Volume 7, Issue 3

September 2022

ReportAttending and Speaking at ICONHIC 2022 (3rdInternationalConference on Natural Hazards and Infrastructure)
Takefumi Takuma
Senior Advisor, Giken America Corp.
In early May this year, the subject international conference was held in Athens, Greece, to provide a forum for theenhancement of infrastructures’ resiliency in the face of ever-increasing natural disasters, which often destroy
infrastructures. The conference organizer was the Athens-based Innovation Center on Natural Hazards and Infrastructure.
The National Technical University of Athens and ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich) provided
supervision over organizing the conference with the support from the ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers), theHellenic Association of Insurance Companies, the Resilient Cities Network, and the Hellenic Society for Soil Mechanics
and Geotechnical Engineering. The size of attendance was approximately 300; primarily from Greece, the rest of Europe,and the United States with a few from other parts of the world. It was going to be held last year, but was postponed fora year in order to deal with the Covid-19 situation.
Overall, it was well prepared and very smoothly run with the employees of the organizer and a group of volunteers(primarily local students). A large number of invited speakers and theme lecturers were apparently internationallyrecognized experts in their respective fields (most of whom spoke in person) while some of them participated remotely
due to travel restrictions and last-minute flight cancellations. Representatives from the banking and insurance industries
were also present in addition to engineers to share their standpoints with a notion that large-scale infrastructure projectsof the PPP (Public-Private Partnership) type which they would finance and/or insure could be severely impacted during
their service lives if lacking a certain level of resiliency. Here, the author believes that the press-in piling method could
become a key to achieving a high level of resiliency in some major infrastructures; likely resulting in easier financing andwith lower insurance premiums.
The discussions made at this conference appeared to symbolize the elevated sense of urgency for a higher level ofinfrastructures’ resiliency to be achieved in Europe and the U.S. While attendees from Asia were limited, multiple
speakers emphasized that the experience in infrastructure resiliency enhancement in Japan and some other regions ofAsia should be learned and promulgated for the rest of the world. It was also noted that further participation by thegovernment sector would be essential for a future forum like this one since their presence appeared minimal at thisconference.
Representing Giken Ltd., the author presented a paper titled “Landslide Mitigation for Bridge Piers on an Unstable Slopewith Rows of Pressed-in Pipe Piles” on a project in Japan in front of an audience of approximately 30. Kubota Corp. ofJapan held a booth as one of eight exhibitors on their earthquake-resistant ductile Iron pipes. The organizer discussed
the next conference to be held in two years at a different venue. More information on the conference can be found at
the following link.

https://iconhic.com/2021/
The author appreciates the assistance provided by the International Press-in Association for author’s attendance andIan Vaz of Giken America Corp. for editing this article.

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Volume 7, Issue 3

September 2022

Fig. 1. Megaron Athens Concert Hall (Center)and International Conference Center (Semi-underground structure to the left of the Concert Hall)

Fig. 2. Panel Discussion at the Conference

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