Events & Courses

Speaker: Prof. David Petley
Time: 6.30 pm – 7.30 pm
Seminar Fee: Free of Charge

Synopsis

Landslides in high mountain areas, such as the Himalayas and the Southern Alps of New Zealand, have the potential to cause very high levels of damage. In most cases they are so large that it is impossible to mitigate them, such that other approaches need to be developed to manage the hazard.

This talk will focus on three case studies.

• The first will explore the Attabad landslide, which in 2010 blocked the Hunza valley in Northern Pakistan, threatening 25,000 people with a dam burst flood. The presenter was involved in a six month long project to manage the risk as the water level approached the overtopping point, which included the setting up of warning systems and the relocation of large numbers of people.
• The second will explore the Gayari rock avalanche in Siachen, Pakistan, which killed 142 soldiers based at an army camp. The author was involved in a programme of work to find and recover the remains of the victims, all of whom were buried 25 m below rock and ice debris from the landslide.
• The third will examine the threats posed by the Utiku landslide in New Zealand, which is a very large but slow moving slide that threatens a railway and a strategic highway.

In each case the talk will examine the threats that the landslides posed and the lessons that can be learnt from their management.

About the Speaker

Prof. Petley is Pro-Vice Chancellor at the University of East Anglia, and was until recently the Dean of Research and Global Engagement at the University of Durham. He is an active and authoritative researcher in his field and an experienced manager of research. He also writes one of the most informative and visited blogs on landslide matters: http://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/

He graduated with a degree in Geography from King's College London and a PhD in Earth Science at UCL. His first academic post was a lectureship in Environmental Studies at the University of Sunderland, which was followed by a lectureship in Engineering Geology at the University of Portsmouth.

He joined the University of Durham as a lecturer in Physical Geography in 2000 and was promoted to a readership in 2004. In 2006 he became the Wilson Chair in Hazard and Risk and the Deputy Head of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Health, with responsibility for research and enterprise. For the next two years Prof Petley was Executive Director of the Institute of Hazard, Risk and Resilience before becoming Dean of Research and Global Engagement in May 2012. Prof Petley managed the Durham submission for REF2014 as well as leading on the development of a new University Research Strategy and overseeing the development and implementation of the internationalisation strategy at Durham.

Prof Petley’s research focuses on landslides, especially in high mountain areas in low income countries. In particular, he is interested in the use of novel combinations of field monitoring and laboratory testing to understand the internal mechanisms of mass movements. He also maintains a database of landslides that cause loss of life around the world.

Registration:

No prior registration is required. Seating capacity is limited to 50.
For enquiry, please email Ms Kitty CHAN at [email protected].