Joint Scientific Workshop of the Projects MUMOLADE, HYDRODRIL and REVENUES

Joint Scientific Workshop on the “Recent Developments in the Analysis, Monitoring and Forecast of Landslides and Debris Flow”
9-10th September 2013, Vienna, Austria Institute of Geotechnical Engineering, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), is going to organize a workshop on “Recent Developments in the Analysis, Monitoring and Forecast of Landslides and Debris Flow” in Vienna, Austria on 9-10 September 2013. This workshop will be a joint event of three different projects: MUMOLADE, HYDRODRIL and REVENUES financed under Seventh Framework Programme of the European Union, SP3-People, Marie Curie Actions. Mountains occupy about one fifth of the terrestrial surface in the earth and about twenty percent (1.2 billion) of the world’s human population lives in mountains or at their edges, and half of humankind depends in one way or the other on mountain resources. Landslides or debris flows are the greatest risk to the people living on such mountains and slopes. Globally, landslides cause billions of Euros in damage and thousands of deaths and injuries each year. Many researchers and geoscientists are working on the different areas of landslides research. The acquired knowledge should be disseminated regularly. The planned workshop will be an opportunity to bring those experts working in these areas together and it will also generate a synergy to advancement in further research in these areas. Detailed programme here

Kick-off Meeting took the place in Vienna

The kick-off meeting of the EU Project HYDRODRIL was held on Oct. 8.-12,  2012 in Vienna. Prof. Wei Wu moderated the sessions. Legal framework of ITN (Initial Training Networks) were introduced and discussed during the meeting. It covered general information about IRSES (International Research Staff Exchange Scheme) of the 7th EU Framework Programme “People - Marie Curie”, Rules of Secondments, Finances and Budget as well as Work Programme.  The main objective of the HYDRODRIL exchange programme is to create a multidisciplinary network of researchers based both in Europe (Austria and UK) and in the countries of emerging economies (China, India and Mexico). The scientific objectives of HYDRODRIL are

  1. to address the urgent need of understanding and forecasting of triggering mechanisms of landslides;
  2. to establish coherent strategies for disaster prevention and mitigation;
  3. to investigate and evaluate the risk and nature of hydrologically-driven landslides and d) to have better understanding of mechanisms governing hydrologically-driven landslides.

Research is subdivided into 5 scientific Work Packages (WP). Every partner leads one WP. The content of the 5 WP was explained briefly. Two HYDRODRIL Workshops are planned: the 1st Workshop is planned for July/August 2013 in Vienna for 1-2 days. Local research institutes related to the topic will be invited to participate. This date facilitates a combination with secondments. The 2nd will be hosted by IIT (Indian Institute of Technology). IIT is willing to organize the Workshop in the Himalayan region towards end of project. Prof. Wei Xiang (CUG) gave a presentation about the site of Huangtupo Landslide, Hubei province, China. It is located along the impound reservoir of the Three-Gorges dam, an area prone to mass movements. The site is an extraordinary research project of a highly instrumented instable slope. This site with its lab will be a major ‘playground’ of WP1. After the meeting, Mr. Idinger, Prof. Katina and Prof. Fiebig guided a Lab-tour of 3 laboratories of the Department of Civil Engineering and Natural Hazards, i.e. the geotechnical Engineering Lab, the Mountain Risk Engineering Lab and the Geology Lab. Participants: Dr. Madhu Sudan Acharya  (BOKU, Vienna), Prof. Markus Fiebig (BOKU), Mr. Gregor Idinger (BOKU), Prof. Roland Kaitna (BOKU), Prof. Aniruddha Sengupta (IIT, Kharagpur, India), Prof. Wu, Wei (BOKU - Coordinator); Prof. Wei Xiang (CUG, Wuhan, China) attended the meeting. Prof. Irasema  Alcántara-Ayala (UNAM, Mexico) and Yu, Hai-Sui (UNOTT, Nottingham) were not able to take part in the meeting.