra

The term “landslide dam” identifies the natural blockages of river channels caused by slope movements. Dammed lakes formed upstream represent a serious hazard involving communities, infrastructure, and ecosystems (e.g., flood areas, anomalous destructive flood waves). As climate change intensifies extreme rainfall, the frequency and magnitude of landslide-dam events are expected to rise, increasing the urgency for improved mechanism understanding, risk assessment and management. This session brings together geologists, geomorphologists, hydrologists, engineers, remote-sensing specialists, and disaster-response practitioners to explore recent advances in landslide-dam topics. We welcome contributions on landslide dam classification, databases construction, physical processes that govern dam formation and failure, numerical and physical modeling of stability, sediment and hydrological dynamics, hazard and risk assessment, cascading hazard interactions and innovations in early detection using satellite, UAV, and ground-based monitoring. Case studies from both natural and engineered interventions, emergency evacuations, and integrated decision-support systems are particularly encouraged. This session is proposed within the framework of the PNRR- RETURN – Multi-Risk sciEnce for resilienT commUnities undeR a changiNg climate, Project “LANDAM” (funded by European Union – Next-GenerationEU).

CONVENORS:

Giovanna Vessia, Nicola Sciarra, Mario Luigi Rainone, Christian Conoscenti

It is well known that subduction zones are highly seismically active areas affected by geological hazards such as landslides due to their geological, seismogenic, tectonic, volcanic, geomorphological, and hydrogeological characteristics. In these settings, high magnitude earthquake events occur both at depth along the subduction planes, and as shallow intraplate seismicity. Volcanic activity, related to the subduction zones, periodically deposits fine and granular coverings (within a radius of thousands of metres) with peculiar hydraulic and slope stability features that threatened several human settlements worldwide. These zones are typical of Central America trench, along the coast of Chile and the Andes, and also in-pit arch systems such as Japan and the Mariana Trench. In these territories, landslides are frequent and threatening, especially in intensively urbanized contexts, causing a high level of risk. This special session intends to bring together researchers and practitioners to exchange and discuss experiences, best practices, and new methods to perform both site characterization, landslide recognition, and numerical simulations in subduction zones. The main focus of this session is on seismically induced landslides from the regional-scale down to the slope-scale. In addition, multi-hazard analyses (under hydrogeological, seismic, and volcanic actions) in landslide stability assessment are also warmly welcomed.

CONVENORS:

Thomas Glade, Anja Dufresne, Xuanmei Fan, Alexander Strom, Bianca Carvalho Vieira, Susana Pereira

CO-CONVENORS:

Helene Petschko, Stefan Steger

Landslide inventories and databases—whether regional, global, topical, or event-based—are critical foundations for landslide susceptibility, hazard, and risk assessments. They support research on runout behaviour, landslide dams, and statistical relationships among morphometric, geological, and hydrological parameters. Despite their importance, inventory selection criteria and the descriptive parameters used to characterize landslides vary considerably across regions and studies. These inconsistencies hinder comparison among datasets and limit the integration of regional or thematic inventories. Harmonized, standardized databases would significantly improve the comparability and statistical robustness of landslide analyses. Recent research emphasizes moving beyond traditional approaches to address emerging challenges such as cascading and compound hazards, extreme events, climate-driven environmental change, and increased human modification of landscapes. Effectively incorporating these evolving conditions into spatial assessments is vital for developing more realistic and actionable hazard evaluations. Spatial landslide assessments also play a key role in supporting sustainable community development. Advances over the past several decades include improvements in inventory methodologies, spatial modelling techniques, validation procedures, and scenario development that incorporates land-use and climate change. Because susceptibility, intensity, dynamic susceptibility, and—in some cases—hazard maps directly inform land-use planning, mitigation strategies, and early-warning systems, achieving high accuracy and reliability is essential. This session brings together current research, innovative methodologies, and applied case studies related to landslide inventories and spatial landslide assessment. Contributions that introduce new technological or methodological approaches, propose standardized data frameworks, or demonstrate applied solutions are especially encouraged. The overarching goal is to review existing practices, strengthen international collaboration, and advance shared approaches for improving landslide data collection, modelling, and hazard assessment.

CONVENORS:

Yunus Ali Pulpadan, Christian Huggel, Sajin Kumar, Dou Jie, Srikrishnan Siva Subramanian, Sumit Das

CO-CONVENORS:

Vishnu Pandey, Basanta Raj Adhikari, Simon Allen, Pierre-Yves Pitteloud

Landslides are increasingly driven by the combined effects of climate-induced extremes and human modification of mountainous terrain. Intensifying rainfall variability, extreme precipitation, snowmelt dynamics, and shifting hydrological thresholds interact with deforestation, road construction, mining, hill cutting, urban expansion, and river regulation to alter slope stability and sediment connectivity. These combined pressures are accelerating landslide frequency, runout potential, cascading hazards, and downstream impacts. This session examines how anthropogenic landscape alteration and changing climatic drivers jointly initiate and amplify landslide processes, emphasizing the need for integrated scientific and policy responses. Drawing on perspectives from geomorphology, engineering geology, hydrology, climate science, remote sensing, and disaster-risk reduction, the session addresses the challenge of disentangling the respective roles of human-induced and climate-driven factors in landslide initiation, magnitude, and impacts. Contributions span Earth Observation approaches, land-use and infrastructure impacts on slope stability, urban vulnerability, early warning systems, and AI-based modelling. A regional focus on the Hindu-Kush Himalayan (HKH) region highlights rapidly evolving hazard conditions linked to glacier retreat, permafrost degradation, expanding glacial lakes, and increasing exposure of communities and infrastructure. The session convenes scientific, governmental, and international actors to identify monitoring needs, information-chain gaps, institutional coordination challenges, and priorities for development finance. Outcomes will inform a policy brief or forum paper aimed at strengthening science-policy cooperation for landslide-risk governance across the HKH.

CONVENORS:

Fausto Guzzetti, Bruce D. Malamud, Rosa María Mateos Ruiz

Landslide data underpin modelling, risk assessment, and blue-skies research about landslide processes and impacts. Yet evaluations are frequently undertaken with incomplete, uneven, or poorly matched datasets, particularly in data-scarce regions, where inventories may be fragmentary and impacts under-reported. Even in information-rich settings, data are often incomplete, non-comparable, or not appropriate for the questions asked (e.g., process understanding versus operational forecasting, planning, or risk reduction).

This session welcomes contributions that advance not only “more data”, but also better strategies for defining, collecting, governing, integrating, and using fit-for-purpose landslide and landslide-related data.

Landslide data span attributes of individual landslides and landslide population characteristics at a given time (events) and through time (geomorphological/historical), across local to global spatial scales. Closely related landslide datasets include triggers and co-occurring hazards, impact, socio-economic, and vulnerability.

We invite oral and poster contributions on advances, challenges, and innovative practice in the collection, integration, governance, and use of landslide and landslide-related data. Topics include, but are not limited to:

• How AI can support data collection, quality control, curation, and long-term management.
• Data governance and ethics: who maintains datasets versus who can access them; open-access versus paywalled or restricted models; cross-boundary challenges across jurisdictional contexts; licensing, attribution, and interoperability.
• What data are collected (and missing), including landslide variables, metadata for individual landslides and events, trigger information, multi-hazard context, and impact/socio-economic/vulnerability data.
• Emerging technologies for data capture and visualisation (e.g., virtual/augmented reality, mobile applications, low-cost sensors, and field-to-cloud workflows).
• Data fusion and integration of heterogeneous sources (remote sensing, field mapping, citizen observations, monitoring networks, and administrative records).
• Roles for non-technical contributors (government, schools, NGOs, concerned citizens) in data generation and validation.
• Capturing multi-hazard cascades within data structures.
• Creative reuse of existing datasets and assessing whether data are fit-for-purpose in modelling and risk assessment—who decides, and how decisions are justified.

CONVENORS:

Hemalatha T, Sansar Raj Meena, Naveen Chandra, Xiaochuan Tang

This session focuses on next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) techniques that are transforming methods in landslide detection, monitoring, risk-informed decision support and early warning. As the availability of multi-scale geospatial, sensor, and environmental data continues to grow, advanced AI methodologies are enabling new levels of automation, scalability, and insight across the landslide risk management cycle.

The session will highlight recent advances in deep learning architectures, transformer-based models, foundation models, self-supervised and data-centric AI approaches for landslide inventory mapping, susceptibility analysis, hazard assessment, and early warning. Contributions addressing large-scale learning from heterogeneous datasets, transferability across regions, domain adaptation, and robustness under data scarcity or imbalance are particularly encouraged.

A key emphasis of the session is on explainable, interpretable, and trustworthy AI for landslide applications. Papers exploring model transparency, explainable AI techniques, uncertainty characterization, and responsible deployment of AI in risk-critical environments are welcome. The session also invites work on real-time and edge-AI systems, including intelligent processing of in-situ sensor data, satellite streams, and near-real-time monitoring platforms for operational use.

In addition, the session encourages studies on multi-source data integration, combining remote sensing, in-situ measurements, historical records, social media data, news data, crowdsourced information, and text-based data streams to enhance situational awareness and decision support. Case studies demonstrating operational deployments, scalable platforms, or translation of AI outputs into actionable products for practitioners and policymakers are especially relevant.

By bringing together methodological innovations and applied case studies, this session aims to advance the role of next-generation AI as a reliable and impactful tool for landslide science and applications.

CONVENORS:

Sabatino Cuomo, Josip Peranic, Ryja Bhowmik, Zeljko Arbanas

The Session is proposed as the follow-up of the same Session “Geosynthetics for slope stabilization” at WLF4 and WLF5, and in continuation with the Session “ADVANCEMENTS IN LANDSLIDE AND DEBRIS FLOW MITIGATION USING GEOSYNTHETICS AND OTHER SOLUTIONS” of WLF6.

The Session is jointly organized by experts belonging to IGS (International Geosynthetics Society) and ICL and is intended to promote the sharing of experiences, ideas, and best practices among the use of geosynthetics in the applications related to slope stability. Geosynthetics are polymeric products, commonly used for reinforcement and for erosion control of man-made soil structures and artificial slopes.

A scientific gap still exists in the field of (formerly natural) reinforced slopes, which combine the complexities of natural slopes (for instance, in terms of slope geometry and of hydraulic boundary conditions) to those of geosynthetics technology (for instance, the proper selection of materials, the installation techniques and the issues of durability and sustainability).

The reinforcement type, the soil mechanical properties and the anchorage system, as well as the internal structure and the shape of geosynthetics reinforcements lead to different behaviour in terms of deformation and strength. Geotechnical characteristics of the soil influence the stress distribution at the soil-reinforcement interface. A topic of interest is the interaction behaviour between soil and geosynthetics, generally measured through pull-out tests and direct shear tests, and the resulting properties have direct implications on the design of reinforced soil structures. Inclined plane tests are also widely used, especially in Europe, for measuring the interface properties of geosynthetics.

The increasing use of geosynthetics as reinforcing elements in soil structures eventually associated with vegetation has greatly encouraged sophisticated experimental work, including laboratory models and centrifuge tests, and advanced numerical analyses, to gain a better insight into the reinforcement mechanisms as well as to validate or improve the existing design methods.

Case histories on the application of geosynthetics for slope stabilization will be encouraged.

CONVENORS:

Ashok Dahal, Gerardo Grelle, Hemalatha T, Aadityan Sridharan

Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and computational modelling are transforming landslide hazard assessment, prediction, and early warning capabilities. However, purely data-driven approaches often struggle with generalisation, physical consistency, and trustworthiness when applied to complex slope processes. This session focuses on physics-informed and hybrid AI approaches that integrate physical understanding, process-based models, and domain knowledge with machine learning and deep learning techniques to advance landslide science and operational forecasting.

A key focus of the session is the development of predictive models for landslide susceptibility and hazard, including earthquake-induced landslides and regional-scale seismic hazard mapping. The increasing availability of multi-source geospatial data, remote sensing observations, and computational modelling tools has opened new opportunities to improve hazard assessment beyond traditional event-based approaches. Contributions integrating topographic, morpho-structural, geological, hydrogeological, and seismic forcing parameters to support large-scale susceptibility mapping and scenario-based hazard analysis are particularly encouraged.

The session welcomes studies that develop or apply physically informed, guided, or constrained AI and machine learning approaches, aiming to enhance model interpretability, robustness, and transferability across different geological and tectonic settings. Topics of interest include hybrid modelling frameworks combining physical simulations with learning-based components; AI-assisted threshold derivation incorporating rainfall, pore pressure, deformation, and antecedent conditions; and uncertainty-aware models for improved hazard prediction.

Particular emphasis will be placed on understanding slope preconditioning and initial conditions controlling instability, including studies using remote sensing techniques such as InSAR-based deformation analysis, directional deformation patterns, and long-term kinematic trends to identify slope fragility or resilience. Contributions integrating sensor-based monitoring systems, real-time data streams, and operational landslide early warning systems are also encouraged.

By bringing together landslide scientists, geotechnical and geophysical researchers, remote sensing specialists, and AI practitioners, this session aims to advance next-generation predictive models for landslide processes, seismic slope instability, thresholds, and forecasting, supporting disaster risk reduction and resilient land-use planning.

CONVENORS:

Sansar Raj Meena, Filippo Catani, Xiaochuan Tang

The special session aims to delve into the transformative impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the realm of landslide and Engineering Geological research. As the fields of geoscience and engineering evolve, the integration of advanced technologies becomes increasingly crucial for understanding and mitigating natural hazards. This session will showcase cutting-edge applications of AI techniques, demonstrating their efficacy in landslide detection, prediction, and analysis. We invite researchers and experts to share their experiences, methodologies, and success stories in leveraging AI to enhance the accuracy and efficiency of landslide studies. Topics of interest include novel algorithms, data integration strategies, and real-world case studies that highlight the intersection of technology, geological research, and practice, fostering a collaborative environment for the exchange of knowledge and ideas. Join us as we explore the frontier of innovation, where AI converges with geological and engineering sciences to reshape the future of landslide and engineering geological research.

CONVENORS:

Sangeeth Kumar, Maneesha Vinodini Ramesh, Sethuraman N Rao

This session focuses on near-field and far-field terrestrial radar systems, UAV-based observations, and IoT sensor networks, and their integrated role in landslide monitoring frameworks. Terrestrial radar techniques, including ground-based interferometric and Doppler radars, provide high-precision, continuous measurements of slope deformation. They are widely used to detect precursory movements. UAV-based photogrammetry and radar sensing provide flexible, high-resolution spatial data for landslide mapping. IoT-enabled sensor networks, incorporating sensors for displacement, pore pressure, rainfall, and soil moisture, enable continuous real-time monitoring and data transmission from unstable slopes. Particular emphasis will be placed on energy-efficient monitoring strategies, as power availability remains a critical constraint in remote and mountainous regions. Topics include, but are not limited to, low-power design, optimised data acquisition and transmission schemes, and sustainable power solutions for long-term deployments. Contributions may include methodological developments, multi-sensor system integration strategies, and operational case studies demonstrating practical implementation of integrated landslide monitoring and early warning systems.

CONVENORS:

Alok Bhardwaj, Mahdi Motagh, Mir Matin

Landslides are complex processes influenced by multiple interrelated factors including geological, geomorphological, hydrological, and climatic factors, as well as anthropogenic activities and land use practices. The nexus approach examines the relationships and dependencies among these interrelated factors to derive a comprehensive understanding of susceptibility to ground movement hazards. This is crucial for developing effective mitigation strategies to reduce the impacts of landslides on communities and the environment.

This session welcomes contributions on the following topics:

• Innovations in landslide nexus approaches
• Use of open-source tools for collating data sources for landslide studies
• Development of landslide inventory databases to support nexus landslide studies
• Use of remote sensing and geospatial technologies for landslide nexus studies
• Use of drones and LiDAR to detect landslide motion
• Application of AI in landslide nexus research

The session seeks to showcase advanced technologies, illustrative nexus case studies, and frameworks that reveal how multidisciplinary datasets can improve landslide nexus research and strengthen cross-disciplinary collaboration.

CONVENORS:

Josip Peranić, Željko Arbanas, Sabatino Cuomo, Vito Tagarelli, Beena Ajmera

Most slopes, in their stable state, include a zone between the slope ground surface and the groundwater level that is under partially saturated conditions. The stability of these slopes is governed primarily by effective stresses and drained shear strength below the groundwater level, while the soil suction—being a key component of the hydro-mechanical response of soils when in partial saturation—strongly influences the unsaturated shear strength within the partially saturated zone of slopes.

Determining matric suction during the complex process of rainfall infiltration in slopes, as well as incorporating unsaturated shear strength into slope stability analyses, require advanced soil testing procedures and sophisticated slope models. Such models can be applied to the stability analysis of both shallow and deep-seated landslides.

New precipitation patterns caused by climate change—particularly through their influence on infiltration processes and variations in matric suction—may have a distinct impact on landslide initiation. This session will present research results covering:

• In situ and laboratory investigations of soil partially saturated state
• Analyses of rainfall infiltration processes under different rainfall patterns and their effects on partially saturated soil strength
• Analyses of shallow and deep-seated landslide initiation and activity involving partially saturated slope conditions
• Slope stability models incorporating partially saturated soil strength
• Other related research addressing the influence of various phenomena and processes on the stability of partially saturated slopes (e.g., case studies, rainfall patterns, evapotranspiration, vegetation, root systems, etc.)

CONVENORS:

Jia-Jyun Dong, Chung-Chih Chung, Kuo-Lung Wang, Chun-Hung Wu

We invite contributions addressing Taiwan regional landslides triggered by earthquakes, typhoons, and extreme rainfall, with an emphasis on multi-hazard interactions and cascading processes. Relevant topics include, but are not limited to: post-event landslide investigation and monitoring using remote sensing, UAVs, and field surveys; landslide susceptibility, hazard, and risk assessment under combined seismic and hydrometeorological forcing; and slope or watershed restoration, ecological engineering, and adaptive management strategies. Both methodological advances and applied case studies are welcome.

CONVENORS:

Neegar Sultana, Md. Farhad Hossen, Arafat Hossain, Humaira Tabassum Raiyan, Md. Mahamodul Hasan Noman

This session titled ‘Leveraging Landslide Resilience through Local and Indigenous Knowledge: Strategies and Best Practices’ explore the indispensable contribution of community based knowledge systems in mitigating landslide risk. Communities, both local and Indigenous, residing in landslide-prone areas often possess extensive experiential knowledge, location-based insights, and culturally embedded risk-management strategies developed over generations. The synthesis of this knowledge with science-based techniques yields efficient, context-specific solutions that streamline early warning systems, readiness, responsive land use, and resilient communities.

This session intends to emphasize robust case studies, novel alliances, and proven approaches in which regional wisdom has significantly aided in landslide risk reduction. Additionally, this session highlights practical applications, ranging from traditional slope stabilization techniques to community-led monitoring and interactive mapping, fostering cross learning among regions dealing with comparable challenges. The discourse is going to highlight the communal creation of knowledge, participatory decision-making, and strategies to enhance community capacity and resilience. Finally, the session directly enhances the global agenda for disaster risk reduction by revealing how local and Indigenous knowledge can augment scientific comprehension, accelerate sustainable resilience-building, and encourage culturally rooted, resilient solutions.