The last business meeting of the Commission was held in Hyderabad (India) in December 2004. The next business meeting is to be held in Perugia, on Friday 6 July, 12:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Please mark the date and time in your dairy. The President, Secretary General and Treasurer will report on the activity between December 2004 (last business meeting) and June 2007. Based on the reports and discussions, we should recommend to the IUGG Executives that whether the Commission continue its activity. Another item of the business meeting is the composition of the Commission for the next 4 years.

US007: High-Performance Computations in Geosciences

Conveners:
A. Ismail-Zadeh, Geophysical Institute, University of Karlsruhe, GERMANY
Z. Wu, College of Earth Sciences, Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, CHINA
Co-conveners:
V. Gusiakov, Institute of Computational Mathematics and Mathematical Geophysics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, RUSSIA
J. Rundle, Center for Computational Science and Engineering and Engineering University of California, Davis, USA

Invited Speakers

1. M. GHIL (Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris, France) “Modeling and Data Assimilation in Atmospheric Sciences and Oceanography”
2. G. GLATZMAIER (University of California, Santa Cruz, USA) “Three-dimensional Simulations of Explosive Volcanic Eruptions”
3. G. PANZA (University of Trieste, Italy) “Modeling and Prediction-oriented Simulations of Hazards Bridging to Engineering”
4. T. SATO (The Earth Simulator Center, Yokohama, Japan) “Fostering the Simulation Culture”
5. Y. SHI (Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China) “Computational Geodynamics and Its Applications” (abstract is not yet submitted)
6. P. TACKLEY (ETH, Zurich, Switzerland) “High-Performance Computing in Mantle Dynamics”
7. V. TITOV (National Center for Tsunami Research, Seattle, USA) “Tsunami Modeling”
8. J. TROMP (California Institute of Technology, USA) “Adjoint Methods in Computational Seismology”

US012: Early Warning of Natural Hazards

Conveners
R. Singh, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur INDIA
D. Tang, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, CHINA
M. Buchroithner, University of Dresden, GERMANY
V. Sgrigna, University of Rome Tre, ITALY

IUGG-AOGS Session on Strategy of Reducing Predictive Uncertainty of Geophysical Hazards, 30 July - 4 August 2007, Bangkok, Thailand
IUGG-AOGS joint session “Strategy of Reducing Predictive Uncertainty of Geophysical Hazards” is organized during the Asia Pacific Geophysical Society (AOGS) Annual Convention to be held in Bangkok, Thailand from 30 July to 4 August 2007. Principal convener: K. Takeuchi, co-conveners: H. Gupta, T. Beer, and Z. Wu.
Reduction of uncertainty in prediction is a common objective of all geoscientific disciplines. Advanced observations, simulation, nonlinear mathematics, catastrophic theory, super computers, satellites etc. are the common technology available, yet waiting for break through for new generation prediction accuracy. The session brings scientific strategies of uncertainty reduction from different disciplines and compares them to find the possibility of better collaboration and joint work. It focuses on super-hazards such as 1991 Pinatubo eruption, 1998 China Floods, 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, 2005 Hurricane Katrina, 2005 Pakistan Earthquake as they are so destructive and badly need, if ever possible, prediction for survival. This session is organized jointly by IUGG GeoRisk Commission and AOGS and contributes the Hazards Theme of the International Year of Planet Earth and the UN-ISDR activities for Hyogo Framework for Action.

Workshop “Natural and Human-induced hazards and disasters in Africa”, Kampala, Uganda, August 2007
A purpose of the workshop is to promote networking between the various organizations and groups working in the field of natural hazards in Africa. This workshop is organized by the African Scoping Group on Natural and Human-Induced Hazards and Disasters, ICSU Regional Office for Africa (ICSU ROA) in the co-operation with the IUGG GeoRisk Commission. At present, ICSU ROA is spearheading efforts to mobilize the African and international scientific community to take a proactive approach on natural and human-induced disaster in Africa and interacts with governments and other bodies to help frame policies that will raise public awareness, minimize hazards and reduce people’s vulnerability to them. In addition the workshop will assess the need for developing educational materials on hazards and prompt cooperation for new initiatives in the region. In this respect, ICSU ROA will facilitate and work as an umbrella organization to bring together the GeoUnions and other international organizations to ensure that existing and new scientific knowledge is used to develop improved hazard mitigation strategies. Another aim is to facilitate participation in the Hazards team of the United Nations proclaimed International Year of Planet Earth (IYPE) in 2008. IUGG supported the GeoRisk Commission proposal toward the Kampala workshop and allocated $US2,000 to assist African young and women scientists and invited speakers to attend the workshop.

More information is available from here.

Dynamic Planet 2005, Cairns, Australia, 22-26 August, 2005

For more information about Dynamic Planet 2005 please contact the Conference Secretariat or visit the Conference web site.
A rare joint conference of the IAG, IAPSO and IABO will offer opportunities to present and discuss cross-disciplinary research into the solid earth and oceans. In fact the scientific program, under the theme “Monitoring and Understanding a Dynamic Planet with Geodetic and Oceanographic Tools”, will emphasise the interaction of the earth and oceanographic sciences. The program will be enriched by a focus on the geodetic and oceanographic challenges in the tropics, the Asian region, the Pacific Ocean and its environs, and Antarctica, all regions where Australian and New Zealand scientists, and their international collaborators, play a significant role.

The WCDR is a milestone event to increase the profile of disaster risk reduction in development planning and practice. The Conference will provide a unique opportunity to promote a strategic and systematic approach at the national level to address vulnerabilities and to reduce risk to natural hazards. Commitment to the reduction of disasters has been growing although actual materialization is still slow. Human and economic losses due to natural disasters continue to rise and remain as a major obstacle to sustainable development and achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). New risks are emerging. The WCDR is expected to guide and motivate governments and their policy makers to pay more attention to such vital issues, identifying practical ways to incorporate risk reduction measures into action to reduce poverty.

The Conference will build on the findings of the review of the implementation of the Yokohama Strategy and Plan of Action of 1994, aiming at:
- Assessing achievements and identifying good practices;
- Defining the remaining challenges, critical needs and opportunities in disaster reduction initiatives worldwide and examining emerging issues; and,
- Developing a set of objectives and areas of action for disaster risk reduction to implement the objectives of the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation for Sustainable Development, as essential conditions to achieve the relevant Millennium Development Goals (MDG's).

For more information, please visit www.unisdr.org/wcdr