There will be one Discussion session devoted to the oral presentation of selected papers submitted to the conference under this theme. A Workshop session on estimating flow deformations and their effects on structures and foundations is also being organised by ISSMGE's TC4 Committee. The final Discussion/Workshop session will be devoted to the presentation of information about geotechnical aspects of recent earthquakes. During 1999 there were several major earthquakes (Columbia, Turkey, Greece, Taiwan). Currently these are producing large amounts of reconnaissance information. This workshop is the ideal opportunity to draw together lessons from these events.