IIT Roorkee organizes Natural-hazard Symposium for Indian Himalayas 2022

NEW DELHI : The Department of Hydrology, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee is organising the Natural-hazard Symposium for the Indian Himalayas (NSIH 2022) under Co-PREPARE.

Co-PREPARE is a new project funded by the University Grants Commission (UGC) and DAAD at the Hydrology department and Institute for Environmental Sciences and Geography, University of Potsdam, Germany, focusing on natural hazards in the Indian Himalayan region.

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The project facilitates cooperation between IIT Roorkee and the University of Potsdam (UP) to build capacity in joint hazard research by sharing expertise and creating new knowledge together.

The symposium is being held from October 12 to October 13, 2022 and focuses on the theme, 'Global Change and Impacts in Mountains'. The conference aims to create awareness of multiple research perspectives in the Indian Himalayan region to understand the historic perspective from the experts and how they see future scenarios unfolding.

"The intention is to create a dialogue among various practitioners and researchers active in the Himalayan region. These discussions will provide guidelines for future research on natural-hazard domains in the Indian Himalayas," said an official statement from IIT Roorkee.

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The keynote talks were given by experts on the emerging hydro-climatological extremes, risk, vulnerability, adaptation, and citizen science in the Indian Himalayan Region. The panel discussions focused on the concurrent and compounding multi-hazards in the Himalayan to highlight the multidisciplinary aspect of the natural-hazard domain and the need for collaborative interdisciplinary efforts.

Directors of both the institutes, Professor Ajit Kumar Chaturvedi and Professor Axel Bronstert graced the conference.

During his inaugural speech, Professor Chaturvedi highlighted, “The contemporary world is facing increasingly complex risks. We need technological solutions to address these risks. We endeavor to keep abreast of the challenges and opportunities in the field of disaster mitigation and management. The natural-hazard symposium for Indian Himalayas 2022 seeks to contribute towards the national vision in this domain.”