The First International Workshop on ‘’Electric, Magnetic and Electromagnetic Methods Applied to Cultural Heritage’’ (EMEMACH 97), held at Ostuni, Italy, September 29 - October 1, 1997, attracted a large number of scientists, mainly from European countries. The main topics of the workshop covered the areas of 1) Geophysics for Archaeology, 2) NDT for Historical Buildings, 3) Natural Risks and Cultural Heritage, 4) EM: Methods and Applications, 5) Magnetics: Methods and Applications, 6) Remote Sensing, Imaging and EM Tomography, 7) Integration of Techniques and Methods, 8) GPR: Methods and Applications and 9) Miscellaneous. Most case studies were dealing with the application of geophysical detection techniques on Italian and other European sites.

The 1st symposium of "Remote Sensing Applications in Archaeology" was held at the St. Cloud State University, Minnesota, in March 1997. The conference was jointly organized by B. Richason (Spatial Analysis Research Centre, SCSU), R. Rothaus (Archaeological Computing Laboratory, SCSU), T. Wilkinson (Oriental Institute) & J. Sanders (Oriental Institute).The symposium included presentations on fieldwork applications and techniques, discussion sessions with NASA and JPL representatives on future remote sensing platforms and projects along with software and data type demonstrations. Satellite remote sensing (Landsat, SPOT, SIR, IRS), including the use of Declassified Intelligence Satellite Imagery, aerial photography, GIS technologies & Global Positioning Systems applications were explicitly presented, covering a number of case studies from U.S.A., Europe, Arabian Peninsula and Mesopotamia.The recent developments of airborne thermal and multispectral/hyperspectral scanners and the future 1m spatial resolution satellite systems, that have been announced to be launched by the end of the year, were also discussed. The symposium was especially successful in identifying the advantages of satellite and aerial remote sensing in subjects related to the definition of areas of archaeological interest, archaeological resource management, settlement patterns recognition and environmental archaeology. Most of the abstracts presented in the conference can also be found on the web (eleftheria.stcloud.msus.edu/rsaa/program.cfm).

23rd General Assembly of the European Geophysical Society, Acropolis, Nice, France, 20-24 April, 1998. Details from: EGS Office, Max Planck Str. 13, 37191 Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany, tel. +49-5556-1440, fax +49-5556-4709, web: email: The scientific programme includes symposia on "Geophysical and Geological Signatures of Past and Present Climate Change", "Rockmagnetism, Palaeomagnetism and Environmental Magnetism", and "Archaeology and Archaeomagnetism".

HAZARDS ’98, 7th International Conference on Natural and Man-Made Hazards, International Society for the preservation and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Chania, Crete, Greece. Details from: Dr. G.A. Papadopoulos, Institute of Geodynamics, National Observatory of Athens, 11810 Athens, Greece, tel.+30-1-3462-664, fax. +30-1-3426-005, email: m.sachp@egelados.gein.noa.gr