The Eleventh Asian Regional Conference On ISSMGE

16-20 August 1999

Seoul, Korea

 

The Eleventh Asian Regional Conference (ARC) of the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE) was held in Seoul, Korea from 16 to 20 August 1999. Over 500 participants from 27 countries attended the conference. The NUS was represented by a delegation of 4 staff members from the Department of Civil Engineering.

 

The keynote lectures were delivered by the following eminent geotechnical engineers: Prof K Ishihara of Japan, President of the ISSMGE, on “Lateral flow-affected pile behaviour as interpreted by a simple model; Prof S-K Kim of Korea, Vice President of Asia for the ISSMGE, on “Overview of Geotechnical Engineering in Korea before 1900”; Prof H G Poulos of Australia on “Geotechnical education for 2000 and beyond”; and by Prof R K Bhandari of India on “Natural disasters in Asia and the IDNDR Stimulus”. In addition, there were 6 theme lectures delivered by well-known geotechnical researchers including Prof M Kamon and Prof O Kusakabe of Japan and Prof S Prakash of the USA. The geotechnical aspects of two major Korean projects, /graphics/ly the Seoul Metropolitan Subway and the New Inchon International Airport were presented in 2 Special Reports. The conference proper was organized in Discussion Sessions on the topics of the 6 theme lectures. Prof S L Lee and Assoc Prof K Y Yong of NUS were invited as Discussor and Panelist respectively for the Discussion Session on “Earth structures and slopes”.

 

 

During the conference, several technical committees of the ISSMGE took the opportunity to organize special sessions. These included TC-20 on Professional Practice and TC-9 on Geosynthetics and Earth Reinforcement. On behalf of the Southeast Asian Geotechnical Society, the NUS submitted a bid to host the 12^th ARC in Singapore in the year 2003. The bid was strongly supported by the Singapore Exhibition and Convention Bureau which sponsored a booth at the Conference Exhibition (see photograph) to display “GeoASIA 21: Geotechnical Infrastructure for the New Millennium” as the proposed theme for the next ARC. The venue for the 12^th ARC was decided at the Asian Representative Meeting held on 19 August 1999. The Indian representative first made a presentation to propose the 12^th ARC be held in Bangalore in December 2003. Assoc Prof Yong next made a presentation to showcase Singapore as an ideal choice for the 12^th ARC. A ballot was then conducted to decide the venue and Singapore won the bid narrowly by 7 votes to 5. Singapore was formally announced as the venue for the 12^th ARC during the Conference Closing Ceremony on 20 August 1999 and a video provided by the Singapore Tourism Board was shown to the participants to encourage them to come to Singapore for the 12^th ARC in the year 2003.