12:00 PM - 12:15 PM
[U06-11] Recent history of IAVCEI in Japan and young researchers’ response to IUGG and IAVCEI
Keywords:IAVCEI, IUGG, geohazard, SDGs
Japanese volcano researchers, especially young scientists, do not recognize well the relationship of IAVCEI with IUGG. IUGG is less visible than IAVCEI to them. The latter used to be introduced first as the international conference that they can challenge. IAVCEI is visible also in the Volcanological Society of Japan (VSJ) of which they are members. Japanese researchers served as the executive board members of IAVCEI, such as its presidents by Hisashi Kuno, Shigeo Aramaki, and Setsuya Nakada for these 100 years. Scientific Assemblies of IAVCEI were held in Japan in 1962, 1981, and 2013. The Cities on Volcanoes (COV) is the second largest international conference of IAVCEI, held every two years between the years of IAVCEI Scientific Assembly and IUGG General Assembly since 1998. COV conference originates from the International Volcano Conference, which was held in the Kagoshima City in 1988, as a forum between scientists and non-scientists for mitigating volcanic disasters. The fifth COV conference was held in the Shimabara City in 2007.
In spite of the fact that IUGG General Assembly was held in Sapporo in 2003, it seems that IUGG has not become well known among young, possibly middle-aged volcano researchers. For example, recent IAVCEI Science Assembly gathers over 1000 participants, while there are only about 300 participants at General Assemble of IAVCEI when IUGG. The latter number is much smaller than around 1000 participants of recent COV. Though one of the reasons may be few excursions for volcanologists, organized in IUGG conferences, it is likely that a simple reason is the size of fields covered by the conferences. Each association itself is wide in fields enough and the assemble of 8 associations will be too wide for young researchers to attend. They may feel not comfortable like business even in AGU and EGU, contrasting to comfort in own associational conference.
This may be similar to the relationship between JpGU and individual national societies. We have to confirm and share the merit of assemblage of large international associations having fields related to but different from each other. In addition, roles of government-contributing organization like IUGG and International Science Council (ISC) should be confirmed among us. In this case, increasing the number of participants to the conference is not the first priority. Global climate change and regional geological hazards such as large earthquakes and volcanic eruptions have become worldwide high priority issues to reduce the risks. Under this situation, the United Nation clarified the sustainable development goals (SDGs) until 2030, therefore, the missions by IUGG and ISC, which are guaranteed by governments, have expanded to solve these issues.
In spite of the fact that IUGG General Assembly was held in Sapporo in 2003, it seems that IUGG has not become well known among young, possibly middle-aged volcano researchers. For example, recent IAVCEI Science Assembly gathers over 1000 participants, while there are only about 300 participants at General Assemble of IAVCEI when IUGG. The latter number is much smaller than around 1000 participants of recent COV. Though one of the reasons may be few excursions for volcanologists, organized in IUGG conferences, it is likely that a simple reason is the size of fields covered by the conferences. Each association itself is wide in fields enough and the assemble of 8 associations will be too wide for young researchers to attend. They may feel not comfortable like business even in AGU and EGU, contrasting to comfort in own associational conference.
This may be similar to the relationship between JpGU and individual national societies. We have to confirm and share the merit of assemblage of large international associations having fields related to but different from each other. In addition, roles of government-contributing organization like IUGG and International Science Council (ISC) should be confirmed among us. In this case, increasing the number of participants to the conference is not the first priority. Global climate change and regional geological hazards such as large earthquakes and volcanic eruptions have become worldwide high priority issues to reduce the risks. Under this situation, the United Nation clarified the sustainable development goals (SDGs) until 2030, therefore, the missions by IUGG and ISC, which are guaranteed by governments, have expanded to solve these issues.