Rockfalls, rockslides and rock avalanches are fundamental modes of erosion on steep hillslopes, and among the primary hazards in steep alpine terrain. To better understand the processes driving rock slope degradation, mechanisms contributing to the triggering, transport, and deposition of resulting rock slope instabilities, and mitigation measures for associated hazards, we must develop insight into both the physics of intact and rock mass failure and the dynamics of transport processes. This session aims to bring together state-of-the-art methods for predicting, assessing, quantifying, and protecting against rock slope hazards. We seek innovative contributions from investigators dealing with all stages of rock slope hazards, from weathering and/or damage accumulation, through detachment, transport and deposition, and finally to the development of protection and mitigation measures. In particular, we seek studies presenting new theoretical, numerical or probabilistic modelling approaches, novel data sets derived from laboratory, in situ, or remote sensing applications, and state-of-the-art approaches to social, structural, or natural protection measures.

Climate changes (CC) are expected affecting weather forcing regulating the triggering and reactivation of slope movements. The influence of CC on landslides can be different, according to the area, the time horizon of interest and the actual trends of socio-economic factors driving greenhouse gases concentration. However, even the simple identification of weather patterns regulating landslide occurrence represents a not trivial issue, also assuming steady conditions, due to crucial role played by geomorphological details.
In last years, such elements partly prevented the investigations aimed to assess how CC influence slope stability at different temporal and spatial scales.
In this regard, the Session has the main aim to gather test cases and investigations carried out in different geographical contexts in evaluation of ongoing and future landslide activity.
Researches may concern: (i) modeling of future slope stability conditions exploiting downscaled climate projections or (ii) analyses of historical records of landslides (using both historical research or paleo-evidences) and climate variables and their combinations.
Analysis at different detail from slope to regional scale to global scale, considering variations in landslide occurrence, frequency, susceptibility, hazard and risk result of interest. Nevertheless, studies considering the coupled effect of environmental (e.g., land use/cover) and climate changes will be taken into account.

Weathering, tectonics, gravitational and volcanic processes can transform the regular sediment delivery from unstable slopes in catastrophic landslides. Mass spreading and mass wasting processes can potentially evolve in rapid landslides are among the most dangerous natural hazards that threaten people and infrastructures, directly or through secondary events like tsunamis.

Documentation and monitoring of these phenomena requires the adoption of a variety of methods. The difficulties in detecting their initiation and propagation have progressively prompted research into a wide variety of monitoring technologies. Nowadays, the combination of distributed sensor networks and remote sensing techniques represents a unique opportunity to gather direct observations. A growing number of scientists with diverse backgrounds are dealing with the monitoring of processes ranging from volcano flak deformations to large debris flows and lahars. However, there is a need of improving quality and quantity of both documentation procedures and instrumental observations that would provide knowledge for more accurate hazard assessment, land-use planning and design of mitigation measures, including early warning systems. Successful strategies for hazard assessment and risk reduction would imply integrated methodology for instability detection, modeling and forecasting. Nevertheless, only few studies exist to date in which numerical modelling integrate geological, geophysical, geodetic studies with the aim of understanding and managing of terrestrial and subaqueous volcano slope instability.

Scientists working in the fields of hazard mapping, modelling, monitoring and early warning are invited to present their recent advancements in research and feedback from practitioners and decision makers. We encourage multidisciplinary contributions that integrate field-based on-shore and submarine studies (geological, geochemical), geomorphological mapping and account collection, with advanced techniques, as remote sensing data analysis, geophysical investigations, ground-based monitoring systems, and numerical and analogical modelling of volcano spreading, slope stability and debris flows.

Among the many mitigation measures available for reducing the risk to life related to landslides, early warning systems certainly constitute a significant option available to the authorities in charge of risk management and governance. Landslide early warning systems (LEWS) are non-structural risk mitigation measures applicable at different scales of analysis: slope and regional. Systems addressing single landslides at slope scale can be named local LEWS (Lo-LEWS), systems operating over wide areas at regional scale are referred to as territorial systems (Te-LEWSs). An initial key difference between Lo-LEWSs and Te-LEWSs is the knowledge “a priori” of the areas affected by future landsliding. When the location of future landslides is unknown and the area of interest extends beyond a single slope, only Te-LEWS can be employed. Conversely, Lo-LEWSs are typically adopted to cope with the risk related to one or more known well-identified landslides.

Independently by the scale of analysis, the structure of LEWS can be schematized as an interrelation of four main modules: setting, modelling, warning, response. However, the definition of the elements of these modules and the aims of the warnings/alerts issued considerably vary as a function of the scale at which the system is employed.

The session focuses on landslide early warning systems (LEWSs) at both regional and local scales. The session wishes to highlight operational approaches, original achievements and developments useful to operate reliable (efficient and effective) local and territorial LEWS. Moreover, the different schemes describing the structure of a LEWS available in literature clearly highlight the importance of both social and technical aspects in the design and management of such systems.

For the above-mentioned reasons, contributions addressing the following topics are welcome:
• rainfall thresholds definition;
• monitoring systems for early warning purposes;
• warning models for warning levels issuing;
• performance analysis of landslide warning models;
• communication strategies;
• emergency phase management;
• landslide risk perception.

Landslides are ubiquitous geomorphological phenomena with potentially catastrophic consequences. In several countries landslide mortality can be higher than that of any other natural hazard. Predicting landslides is a difficult task that is of both scientific interest and societal relevance that may help save lives and protect individual properties and collective resources. The session focuses on innovative methods and techniques to predict landslide occurrence, including the location, time, size, destructiveness of individual and multiple slope failures. All landslide types are considered, from fast rockfalls to rapid debris flows, from slow slides to very rapid rock avalanches. All geographical scales are considered, from the local to the global scale. Of interest are contributions investigating theoretical aspects of natural hazard prediction, with emphasis on landslide forecasting, including conceptual, mathematical, physical, statistical, numerical and computational problems, and applied contributions demonstrating, with examples, the possibility or the lack of a possibility to predict individual or multiple landslides, or specific landslide characteristics. Of particular interest are contributions aimed at: the evaluation of the quality of landslide forecasts; the comparison of the performance of different forecasting models; the use of landslide forecasts in operational systems; and investigations of the potential for the exploitation of new or emerging technologies e.g., monitoring, computational, Earth observation technologies, in order to improve our ability to predict landslides. We anticipate that the most relevant contributions will be collected in the special issue of an international journal.

This session aims to discuss hydrology related to landslide occurrence both on local and regional scale. It focuses on the detailed analysis and modelling of hydrological processes on hillslope and catchment scale in order to improve our understanding and prediction of the spatio-temporal patterns of landslide triggering and slope deformation mechanisms.

Water circulation within a catchment and the resultant transient changes in both shallow and deep hydrological systems is the most common controlling and triggering factor of slope movements. However, incorporation of hydrological process knowledge in slope failure analysis, such as water-rock interaction, water storage, dynamic preferential flows or the influence of frost conditions to name a few, still lags behind. Also, the inclusion of regional hydrological information in rainfall thresholds analysis is underdeveloped. The research frontiers are connected with the complexity of real landslides such as the difficulty to monitor groundwater levels or soil moisture contents in unstable terrain and over large areas, the difficulty to understand the water pathways within heterogeneous regolith soils and fractured bedrock, which are the characteristic substratum where landslides occur, and the complexity of dynamically quantifying and predicting the hydrological exchange between a potentially unstable slope and its surroundings.

We invite research ranging from unsaturated zone, hillslope processes and regional hydrology which are applied to landslide research in a broad sense: ranging from soil slips to large scale deep-seated slope deformation. The session will give time to both laboratory and field monitoring studies, preferably quantitative, and based on novel measurement and modelling techniques. We invite pioneering research that includes hydrological information in local and regional hazard assessment. Moreover, we welcome studies that incorporate hydrological process knowledge in the geotechnical analysis and modelling setting the next step to improve landslide hazard analysis.

Over the last decade, many researchers and practitioners have contributed to consolidating a landslide and debris flows risk management framework, enhancing techniques and pioneering applications to problems that are otherwise difficult to resolve using conventional methods. However, as extreme rainfall events occur with increasing frequency due to climate change, the threat posed by compound geohazards will inevitably increase. Clearly, a new paradigm of mountain hazard mitigation and management is required. Therefore, developing risk analysis models, which could integrate the hazard dynamic process by using both practical experience and numerical simulation, is a key scientific challenge for effective disaster risk reduction. This session focuses on disaster risk analysis and management methods as well as their coherence with the mechanisms of compound hazards, including initiation, transportation, and deposition. The topics of the presentations include but are not limited to:
(a) Advanced methodology of data collection in the field, the improvement and development of sensor technology and the real time data collection of debris flow and landslides hazards for a better dimensioning of mitigation measures.
(b) Numerical simulation of compound geohazards at the local scale and global scale.
(c) Innovative applications remote sensing data for hazard, vulnerability and risk mapping.
(d) Advances in risk analysis methods by integrating new technologies in hazard data retrieving, hazard simulation and vulnerability assessment of elements at risk.
(e) Optimizing the engineering design for current hazard mitigation and control structure and develop new techniques for disaster control.
Additionally, we welcome submissions concentrating on big data processing, machine learning related to vulnerability, and resilience of the elements at risk.

In recent years, debris flows are becoming more frequent and larger in magnitude due to global climate change, resulting in the loss of human life and substantial damage to infrastructure. In light of such trends, there is increasing national interest for the development of proactive technologies to prevent and mitigate debris flow disasters. Although many disaster prevention facilities are being built, there are still questions regarding the accuracy and reliability of the methodologies and techniques being utilized for the design of these structures. Therefore, in order to improve existing disaster prevention measures and effectively reduce damage, it is necessary to make scientific and technological strides at each stage of the design process of disaster prevention facilities. This session mainly focuses on methods for the prevention and mitigation of debris flow disasters, including the following topics:
(1) Advanced data collection methods for the collection of site properties such as the utilization of UAV-based LiDAR, spectroscopic techniques, etc.
(2) Prediction techniques that provide quantitative information of debris flow through big data analysis, machine learning models, and numerical modeling
(3) Performance analysis of various types of disaster prevention facilities based on small-scale & large-scaled experiments and numerical simulations
(4) Optimum design of disaster prevention facilities through sensitivity analysis and parametric studies
We also welcome submissions that focus on new techniques and design methodologies related to the 4th industrial revolution.

Keywords
Debris flow, Disaster prevention facilities, Optimum design, Experimental and numerical studies, Big data, Machine learning techniques

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Landslides are one of the most widespread and destructive natural hazards in the world. However, it is possible to reduce hazards caused by the landslides by monitoring and/or early warning systems. Today, lots of systems are available for the purpose and new systems have been developing continuously. The aim of this session is to gain a complete knowledge about the landslide monitoring and early warning systems by introducing different systems used, learning new technologies about the topic, investigating their properties, comparing the techniques and devices.

Keywords: Landslide monitoring systems, early warning systems

Remarkable technological progress in remote sensing and geophysical surveying, together with the recent development of innovative data treatment techniques are providing new scientific opportunities to investigate landslide processes and hazards all over the world. Remote sensing and geophysics, as complementary techniques for the characterization and monitoring of landslides, offer the possibility to effectively infer and correlate an improved information of the shallow -or even deep- geological layers for the development of conceptual and numerical models of slope instabilities. Their ability to provide integrated information about geometry, rheological properties, water content, rate of deformation and time-varying changes of these parameters is ultimately controlling our capability to detect, model and predict landslide processes at different scales (from site specific to regional studies) and over multiple dimensions (2D, 3D and 4D).

This session welcomes innovative contributions and lessons learned from significant case studies using a myriad of remote sensing and geophysical techniques and algorithms, including optical and radar sensors, new satellite constellations (including the emergence of the Sentinel-1A and 1B), Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) / Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) / drones, high spatial resolution airborne LiDAR missions, terrestrial LIDAR, Structure-from-Motion (SfM) photogrammetry, time-lapse cameras, multi-temporal Synthetic Aperture Radar differential interferometry (DInSAR), GPS surveying, Seismic Reflection, Surface Waves Analysis, Geophysical Tomography (seismic and electrical), Seismic Ambient Vibrations, Acoustic Emissions, Electro-Magnetic surveys, low-cost (/cost-efficient) sensors, commercial use of small satellites, Multi-Spectral images, Real time monitoring, in-situ sensing, etc.

The session will provide an overview of the progress and new scientific approaches of Earth Observation (EO) applications, as well as of surface- and borehole-based geophysical surveying for investigating landslides. A special emphasis is expected not only on the collection but also on the interpretation and use of high spatiotemporal resolution data to characterize the main components of slope stability and dynamics, including the type of material, geometrical and mechanical properties, depth of water table, saturation conditions and ground deformation over time. The discussion of recent experiences and the use of advanced processing methods and innovative algorithms that integrate data from remote sensing and geophysics with other survey types are highly encouraged, especially with regard to their use on (rapid) mapping, characterizing, monitoring and modelling of landslide behaviour, as well as their integration on real-time Early Warning Systems and other prevention and protection initiatives. Other pioneering applications using big data treatment techniques, data-driven approaches and/or open code initiatives for investigating mass movements using the above described techniques will also be considered on this session.

We invited prof. Denis Jongmans (Isterre, Université Grenoble Alpes, France), as guest speaker for the session.

Large slope instabilities have been frequently recognised in areas with different lithological (sedimentary, igneous, metamorphic rocks) and geological domains (cordillera, volcanic, etc.). Slow to very fast moving, complex mass movements have been recognized and sometimes described as strongly interrelated. Many types of slope instabilities can be grouped within this broad class, each presenting different types of hazard and risk. Some major aspects of these slope instabilities are still understudied and debated, namely:
- their regional distribution and relevance;
- triggering and controlling factors, including possible climatic changes;
- hydrological boundary conditions and evolution or control of internal hydrogeological conditions;
- mechanical controls in terms of physical mechanical properties of failure surfaces and shear zones
- dating of initial movements and reactivation episodes;
- style and state of past and present activity;
- passive and/or active control by structural-tectonic elements of the bedrock geology;
- possible styles of evolution and consequent modeling approaches;
- assessment of related hazard;
- influence of external anthropogenic factors and effects on structures and infrastructures (e.g. tunnels, dams, bridges);
- role on the general erosional and sediment yield regime at the local or mountain belt scale;
- best technologies and approaches for implementing a correct monitoring and warning system and for the interpretation of monitoring data in terms of landslide activity and behavior.

Study of these instabilities requires a multidisciplinary approach involving geology, geomorphology, geomechanics, hydro-geochemistry, and geophysics. These phenomena have been recognized on Earth as well as on other planetary bodies (e.g. Mars, Moon).
Trenching and drilling can be used for material characterization, recognition of episodes of activity, and sampling in slow slope movements. At the same time many different approaches can be used for monitoring and establishing of warning thresholds and systems for such phenomena.
Geophysical survey methods can be used to assess both the geometrical and geomechanical characteristics of the unstable mass. Different dating techniques can be applied to determine the age and stages of movement. Many modeling approaches can be applied to evaluate instability and failure (e.g. displacement and velocity thresholds), triggering mechanisms (e.g. rainfall, seismicity, volcanic eruption, deglaciation), failure propagation, rapid mass movements (rock avalanches, debris avalanches and flows), and related secondary failures (rock fall and debris flows).
Studies of hydraulic and hydrologic boundary conditions and hydrochemistry are involved, both at the moment of initial failure and, later, during reactivation. The impacts of such instabilities on structures and human activities can be substantial and of a variety of forms (e.g. deformation or failure of structures and infrastructure, burial of developed areas, etc.).
Furthermore, the local and regional sediment yield could be influenced by the landsliding activity and different landslides (e.g. type, size) can play different roles.

Mountain environments host highly dynamical and widespread erosion, sedimentation, and weathering processes. These processes cover a wide range of temporal and spatial scales, from glacial & periglacial erosion, mechanical & chemical weathering, rock fall, debris flows, landslides, to river aggradation & incision. These processes react to a wide spectrum of external and internal forcings, including permafrost retreat, strong precipitation events, climate change, earthquakes or sudden internal failure. Measuring the dynamical interplay of erosion, sedimentation as well as quantifying their rates and fluxes is an important part of source to sink research but it is highly challenging and often limited by difficult terrain. Furthermore, these dynamical processes can threaten important mountain infrastructures and need to be understood and quantified for a better societal and engineering preparation to the natural hazards they pose.

We welcome contributions investigating:
- sediment mobilization and deposition
- links between erosion, weathering, and the carbon cycle
- concepts of dynamics and connectivity of sediments and solutes
- quantification of erosion, sedimentation, and weathering fluxes in space and time
- sediment travel times and transport processes
- interaction of stabilizing and destabilizing processes on the slopes
We invite presentations that focus on conceptual, methodological, or modelling approaches or a combination of those in mountain environments and particularly encourage early career scientists to apply for this session.

In the past two decades, connectivity has emerged as a relevant conceptual framework for understanding the transfer of water and sediment through landscapes. In geomorphology, the concept has had particular success in the fields of fluvial geomorphology and soil erosion to better explain rates and patterns of hydro-geomorphic geomorphic change in catchment systems. Although much progress has been made in the understanding of the physical processes that control the flows of matter through the landscape, applying this understanding across a range of scales has long hampered progress.
This session invites contributions from all areas of geomorphology (incl. soil science and hydrology) illustrating or identifying the role of connectivity for geomorphology on a local, regional or global scale. Specific themes we would like to promote are:
- advancement of the theory of connectivity, including sound and unambiguous definitions of
connectivity and related parameters,
- methodology development for measuring connectivity in field and laboratory settings,
having a special focus on experiments for conceptualizing the different processes involved,
- the development and application of suitable models and indices of connectivity,
- determining how the concept can be used to enable sustainable land and water management
The session is organized by the IAG-working group “Connectivity in geomorphology” aiming to develop an international network of connectivity scientists, to share expertise and develop a consensus on the definition and scientific agenda regarding the emerging field of connectivity in geomorphology.

Denudation, including both chemical and mechanical processes, is of high relevance for Earth surface and landscape development and the transfers of solutes, nutrients and sediments from slope and headwater systems through the main stem of drainage basin systems to ocean basins. Denudational slope and fluvial processes are controlled by a range of environmental drivers and can be significantly affected by man-made activities. Only if we have a better quantitative knowledge of drivers, mechanisms and rates of Holocene to contemporary denudational processes across a range of different climatic environments, an improved assessment of the possible effects of global environmental changes (e.g., higher frequencies of extreme rainfall events, accelerated permafrost thawing, rapid glacier retreat), anthropogenic impacts and other disturbances (e.g., land use, fires, earthquakes) on denudation can be achieved.

This session combines contributions on denudational hillslope and fluvial processes, sedimentary budgets and landscape responses to environmental changes in different morphoclimates, including both undisturbed and anthropogenically modified landscapes. The presented studies apply a diverse set of tools and data analyses, including up to date field measurements and monitoring techniques, remotely sensed/GIS-based analyses, modelling, geochemical and fingerprinting measurements and techniques, dendrochronological approaches, and cosmogenic radionuclide dating.

This session is organized by the I.A.G./A.I.G. Working Group on Denudation and Environmental Changes in Different Morphoclimatic Zones (DENUCHANGE).

Analysing the geomorphic response to environmental change is crucial to improve the understanding, interpretation and prediction of surface process activity. Environmental drivers such as land cover and land use change, climate variability and tectonic activity are mutable in space and time, which renders the analysis of their impact on Earth surface dynamics anything but trivial. In turn, geomorphic processes have a strong impact on both natural ecosystems and artificially transformed land surfaces, with consequences ranging from increasing environmental diversity to economic damage.
This session aims to cluster latest advances in land surface research that address interrelationships between land cover dynamics, climate, evolving topography and geomorphic processes. Herein, the focus is set on the analysis, modelling and prediction of land surface processes that are linked to:
1) Natural and anthropogenic land cover dynamics, including land use changes, management practices, cultivation of field crops or grassland management, soil reinforcement of different vegetation types and parameterisation of prediction models.
2) Climate variability on a variety of spatial and temporal scales, from freeze-thaw cycles, monsoonal precipitation and extreme climatic events to Plio-Pleistocene glacial cycles and Late-Pleistocene to Holocene climatic changes.
Studies are welcome that pay heed on the geomorphic response to changes in land cover or climate, as well as the resulting feedbacks between land cover, climate and Earth surface dynamics over different temporal and spatial scales.

Analytical methods are the foundation of every scientific discipline. Therefore have they very important role in soil science and in all other related disciplines. From the choice of analytical method there depends the accuracy of researches and quality of the findings, and according to this the novelty and usefulness for society. Today we can see the usage of a very wide spectrum of methods and techniques in soil science from quite simple classical methods up to high-precision methods based on high-tech instruments. The wise usage of analytical methods and techniques allows the investigation of the processes and mechanisms in soils and to assess the status of the environment. Unfortunately, the importance of their utilisation in soil analysis is often underestimated. The main purpose of our session is to emphasize the importance of the analytical methods used to achieve the results in soil research.

The aim of this session is to present the usage of different laboratory methods and techniques in soil research and give possibility for researchers to exchange their experiences. The special goal of this session will be to promote a wider use of innovative analytical methods and hyphenated instrumental techniques for separation and determination of chemical and biochemical compounds of both known and unknown structures in mineral and organic soils, sediments, substrates and composts. Modern analytical methods and hyphenated techniques can be utilized for the investigation of the processes and mechanisms in soils like formation, transformation, and conversion.
The session is an opportunity to present the works describing the usage of wide range of equipment, from smartphones to MS in the analysis of soils. The session is not limited to these techniques or methods. Works describing the methods of soil physical analysis are accepted also. The studies connected with methodology of soil chemical analysis and particularly soil organic matter are welcome.

The Azores archipelago is located in the triple junction of the North American, Eurasian and Nubian tectonic plates. The origin of the magmatism in the archipelago remains controversial even though it has generally been associated with a mantle plume interacting with the local structural regime. Due to this peculiar geodynamic setting, earthquakes, subaerial and submarine volcanic eruptions may occur in the archipelago. The identification of possible signs of unrest of the volcanoes is challenging and much of the recent volcanic activity is characterized by the occurrence of seismic swarms, ground deformation episodes and the presence of secondary manifestations of volcanism. The archipelago is located in the vicinity of the central Northern Atlantic Ocean, what makes the islands vulnerable to storms, floods and landslides. The islands are thus ideally suited to apply different multidisciplinary methodologies for the study of geological hazards.
This session aims to focus on the Azores submarine plateau and islands as a natural laboratory for the study of different geological processes. Here, we aim at contributions from the different fields of Geology, Geophysics and Geochemistry dealing with the geodynamic context of the Azores, studying the evolution and geological diversity of the Azores and evaluate hazards that can affect the islands.

This session aims to bridge the existing gap between the process-focused fields (hydrology, geomorphology, soil sciences, natural hazards, planetary science, geo-biology, archaeology) and the technical domain (engineering, computer vision, machine learning, and statistics) where terrain analysis approaches are developed.
The rapid growth of survey technologies and computing advances and the increase of data acquisition from various sources (platforms and sensors) has led to a vast data swamp with unprecedented spatio-temporal range, density, and resolution (from submeter to global scale data), which requires efficient data processing to extract suitable information. The challenge is now the interpretation of surface morphology for a better understanding of processes at a variety of scales, from micro, to local, to global.

We aim to foster inter-disciplinarity with a focus on new techniques in digital terrain analysis and production from any discipline which touches on geomorphometry, including but not exclusive to geomorphology (e.g., tectonic/volcanic/climatic/glacial), planetary science, archaeology, geo-biology, natural hazards, computer vision, remote sensing, image processing.
We invite submissions related to the successful application of geomorphometric methods, innovative geomorphometric variables as well as their physical, mathematical and geographical meanings. Submissions related to new techniques in high-resolution terrain or global scale data production and analysis, independent of the subject, as well as studies focused on the associated error and uncertainty analyses, are also welcome. We actively encourage contributors to present work “in development”, as well as established techniques being used in a novel way. We strongly encourage young scientists to contribute and help drive innovation in our community, presenting their work to this session.

We want to foster collaboration and the sharing of ideas across subject-boundaries, between technique developers and users, enabling us as a community to fully exploit the wealth of knowledge inherent in our digital landscape. Just remember, the driver for new ideas and applications often comes from another speciality, discipline or subject: Your solution may already be out there waiting for you!

Mediterranean and other semi-arid regions are prone to cyclic droughts and flood events due to their high climate variability. Agricultural and forest practices have evolved to adapt to these conditions to increase productivity and the economic viability of these activities. Soil and water conservation (SWC) measures have been implemented in these regions to preserve natural resources while maintaining and/or increasing agriculture productivity. Currently a large variety of traditional SWC and relatively modern recent SWC approaches co-exist. However, it still been difficult to provide a robust appraisal of their effectiveness, or a detailed understanding to facilitate its adoption in situations different from those in which they have been developed, mostly through a combination of technical skills and trials and errors in commercial conditions. Finally, the use of SWC measures takes a new dimension with the prospect of climate change and the need to improve the provision of key ecosystems services.

In this frame, this session will try to promote discussion and networking among researches interested in this issue from different background, focusing on recent and past development of SWC, especially related to:
i) The effectiveness SWC measures applied in Mediterranean and other fragile environments in term of productivity, provision of ecosystem services and socio-economic impact (including both on- and off-site effects);
ii) Scientific advances in the understanding of the impact of SWC in the dynamics of hydrological and sediment fluxes, and in the spatial distribution of water and sediment sources and pathways to the improvement of best management practice (BMPs) aimed to minimize on-site and offsite erosion impacts.
iii) Advances in technologies to monitor and evaluate the efficiency of SWC and BMP by different stakeholders.
This session encompasses activities related to the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 15.3 on Land Degradation Neutrality.

Rock coasts occupy the majority of the World's shoreline and there continues to be increasing scientific interest in the geomorphology of these coasts. Contemporary rock coasts are also linked to geological and sea level records when shore platforms become marine terraces. This session includes any aspect of rock coasts including; geomorphology, processes (marine, subaerial and biological), geology (lithology, structure) and management of rock coasts (hazard and conservation). Processes studies, examples of modelling and the application of dating techniques are welcome. Papers detailing the development of novel techniques for the measurement of processes, erosion rates and morphology are also welcome. Finally papers that identify future trajectories for the management and geomorphology of rock coasts are encouraged.

The characterisation of linked physical properties such as elasticity, strength and permeability from outcrop to crustal scales is complicated by heterogeneity, fabric anisotropy and damage in so-called “intact rock” and by geological structure and inherited fracturing in the bulk “rock mass”. Rocks can behave as continuous or discontinuous media depending on the scale of consideration and the occurrence of discrete structures (e.g. fault zones). Moreover, rock properties and inherited geological features constrain mechanical damage processes resulting in rock mass weakening, altered permeability and hydro-mechanical coupling between rock and fluids, development of brittle shear zones, and time-dependent behavior (creep).
Despite major experimental, theoretical and modelling advances, a remaining future goal is to develop meaningful, testable methods and models that allow us to quantify the relationships between fabrics and fractures related to the geomechanical behavior of rocks on different scales and in different environmental conditions (P, T, stress, strain rate, fluids). This is critical in order to unravel the complex evolution and dynamics of the Earth’s crust, and develop predictive capabilities for geohazard and energy applications.
In this session we will bring together researchers from different communities, working on problems related to quantifying the hydro-geomechanical properties and behavior of rock masses considered either as continua or discontinua. We will explore their geological controls from the micro- to macro-scale, in a range of crustal environments and geological and geohazard applications (e.g. understanding fluid movement and hydrothermal systems at volcanoes, fluid pressure and damage evolution within fault zones. rock slope instability and related geomorphic impacts, fractured reservoir exploitation, subsidence due to drainage, induced seismicity), using experimental and numerical approaches in the laboratory and the field. We especially welcome studies that adopt novel approaches and combined methodologies.