Hydrogeomorphology and steep creek hazard mitigation lexicon: French, English and German

Abstract

Geoscientists, researchers and engineers study and work on similar projects all over the world. The exchange of information between colleagues of different countries who work on homologous projects or in similar fields requires a common technical vocabulary. Differences in the usage of technical terms and their varying definitions in different regions of the world may constrain the transfer of knowledge, for example in guidelines. Translations of technical papers and of presentations are particularly complicated and troublesome. Moreover, writers waste valuable time when they try to find proper technical terms in a different language. This is currently the case in the fields of fluvial geomorphology and steep creek hazard mitigation since several countries are active in these domains. Papers, guidelines, and policies are published in several languages, such as Japanese, Italian, French, German, English, Korean, Chinese and Spanish. International delegates are also submitting papers to journals, presenting and participating at conferences that are predominantly in English. Finally, working groups with multinational participants have been formed to advance research and transfer of knowledge in fluvial geomorphology and steep mountain creek hazard mitigation. Therefore, standardization and better definitions of technical terms are required. We propose in this paper a lexicon of French, English and German technical terms, and their definitions, related to the fields of fluvial geomorphology and steep mountain creek hazard mitigation. This paper focuses on the most important terms. In the future, other languages and supplemental terms could be added to this document with the help of other contributors.