BIS and IIT Roorkee jointly organize a National seminar on “Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) and Landslide Lake Outburst Floods (LLOFs) Disasters in Himalayan Regions
Roorkee : Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IITRoorkee), and the Water Resources Department, Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), New Delhi, jointly organize a National Hybrid Seminar on “Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) and Landslide Lake Outburst Floods (LLOFs) Disasters in Himalayan Regions” on June 15, 2022, at IIT Roorkee and also online through WebEx. The Seminar will act as an opportunity for the exchange of ideas and knowledge between diverse groups of the scientific community concerned with the current issues related to Glacial and landslide lake outburst flood-related hazards and the development of standard codes for its mapping and modeling. It is envisaged to help make better documents and update and formulate new Indian Standards in the relevant field by serving as a forum for advancing innovation, development, and communication of best practices.
BIS is an apex organization in the field of National Standardization which is carried out through 16 Division Councils covering various areas of Standardization. Water Resources Department is one of such 17 departments in BIS, and it deals with standardization and standards formulation in the area related to River Valley Projects and Ground Water.
The conference was held in the presence of eminent dignitaries, namely, Shri Sanjay Pant, Deputy Director General (Standardization–II), BIS; Shri R. Bhanu Prakash, Scientist – E/Director & Head, Water Resources Department, BIS; Prof. Manoranjan Parida, Deputy Director IIT Roorkee; Prof. Arun Kumar, Professor at Department of Hydro and Renewable Energy, IIT Roorkee and Coordinator of BIS related activities at IIT Roorkee; Prof. C. S. P. Ojha, Department of Civil Engg. IIT, Roorkee; Dr. Ajanta Goswami, Dept. of Earth Sciences and Dr. Mohit Prakash Mohanty, Dept. of Water Resources Development and Management, IIT Roorkee. On this occasion, expert lectures were delivered by eminent scientists in the field of Glaciology and Cryospheric Science, namely, Dr. Anil V. Kulkarni, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore; Dr. Ravinder Singh, National Disaster Management Authority, New Delhi; Dr. Sanjay Kumar Jain, National Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee; Dr. Tapas Ranjan Martha, and Shri. B.Simhadri Rao, National Remote Sensing Centre, ISRO Hyderabad; Dr. Praveen Thakur & Dr. Pratima Pandey, Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, ISRO Dehradun. During the panel discussion, relevant experts from different organizations participated, highlighted their opinion on the subject, and helped prepare a framework for GLOF & LLOF-related Standardization and code development.
Shri Sanjay Pant, Deputy Director General (Standardization–II), BIS, highlighted,”The Indian Himalayan Region is vulnerable to Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) due to thinning of glaciers resulting in enlargement of lakes at a very rapid pace. This resulted in making lakes unstable and causing catastrophic flash floods. BIS is on its way to framing national standards in this field so that the consequences of such incidents can be controlled and their financial/environmental/social impact can be minimized.”
Prof. Ajit Chaturvedi, Director, IIT Roorkee, said,”After the catastrophic flash floods in the recent past such as in the case of Chorabari Lake during Kedarnath Disaster in 2013, strengthening resilience to reduce the GLOF risk is an important first step towards facing such challenges in the future.”
Prof. Manoranjan Parida, Deputy Director, IIT Roorkee, said,”Glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) are a serious and potentially increasing threat to livelihoods and infrastructure in most high-mountain regions of the world. The conference is to integrate modelling approaches that capture both current and future potential for GLOF triggering, quantification of affected downstream areas, and assessment of the underlying societal vulnerability to such climate-related disasters.”