In recent years, many disastrous rock and soil failures have occurred in China and abroad. An example is the Oso disaster, the deadliest single landslide in US history. It occurred on March 22, 2014 and buried the community of Oso in northwest Washington State, killing 43 people. A more recent case is the Shenzhen Landslide of December 20, 2015. It buried or collapsed 33 factory buildings, and led to 58 deaths, 19 missing and 17 injured (data at 6th January). These disasters have demonstrated many issues and problems in conventional theories and techniques of soil mechanics, rock mechanics, geomechanics, geo-engineering and geo-science. Therefore, the Chinese Society for Rock Mechanics and Engineering (CSRME) has decided to extend the 14th Biennial National Congress to the international geotechnical and geoscience communities.

CSRME, established in 1985, has a goal to promote activities related to the studies of the physical and mechanical behavior of rocks and soils for better and safer geotechnical design and construction. At present, CSRME has more than 9,000 personal members and has organized more than 400 symposiums or conferences including the ISRM Congress 2012. The University of Hong Kong (HKU) has over one hundred years history in teaching and research in Hong Kong and has acted as a bridge between Mainland China and the international communities for many years.

Accordingly, we co-organize this International Geotechnics Symposium cum International Meeting of CSRME 14th Biennial National Congress (IGSIM) on December 14-17, 2016 in Hong Kong. The symposium theme is the Causes, Mechanisms and Prevention of Disastrous Soil & Rock Failures. The symposium official language is English.

We therefore invite delegates from Hong Kong, Mainland China and overseas institutions to participate in this international event at the HKU main campus, where a user-friendly platform is ready to create a warm, relaxing environment for the exchange of ideas and to learn about recent advances in rock mechanics, soil mechanics, geomechanics, geotechnical engineering, rock engineering, engineering geology, earthquake and landslide among professionals and scholars worldwide.