Sustainable Places team travels to China to mark anniversary of devastating earthquake

Professor Terry Marsden, Dr Tristram Hales and Dr Jing Ran from the Sustainable Places Research Institute travelled to China to mark the 10th anniversary of the devastating Wenchuan Earthquake and present at two major conferences held in Chengdu.

May 12, 2018 was a conference to mark the 10 year anniversary of the Mw 7.8 Wenchuan Earthquake. Since the earthquake, there have been a large number of hazardous landslides called debris flows; rapidly moving, fluid landslides that move at hundreds of kilometres an hour. They are difficult to predict and cause significant damage to buildings and can cause additional fatalities.

The group presented work looking to understand the underlying mechanisms that cause debris flows and how they affect communities that are vulnerable after the earthquake. The work will lead to better management of risk in these communities.

On May 19th the group travelled to Xian in Shaanxi to meet with a Chinese and Iranian scientist at Chang’an University. This area is found at the historical end of the Silk Road, and is seeing significant development associated with the “One Belt, One Road” policy.

The meeting was to discuss collaborative projects looking to build resilient and sustainable communities within these arid and semi-arid landscapes.Sustainable Places' research project, Resilience to EArthquake-induced landslide risk in CHina (REACH) seeks to understand the ability for communities to “bounce back” from the persistent and ongoing hazards after an earthquake. Find out more about the research project.