India to Host World Landslide Forum for First Time, 1,900 Authors From 75 Countries to Participate

New Delhi: India will host the World Landslide Forum for the first time, becoming the fifth country to host the global gathering, with more than 1,900 authors from over 75 countries and regions expected to participate in its seventh edition in Faridabad next month.

The World Landslide Forum 7 (WLF7) will be held from November 23 to 27 in Faridabad, Delhi-NCR, with Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham as the host institution.

The forum has previously been held in Tokyo, Japan (2008), Rome, Italy (2011), Beijing, China (2014), Ljubljana, Slovenia (2017), Kyoto, Japan (2021) and Florence, Italy (2023).

The five-day forum will bring together scientists, engineers, practitioners and policymakers to discuss advances in landslide science, early-warning systems and disaster-risk reduction.

Organised under the aegis of the International Consortium on Landslides (ICL), the event is being held in collaboration with organisations including the Geological Survey of India, National Disaster Management Authority, Department of Science and Technology, National Institute of Disaster Management and Indian Space Research Organisation.

WLF7 has received more than 700 abstracts and full papers, involving over 1,900 authors from 75-plus countries and regions and 760-plus institutions. More than 1,280 international participants are expected to attend.

Under the theme “Landslide Science and Practice for Safe and Resilient Communities”, the forum will focus on landslide disaster-risk reduction, remote sensing, monitoring and early warning, hazard mapping, risk assessment and mitigation.

Pre-conference workshops on November 22 will focus on emerging technologies including artificial intelligence for landslides, satellite-based monitoring, Sentinel-1 and NISAR, InSAR, digital twins, landslide prediction and geospatial modelling.

For India, the forum will provide a platform to showcase developments in landslide monitoring and early-warning technologies while bringing global expertise to challenges faced by landslide-prone regions.

Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham said its landslide research programme dates back to 2006 and combines deep-earth sensing, Internet of Things networks, artificial intelligence and machine learning with field deployments and community-based risk communication.

The university has deployed wireless sensor networks for landslide detection and early warning in Munnar, Kerala, and subsequently developed an AI-integrated IoT system. A similar system was later deployed in Sikkim at the request of the Government of India.

The programme has more than 300 sensors associated with its monitoring and early-warning work, while researchers have visited more than 70 landslide sites across India, according to the university.

“Every advancement in landslide science must ultimately help protect a life, a home or a livelihood,” said Dr Maneesha V Ramesh, Pro Vice Chancellor, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham and Director, Amrita Centre for Wireless Networks and Applications.

She said hosting the forum in India would help connect researchers, governments, industry, NGOs and communities to share knowledge and strengthen collaboration on landslide risk reduction.

Landslides pose risks to communities and critical infrastructure, including roads, railways, settlements and power infrastructure. The forum will seek to advance practical approaches to landslide risk reduction and resilience, organisers said.

Amrita's landslide research programme has been recognised as a World Center of Excellence on Landslide Disaster Reduction under the International Program on Landslides for three consecutive periods — 2017-2020, 2020-2023 and 2023-2026.