Workshop on Preventing Landslides and Flash Floods at Thuyloi University

This workshop is supported by a Department for the Economy (DfE) – Global Challenge Research Fund (GCRF) for a project entitled “Big Data at the Heart of Preventing Landslides and Flash Floods in the Vietnam Mountainous Region” and by a Research Environment Links grant, ID 527612186, under the Newton Programme Vietnam partnership, the grant is funded by the UK Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and delivered by the British Council, for a project entitled “Towards Risk Reduction and Resilience to Coastal Hazards: A Big Data Analytics Approach”.

We are pleased to hold a workshop on the above theme at Thuyloi University, Hanoi, Vietnam on Nov. 25, 2020. The workshop is being coordinated by Prof. Trung Q. Duong (Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, UK), Prof. Nguyen Trung Viet (Thuyloi University, Hanoi, Vietnam), and Dr. Nguyen-Son Vo (Duy Tan University, Danang, Vietnam), and will have contributions from other leading researchers and experts in the field. We also would like to welcome attendants from NGOs, government agencies, industry and other civil society organisations.

In Vietnam, landslides and flash floods are major natural disasters that have caused severe damage to people and property in northern mountainous provinces, central, and central highlands of Vietnam. More than 250 landslides and flash floods occurred between 2000 and 2015, causing 779 fatalities; 426 injuries; 100,000 houses were destroyed; more than 75,000 hectares of rice and crops lost; and many transportation and irrigation systems damaged. Economic losses were estimated at billions of USD. In 2017, due to these hazards, 71 people died or were missing, 4109 houses collapsed, and 13,246 households swept away in the northern mountainous areas alone [National Report, 2017].

It is estimated that approximately 70% of Vietnam population are exposed to the risks of flooding, flash flood and landslides [WHO]. It is even more serious for people living in the mountainous areas due to the lack of communications and undeveloped road infrastructure. During these major disasters communication networks are vital in early hours of rescue. Short-term solutions such as IoT platforms and telecommunications networks have emerged and been tested in mountainous areas in Vietnam, but are point solutions with limited coverage, and not applicable in wide disaster-prone and isolated rural areas with difficult terrains. There is a strong case to develop new approaches together with current IoT technologies in order to overcome these limitations and allow early-warning systems that can minimise the risks.

Big data is doubling in size every two years and reaches 44 zettabytes in 2020. The underlying technology is currently growing at 26.4% per annum (IDC), which is six times the growth rate of the overall ICT market. Big data has been utilised as a very powerful tool and new technology to enable the realisation of innovative ubiquitous and trusted applications for the public, from smart digital environment to smart health management. Although significant advances in big data have been achieved in increasing community resilience to disasters and improving environmental monitoring to reduce environmental degradation, the success of these efforts are often limited by restrictions of available big data computing paradigm and a lack of the ability to collect and integrate relevant monitoring data. As a result, turning this growing big data technology into an opportunity for societal, environmental, and economic impact requires joint efforts from scientists, government, policy makers, stakeholders, and industry.

The workshop will cover the research themes in emerging applications and technologies of big data, IoT, B5G networks, and AI with a focus on how these themes can be diffused into the management of disasters such as landslides and flash floods, which are the critical issues affecting social-economic development and well-being in Vietnam. The workshop also brings together ideas from interdisciplinary expertise in preventing landslides and flash floods. In addition, it highlights the necessity of: i) capacity building activities and networking to identify common challenges and to meet the specific needs of different regional stakeholders, ii) engage with governmental agencies at national/provincial levels, industry, NGOs, researchers and other disaster management professionals.

Date, time and venue

13.00-17.35, Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2020
Room 225-A2, Thuyloi University
175 Tay Son St., Trung Liet Ward, Dong Da Dist., Hanoi, Vietnam

Programme