Actes du colloque

Proceedings of the 18

International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Paris 2013

2010); Professor Chris Clayton presenting his Rankine lecture

(October 2010); Professor John Atkinson (December, 2010).

The New Zealand Geotechnical Society publishes a biannual

magazine, The Geomechanics News, for its members in June

and December of each year. The magazine has grown

significantly of late, and now averages just over 100 pages per

issue. The distribution of the magazine continues to grow too.

As well as being provided to the 760 members (in New Zealand

and internationally) the magazine is sent to a number of other

overseas professional societies, academics, universities, and

industries. In July 2010 the NZGS published its “Geotechnical

Earthquake Engineering Practice” guideline. This publication,

the first of a number of modules, is a guideline for the

identification, assessment and mitigation of liquefaction

hazards. It aims to provide authoritative material to help

engineers address geotechnical issues related to the design of

buildings and structures in conjunction with national building

codes. Good progress is being made with the second Module 2

which deals with the seismic assessment and design of retaining

walls.

The NZGS makes a number of awards to its members. The

Society has very recently initiated the New Zealand

Geotechnical Society Scholarship which will provide funding to

enable a member of the Society to undertake research in New

Zealand that would advance the objectives of the Society. At the

time of writing the process for selecting the inaugural NZGS

Scholar is in progress. Other awards are also currently under

consideration. However, the NZGS Geomechanics Lecture

(2011) has been awarded to Dr David Bell, University of

Canterbury, whose will present a lecture entitled “Geo-Logic

and the Art of Geotechnical Practice” at ANZ 2012, the

ISSMGE Australasia Regional Conference.

The two large shallow earthquakes in Canterbury (which,

with a population of 390,300, is the second largest city in New

Zealand) in September 2010 (Darfield M 7.1) and February

2011 (Christchurch M 6.3), together with the numerous

subsequent aftershocks, have been a major concern for

geotechnical engineers in New Zealand, in general, and the

NZGS, in particular. In response to a request from the

Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand (IPENZ) the

NZGS, together with the New Zealand Society for Earthquake

Engineering, contributed to the development of fact sheets

which give an overview of the Canterbury Earthquakes and the

performance of engineered systems, liquefaction and the

building safety evaluation process.

In September 2010 the NZGS – which is the national society

for both ISRM and IAEG as well as ISSMGE - hosted the

IAEG Congress. The conference, which took place in the

immediate aftermath of the September earthquake in

Christchurch, was highly successful with some 709 people from

46 countries attending the conference and with the proceedings,

entitled “Geologically Active” containing some 500 papers.

At the 5th International Conference on Earthquake

Geotechnical Engineering (ICEGE) held in Santiago, Chile

during January 2011 the NZGS were awarded the right to host

the 6th ICEGE. This conference is held under the auspices of

the ISSMGE Technical Committee Earthquake Geotechnical

Engineering and Associated Problems (TC203) and it will take

place during 2015 in Christchurch. The organising committee is

chaired by Dr Misko Cubrinovski.

ANZ 2012 – GROUND ENGINEERING IN A

CHANGING WORLD

ANZ 2012 is the ISSMGE Australasia regional conference and

it is to be held in Melbourne from 15 to 18 July 2012. The

theme of the conference is “Ground Engineering in a Changing

World”. The world wide community is facing great change; a

changing financial system, a changing climate, a changing

legislative environment and changing community perceptions

and awareness. There are a host of risks and opportunities

associated with this change. This conference seeks to explore

and better understand those changes and the risks and

opportunities they present to our profession; be they challenges

and risks associated with the changing coastline morphology,

changing weather patterns, different modes of living, new

materials and constructions methods, new methods for

generating power or new ways to recycle or manage waste. It is

proposed that the 9th ANZ Young Geotechnical Professionals

Geotechnical Conference will take place in conjunction with

ANZ 2012.

Volume 6 - Page 117