6th International Conference on Forensic Geotechnical Engineering (ICFGE), 10-12 Dec 2020, New Delhi, INDIA

Forensic geotechnical engineering (FGE) involves scientific, legalistic investigations and deductions to detect the causes as well as the process of distress in a structure, which are attributed to geotechnical origin. Such a critical analysis will provide answers to “what went wrong, when, where, why, how, and by whom”. Cases of remedied installations, particularly those which fall under public or government category, where the analysis and evaluation of adopted remedial measures with regard to their effectiveness and economy fall under this purview. FGE also gives strong inputs to improve analysis and design processes. This conference aims to develop a comprehensive framework for forensic engineering procedures and post-failure reconnaissance studies of disaster management.

The International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE) constituted a Technical Committee (TC) on Forensic Geotechnical Engineering (FGE) in 2005. During the first four years it was designated as TC40 and is now designated as TC302. This committee conducted five international seminars on FGE and is now organizing the sixth conference during December 10-12, 2020 at IIT Delhi, India. Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Indian Geotechnical Society Delhi Chapter together with TC 302 of ISSMGE are organizing the event. The theme of the event is “Forensic Geotechnical Engineering & Geo-Disaster Documentation”. The conference is supported by SPARC (Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration) of Government of India on the project “Advanced Technologies for Post-Disasters Reconnaissance, Forensic and Environmental Impact Studies - Geotechnical” which is a collaborative project among IIT Delhi, IISc, Bengaluru, Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, University of California, Davis and University of Cambridge.

This conference runs concurrently with the multidisciplinary mega event: 5th World Congress on Disaster Management (5WCDM).
The conference will develop mechanisms for strengthening collaboration between research and knowledge-based institutions as well as practitioners in the regions. It will evolve strategies for training, capacity development on the importance of disaster countermeasures and response preparedness in the regions by using advanced technologies for risk analysis mapping to a greater extent and to help address the deployment of research and analytical tools that leads to effective understanding of the data and its management. Understanding failures and natural disasters is one of the aspects of Forensic Geotechnical Engineering (FGE) and consists of following steps.

• Collection of Data
• Distress Characterization
• Development of Failure Hypothesis
• Diagnostic Tests
• Back Analysis
• Technical Shortcomings
• Legal Issues
• Use of Observational Methods
• Risk and Reliability Analysis
• Case Histories

Keynote lectures and invited lectures from experts in the area apart from presentation of contributed papers will form the technical program. Contributions highlighting the geotechnical and geo-environmental failures due to natural or manmade hazards, importance of codal provisions and their improvements, challenges in geo-disaster documentation, approaches or postfailure reconnaissance studies on vulnerability and risk analysis of geohazards etc are welcome. In the conference the following topics of interest for submission include, but are not limited to:

Geotechnical And Geoenvironmental Failure Studies & Development of Remedial Measures.

• Advanced 3D Mapping Techniques in Post-Failure Reconnaissance Studies of Disaster Management.
• Evaluation of Ground Failures Due to Rainfall Impact and Earthquakes.
• Post-Failure Reconnaissance Studies on Vulnerability   ond Risk Analysis Of Geohazards.
• Vulnerability of Slopes and the Challenges of Disaster Management
• Comprehensive Study Involving Geological, Geotechnical and Geophysical Investigations for Landslides
• Mathematical modelling of active landslides
• Multiplex Sensor Network System for Landslide Monitoring and Implementation
• Role of Geomatics Technologies in Geotechnical Studies.
• Methods in Hazard & Risk Assessment of Geohazards.
• Post Disaster Recovery & Management: Governance Issues Related to Post Disaster Relief & Rescue.
• Use of Machine Learning, Internet of Things, Data Analytics approaches
• Reconstruction & Rehabilitation Strategies

Academicians & Professionals from all over the world are invited to participate/present and publish their research papers in the International Conference on any of the aforesaid themes. The accepted papers will be published as the proceedings of the seminar. The length of the paper should preferably in the range of 10-12 pages and conform to ISSMGE conferences format.

Important Dates:
Last date for submission of abstracts: 30th June 2020

Last date for intimation of acceptance of abstracts: 30th August 2020

Last date for submission of full-length papers: 31st October 2020

Acceptance of full-length papers for publication: 10th Nov 2020

Conference dates:    10th - 12th  December 2020

Abstracts/Full-length papers should be sent to  [email protected]

Registration Fee: 

Delegates from India and SAARC:    INR 6000

Delegates from other countries:     USD 500