Report for New Zealand – October 2023
In October of this year I had the privilege of attending the 15th ISRM International Congress in Salzburg, Austria as country representative for New Zealand. Attended by over 1400 people, the Congress is ISRM’s flagship event and is held every four years. The location was fitting as ISRM was founded by Leopold Muller and others in Salzburg in 1960, marking the emergence of rock mechanics as a geotechnical discipline in its own right. The city also provided a breath-taking backdrop to the Congress with its dramatic natural setting, beautiful old town and rich history.
The ISRM Board and the various technical commissions met immediately prior to the Congress. The ISRM Council meeting of all country representatives was also held with over fifty of the fifty-nine member countries represented in person. The ISRM has a current membership of 9306, an all-time high, with Asia the fastest growing region. The Congress also represents the changeover of the ISRM Board and commencement of office of the new President Elect. Professor Seokwon Jeong for South Korea has assumed leadership of the Society from immediate past-president Professor Resat Ulusay. International vice presidents, who all have a seat on the ISRM Board, were also elected at the Council meeting. Professor Qian-bing Zhang from Monash University was elected un-opposed as new ISRM vice-president for Australasia and will hold office for the next four years. New VPs were also selected for Asia, North America, South America, Europe and Africa. A number of speakers acknowledged the achievements of others and highlighted some of the issues currently top of mind within ISRM. These included initiatives to attract new and younger members, the debate around provision of conference proceedings as open source, and a resolve for closer co-operation with the International Tunnelling Society (ITS) in response to the ever-increasing importance of underground works in the development of communities and nations.
A prestigious line-up of keynote speakers included Professor Derek Martin who presented the Muller Lecture (Stress Paths, Stiffness and Mobilised Strength in Rock Masses) and the FEDIGS Lecture by Dr Vassilis Marinos on behalf of IAEG. This year’s Rocha Medal recipient Dr Jun Zhao of China also presented his research (Time-dependent failure mechanisms and long-term stability of hard rock in deep buried tunnels).
The Congress had the usual wide array of technical presentations and poster sessions from practitioners and researchers alike. Topics of rock mass behaviour, underground excavation/construction and storage/sequestration were generally best attended but lively sessions on geological hazards and slope stability were also included. The use of digital data capture, management and visualization as day to day project tools were a strong theme, as was the emergence of machine learning to support technical decision-making. The conference proceedings are available for download at the Congress website at https://www.isrm2023.com/en/program#proceedings.
The supporting programme did not disappoint with the Congress boasting no less than fourteen specialist workshops and seven field trips to some of the mega-scale transport and pump storage infrastructure projects currently under development in Austria. The popular Rockbowl challenge quiz was contested by twenty different teams of young professionals, with the honours going to the “Rockstars” from University of New South Wales. An active social programme was also provided, with a welcome reception, string quartet concert and a festive evening in a medieval beer hall on the slopes of the Salzburg fortress.
Although offered as hybrid event, the vast majority of delegates chose to attend in person, perhaps illustrative of post Covid fatigue of online meetings. The next ISRM Symposium will be held in September of 2024 in New Delhi, with the next Congress taking place in 2027 in Seoul, Korea. NZGS is in the early planning stages for a bid to host the ISRM Congress in 2031.
Paul Horrey
October, 2023
paul.horrey@beca.com
Paul Horrey is a principal and engineering geology specialist with Beca and manages the company’s Southern Geotechnical Team based in Christchurch. He has worked extensively in New Zealand and overseas in infrastructure, mining and hydropower and has a particular interest in natural hazard mitigation and risk management.