This lecture explores advancements in engineering geology, including China’s extensive experience in disaster risk reduction and innovative technologies such as big data analytics, artificial intelligence, advanced remote sensing, and numerical and physical modelling. It emphasizes how these developments can address multi-hazard risks and support sustainable development in an era of rapid climate change.

Biography

Professor Dr. Xuanmei Fan is the Paul Marinos Distinguished World Lecturer and is the Director of the State Key Laboratory of Geohazard Prevention and Geoenvironment Protection (SKLGP) at Chengdu University of Technology, China. She obtained her PhD in Engineering Geology from the Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observations (ITC) at the University of Twente, Netherlands. Her research focuses on earthquake- and climate change-induced geological hazard chains, long-term landscape evolution, and disaster risk reduction. Her work has been extensively applied in emergency response and rescue operations following major earthquakes. Prof. Fan has served as the Principal Investigator for more than 20 national and international research projects, including a UK-China collaboration project, European initiatives, and multiple projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC). As the founding chair of the Global Partnership for Smart Informatics and Multi-hazard Reduction (SIMR), she seeks to address global challenges associated with increasing multi-hazard risks and climate change in a rapidly evolving world.

The implementation progress of the IAEG C25 Guidelines on Engineering Geological Models will be reviewed and lessons learnt during the roll out will be discussed. Some outstanding issues facing engineering geologists within Australia that require further effort will be discussed along with a global perspective of key issues that engineering geologists will face and their potential future contributions.

Biography

Fred Baynes was educated in the UK, obtaining a BSc in geology from Bristol University, an MSc in engineering geology from Imperial College and a PhD from Newcastle University relating to research on weathered rocks. After working for a site investigation contractor in the UK for a couple of years, he immigrated to Australia in 1980, where he has worked as an engineering geologist for contractors, consultants and utilities. Since 1996, Fred has been an independent consultant-engineering geologist with a continuing love of fieldwork and is now based in Central Victoria, Australia. He provides advice to major projects in the civil, mining and oil and gas sectors throughout the world. The advice provided invariably centres around “getting the geology right” and developing effective engineering geological models of all sorts to facilitate project delivery. He regularly teaches engineering geology and geology for engineers to both undergraduates and practitioners and has developed and delivered a variety of professional development courses. He has been actively involved in the IAEG since 2002 and had the honour of serving as President between 2006 and 2010.

Warwick is a geologist who has had a wide experience in Queensland. After regional geological mapping in Cape York Peninsula in the 1960s, and mineral exploration in western Canada, he returned to Brisbane in 1972 to join the Geological Survey of Queensland in the Department of Mines.  There he worked for 30 years in a variety of fields, including engineering geology of dam sites, location of rock resources, mapping of urban areas, land use planning, and geological hazards. The latter work resulted in a series of reports on landslide risks for expanding settlement on the several basalt plateaus of southeast Queensland.

As a result of this broad experience, he likes to bring geology to the public, and since his retirement has written and edited numerous guide books in a ‘Rocks and Landscape’ series for the Geological Society of Australia, and has assisted national park and council staff with information signs and brochures, as well as hosting numerous public talks, community lectures and excursions.