At the 4th World Landslide Forum, the International Program on Landslides awarded the title of "World Centre of Excellence on Landslide Disaster Reduction" as global recognition for Amrita University's contribution towards landslide risk reduction. The title, which the University will hold till 2020, was conferred at the 4th World Landslide Forum in Ljubljana, Slovenia. There are 20 such centres in the world, but none in India currently. Amrita University has successfully deployed the world’s first wireless sensor network system for detection and early warning of landslides in Munnar, Kerala. At the request of the Government of India, they have also deployed a similar system in Sikkim, Northeast Himalayas. This applied research, with significant global value for all landslide prone areas, was directly initiated by Amrita.
University Chancellor Mata Amritanandamayi Devi to develop low-cost technologies for wide-area monitoring of landslides. Maneesha Sudheer, Director, Center for Wireless Networks and Applications, Amrita University, who spearheads landslide research, explains, “Amrita University’s recognition as a World Centre of Excellence will allow us to increase capabilities within India while working collaboratively with the United Nations and other globally renowned research centres. Building on our existing real-time monitoring and early warning system, we plan to develop a comprehensive framework including landslide hazard mapping, remote sensing, low-cost sensing, big-data analytics, and decision models. The next steps in our research will provide an opportunity to implement end-to-end systems for real-time monitoring, detection and early warning of landslides in India. We will also undertake the development of low-cost MEMS sensors and big data analytics platform for disaster risk reduction.”
Landslides are the third most deadly natural disasters on earth, with $400 billion being spent annually worldwide for landslide disaster management. More than 300 people throughout the world die every year due to landslides. More than 12 percent of the land area in India is susceptible to landslides. The major landslide prone areas in India include the Western Ghats and Konkan Hills (Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra); Eastern Ghats (Araku region in Andhra Pradesh); North East Himalayas (Darjeeling and Sikkim) and North West Himalayas (Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir). The landslides in Bangladesh which killed more than 150 people last week have starkly underlined the nature of the threat to life and property posed by them.
The centre has also initiated a landslide-research project with the British Geological Society and UK Met Office to develop regional thresholds for landslide warning from the real-time data of Amrita’s field deployment in the Himalayas and the Western Ghats. This project titled Landslip also engages the community in providing an integrated early warning system for reducing the landslide risk. In 2008, Amrita University set up India's first landslide laboratory, which serves as a test bed for development and validation of systems deployed in landslide prone areas. It can create small landslides under controlled conditions and act as a feedback system for the field deployment.
