Editorial of the New Open Access Book Series “Progress in Landslide Research and Technology”

Abstract

The Kyoto Landslide Commitment 2020—A Commitment to the ISDR-ICL Sendai Partnerships 2015–2025, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030, the 2030 United Nations Agenda Sustainable Development Goals, the New Urban Agenda, and the Paris Climate Agreement was established with signatures by 90 partner organizations in November 2020 (Sassa in Landslides 18:5–20, 2021). To secure and provide a global and stable platform for the Kyoto Landslide Commitment 2020 to be continued until 2030 and beyond, an open access book series was proposed by the KLC2020 Secretariat in 2022. The high-level panel discussion during the Fifth World Landslide Forum examined the proposal, and all panelists and participants accepted the proposal. Then, the Launching Declaration of the ICL Open Access Book Series “Progress in Landslide Research and Technology” for the Kyoto Landslide Commitment 2020 was adopted by all panelists and the onsite and online participants of WLF5 on 3 November 2021 (Sassa in Landslides 19:1–5, 2022). This article is a progress report of the founding two issues of “Progress in Landslide Research and Technology” in 2022 for all authors, potential readers of this book series as well as KLC2020 signatory partners, KLC2020 official promoters, and ICL members.

1 Introduction

A new open access book series “Progress in Landslide Research and Technology (P-LRT)” has been launched in 2022 as the core platform for the prometon of Kyoto Landslide Commitment 2020—A Commitment to the ISDR-ICL Sendai Partnerships 2015–2025, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030, the 2030 United Nations Agenda Sustainable Development Goals, the New Urban Agenda and the Paris Climate Agreement.

The International Consortium on Landslides launched the ICL official journal, Landslides: Journal of the International Consortium on Landslides. It was the first international journal on landslides, aiming to integrate landslide research in many fields of science as a scientific field studying landslide phenomena, namely landslide science. Vol. 1 in 2004 was comprised of 80 pages/issue × 4 issues, namely 323 pages/year. This journal was well received by many scientists studying landslides. This journal's total number of pages increased to 3977 pages/year in 2021 over the last 19 years. It is now a good platform for landslide science.

In order to promote the Kyoto Landslide Commitment 2020, practical application of the recent progress in landslide research and technology for landslide disaster risk reduction must be sought for practice and society. To pursue this aim, a new open access book series, “Progress in Landslide Research and Technology” was founded. The target readers of the open access book series are practitioners and other stakeholders who apply in practice the most advanced knowledge of science and technology for landslide disaster risk reduction. Articles must be written in a simplified way that is easily understandable by these practitioners and stakeholders.

2 Categories of P-LRT

• 1. Original articles reporting the progress of landslide research and technology (minimum 8 pages)

Articles must be written user-friendly for practice. An author is requested to write an easy-to-understand article, allowing readers to apply it for practice without searching for references in other publications, with a substantial number of figures, photos, elaborate explanations, and videos when necessary. Thus, P-LRT limits the minimum page number for each category. The maximum limit of pages is not pre-decided. The followings are eight regular categories of P-LRT.

• 2. Review articles (minimum 8 pages)

Review of landslide research and technology in a thematic area of landslides. A review article integrating a series of research and technology of the author or its group is also welcome.

An active researcher and active research group have published a specific topic or finding as short articles in many journals. For practical purposes, a long article integrating all related findings is effective to understand the whole concept and apply it to practices.

• 3. ICL landslide lessons (minimum 20 pages)

Lessons by global and emerging experts with distinguished achievements in one of the specific aspects in understanding and reducing landslide disaster risk.

This category is a new category. Then, no article was published in Vol. 1, No. 1, and Vol. 1, No. 2.

More than 20 pages of landslide lessons are expected in Vol. 2 in 2023 which is useful for landslide risk reduction activities.

• 4. IPL/WCoE/Kyoto Commitment activities (minimum 8 pages)

Progress or achievements of the projects of the International Programme on Landslides (IPL) and the World Centres of Excellence on Landslide Risk Reduction (WCoEs), and the Kyoto Landslide Commitment.

This category was included in “Journal Landslides” until 2021. However, this category in “Journal Landslides” was terminated and moved to P-LRT. IPL ad WCOE and Kyoto Landslide Commitment are activities for landslide risk reduction.

• 5. Teaching tools with online extras (minimum 8 pages)

User-friendly teaching tools with extras (i.e., photos, illustrations, videos, guidelines & manuals) online to fill the gap between the available level of science and technologies and their practical use in society. This category cannot be included in any journal. Very necessary and useful for mastering some technologies. Vol. 1, No. 1 includes LS-RAPID landslide simulation manuals 58 pages) for the whole process from stable ground to initial local failure, progressive failure, creating a landslide body, rapid landslide motion, and termination with 17 video tutorials. Vol. 1, No. 2 includes “Teaching tools “Undrained dynamic loading ring shear testing with video” (35 pages) with 16 video tutorials. Vol. 1, No. 2 includes another teaching tool “How to Teach Remotely the Vegetation Works to Protect Slopes against Mass Wasting: A Case of Using Video Materials in Bhutan.”

• 6. Technical notes & Case studies (minimum 4 pages)

Technical note and case studies on landslides and landslide disaster risk reduction practice. Each issue of Vol. 1, No. 1 and No. 2 includes one technical notes and case studies.

• 7. World Landslide Reports

Landslide reports from landslide-prone developing countries and urbanizing areas of the developed countries from around the world. No book processing charge, but limited to approximately 40–50 pages (around 10% of the total page) per issue. These categories are planned to accommodate Landslide reports mainly from landslide-prone developing countries. 3 reports were submitted from Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Iran to Vol. 1, No. 2.

• 8. Introduction of KLC2020 Official Promoters (1–3 pages)

KLC2020 Official Promoters are eligible for this category. The introduction of the official promoters is published in all issues throughout the year.

Remarks for categories

“Editorial” is an article written or invited by the Editorial Board. This is one of categories of this book series which will be published in front of regular categories of articles. Editorials are not open-call categories. But proposals for Editorial are welcome. Please contact the Secretariat of the Kyoto Landslide Commitment 2020, <E-mail: klc2020@iclhq.org>.

3 Photo/Illustration on the Front Cover of P-LRT

The front cover of each issue includes a photo or an illustration published in the issue. The editorial board examined the cover photo/illustration of Vol. 1, No. 1 and selected one photo from “Early warning system against rainfall-induced landslide in Sri Lanka by Konagai et al.” The final design of the cover will be made by Springer Nature. The selected cover photo is shown in Fig. 1. Photo/Illustration on the Front cover of Vol. 1, No. 2 is not yet decided at the time of writing this article.

Fig. 1

Aranayaka landslide in Kegalle District, Sri Lanka occurred in May 2016, after a long rainfall and killing 127 persons and destroying 75 houses (Technical Cooperation for Landslide Mitigation Project by JICA. All rights reserved)

Cover photo of Vol. 1, No. 1

4 Contents of Vol. 1, No. 1

The founding issue is very special. Three forewords from the ICL, the International Union of Geological Sciences, the International Union Geodesy and Geophysics, and three greetings of the 5th World Landslide Forum from United Nations Organizations which support the International Consortium on Landslides, the International Programme on Landslides, and the Kyoto Landslide Commitment 2020 are published before the table of contents.

After the table of contents before regular categories, three articles are presented prior to articles in regular categories; (1) Preface for aim and outline of this book series, (2) History of the International Consortium on Landslides as the proposer of the Kyoto Landslide Commitment 2020, and (3) Programme of the ICL “International Programme on Landslides.”

Forewords

• President Nicola Casagli of the ICL (with video)

• President John Ludden of the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) (with video)

• President Kathy Whaler of the International Union Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) (with video).

Greetings of the 5th World Landslide Forum

• Mami Mizutori, Special Representative of UN Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction/Head of UN Office for Disaster Reduction

• David Malone, UN Under-Secretary-General/Rector of United Nations University (with video)

• Shamila Nair-Bedouelle, Assistant Director-General for Natural Sciences of UNESCO (with video).

Preface

Aim and Outline of the Book Series “Progress in Landslide Research and Technology” (9 pages) by Kyoji Sassa and Matjaž Mikoš.

Introduction of ICL and IPL

• International Consortium on Landslides: from IDNDR, IGCP, UNITWIN, WCDRR 2 & 3 to Kyoto Landslide Commitment 2020 (35 pages) by Kyoji Sassa, Paolo Canuti, Peter Bobrowsky, and Nicola Casagli.

This article describes the history of ICL starting from IDNDR (International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction) and the UNESCO-IUGS Joint programme IGCP-425: Landslide Hazard Assessment and Cultural Heritage (1998–2003) to Kyoto Commitment 2020.

• International Programme on Landslides—A Short Overview of its Historical Development (19 pages) by Matjaž Mikoš, Kyoji Sassa, Qunli Han.

This article describes the initial foundation of the International Programme on Landslides—IPL at UNESCO in 2002. The current second stage of IPL was defined and established by the 2006 Tokyo Action Plan “Strengthening Research and Learning on Landslides and Related Earth System Disasters for Global Risk Preparedness.” The ICL exchanged a Memorandum of Understandings to promote IPL with each of the ICL supporting organizations: five UN organizations and 2 global stakeholders on science and engineering. All IPL activities in the past were overviewed.

Review of the Founding Issue of P‐LRT for all regular articles other than the above of Vol. 1, No. 1 was made by Sassa S (2022).

5 Authors and Articles in Vol. 1, No. 1 and No. 2

On the day of writing this article, both issues have not yet been published. Vol. 1, No. 1 is now being processed for publication in Springer Nature. It will be published in December 2022. All accepted articles of Vol. 1, No. 2 have been sent to Springer Nature. It will be published in December 2022.

Two initial issues are reviewed to share the information of the founding issues of the open access book series with readers, authors/editors/official promoters, and other people involved in understanding and reducing landslide disaster risk.

Figure 2 presents the authors of articles in the main six categories (Editorial, Original articles, Review articles, IPL/WCOE/KLC activities, Teaching Tools, Technical Notes and Case studies) excluding six forwards/greetings and introduction of 16 official promoters in Vol. 1, No. 1. The total number of authors is 120 persons from 24 countries, UNESCO and the International Geosynthetics Society. The largest number of authors are from Japan and Italy, both are 20. More than 5 authors are from Canada (8), Slovenia (7), Indonesia (6), Thailand (6) and USA (6), Czech (5), France (5), Sri Lanka (5), and UK (5).

Fig. 2

The number of authors from each country, United Nations organization, and international organization in the six categories of articles published in Vol. 1, No. 1

Figure 3 presents the authors of articles in the main seven categories (Editorial, Original articles, Review articles, IPL/WCOE/KLC activities, Teaching Tools, Technical Notes and Case studies, and World Landslide Reports) in Vol. 1, No. 2.

Fig. 3

The number of authors from each country/region in the seven categories of articles published in Vol. 1, No. 2

The total number of authors is 102 persons from 18 countries/regions. The largest number of authors is 31 from Japan. More than 5 authors are 14 from Vietnam, 9 from Canada and Croatia, 7 from India, 6 from China and Ukraine, and 5 from Chinese Taipei.

6 Title and Contents of the Open Access Book Series

At the launching of this book series, the ICL terminated all other book publications and proceedings such as books for the triennial World Landslide Forum and proceedings for the annual IPL Symposium in 2022. Therefore, ICL publication is the following one journal and one book series.

Landslides: Journal of the International Consortium on Landslides

Progress in Landslide Research and Technology: Book

Series of the International Consortium on Landslides

Different from most other book series, each issue title of this book series is the book series title + Volume Number-Issue number + publication year as below.

Book Series Title: Progress in Landslide Research and Technology

• Issue Title for Vol. 1, No. 1: Progress in Landslide Research and Technology, Volume 1 issue 1, 2022

• Issue Title for Vol. 1, No.2: Progress in Landslide Research and Technology, Volume 1 issue 2, 2022

Table 1 presents the total pages and the breakdown of Vol. 1, No. 1, and Vol. 1, No. 2 of P-LRT. The total number of pages is 426 pages for Vol. 1, No. 1, and 413 pages for Vol. 1, No. 2.

Table 1 Total pages and breakdown of Vol. 1–1 and Vol. 1–2

The Vol. 1, No. 1 issue contains 27 articles (total 373 pages) with DOI numbers, and the Vol. 1, No. 2 issue contains 30 articles (total 371 pages) with DOI numbers. The category of original articles constitutes the largest number of articles (11) and the largest number of pages (123 pages) for Vol. 1, No. 1, and those numbers are 13 articles and 150 pages respectively for Vol. 1, No. 2.

The category of the IPL/WCOE/KLC activities includes 10 articles with 116 pages in Vol. 1, No. 1, and 4 articles and 58 pages in Vol. 1, No. 2. The category of Teaching tools with video tutorials includes 1 article in Vol. 1, No.1, 2 articles in Vol. 1, No. 2. Teaching tools with video tutorials will be very effective in the technical transfer for the landslide risk reduction. The new category of articles in Vol. 1, No. 2 is the World Landslide Reports from developing countries. The book processing fee is free for this category. The KLC2020 official promoters are introduced at the last of each issue.

7 Rate (%) of the Numbers of Articles and Pages of Each Category

We analyzed the rate of the number of articles and pages of each category and the difference between the No. 1 and No. 2 issues in the four pie charts of Figs. 4 and 5.

Fig. 4

Rate (%) of six categories (Editorial, Original articles, Review article, IPL/WCOE/KLC, Teaching Tools, Technical Notes) in Vol. 1, No. 1

Fig. 5

Rate (%) of seven categories (Editorial, Original articles, Review articles, IPL/WCOE/KLC, Teaching Tools, Technical Notes and World Landslide Reports) in Vol. 1, No. 2

Figure 4 presents Rate (%) of six categories (Editorial, Original articles, Review articles, IPL/WCOE/KLC, Teaching Tools, Technical notes and Case studies) in Vol. 1, No. 1.

The largest category both in the article number and the page number is the original article, and 40.74 and 32.98 respectively. The next category both in the article number and the page number is IPL/WCOE/KLC activities.

IPL/WCOE/KLC activities were included in Landslides: Journal of International Consortium on Landslides until the year 2021.  But this category in the Journal was terminated and moved to this book series. The maximum number of pages of this category in the Journal was 6 pages. The maximum number of pages is not specified in this book series, but the minimum number of pages is specified as 8 pages. A Report of Word Centre of Excellence (WCoE) from India in Vol. 1, No. 2 is 29 pages. Other reports are 19 pages from Japan, 17 pages from Canada, and others. Those reports of activities of WCoEs, IPL (International Programme on Landslides) projects, and other KLC2020 activities are very important for Kyoto Landslide Commitment. Those long articles shall promote the understanding and reducing landslide disaster risk in other countries and regions.

Figure 5 presents Rate (%) of seven categories (Editorial, Original articles, Review articles, IPL/WCOE/KLC activities, Teaching Tools, Technical Notes and Case studies, and World Landslide Reports) in Vol. 1, No. 2.

The largest category both in the article number and the page number is original article, and 43.33 and 40.43 respectively. Both rates are greater than those in Vol. 1, No. 1 (40.74 and 32.98).

The next category both in the article number and the page number is Review articles, and 20.00 and 19.68 respectively.

This is different from those in Vol. 1, No. 1. The upper limit of page number is not specified in all categories. However, the rate of the number of articles and number of pages are close both in No. 1 and No. 2.

The number of articles for Technical notes and Case studies is very small.

The definition of original articles in the Journal “Landslides” is original scientific research and investigation.

The definition of original articles in P-LRT is original articles reporting the progress of landslide research and technology.

Namely original articles in Journal “Landslides” requires originality in scientific research and technology. Many papers undergo changes in categories from original articles to Technical Notes and Case studies during the review process of the Journal Landslides. During the further progress of the publication of P-LRT, we will examine what is the best edition of the book series for the technical and scientific knowledge transfer to promote landslide disaster risk reduction.