Report on ICG Questionnaire:
Professional Contributions to Society as Geomorphologists

(Chuo University, Tokyo, Japan, takas@kc.chuo-u.ac.jp)

This is a brief report on the 'IAG Questionnaire: Professional Contributions to Society as Geomorphologists', which was sent out in the venue of the Fifth International Conference on Geomorphology held in Tokyo, 23-28 August 2001. The Questionnaire was collected from 139 respondents, about one third of regular registrations to the Conference.

The purpose and contents of the Questionnaire are described below with a statistical analysis for the number of replies to each item and its percentage among the 139 respondents.

ICG QUESTIONNAIRE
Professional Contributions to Society as Geomorphologists

In order to make rapid and steady progress in geomorphology in the 21st century we must extend our workplaces to young geomorphologists and insure that geomorphology is useful to society. Thus, in addition to our performance in pure research and education we must increase our professional contributions to society above those of the 20th century. We believe that an exchange of our experiences will be meaningful in helping find new markets and additional customers for geomorphology not only in each country but also around the world.

Taking advantage of your presence at the 5th ICG, I would like to ask you to complete this questionnaire. Preliminary results will be reported at the Closing Ceremony and detailed in the Summary Proceedings of the Conference.

Thank you very much for your kind cooperation in advance.

(Chuo University, Tokyo):
Local organizer of the 5th ICG

Please add comments and/or experiences that illustrate and identify the ways geomorphology should and can contribute to society:

The following information is optional:

Your name _____________________________________________________

Birth year _________ Country ____________________________________

Affiliation: University, Other school, Government, Other public agency,

Company, Nonprofit Organization, Other: ___________________________

Number of respondents for each country and region:

Among all respondents, 103 persons are working at university, and others are working at Government, Public agency, Nonprofit organization, etc.

Birth year distribution of respondents:

Brief analysis of statistic data for the Questionnaire

Statistic data above show the trends of how the respondents have contributed to societies as geomorphologists. According to my tentative analysis of the reply from each individual, their activities will be summarized as follows.

1. Most of the active contributors to society are naturally career geomorphologists older than 40 years in age and those who are much concerned with process geomorphology such as mass movements, fluvial and coastal processes and rock-control problems, in addition to applied and engineering geomorphology (related to Q1).
2. I was very much pleased that more than 80% of respondents have experiences to serve at the request of public organizations (Q2) in their countries and/or foreign countries (Q3), and worked as a member of public committees (Q4) and as commentators in mass media (Q6). However, this high percentage may be because the respondents, about one third of regular registrants, have been very much concerned with social problems, as compared with ‘common’ geomorphologists.
3. The geomorphological aspects for which geomorphologists have served as consultant cover a wide range of categories including disaster prevention engineering, hydrology, civil engineering and so on (Q7). Some items such as waste pollution, law, economy, insurance and historic monuments should be concerned by geomorphologists much more in the near future, because these soft items may involve various geomorphological aspects and become our new markets .
4. The main problems that have been solved by respondents are the assessment and/or management of natural hazards, natural environments, man-made transformation of landform, surface and ground water, and construction planning (Q8A). Also, important targets are the countermeasure against natural disasters due to mass movements, fluvial and coastal processes and earthquake in particular (Q8B-1), against conservation of environments related to almost all kinds of landforms (Q8B-2), against the planning and/or decision construction sites for large-scale land-transformation, transportation facilities, water-system construction and large-scale structures (Q8B-3).
5. Various techniques in geomorphology have been applied to solve the problems above (Q9). However, a few laboratory experiments have been performed to solve the practical problems because of less experimental facilities in geography departments in university.
6. Geomorphologists who have their own consulting company that deals with geomorphological topics are 9% of the respondents (Q10). Some of them are working at university not only in developed countries but also in developing countries. Whether faculty staff is able to have one’s own company may depend on the condition of each country and university.

Comments from the respondents

Many comments and experiences useful for furthering our contributions to society were hand-written on the Questionnaire sheet by 30 respondents. They are classified into some categories and summarized below by combining the comments similar to and related to others, although some illegible hand-written comments are not cited here.

Education in geomorphology course

1. Lectures on the application of geomorphology should be emphasized at both the academic (such as university) and basic level. Production of Education films and videos would be helpful.
2. Introduce students to applications of geomorphology through informal seminars and meetings with practitioners, as well as through visits to field sites. This exposure should be continual throughout their student careers, and should include discussions of the legal, social, and economic context of geomorphological applications.
3. Papers on the application of geomorphology like case studies should be published much more in the geomorphology journals.

Advertisement to society and cooperation with 'practitioners'

1. Geomorphologists should advertise what they can contribute to society.
2. There should be better cooperation and communication between academic/ researcher geomorphologists, and the 'practitioners', such as geologists, hydrologists, civil engineers, forest engineers, politicians, planners, and managers, who must use the research results to solve applied problems.
3. We should work with the 'practitioners' at the pre-feasibility stage of a development project. By anticipating the effect of future changes (such as climate change) on the physical environment with some success. By recommending proper management procedures in areas prone to natural hazards and areas subjected to future development projects.
4. Providing training for engineers, scientists working in government agencies working on geomorphological problems, but who were not trained (formally) in geomorphology. Stressing the linkages between disciplines that deal with geomorphic problems (e.g. civil engineering, biology, chemistry, forestry) but that do not see the implications of their studies and projects.
5. The keys to advertisement and training are 1) recovering the jargon, 2) treating key people as intelligent, curious, concerned citizens. It is far better to work with rather than to lecture to. The general concepts of geomorphology are easy to understand. It is well that we remember this.
6. Be flexible and adaptable to clients’ needs. Be confident and firm in your abilities, but not boastful. Learn new techniques and technology as required: you will never have a complete package of such skills. Just keep working and thinking.

Subjects to be studied for practical purposes

1. Supply new concepts, methods and techniques to help manage the way of sustainable development: i.e
   1. assessment of human impact on degraded rivers and fluvial systems.
   2. promoting sustainable techniques for river restoration (geomorphologic engineering replacing hard civil engineering works.
   3. development of new approaches to surveying environmental changes (environmental observations).
2. Prediction/projection of extreme events in, e.g. floods, storm surge impact, river and coastal behavior.
3. Recognition of hazards: e.g. alluvial fan, flooding, channel incision, landslide potential, meander cutoff, etc.
4. Recognition of landforms that are stabilizing thereby reducing mitigation costs.
5. Identify sensitive landforms that have a high probability of failure.
6. Aid in planning of mined-land restoration.
7. Determine the best procedure for removal or stabilization of mine wastes.
8. Determine river channel characteristics favorable for endangered species of fish.
9. Litigation support: aid attorneys in preparing case for trial. Provide expert testimony.
10. Determine landform history to aid in the prediction of change.
11. Understanding long-term evolutions of landscape and recognition of palaeo-forms of deposits. e.g.
    1. large palaeo-landslides,
    2. formation of exploration for mineral deposits, such as accumulation by selective weathering (in situ), deposition as heavy mineral placer deposits (e.g. diamond deposits in river systems, Ni-laterites in Cratonic regions, and gold in tropical pedsols/ white sand, silicate environments.
12. Classification of weathered materials for engineering geologists.
13. Understanding superficial deposits in soil conservation.
14. To be more involved in global environmental change. Create global concerns with environmental and biological conservation: Interaction between biology/ecology and geomorphology need to be promoted in addition to the obvious applications in land-use planning, environmental management and engineering projects.

The comments cited above are naturally not systematic but enumerative for a number of instances experienced by each colleague. For the systematic comments and discussions on the role of geomorphologists in our society, refer to D. Brunsden’s Geomorphology sans Frontiér presented as the presidential address at the 3rd ICG in Hamilton, 1993, and the 1999 Binghamton Geomorphology Symposium entitled Geomorphology in the Public Eye. We should utilize this Questionnaire and the comments and discussions above in order to extend our workplaces and find new markets for young geomorphologists.

Finally, a recent situation for the contribution to society in Japan should be informed. The JGU members cover wide disciplinary affiliations (including pure and applied geomorphology, civil engineering, sabo engineering, geology, geophysics, hydrology and geography) and much concern with process geomorphology and quantitative researches. Accordingly, a number of the JGU members have served as professional consultants and important members of public committees in various organizations. Some of the JGU members have often been requested to serve as members of public committees for the geomorphology related problems: e.g. natural hazards, large-scale land-transformation, city planning (e.g. The Council for Relocation of the Diet and Other Organizations of Japan) and large-scale construction works (e.g. highway, Shinkansen railway, airport, harbor, etc.). Someone from the JGU memberships has usually acted as an excellent commentator for the severe natural hazards (such as those due to mass movements, earthquakes, volcanic activities, in particular) on the mass media including TV. Thus, it can be stated that contributions to society have been routine works at least for the JGU core-members.

It should be noted that a subject of Engineering geomorphology was opened as a half-year course in addition to Engineering geology on a regular curriculum of the Department of Civil Engineering at Kobe University (Kobe) and Chuo University (Tokyo) in 1995 simultaneously. This is one of the fruits made by the Japanese Geomorphological Union, because a professor who teaches Engineering Geomorphology is a civil engineer (Prof. T. Okimura) at Kobe and a geomorphologist (T. Suzuki) at Chuo. In order to spread geomorphological knowledge for civil engineers in Japan, T. Suzuki (1997, 1998, 2000) published three volumes entitled Introduction to Map Reading for Civil Engineers. It is noteworthy that recently engineering geologists in Japan have much concern with geomorphology: e.g. Japan Society of Engineering Geology published a book entitled Engineering Geomorphology of Mountains in 2000. These books are written in Japanese, because the problems to be solved from the viewpoint of engineering geomorphology are closely related to the geomorphological setting of each country and are not always the same as those in other areas in the world.

Acknowledgements

Thanks are due to all respondents to the Questionnaire. This Questionnaire was financially supported by the Fukutake Science and Culture Foundation in Tokyo, Japan.