Symposium on earthquake and landslide risk in Central Asia and Caucasus: Exploiting remote sensing and geo-spatial information management

Landslides triggered by earthquakes are one of the classic examples of a multi-hazard and risk phenomena. In fact, they represent a prominent case where triggered events (landslides) are on occasion more devastating than the initial act (earthquakes). Such events have a severe impact upon the communities of Central Asia and the Caucasus, which include their detrimental effect on the development of infrastructure, namely reservoirs, roads, railways, and other lifelines.

As a result, there are intensive scientific research activities being undertaken to mitigate against the impact of these hazards and the resulting risks. Included with such efforts are the latest advances in remotely-sensed data and the widespread use of geographical information systems (GIS), which are now able to provide effective tools to both practitioners and decision-makers.

We therefore invite research scientists and engineers, infrastructure operators (private and public), disaster response and mitigation managers, and decision and policy makers from around the Central Asian and Caucasus regions to present the latest developments in earthquake and landslide vulnerability and risk assessment. In particular, advances and perspectives of remote sensing and geo-spatial information management, and associated case studies, are of interest.

The symposium will run over two days and will be divided into 4 themes:

• Earthquake and landslide risk in Central Asia and the Caucasus.
• Remote sensing and geo-spatial information management.
• Post-event recovery monitoring.
• Interactions with decision and policy makers.