Preliminary
Information will be continuously updated
The trip to Älvkarleby is a 2-day study tour that will take place before the conference. The tour will start of in Stockholm, from which we will travel with bus to Älvkarleby. There we will get a tour of both the Älvkarleby dam as well as visit the laboratory of Vattenfall Research and Development.
The laboratory conducts several research works with, among others, several universities. One of these is an experimental embankment dam, where they built a physical model with designed faults. The built-in faults give the researchers a possibility to study several things, including seismic investigations and other measurements to detect a potential failure.
On the way to Gotheburg we will stop along Göta Kanal as we drive across the country.
There will also be a workshop in Älvkarleby during the conference about the accuracy of geophysical measurement methods evaluated in a blind test in the experimental dam.
This study tour is a 3-day trip that takes place before the conference and includes a visit to several of the largest hydropower dams along the Lule River in Northern Sweden. Lule River is the largest river in Sweden by average discharge, flowing from the northwestern border of Sweden to its outlet in the Bothnian Bay in Luleå City. Several hydropower dams such as Porjus and Suorva are planned to be visited together with their dam owner Vattenfall.
In addition to having many large hydropower dams, the Norrland region in which Lule River is located is known for its beautiful landscapes and rich cultural heritage. The study tour will include visits to the mountainous landscapes with a view over Sarek National Park, museum Ájtte which is a gateway to the indigenous Sámi culture, and Kiruna city which is known for moving its entire city for the expansion of its mine. The study tour which will also allow an extraordinary experience of the midnight sun, a natural phenomenon only seen in the Arctic or Antarctic regions.
This trip takes it’s start at the big iron ore mines in northern Sweden. We will be given a chance to make a mine visit, follow the process through different processing plants and eventually see how the ore is shipped to the port of Narvik in Norway. The LKAB company have several mines and tailings dams in this area.
This is in the very north of Sweden so you can expect to see the midnight sun and potentially the odd reindeer (although they usually are up in the mountains this time of year).
The study tour to Iceland is a 4-day trip, that take place after the conference. The study tour will start with a flight to Reykjavik, during the first day we will explore the capital of Iceland and visit the famous Hallgrimskirkja. During the next days we will visit several hydropower plants owned by Landsvirkjun. Our visits will include Kárahnjukar dam, the largest dam in Iceland, located in the east highlands with a vast desert wilderness. The hydropower plant, with a capacity of 690 MW, started operating in 2009. We will also visit the buttressdam Ljósafoss, one of the oldest dams in Iceland, taken into operation 1937.
As well as seeing several dams we will also experience spectacular nature with magnificent views, as we drive by volcanos, stop by waterfalls and the beautiful mountains. We will drive through the famous natural park of Thingvellir, a World Heritage Site since 2004. This is where the first parliament, called Althing, was held in Iceland in 930. The study tour will also allow an extraordinary experience of the midnight sun, a natural phenomenon only seen in the Arctic or Antarctic regions.
The trip to Norway and Sweden is a 5-day study tour that will take place after the conference. We will start off by going to Norway by bus and visit both modern and historical hydropower plants as well as spending some time in Oslo. After two days in Norway, we will travel back to the Swedish mountainous regions and visit the highest dam in Sweden, a rock-fill dam called Trängslet. The dam is currently under re-construction and being retrofitted with new bottom outlet. 
There we will get the opportunity to see the work under construction. We will stay one night in Sälen which is a resort popular for skiing during wintertime and hiking during summer. On our way back to Gothenburg we will have several interesting stops including Höljes hydropower plant and the recently constructed flood protection dams and levees in Arvika.
Sweden MEETX AB is the conference bureau handling the secretariat for the 90th ICOLD-CIGB Annual Meeting in 2023.
E-mail: icold2023@meetx.se
Phone: +46 31 708 86 90
Registration opens: October 2022
Submission of abstracts: October 2022
Submission of technical paper: January 2023
Meeting dates 11-15 June 2023
