KOREA INSTITUTE OF GEOSCIENCE AND MINERAL RESOURCES

KIGAM in ‘2019 Urban Geology and Engineering International Workshop’

Korea Institute Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM, President Bok-Chul KIM) hosted the ‘2019 Urban Geology and Engineering International Workshop’ on December 17, 2019.

For this particular workshop, participating institutions are as the following: Korea Institute of Geosciences and Mineral Resources (KIGAM), Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology (KICT), British Geological Survey (BGS), Geological Survey of Finland (GTK), China Geological Survey (CGS), and Geological Survey of Japan (GSJ).

The initial talk was started a little more earlier in this year, and more elaborated during the 55th CCOP Annual Session in Thailand.

The importance of the urban Geology become more notable. According to the 2014 UN statics, the 54% of the world population lives in cities, and it is going to rise up to 66% by 2050. Rapid urbanization will also increase the number of mega-cities, with a population of more than 10 million, which was 28 cities in 2014 and will be 41 cities by 2030.

Due to the population density and urbanization, the cities are facing with many problems such as urban space shortages, soil and groundwater pollutions. And, the most threatening problem is that we cannot guarantee sustainable energy supplies.

Today, the world needs to develop deep subsurface and increase the utilization efficiency. I believe that we, the science communities, should suggest the standards of the urban geology and its developments beforehand. Otherwise, sprawling urban developments without any long-term blueprint will cause many environment problems and pollutions inevitably.

As the solution, this is the first step to research about the land itself and geological features where they support urban centers. President KIM delivered in his speech that he was very glad that veterans of the urban geologists were finally gathered together attempt to cooperate together.