Dear friends and colleagues,
On behalf of the organizing committee, it is my pleasure to invite you to the upcoming 72th Geological Congress of Turkey (TJK) in Ankara at METU Culture and Convention center (January 28th-Feb 1st, 2019). The TJK (acronym for the meeting) is known to be one of the most reputable and leading scientific meetings/organizations in the nation, which aims to gather researchers from all branches of geosciences. Since 1947, the TJK has been organized annually and it accepts contributions as oral and poster presentations from all sub-disciplines of earth sciences. Namely, these include but not limited to regional geology, structural geology, petrology, geochemistry, stratigraphy, paleontology, geodynamics, engineering geology, hydrogeology, geophysical methods and economic geology. This year we expand our interest into the growing new field and specifically our focus is on studies pertaining to the Urban Geology. Such theme as a research topic within geology emerged as a response to the increasingly urbanized world to resolve problems that arouse from the contemporary-urban life style. From the evolutionary aspect of geology as a scientific discipline, only 10% of the global population resided on the cities/urban areas in 1900s while such link between the earth sciences and urbanization was not the prime topic of research. Currently, the population in the cities increased up to 50% due to the rural to city migration in conjunctionwith the global population growth. A future projection for 2030 suggests that 70% of the world population will claim their settlements in the cities. In that respect, we shall attempt to develop a clearer understanding of the interaction between the geosphere, hydrosphere and the biosphere meanwhile a strong link between all branches of geology and the archeological, biological and environmental sciences needs to be established.
Specific areas of research activities in Urban Geology concentrating on the relation between the societal activities and earth processes mayinclude, nevertheless not limited to; 1) Risk assessments/analysis of
landslides, flooding events and investigation of the appropriate sites for housing/settlements, 2) Determination of hazardous areas, developing potential mitigation strategies within the frame of active tectonic studies, i.e. delineation of fault zones, seismically active areas, tsunami inundation zones, 3) Assessment and management of water resources in urban areas, as well as monitoring of both surface water and groundwater quality, 4) Identifying heavy metal ingredients and conducting environmental/geochemical studies for cities located in drainage zones of mining sites, 5) Investigation of the effects of agricultural contaminants at urban areas, 6) Conservation of geological heritages in urban areas (e.g Cappadocia, Pamukkale) and finally, 7) Develop awareness for changing climate on earth and evaluating its potential impact on sea level variations (e.g advancing methods on coastal research). This year while we keep our traditional and common topics in geology -outlined above- we would like to call for submissions from varying research areas relevant to urban geology, such as mining/ mineral and oil/petroleum research, geodesy, architecture, urban planning, biology, geography, medicine, veterinary medicine, agriculture and other related topics. We will also continue to the well attended and successful sessions such as “Student panels” and “Future of Geoscientists” organized during the last two years. Another fruitful session of the last year’s the Veteran Erthscientist will also be organized this year whom has contributed to the geoscience in Turkey significantly in the past and we will be delighted to listen their experiences.
Finally, our ultimate goal is to enlarge the community of geoscience in the country by assembling them under the umbrella of TJK. Furthermore, we will appreciate and welcome any attempts for special session organizations, exhibitions or plenary discussions. Again, you are cordially invited to this exciting geoscience meeting for the 72th time. Hope to see you in Ankara.
On behalf of the Organizing Committee
Prof. Dr. Hasan Sözbilir
