The International Centre for Geohazards

The International Centre for Geohazards (ICG), hosted by the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI), is a Centre of Excellence established by The Research Council of Norway in 2003. ICG does research on identification, assessment and mitigation of the risks associated with geohazards such as landslides, earthquakes and tsunamis.

The University of Oslo (UiO), the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), the Geological Survey of Norway (NGU) and NORSAR are NGIs partners in ICG. ICG cooperates with scientific organisations in Norway and abroad on a variety of multi-disciplinary projects.

Geohazards are events due to geological features and processes that may pose threats to humans, property and the natural and built environment. Earthquakes, floods, landslides, volcanoes, avalanches and tsunamis are typical examples of such events. Landslides, caused by heavy rainfall, flood, earthquake, erosion and human activity, are the most common geohazards on land. Various geological processes, earthquakes and human activities can trigger slides and large mass flows.

The goal of the International Centre for Geohazards (ICG) is to be an international arena for conducting scientific and technological research on identification, assessment and mitigation of geohazards. The research focuses on landslides, offshore geohazards, earthquakes and tsunamis. The new knowledge contributes to saving lives and reducing damage due to geological hazards.

Since 2003, ICG has become a unique centre of expertise on geohazards on land and offshore because of the scientific interaction and synergy of the five partners in ICG: NGI, UiO, NTNU, NORSAR and NGU, and because of its extensive national and international outreach.

Training and education of researchers and specialists are one of the major objectives of ICG. To meet this objective, ICG has initiated graduate programs (MSc and PhD) in geohazards within the faculties of geology and civil engineering.

Current activities at ICG: