近年、大雨土砂災害（地すべり、土石流等）防災、地熱エネルギー等の再生可能エネルギーの開発および放射性廃棄物の地層処分や二酸化炭素地中貯留のほか、地下水利用や土壌汚染対策と言った環境問題が社会的な課題となり、応用地質学が取り扱う範囲も拡大することによって、その需要が高まっている。一方で、応用地質学を専門とする研究者・技術者は増加しておらず、社会的需要を十分に満たせる環境とは言い難い。本セッションでは、近年新展開が著しく、過渡期にある応用地質学において、今後、若い世代を巻き込んで発展するためには何が必要か模索するために企画された。応用地質学の喫緊の課題のほか、従来から応用地質学が貢献して来た分野も含め、広い分野からの発表を歓迎する。また、発表者には応用地質学の将来構想を発表に含めてもらうことを期待したい。

There has recently been growing demand for engineering geology, because the mitigation to disaster caused by heavy rain fall such as debris flow and landslide, exploration of renewable energy such as geothermal energy, underground carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) and high-level radioactive waste (HLW) disposal, and environment issues such as groundwater usage and soil contamination have become new social issues. Whereas, the insufficient number of engineers who can play a pivotal role in related companies and institutes (e.g. construction consulting companies) addressing these issues has become a problem, which resulted from the insufficient geological training at universities, particularly, the one for field work. Thus, this session has been organized to overcome these issues by not only appealing the social importance of engineering geology to young people explaining the content and role played in the society, but also encouraging them to be a geological engineer. To accomplish these purposes, we will solicit presentations from a variety of disciplines including those of immediate importance as mentioned above and traditional geological survey and analyses to assess the stability of ground for the construction of infrastructures. We further request the presenters to include in their talk what kinds of occupation could be suggested to young people if they follow a career path of engineering geology.