On behalf of the Geodetic Society of Japan, the Seismological Society of Japan (SSJ), and the IAG-IASPEI 2017 Local Organizing Committee, we would like to invite you to the Joint Scientific Assembly of the International Association of Geodesy (IAG) and International Association of Seismology and Physics of the Earth’s Interior (IASPEI) to be held in Kobe, Japan from July 30 through August 4, 2017.
The city of Kobe experienced devastating earthquake in 1995. But 20 years after it, it is our pleasure to have the scientific assembly accommodating a wide variety of research -fields of geodesy and seismology in the city that has completely recovered.
The development in our knowledge of earthquake in the last 20 years largely depends on the drastic improvement of observation and network system. For example, deployment of nation-wide seismological and geodetic network in Japan with more than 1,000 stations lead new and important discoveries such as slow earthquakes and non-volcanic tremors that play important roles preparatory process of earthquakes. The networks, together with newly developed sea-floor geodetic observation, provided invaluable datasets at the 2011 Tohoku earthquake to unveil essential features of great interplate earthquakes, although it caused a huge damage and tremendous loss of lives along the Japanese northeastern coasts. The Headquarters of Earthquake Research Promotion, which established 20 years ago, has a role to promote earthquake science to mitigate disasters owing to earthquakes. It also evaluates national seismic hazards as well as monthly seismic activities to disseminate the knowledge of earthquakes and their risks.
The venue, Kobe International Convention Center are located in Port island, easily accessible with new transport system “Port Liner” from downtown Kobe. Travel to/from Kobe is easy with various public and private rail service, which provides a rapid access to Kansai International Airport, a major gateway to Japan. Very frequent high-speed train service (Shinkansen), connecting major cities in Japan, is also available in Kobe. The Kobe International Convention Center, having capacity to accommodate more than 1,500 participants, provides a comfortable environment for scientific meeting. We look forward to meeting you in Kobe in 2017