There has been a significant progress in the field of landslide science in recent years. This progress can be attributed to the development of field monitoring and remote sensing technology, development of robust devices for monitoring of landslides as well as field and laboratory testing, availability of highly precision sensors, development of large scale physical modelling facilities, development of high precision and high speed computational infrastructure, 2D to 4D numerical simulation programs, availability of high resolution remote sensing imagery and data processing capabilities, and many other factors. This volume of the WLF4 will include the recent advancements made in the research and implementation pertinent to the above mentioned activities in the past couple of years.

SESSION 2.1 – LANDSLIDE FIELD RECOGNITION & IDENTIFICATION: REMOTE SENSING TECHNIQUES, FIELD TECHNIQUES (24 papers)
Conveners: Mateja Jemec Auflič (Slovenia), Netra Prakash Bhandary (Japan), Filippo Catani (Italy), A A Virajh Dias (Sri Lanka), Ping Lu (China)

1. An overview of the recent developments and research studies in landslide field recognition and identification techniques, including but not limited to various remote sensing techniques, field investigation methods, etc.
2. Keynote and invited papers on recent research and development pertinent to the landslide field recognition and identification techniques.
3. Individual papers pertinent to research studies and application of various remote sensing techniques available in practice.
4. Individual papers pertinent to various investigation techniques pertinent to landslide recognition and identification at a micro and macro scale.

SESSION 2.2 – LANDSLIDE INVESTIGATION: FIELD INVESTIGATIONS, LABORATORY TESTING (25 papers)
Conveners: Beena Ajmera (USA), Netra Prakash Bhandary (Japan), Luciano Picarelli (Italy), Kaixi Xue (China)

1. An overview of recent development at research and application of landslide investigation techniques, both in the field and laboratory levels.
2. Keynote and invited papers on recent advances in field and laboratory based landslide investigation techniques.
3. Individual papers pertinent to various in-situ landslide investigation methods.
4. Individual papers pertinent to various large and small scale laboratory based landslide investigation methods, such as laboratory testing of soils and rocks.

SESSION 2.3 – LANDSLIDE MODELING: LANDSLIDE MECHANICS AND SIMULATION MODELS (21 papers)
Conveners: Binod Tiwari (USA), He Bin (China), Adrian Tohari (Indonesia), Ye-Ming Zhang (China)

1. An overview of the recent developments and research studies pertinent to physical and numerical modeling related to landslides causes, mechanism and remediation techniques.
2. Keynote and invited papers on recent research and development pertinent to the physical and numerical modeling for landslide causes, mechanism and remediation.
3. Individual papers pertinent to research studies and application of various physical modeling techniques related to landslide causes, mechanism, and remediation.
4. Individual papers pertinent to research studies and application of various numerical modeling techniques related to landslide causes, mechanism, and remediation.

SESSION 2.4 – LANDSLIDE HAZARD, RISK ASSESSMENT & PREDICTION: LANDSLIDE INVENTORIES & SUSCEPTIBILITY, HAZARD MAPPING METHODS, DAMAGE POTENTIAL (50 papers)
Conveners: Snježana Mihalić Arbanas (Croatia), Basanta Raj Adhikari (Nepal), Fausto Guzzetti (Italy), Huabin Wang (China)

1. An overview of the recent developments and research studies pertinent to landslide hazards, risk assessment and prediction techniques.
2. Keynote and invited papers on recent research and development pertinent to the landslide hazards, risk assessment and prediction techniques.
3. Individual papers pertinent to research studies and application of LS inventories and identification of landslide susceptibility.
4. Individual papers pertinent to research studies and application of various landslide hazard mapping techniques available in practice.
5. Individual papers pertinent to research studies and application of various techniques to identify the damage potential due to landslides.

The development of technology used in landslide identification, analyses, monitoring, prediction and remediation improved landslide science during last decades. In landslides risk reduction and sustainable disaster management, the main roles have three closely connected elements: monitoring, prediction and warning of landslides. Predictions of landslide occurrences are based on a deep understanding of all processes which lead to the slope failures in relationships with available measured monitoring data. Early warning system, based on landslide monitoring and prediction, is the most economical landslide risk reduction measure. Despite the significant advancement in landslides science, technology and landslide risk preparedness, the occurrences of landslide disaster are still numerous, unexpected and deadly in different reliefs and geological conditions over the world. The purpose of landslide stabilization and remediation measures is to ensure permanent stability of the slope against current and reasonably possible conditions in the slope. The successful application of each performed measure depends on correct recognition during the investigation of the specific soil and groundwater conditions in the field and application in the remediation design and each landslide stabilization design should be an original consideration about landslide geometry, active forces, soil or rock strength, and their development in time using innovative technologies.

This volume of WLF4 will include the states of the art, the best practice techniques and overall experiences on monitoring, prediction and warning of landslides caused by different triggering factors in different parts of the world. Case studies about landslide disasters under different circumstances from all aspects of landslide praxis are also welcome. Well documented consideration, analyses and design descriptions used in landslide reduction, mitigation and remediation are expected as contributions to this volume.

SESSION 3.1 – LANDSLIDE MONITORING AND WARNING: MONITORING TECHNIQUES AND TECHNOLOGIES, EARLY WARNING SYSTEMS (41 papers)
Conveners: Željko Arbanas (Croatia), Matteo Berti (Italy), Byung-Gon Chae (Korea), Hyuck-Jin Park (Korea), Veronica Tofani (Italy), Gonghui Wang (Japan/China)

1. A state-of-the-art report of the recent developments and research studies in landslide monitoring techniques and technologies and early warning systems, including various remote sensing techniques.
2. Keynote and invited papers on recent research and development pertinent to the landslide monitoring techniques and technologies and early warning systems.
3. Individual papers pertinent to research studies and application of various landslide monitoring techniques and technologies available in practice.
4. Individual papers pertinent to various investigation techniques pertinent to landslide early warning systems.

SESSION 3.2 – LANDSLIDE DISASTERS AND RELIEF: CASE STUDIES, EMERGENCY MEASURES, FIRST AID, CIVIL PROTECTION MEASURES (6 papers)
Conveners: Faisal Fathani (Indonesia), Biljana Abolmasov (Serbia), Francisco Dourado (Brasil)

1. An overview of recent landslide disasters in the word.
2. Keynote and invited papers on recent landslide disasters in the world.
3. Individual papers pertinent to case studies of landslide disasters and occurrences in the world.
4. Individual papers pertinent to case studies of activities related to landslide post-disaster emergency measures, first aid, civil protection measures etc.

SESSION 3.3 – LANDSLIDE MITIGATION, REMEDIATION AND STABILIZATION: LANDSLIDE PROTECTION WORKS, LANDSLIDE STABILIZATION AND REMEDIATION, LANDSLIDE NON-STRUCTURAL MEASURES (20 papers)
Conveners:  Janko Logar (Slovenia), Che Hassandi Abdulah (Malaysia), Fei Cai (Japan), Sabatino Cuomo (Italy)

1. A state-of-the-art report of the recent developments and research studies pertinent to landslide mitigation, remediation and stabilization.
2. Keynote and invited papers on recent research and development pertinent to landslide mitigation, remediation and stabilization.
3. Individual papers pertinent to research studies and application of various methods for landslide mitigation, remediation and stabilization.
4. Individual papers pertinent to research studies and application of various non-structural methods for landslide mitigation, remediation and stabilization.

The term “landslide” describes a wide variety of processes that result in the downward and outward movement of slope-forming materials including rock, debris, soil, artificial fill, or a combination of these. The various types of landslides can be differentiated for example by the kinds of material involved, the mode of movement and velocity.

Landslide occurrence varies according to different causes such as topographic profile, geology, tectonic history, weathering and erosion history and land use and triggers such an intense rainfall event, an earthquake, a volcanic eruption, a storm wave, or rapid stream erosion.

Landslides and other types of natural hazards such as floods, droughts, wildfires, tsunamis, and volcanoes can be strongly correlated to the so-called cascade effects.

This WLF4 volume will include recent research achievements related to different landslide types in terms of typology, material and triggering factors. This volume will include also research outcomes made on the relationship between landslides and other natural hazards.

SESSION 4.1 – EARTHQUAKE-INDUCED LANDSLIDES (14 papers)
Conveners: Kazuo Konagai (Japan), Gabriele Scarascia Mugnozza (Italy), Akihiko Wakai (Japan)

1. An state-of-the-art report on the more recent developments in Earthquake-Induced Landslides studies, including teoretical and pratictal outcomes both from in field and laboratories experiences and analysis of the processes and mechanisms.
2. Keynote and invited papers on the most recent and innovative studies on characterization, monitoring and modelling of slopes threatened by Earthquake-Induced Landslides.
3. Individual papers pertinent to the assessment of the hazard of Earthquake-Induced Landslides at different levels ranging from regional studies to the site-specific evaluation of individual slopes.
4. Individual papers related to the evaluation of the risk assessment, management and mitigation of earthquake-induced landslides, including, but not limited to, geological, geomorphological, geotechnical, hydrogeological and economical approaches using empirical, deterministic and statistical methodologies.
5. Individual papers concerning instrumentation, monitoring technologies, prediction and early warning systems for Earthquake-Induced Landslides.

SESSION 4.2 – RAINFALL-INDUCED LANDSLIDES (27 papers)
Conveners: Hiroshi Fukuoka (Japan), Dalia Kirschbaum (USA), Jean Philippe Malet (France), Pasquale Versace (Italy)

1. A state-of-the-art report on the more recent advances and researches in the field of Rainfall-Induced Landslides, including field investigation and monitoring, hazard assessment, risk management and design practices of stabilizing actions.
2. Keynote and invited papers on the most innovative research approaches and applications of methods for the analysis of Rainfall-Induced Landslides from predisposing factors and triggering causes up to geographic and societal implications.
3. Individual papers related to the development of numerical modelling for the analysis of the landslide initiation, propagation and spreading.
4. Individual papers on techniques for susceptibility and hazard assessment with deterministic and statistical approaches ranging from slope scale to regional scale and considering different geological, geotechnical and climatic settings.
5. Individual papers on risk assessment and management strategies, including empirical and physically-based thresholds, monitoring techniques, early warning systems, prevention/mitigation activities and public policies.

SESSION 4.3 – RAPID LANDSLIDES: DEBRIS FLOWS, MUDFLOWS, RAPID DEBRIS-SLIDES (11 papers)
Conveners: Giovanni Battista Crosta (Italy), Oldrich Hungr (Canada), Hirotaka Ochiai (Japan)

1. A state-of-the-art report of the more recent developments and research studies in the field of rapid landslides, including field investigation and monitoring, numerical modelling, hazard investigation, development of early warning systems and design of countermeasures.
2. Keynote and invited papers on the most recent and innovative research approaches for the analysis of the rapid landslides.
3. Individual papers concerning the development of numerical modelling for the analysis of landslide initiation, flowing and deposition.
4. Individual papers on risk management strategy, including monitoring techniques, early warning systems and design of countermeasures.
5. Individual papers on in-situ and laboratory experiments for the collection of data on rapid landslides and calibration/validation of models.

SESSION 4.4 – LANDSLIDES IN ROCKS AND COMPLEX LANDSLIDES: ROCK TOPPLES, ROCK FALLS, ROCK SLIDES, COMPLEX LANDSLIDES (13 papers)
Conveners: Mauri McSaveney (New Zealand), Erick Eberhart (Canada), Paolo Frattini (Italy), Michael Jaboyedoff (Switzerland), Jan Klimeš (Czech Republic), Simon Loew (Switzerland)

1. A state-of-the-art report of the more recent advancements and findings in the Rocks and Complex Landslides studies, including field and laboratory investigations, monitoring methods, modelling processes, hazard prediction techniques, early warning systems and risk mitigation methods.
2. Keynote or invited papers on the most innovative research approaches for the identification and analysis of the Rocks and Complex Landslides at different spatial and temporal scales.
3. Individual papers on in-situ and laboratory experiments for the landslide data collection and material characterization including invasive and not invasive techniques: geotechnical and hydrogeological analysis, remote sensing approaches, geophysical techniques.
4. Individual papers concerning the identification and investigation of the preparatory factors leading to slope failure and the dynamic modelling of the post failure behavior in the spatial distribution and movement intensity.
5. Individual papers on risk management approaches, including monitoring techniques, early warning systems and countermeasures design both as prevention and as post-event solution.

SESSION 4.5 – LANDSLIDES AND OTHER NATURAL HAZARDS: FLOODS, DROUGHTS, WILDFIRES, TSUNAMIS, VOLCANOES (8 papers)
Conveners: Peter Bobrowsky (Canada), Behzad Ataie-Ashtiani (Iran),  Mario Parise (Italy), Fawu Wang (Japan)

1. A state-of-the-art report of the more recent developments and research studies on landslides and other natural hazards.
2. Keynote and invited papers on the most recent and innovative research approaches for the analysis of the interaction between landslides and other natural hazards.
3. Individual papers related to the characterization and analysis of the natural hazard deriving, as cascade effect, from landslides (e.g. floods and tsunamis) or causing landslides during a subsequent domino effect (e.g. droughts and wildfires).
4. Individual papers concerning landslides on volcanoes: collapses influenced by volcanic activities and collapses not induced by the inner magmatic motion or external emission of juvenile material.

The main goal of this session is to draw attention to the different variety of landslides with respect to communities, infrastructure and cultural heritage. Landslides in the natural environment will be covered as well, including all forms of aquatic environments. Recent progress in dating techniques has greatly improved the ability to determine the age of various types of landslides. Another challenge is to relate established landslide chronologies to regional paleo-environmental changes (e.g. paleo-seismic events, deglaciation, climatic changes, and human-induced deforestation). We would also like to draw attention to the variety of landslides in the context of different climatic zones, geomorphological and geotechnical settings and triggering factors, in order to gain better knowledge of the possibilities of mitigation and risk management.

SESSION 5.1 – LANDSLIDE INTERACTIONS WITH THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT (17 papers)
Conveners: Mike Winter (United Kingdom), Tom Dijkstra (United Kingdom), Janusz Wasowski (Italy)

1. An overview of methodologies and techniques used to identify devastating effects on buildings, infrastructure and large engineering works as well as cultural heritage.
2. Keynote and invited papers on most recent progress in this topic.
3. Individual papers from risk analysis and resilience to socio-economic aspects.
4. Individual papers describing the devastating effects, which could be used for education and future scientific and technological progress.

SESSION 5.2 – LANDSLIDES IN NATURAL ENVIRONMENT (6 papers)
Conveners: Jan Klimeš (Czech Republic), Ying Guo (China), Juan Carlos Loaiza (Colombia)

1. An overview of methodologies and techniques used to analyse individual case studies from different natural environment (various climatic zones – e.g. tropical environment, alpine mountains, cold regions).
2. Keynote and invited papers on recent research progress on landslides in the natural environment.
3. Individual papers related to natural hazard analysis from different environments which predetermine a large variety of slope movements.
4. Individual papers which stress triggering factors or regional aspects.

SESSION 5.3 – LANDSLIDES AND WATER (9 papers)
Conveners: Patrick Wassmer (France), Giovanna Capparelli (Italy), Timotej Verbovšek (Slovenia), Vít Vilímek (Czech Republic)

1. An overview of methodologies and techniques used for landslide analysis associated with the aquatic environment (e.g. rivers and reservoirs, submarine and costal landslides, landslide-induced tsunamis).
2. Keynote and invited papers on recent research progress in this topic.
3. Individual papers related to landslide mitigation and risk management.
4. Individual papers associated with the large variety of predisposing factors of the aquatic environment.

SESSION 5.4 – LANDSLIDES AS ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE PROXIES: LOOKING AT THE PAST (8 papers)
Conveners: Tomáš Pánek (Czech Republic), Jan Hradecký (Czech Republic), Bjoern Kalsnes (Norway), Marko Komac (Slovenia)

1. An overview of methodologies and techniques used for landslide analysis in the context of environmental changes.
2. Keynote and invited papers on recent research progress on landslides as proxies of past climate change related to paleo-earthquakes and human-induced paleo-environmental changes.
3. Individual papers related to landslide chronologies and paleo-landslides, especially related to past environmental change.
4. Individual papers related to changes in the frequency and magnitude of landslides.
5. Individual papers related to landslide dating using historical documentary sources and tree-ring dated mass movements – high resolution datasets from the past few centuries.

Any photo showing the variety of landslide forms and their interaction with human activities, infrastructure, and landscape is invited to be submitted to this Photo Contest. Each photo should have also a short explanation, describing the landslide on the photo and giving its location, causes/triggering factors and consequences. A Word template will be offered for this purpose.
The photos should be submitted to one of the three categories:
1. Landslides from above (aerial photos).
2. Impacts of Landslides on infrastructure of any art.
3. Landslides and Mankind.
A selection of 20 photos in each category made by a four-member jury will be exhibited during the Forum in the WLF4 Photo Exhibition. The best photos in each category will be selected by additional voting of the Forum participants during the Forum. The authors of the three best photos in each category will receive practical awards sponsored by Nikon CEE GmbH during the Forum Closing Ceremony on Friday June 2, 2017.