Thirty-Seventh Annual Meeting – Helsinki 2011
The International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association held its thirty-seventh meeting in Helsinki, Finland, from 20 to 25 May 2011, in conjunction with the World Tunnel Congress 2011 "Underground Space in the service of a sustainable society" organised by ITA, the Finnish Tunnelling Association and the Finnish Association of Civil Engineers – RIL. More than 1400 persons participated to the Congress. 49 of the 64 Member Nations participated or were represented in the General Assembly, including 5 proxy.
MEMBER NATIONS PRESENT OR REPRESENTED
South Africa, Germany, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Republic of Korea, Croatia, Denmark, Egypt, Spain, United States of America, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Italy, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Mexico, Montenegro, Nepal, Norway, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, United Kingdom, Russia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Thailand, Turkey.
MEMBER NATIONS NOT PRESENT
Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Bulgaria ,United Arab Emirates, Iceland, Israel, Kazakhstan, Lesotho, Morocco, Panama, Peru, Serbia, Ukraine, Venezuela, Vietnam.
MEMBERSHIP
The Association has registered the membership of six new Member Nations, Azerbaijan, Belarus, United Arab Emirates, Nepal, Panama and Serbia, and 20 new Affiliate Members (15 Corporate Members and 5 Individual Members); the total results to 64 Member Nations and 310 Affiliate Members (187 Corporate Members and 123 Individual Members) taking into account some resignations.
NEXT ANNUAL MEETINGS
- Bangkok, Thailand, from 18 to 23 May, 2012, during the ITA-AITES WTC 2012 "Tunnelling and Underground Space for a global Society".
- Geneva, Switzerland, from 31 May to 5 June 2013, during the ITA-AITES WTC 2013 "Underground – the way to the future".
- Sao Paulo, Brazil, from 9 to 15 May, 2014, during the ITA-AITES WTC 2014 "Tunnels for Better Living".
SUMMARY OF REPORT OF ACTIVITY OF ITA – April 2010 to March 2011
Executive council
The Executive Council held 4 plenary meetings and carried out its traditional activities in taking into account the conclusions the conclusions of the Auditor's report, notably to increase the number of Member Nations and to take care of the relationship with the new Member Nations. He prepared the modifications of the Statutes and By-laws that have been accepted by the General Assembly in Helsinki, the organisation of the working groups and the strategy. The Executive Council continue to work on the creation of a new committee on New Technologies ITA-TECH.
Relation with the member nations and development of the contacts
The Executive Council pursued the development of its relations with the Member Nations in visiting, participating and granting meetings or events organised by 25 Member Nations. It presented ITA at various congresses and meetings in several countries not ITA members yet.
The contacts with the International Sister Associations PIARC, ISRM, ISSMGE, IRF, IFME, ISOCARP, ICLEI and ACUUS were pursued.
Development of the prime sponsors and supporters
Actions with the Prime Sponsors and the Supporters were undertaken with the preparation of seminars on topics and in countries regarded as strategic for their activities.
Relations with the UN, the World Bank and the European union
In 2010, Olivier VION and Han ADMIRAAL met in Nairobi the Head of the programme Habitat of the United Nations. It was agreed that ITA could actively participate in the programme "World Urban Campaign". A MOU should be shortly signed in this respect. On the same occasion, some contacts were taken with the ISDR division (International Strategy for Disaster Reduction). The ITA was requested to participate in the programme "Making Cities more Resilient". This programme will inspire the Open Sessions of the Congresses 2011, 2012 and 2013.
PUBLICATIONS AND COMMUNICATION
Tribune:
In 2011, the annual issue with focus on Finland including the reports of Member Nations, reports of İTA Prime sponsors and supporters has been published in May and sent to members as well as distributed to the participants to the WTC 2010 in Vancouver.
ita@news:
39 issues of the ita@news have already been published and distributed to about 8'000 subscribers. ITA would like very much to have feedback of regular readers.
Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology (TUST):
ITA Members have access an electronic version of TUST (including archives).
Website:
The number of distinct visitors is around 5 800 from 130 countries per month. The average time of a visit is 10 minutes. ITA has opened a totally new web site part dedicated to the .tunnelling and underground space use, with topics such as Why go underground, How to go underground, Use of underground space. This web site is intended to give answer to general public and decision makers.
ITA – Reports:
1 report has been published : "The ITA Contractual Framework Checklist for Subsurface Construction Contracts" prepared by WG3.
Press:
In 2010-2011, ITA has participated directly or indirectly to articles published in technical newspapers or magazines of information such as World Tunnelling (UK), Tunnelling Journal (UK), Tunnel Talk (USA).
Other business:
ITA has created a group in the social network LinkedIn. There are already nearly 600 members in this group.