Secretary General message for WLF6

The Sixth World Landslide Forum is entitled Landslide Science for Sustainable Development and contributes to the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, through the Kyoto Commitment for Landslide Risk Reduction which was signed in 2020 by approximately 90 institutions.

The aim of the Forum is to create a common platform to promote cooperation between scientists, technicians, experts and policy makers dealing with landslides in order to define common priority actions for risk reduction on a global scale.

This objective is particularly important considering that the Sixth World Landslide Forum is taking place on the sixtieth anniversary of the Vajont landslide, the largest landslide disaster in Italy, which caused more than 1900 deaths.

The scientific program includes six main themes:

1. Kyoto Landslide commitment for sustainable development

2. Remote sensing, monitoring and early warning

3. Testing, modeling and mitigation techniques

4. Mapping, hazard, risk assessment and management

5. Climate change, extreme weather conditions, earthquakes and landslides

6. Progress in landslide science and applications

On November 14, during the opening plenary session, the Florence Declaration on Landslide Risk Reduction is adopted. In this declaration, the international scientific community commits to working together to share information and best practices, support research and development of new technologies and build capacity at all levels to improve landslide preparedness and response.

Scientific plenary lectures by four internationally renowned scientists are planned for the afternoon of November 14: Prof. Giovanni Battista Crosta from the University of Milan Bicocca, Prof. Xuanmei Fan from Chengdu University of Technology in China, Dr. Jonathan Godt from the United States Geological Survey and Prof. Olivier Dewitte from the Royal Museum for Central Africa.

In the following days, parallel scientific sessions will take place with 853 scientific contributions, including 640 oral reports and 210 posters, divided into 47 scientific sessions.

The Forum closes on November 17 with the Closing Plenary Session, during which the baton is passed to the Seventh World Landslide Forum to be held in Taipei in 2026.

As Secretary General of the Forum, I would like to thank all the members who have contributed to the organization of the Forum over the past three years.

I hope that the Forum can be an important moment of scientific exchange and personal growth.

A happy Forum to all,

Veronica Tofani
WLF6 secretary general and ICL vice-president