The Fifth World Landslide Forum (WLF5) will be held at the National Kyoto International Conference Center (KICC) in Kyoto, Japan, on 2–6 November 2021 after a postponement of a year from the initially scheduled date of 2–6 November 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic (Sassa 2020). Considering the effects of COVID-19, the WLF5 will be a hybrid conference (onsite, online-virtual, or pre-recorded oral presentations). The WLF5 secretariat asked all oral presentation speakers to select the mode of presentation they prefer by 31 March 2021. The change in presentation mode can be accepted by 15 September 2021.

Figure 1 presents the country-specific numbers of oral presentation speakers. A total of 479 speakers from 52 countries/regions have registered—125 from Japan, 56 from China, 53 from Italy, 21 from the USA, 14 from India, 13 from the UK, 12 from Indonesia and Chinese Taipei, and 11 from Czech Republic and Norway. The number of onsite speakers is 240, and numbers of online speakers and undecided are 159 and 80, respectively.

Fig. 1
figure 1

Number of oral presentation speakers from 52 countries/regions (as of 31 March 2021)

Number of speakers in each theme or session

Plenary session: Forum lectures and award lectures (6), Theme 1: Sendai Landslide Partnerships and Kyoto Landslide Commitment (69), Theme 2: From Mapping to Hazard and Risk Zonation (81), Theme 3: Monitoring and Early Warning (65), Theme 4: Testing, Modeling and Risk Assessment (63), Theme 5: Catastrophic Landslides and Frontiers of Landslide Science (62), Theme 6: Specific Topics in Landslide Science and Applications (57), Thematic Issue Session (9), The Japan Landslide Society Session (51), and World Tsunami Awareness Day Session (16). List of the oral speakers, offices, country/regions, titles of presentation, and the planned presentation modes are available in News/Kyoto Commitment of this issue (Sassa 2021b).

The outline program on 2–6 November 2021 and the field trip to the Hiroshima rain-induced landslide disaster, the Shimabara-Unzen Megaslide, and the landslide-induced-tsunami disaster, Kumamoto-Aso Earthquake-induced Landslide Disaster on 7–9 November 2021 are shown in Table 1.

Table 1 Program of WLF5 in Kyoto, Japan, in 2021

Invitation

One-page abstract submission and registration are open until 30 June 2021, and e-poster presentation is open until 10 August 2021. The authors of e-posters can select one of three options: (1) 3-minute oral presentation, (2) no talk, or (3) non-attendance.

The onsite and also online participation at the WLF5 will also be welcomed. First, those willing to join are requested to fill their information out in the preliminary registration form available on the webpage of WLF5 https://wlf5.iplhq.org/preliminary-registration/. The WLF5 secretary will send the latest information to those who registered. When you are sure to participate, please proceed to the formal registration to pay the registration fee on the web page of WLF5 https://wlf5.iplhq.org/registration/.

The Kyoto Landslide Commitments 2020

The Kyoto 2020 Commitment for Global Promotion of Understanding and Reducing Landslide Disaster Risk (Kyoto Landslide Commitment 2020: KLC2020): A Commitment to the Sendai Landslide Partnerships 2015–2025, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030, the 2030 Agenda Sustainable Development Goals, the New Urban Agenda and the Paris Climate Agreement was launched on 5 November 2020 (Sassa 2021a; Taalas 2021).

The High-level Panel Discussion “KLC2020 review and way forward” will be organized in the morning of 3 November 2021 immediately after the opening addresses by ICL, ICL-supporting organizations, and host organizations. Major outputs of the high-level panel discussion are now being examined. The KLC2020 secretariat is now conducting pre-examination to create a new open-access platform to disseminate information of the recent progress in landslide research and technology to all people who cannot access Landslides: Journal of the International Consortium on Landslides.

This process is still at the planning stage. The current concept is to create an open-access book series “Progress in Landslide Research and Technology” to provide a common platform for the publication on recent progress in landslide research and technology with a focus on practical applications and the benefit for the society contributing to the Kyoto Landslide Commitment 2020, which is expected to continue up to 2030 and even beyond to globally promote the understanding and reduction of landslide disaster risk, as well as to address the 2030 Agenda Sustainable Development Goals.

Those individuals and organizations willing to contribute this plan are requested to contact klc2020@iclhq.org.