Topic of the Presentation:

Application of PSHA in High-Seismicity Areas: A Case Study from the Sichuan-Yunnan Region

Topic of the Presentation:

Data-driven post-earthquake recovery estimation

About Speaker:

Dr. Liu holds a Ph.D. in geotechnical engineering and MSc degrees in computational science & engineering as well as civil engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in the US. His research focuses on analyzing and mitigating geohazards and improving the performance of resilient infrastructures for post-disaster mitigation and community reconstruction. Dr. Liu is an internationally recognized expert in rapid sensing and responses to natural disasters. He has served as the co-chair of the virtual disaster responses program and the reorder for the US NSF- funded Geotechnical Extreme Event Reconnaissance (GEER) Association to investigate the geotechnical impacts of natural disasters worldwide.

Topic of the Presentation:

Roadside Slope Stability in Nepal: Challenges and Way Forwards

Topic of the Presentation:

Safeguarding the Himalayas: leveraging geohazard investigation for sustainable risk mitigation

About Speaker:

Basanta Raj Adhikari holds a Ph.D. degree in Earth Sciences from the University of Vienna, Austria. His main research interest are disaster risk reduction and management, Climate change and hill slope dynamics, tectonic geomorphology, landslide, floods, and Earthquakes in the mountain. He is the author of more than 40 scientific papers and book chapters and received various recognitions for his work in the field of earth science i.e. Young Scientist (Integrated Research on Disaster Risk) and “young affiliates” (The World Academy of Sciences). He has been contributing to the policy documents for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) in planning and implementation at both national and international levels.

Topic of the Presentation:

Engineering Geomorphology and Geotechnics in Roads of Nepal

About Speaker:

He is a seasoned Engineering Geologist based in Nepal, with comprehensive expertise in landslides, debris flow, earthquakes, engineering geomorphology, landslide simulation, hazard assessment, disaster management, foundation analysis, and the engineering geology of roads and dams. His academic journey includes a B.Sc and MSc in Geology from Tribhuvan University and a PhD in Engineering from Kagawa University, Japan, complemented by a Post-Doctorate in Geodisaster Management from Ehime University, Japan.

An Associate Professor at Tribhuvan University and a visiting professor at prestigious Japanese universities, he is dedicated to advancing engineering geological research in Nepal, promoting sustainable development, and enhancing environmental standards in the Himalayas. He actively contributes to professional organizations, holding significant positions, and has garnered multiple accolades for his contributions to the field.

Topic of the Presentation:

Hazard, Exposure and Vulnerability – A Framework for Geohazard Risk Management in Challenging Terrain

About Speaker:

Emily Mark is a geological engineer and project manager within proven experience in geohazard assessment and geohazard mitigation design for communities, mining and transportation sector clients. She is focused on finding cost-effective and practical solutions for geohazard management challenges. Emily’s M.Sc. thesis presented an international review of debris-flow and debris-flood mitigation techniques and provided guidance for the design of debris-flow and debris-flood mitigation in Canada. Her analysis and design experience includes geohazard assessment, qualitative and quantitative risk assessment for geohazard and dam projects, numerical landslide runout modelling, and design of geohazard mitigation systems, including functional, hydrotechnical and geotechnical design aspects. With BGC Engineering, Emily has worked on projects in Alberta and British Columbia, Canada, as well as in Chile, Argentina, Nepal and the Dominican Republic; she has also completed field work in Europe, Japan and Hong Kong to develop her understanding of international best practices for steep creek hazard mitigation.

Topic of the Presentation:

Challenges in foundation design of long elevated highway corridor in soft soil

About Speaker:

Topic of the Presentation:

Dam Safety Emergency Management Program for Residual Risk Reduction Global Perspective with Nepalese Context

About Speaker:

Keshab Sharma is a Geotechnical Engineer at BCG Engineering Inc., Canada. He completed BE in Civil Engineering from Pulchowk Campus, Institute of Engineering, Tribhuvan University, Nepal, and master’s degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Tokyo, Tokyo Japan as an ADB scholar. He holds a Ph.D. in Geotechnical Engineering from the University of Alberta, Canada.

Dr. Sharma has authored dozens of papers published in national and international journals and presented more than ten papers in international conferences. He is also a well-known columnist in Nepal’s National Daily wherein he writes about socio-technical issues.

Previously, Dr. Sharma was a lecturer at Kathmandu Engineering College (KEC) and Institute of Engineering (part-time). He also worked as a project engineer at Save the Children International where he involved in designing retrofitting of school buildings.

Topic of the Presentation:

Translating multi-hazard risk assessment to compounding and cascading disaster risk management for resilient infrastructure

Topic of the Presentation:

Construction of Pilot Low-Cost High Performance (Base Isolation) School Building in Nepal

About Speaker:

Dr. Marasini, Deputy Executive Director at National Society for Earthquake Technology-Nepal (NSET) has PhD in Disaster Mitigation and Management with specialization on Geodisaster from Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Ehime University, Japan. Dr. Marasini has a long experience in the field of disaster risk management including development of strategy for Disaster resilient communities, coordination with central levels government authorities, community mobilization, coordination with local authorities and develop partnerships with national and internationals partner organizations. Dr. Marasini also have expertise on disaster risk reduction program design and Implementation with sound knowledge in program management and coordination skills with technical knowledge on DRRM, development of guidelines, training materials and conducting trainings. He possesses leadership quality with optimization of human and financial resource mobilization. He has published number of journal paper on theme of liquefaction potential analysis and mitigation measures. He has a rich work experience in Nepal, Iran, Pakistan, Japan and shortly in other countries in South/south-east Asia. He has implemented several projects as the team leader and/or deputy team Leader. Currently, He is working as a Team Leader (International position) for the Design and Supervision consultant of the Disaster Resilient of School Project (DRSP) funded by Asian Development Bank (ADB) and implemented by Central Level Project Implementation (CLPIU) , Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Government of Nepal.

Topic of the Presentation:

Planning of infrastructures on the Dynamic landscape of Himalayas

About Speaker:

Mohan Acharya Senior Geotechnical Engineer at NEA Engineering Company (NEC), Nepal. He holds the BE Civil and MSc in Geotechnical Engineering from Pulchowk Campus, Institute of Engineering, Tribhuvan University, Nepal and a Ph.D. in Geotechnical Engineering from the University of Alberta, Canada.

Dr. Acharya has a long experience in the field of Geotechnical engineering. He has worked in the design of buildings foundations, more than 300 bridge foundations, High voltage tower foundations, slope stability analysis, design of deep excavation protection work. At NEC he is leading the design and supervision of large hydropower projects that includes surface and underground structures, large embankment and rockfill dams, and dam foundations etcs. He has been involved in the preparation seismic guidelines of design of dam in Nepal for World Bank, the Geotechnical investigation guideline for the Department of buildings and Department of Road. Currently he is providing expert services in the field of Natural and cut slope stability, tunnel stability, foundation settlement, and foundation in complex ground condition.

Dr. Acharya has lectured courses in Msc in Geotechnical engineering, supervised several MSc students, and authored and published journal papers in international journals and conferences.

Topic of the Presentation:

Climate change and geotechnical structures on expansive soils, challenges and opportunities – An Australian perspective

About Speaker:

Dr. Karim completed his PhD in 2011 and worked in the area of soft soil engineering and ground improvement. After his PhD and before joining UNISA, he has worked as researcher in different institutions in Australia and United Kingdom.

Dr. Karim’s area of research interest includes, climate change, soil-atmospheric boundary interaction, expansive soils, ground improvement, soft soil engineering, constitutive modelling, numerical modelling, soil struture interaction, granular material behaviour, pavement engineering, tailing material behaviour, liqueafaction and bio cementation.

Topic of the Presentation:

Impact Assessment of Overlooking Geotechnical Risk on sustainable road design and construction in challenging terrain throughout the project cycle – A Practice based Approach

Topic of the Presentation:

Ethical Geotechnical Practices by Engineering Consulting Firms for Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure

About Speaker:

Er. Sharma, who has more than 39 years of experience in the engineering is a graduated of National Institute of Technology (NIT), Warangal, India. He completed his Master of Science in Water Resources Engineering in 2003 from Tribhuwan University, Institute of Engineering, Nepal. He is currently the President of Society of Consulting Architectural and Engineering Firms (SCAEF), Nepal – Member Association of FIDIC for the period 2024~2025 AD. Professionally he holds a position of Managing Director of Full Bright Consultancy (Pvt.) Ltd, a leading infrastructure firm of Nepal and is associated with the firm since 2004. A Water Resource Engineer by profession has moved to a management position. He was actively involved with SCAEF since last 4 years contributing to the cause of SCAEF. In the past, as a professional engineer, he has provided inputs for different government and private sectors alike in various capacities from design engineer, irrigation engineer, water resource engineer, and later stage of his career as Team Leader, Project Coordinator/Director for various infrastructure development projects of Roads, Railways, Water Resources, Irrigation etc. in which his firm is associated with national and
international partners. His areas of interest are procurement of consulting services, career counselling to engineering graduates, networking with national and international institutions of engineering fields etc.

Topic of the Presentation:

Developing a Framework for Sustainable and Scientific Extraction of Riverbed Materials from the Chure-Terai Rivers in Nepal

About Speaker: