Landslide Geo-Education and Risk (LaGER) 2026 - JTC1 & JTC3 workshop

The New Zealand Geotechnical Society is delighted, on behalf of Joint Technical Committees 1 and 3, to invite you to the First International Joint Workshop of JTC1 and JTC3 on Landslide Geo-Education and Risk in Queenstown New Zealand, a hotspot for tourism surrounded by beautiful landscapes and many landslides.

Landslides are one of New Zealand’s most significant natural hazards. Since 1760 there have been at least 1,500 deaths from landslides in New Zealand. More fatalities have occurred from landslides than from earthquakes, volcanic activity and tsunami combined over the last 160 years. Queenstown is particularly vulnerable, making it an ideal venue for a conference about landslides. More than 50% of the land around the town is mapped as known landslides, with the underlying quartzofeldspathic schist very susceptible to deep seated failures.

Our theme brings together the full lifecycle of landslide risk management. It encompasses the need to educate the next generation of landslide risk managers, the need to robustly understand landslide risk, and the need to communicate that risk to the public and decision-makers so that real change is implemented. We believe that bringing together JTC1 and JTC3 to work together on landslide risk assessment, education, communication and outreach is a great opportunity to create real change.

The workshop will give you the opportunity to hear about and provide your expertise to inform important research and applied projects underway in New Zealand. These include:

• Sliding Lands – a five-year research programme to create national-scale landslide models that can forecast where rapid and dangerous landslides are likely to be triggered by earthquakes and rainfall events.
• Landslide Watch – a five-year research project that aims to move away from expensive local reactive (post-event) in-situ monitoring to pro-active (pre-event) space-based observation.
• Landside Risk Management Guidelines – a two-year project to develop best-practice guidelines for undertaking landslide risk assessments.
• Geo-Education Development – aligning with the re-launch of the University of Canterbury Professional Master of Engineering Geology to develop education and outreach material.

Running from 28 April to 1 May 2026, the draft programme includes:

• A day of training courses related to landslide risk, education and communication
• A day of workshops and presentations focused on susceptibility and data
• A day of workshops and presentations focused on risk and policy
• A day of workshops and presentations focused on outreach and education
• A series of high-quality field trips

More details are available on the conference website. Register your interest on the conference website to stay informed about registration and other
conference updates.