4ICEGE - Thessaloniki, Greece, 25th-28th June 2007

• 600 delegates (47 countries)

• Hosted by the Hellenic Scientific Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering and Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

• Conference Chair: Kyriazis Pitilakis

The Fourth International Conference on Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering was held in Thessaloniki – Greece, from 25-28 June 2007. The Conference was organized by the Technical Committee of Earthquake Geotechnical Engineering (TC4) of the International Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE), the Hellenic Scientific Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering and Aristotle University of Thessaloniki - Laboratory of Soil Mechanics, Foundation and Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering. More than 600 participants attended the Conference from 47 countries. The attendees included a vast majority of world experts in soil dynamics, earthquake engineering, geotechnical engineering, earthquake geotechnical engineering and other related topics.

The conference covered numerous state-of-the-art topics. In 4ICEGE THESSALONIKI 2007 earthquake and geotechnical engineers, geologists and seismologists, researchers, academia, and professional engineers from all over the world found an excellent forum for sharing and discussing the most recent advances in soil dynamics, earthquake and geotechnical engineering, as well as their interaction with geology and engineering seismology. Twenty invited keynote and theme lecturers were presented and discussed recent and ongoing developments, addressing unresolved issues and projecting ideas for the future, 

The second Ishihara Lecture was delivered by Professor Izzat M. Idriss of the University of California at Davis (UCD) on the SPT- and CPT-Based procedures for estimating residual strength of liquefied soils. Keynote lectures were given by Professors D.Muir-Wood (UK),  E. Faccioli (Italy),  G. Gazetas (Greece),  R. Dobry (USA), S. Iai (Japan), and Professor Th.O’Rourke (USA). State of the art and theme lectures were delivered by Professors T. Kokusho (Japan), A. Ansal (Turkey), K. Stokoe (USA), F-J. Chavez-Garcia (Mexico), M.Pender (New Zealand), G. Bouckovalas (Greece),  P.Dakoulas (Greece),  R.Boulanger (USA), J. Bray (USA),  I.Towhata (Japan), A. Kiremidjian (USA),  S.Yasuda (Japan),  R. Paoluci (Italy) and K. Pitilakis (Greece). Invited lectures were also given by Professor M. Jamiolkowsky (Italy) on the Behavior of the leaning Tower of Pisa after stabilization works and by Professor R.Seed (USA) on Lessons from disaster: New Orleans and hurricane Katrina.

420 papers from 40 countries, including Albania, Algeria, Argentina, Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Egypt, France, FYROM, Germany, Greece, India, Iran, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Korea, Lebanon, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, Singapore, Slovenia, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States and Venezuela, have finally been accepted for publication after a thorough reviewing process. They were presented and discussed in the following 12 oral and poster sessions:  (1)Soil Dynamics I, (2) Seismic Hazard, Wave Propagation and Strong Ground Motion, (3) Soil Dynamics II, (4) Site Effects and Microzonation, (5) Foundations and Soil-Structure Interaction I, (6) Dynamic Analysis of Structures and Performance of Soil-Structure Systems, (7) Foundations and Soil-Structure Interaction II, (8) Slopes, Embankments, Dams and Earth-Structures, (9) Retaining Structures, (10) Seismic Design of Infrastructures, Vulnerability, Codes, (11) Soil Liquefaction and Countermeasures and (12)Lifelines and Underground Structures. One third of the papers have been presented orally and the rest in special poster sessions. Poster papers have been summarized and discussed by the panellists of the sessions. 

Four workshops on selected topics of particular engineering and societal interest included in parallel sessions on the fourth day of the conference and followed by round table discussions, aiming to broaden the horizons of the earthquake and geotechnical engineering community, to discuss specific important subject of professional interests and to reinforce cooperation links: The titles of the workshops are following:

• Workshop 1: “Large scale facilities, geotechnical strong ground motion arrays and experimental sites”, coordinated by Professor Ahmed Elgamal (USA).

• Workshop 2: “Geotechnical earthquake engineering related to monuments and historic centres”, coordinatated by Professor Kyriazis Pitilakis (Greece) and Dr Christos Tsatsanifos (Greece).

• Workshop 3: “Recent advances in codes”, coordinated by Professor A.Pecker (France).

• Workshop 4: “How can earthquake geotechnical engineering contribute to safer design of structures to resist earthquakes?”, coordinated by Professor P. Seco e Pinto, President of ISSMGE (Portugal).

The plenary meeting of TC4 was held in Thessaloniki where the chairmen of TC4 Professors T.Kokusho and A.Ansal presented the progress report on the past activities. Professor R.Verdugo from Chile presented the candidacy of Santiago in Chile for the next 5th International Conference on Earthquake Geotechnical Engineering which has been voted in unanimity.   

On the occasion of 4ICEGE a special session was also devoted to the Annual Shamsher Prakash Research Awards. The winners were Jonathan Stewart (USA) and Mitsu Okamura (Japan).

A commercial exhibition displayed some of the most important and active companies with geotechnical equipment and services available for researchers and professional engineers.

The proceedings of the conference include (a) a book published by Springer (ISBN 978-1-4020-5892-9) containing the invited keynote and theme lectures, (b) an abstract volume and a CD-ROM with the 420 papers of the conference, and (c) an extra CD-ROM with papers of the workshops, and other delayed papers.