Address of the incoming President of IAG/AIG – Melbourne, July 2009

Date: July, 2009

On the occasion of the Seventh International Conference on Geomorphology held in Melbourne from 6-11 July 2009, it is appropriate to look at the International Association and review where we have been and where we are headed. First, however, I would like to acknowledge the fine leadership we have had over the last four years under Professor Andrew Goudie, our outgoing President. His guidance along with the hard work of the Executive Committee have left the Association in a strong and vibrant position.

Our last Quadrennial meeting was held in the shadow of the Pyrenees in Zaragoza. It was an excellent conference and set a great challenge for the Australia New Zealand Geomorphology Group (ANZGG) to match. Indeed the Melbourne meeting can now be declared a great success.

The exquisitely designed Melbourne Convention Centre has enhanced an outstanding meeting attended by over 630 delegates. The International Association extends its thanks to the ANZGG and in particular to the Chair of the Organising Committee, Brian Finlayson and his team of dedicated organisers.

Between the two main conferences there have been numerous meetings where the Association has been represented or involved in running sessions. However, two notable regional meetings of IAG/AIG occurred in this period: the conference in Sabah, Malaysia, organised by David Higgett and the conference in Romania, organised by Dan Balteanau. Both meetings have been highly acclaimed for their scientific content and excellent organisation. We are looking forward to the next IAG/AIG Regional Meeting to be held in Ethiopia in 2011.

Apart from the scientific meetings, the highlights of the last four years have been the activity of the working groups and the young geomorphologists programme (coordinated by Mauro Soldati). The working groups (14 of them) represent the core business of the Association between meetings.

In accordance with the policy of IAG/AIG, many of these groups have been working on substantial publications, and all have held one or more meetings often in conjunction with major discipline conferences. Notable amongst the publications (either published or in process) from the working groups are: 21st Century Landscapes from the Global change WG; Natural Hazards from the Natural Hazard WG; Handbook on Applied Geomorphological Mapping from the Applied Geomorphic Mapping WG; a Monograph for the Carpatho-Balkan-Dinaric WG; a book on geomorphosites, an Atlas on Human impact by the Human Impact WG; Great geomorphological landscapes of the World (edited by Piotr Migon) and contributed to by a number of WG members.

In the next four years the focus of the Association will be to continue to enhance both working group activity and the young geomorphologists program. These activities are not only central to our mission but are a way of opening up the subject of geomorphology to a wide range of interest groups from many parts of the world.

We are also aware that in many parts of the world there are small but growing groups of gemorphologists who up to now have worked in relative isolation. Bringing these groups into the international mainstream of geomorphology will be a priority for the new executive committee.

Two other areas will occupy our activity over the next year or so. One is to link more closely with other scientific groups, by, for example, having a higher profile at associated meetings such as the European Geophysical Union. The second area we wish to pursue is to identify clearly the nature of geomorphology and what geomorphologists do and then to use the media effectively to spread this message. There are so many other earth science sub-disciplines today that we need to identify our contribution and what makes us distinctive. Brian Finlayson found it necessary to do this in a media release, when asked about what was discussed at the Melbourne conference;
“The nature of our discipline attempts to explain the development of landforms in the long term, so Geomorphologists tend to take a longer term view of ‘change’ than many others. Many threats to the stability of the landscape, other than climate change, were canvassed. Ongoing soil erosion threatens our food producing capabilities; coastal erosion, even without any rise is sea level, threatens infrastructure along the coastal zone; mass slope stability driven by long term tectonic uplift is a daily problem in those parts of the world on subduction and plate collision zones (e.g. Japan, Northern India and Tibet); river erosion and floods threaten those living in river valleys.”

Clearly, the business of Geomorphology is understanding the behaviour of the earth and its processes at a range of temporal and spatial scales. On the one hand, geomorphologists can help meet goals of sustainable management, reduce losses from natural hazards and prepare communities to cope with rapid global change. We are willing and able to help engineers, policy makers and planners to cope with the future. At the same time geomorphologists have always been driven to understand the broader long term questions of landform and environmental change and have been quick to take a leading role in the application of new and exciting dating techniques to answer those questions.

Paris is the location for the next quadrennial IAG/AIG Conference in 2013 - we look forward to seeing you all there. But in the meantime we invite you all to become part of our global family of scientists - visit the web site (http://www.geomorph.org/), take part in our activities and help others to enjoy and advance geomorphology.

Michael Crozier
IAG/AIG President