The 2nd International Conference of the Global Partnership for Smart Informatics and Multi-hazard Reduction (SIMR 2025) will be held in Chengdu, China, from 11 to 16 September 2025.

Centering on the theme "Empowering Resilience: Transferring Technologies into Solutions for Effective Disaster Risk Reduction", SIMR 2025 aims to foster international collaboration in advancing research and practice using emerging technologies for hazard risk assessment and disaster reduction, promoting long-term resilience. The conference offers opportunities for networking, skill development, and exploring new collaborations across science, engineering, and social disciplines.

 

If you need to learn all information about the conference, please click the link and read the SIMR 2025 Conference Program:

https://qr61.cn/o2Ewlv/qQ0Ivng

 

1. Conference Schedule

2. Keynote Speaker

Prof. Manchao currently an Academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), foreign Academician of Argentine National Academy of Engineering (ANI) and Russian Academy of Mining Sciences (AGN), the Director of State Key Laboratory for Geomechanics and Deep Underground Engineering (SKLGDUE) in Beijing, and Professor of China University of Mining and Technology-Beijing (CUMTB), China. He is the President of the Chinese Society for Rock Mechanics and Engineering (CSRME). He is also the Vice President and honorary fellow of the International Consortium on Geo-disaster Reduction (ICGdR). He mainly engaged in the research of Rock Mechanics and Engineering, including landslide, active fault stability analysis, monitoring and control, mining technologies, rockburst mechanism, etc. He successfully self-developed a new monitoring system which measures the Newton Force Variation along the slip surface of landslides. He has been awarded 4 National Awards, 2 Chinese Outstanding Patented Invention and 1 International Society for Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering (ISRM) Techno-logical Innovation Award.

https://ljxy.cumtb.edu.cn/info/1023/1138.htm

Dr. Shinji Sassa is Head of Soil Dynamics Group and Research Director of International Research Center for Coastal Disasters, Port and Airport Research Institute, National Institute of Maritime, Port and Aviation Technology, Japan. His expertise includes Landslides and Tsunamis as Multi-Geohazards and Scour and Erosion. He is the recipient of numerous distinguished awards, including the Prime Minister’s Commendations for Disaster Prevention Merit, the Commendation for Science and Technology by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Outstanding Research Accomplishment Award, Best Paper Award four times, Best Technical Development Award thrice, National Land Technology Development Award, and several Editor Awards for leading international journals. His Liquefaction Prediction and Assessment Paper was Top-Read Paper in ASCE Most Read Articles 2017, and his Landslide-induced Tsunami paper is the most cited paper on Landslides and Tsunamis in Journal Landslides. He is currently Principal Coordinator of the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) Task Group on Submarine Geohazards, Acting Executive Director of the International Consortium on Landslides (ICL), Chair of the International Consortium on Landslides (ICL) Network Committee, and Chair of the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE) Technical Committee on Scour and Erosion.

https://www.pari.go.jp/unit/doudo/member/sassa/

Prof. Vassilis Marinos is President of the International Association for Engineering Geology and the Environment (IAEG) for the period 2023 ‒ 2026. He is an Assistant Professor of Engineering Geology and Rock Mechanics at the National Technical University of Athens, School of Civil Engineering, Geotechnical Division.

He was born in 1976 in Athens, Greece. He holds a Doctoral Degree from the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), School of Civil Engineering, Geotechnical Division, an MSc in Engineering Geology with Distinction from Imperial College and a bachelor’s degree in Geology from the University of Athens (1st in graduation list).

He has published more than 100 papers in international journals, book chapters and international congresses. His research interests are in the field of the geotechnical classification and behaviour of weak and complex rock masses in tunnelling, landslide hazard and risk analysis, natural gas pipelines,

construction of geotechnical database for tunnels and urban environments, rock slope stability and evaluation and analysis of ground movement in mines. His professional experience involves consulting services for numerous highway projects, tunnelling, rockfall and landslide analysis, geohazards correlated to natural gas pipelines but also engineering geological work in the

field such as mapping, geoengineering models, geotechnical classification, geotechnical evaluation of ground investigation programs, geo-data processing, design of engineering structures in rock.

He has been a member of numerous professional and scientific bodies such as ISRM, ISSMGE, ITA, a member of the editorial boards of the scientific

journals ‘Bulletin of Engineering Geology and the Environment’ and‘Journal of Geotechnical and Geological Engineering’ as well as a reviewer for numerous journals, such as ‘Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering’‘Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences’‘Engineering Geology’‘Journal of Geotechnical and Geological Engineering’ and ‘Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology’ and others.

https://geoengineeringfederation.org/portfolio/vassilis-marinos/

Prof. Ximing Cai is the Ben Yen Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana‒Champaign. His primary research area is water resources systems analysis, with a focus on coupled hydrology-human systems. He has been developing and applying systems-based and data-driven methods to various water resources management problems, including the food-energy-water nexus, river basin management, reservoir operations, drought mitigation, and interdependent infrastructure planning. Cai’s interdisciplinary work bridges hydrology and economics to unravel complex environmental and water-resources systems and to inform sound management policies. He was elected a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) in 2019 for forging a new science of hydrologic change that accounts for human interactions and advances water-resources management, and a Fellow of the International Water Resources Association (IRWA) in 2024 for outstanding research and leadership in global water-resources management. His honors include the 2023 Julian Hinds Award from the American Society of Civil Engineers and the 2024 Warren A. Hall Medal from the University Council on Water Resources, both recognizing his contributions to interdisciplinary water resources research. He currently chairs IWRA’s Task Force on Downscaling the SDGs to National, Basin, and Local Scales.

https://cee.illinois.edu/directory/profile/xmcai

Dr. Limin Zhang is Chair Professor and Head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Associate Director of the State Key Lab of

Climate Resilience for Coastal Cities at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. His research areas include slopes, dams, foundations, and geotechnical risk assessment and management. Dr. Zhang is Chair of International Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE)’s TC210 on Embankment Dams, Past Chair of ASCE Geo-Institute’s Risk Assessment and Management Committee, Editor-in-Chief of Georisk, Special Editor of Geodata and AI, Associate Editor of ASCE’s Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, and editorial board member of Engineering Geology, Computers and Geotechnics and other journals. He is the recipient of the Chinese National Engineer Award, ASCE Ralph Peck Award, ISSMGE’s Lacasse Lecture Award and Wilson Tang Lecture Award.

https://cezhangl.people.ust.hk/

Prof. Joshua West conducts pioneering research at the intersection of Earth’s

landscapes, water-soil resources, carbon cycling, and climate. His work focuses on: The dynamic interplay between mountains and floodplains, examining topographic evolution, material flux regulation, and natural hazards; Reconstructing patterns of climatic change through geologic time and the co-evolution of life and carbon cycles.

His scientific exploration centers on sustainable management of natural resources, with research outputs and teaching spanning energy systems and hydrology—seamlessly integrating academic inquiry with pedagogy.

West’s transformative findings appear in premier journals including Nature, Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, and Science Advances, providing foundational support for advancements in these disciplines.

https://dr-joshwest.weebly.com/

Prof. Gretchen Kalonji has a long-term history of leadership in international collaborations in science and engineering, in innovations in science and engineering education, as well as in strategic approaches to strengthening our higher education systems.

In July 2024, Prof. Gretchen Kalonji accepted a position with the International Center of Big Data for the Sustainable Development Goals (CBAS) (http://www.cbas.ac.cn/en/) as a Special Advisor and Professor. She previously served as the Assistant Director General for Natural Sciences at UNESCO, from 2010 - 2014, where she had responsibility for multiple international and intergovernmental science programs. Prior to joining CBAS, she served as Professor and Dean of the Sichuan University ‒ the Hong Kong Polytechnic University Institute for Disaster Management and Reconstruction (IDMR), from 2016 - 2024. She also served as the Director of International Strategy Development for the 10 campus University of California system from 2005 to 2010, and as Kyocera Professor of Materials Science at the University of Washington (UW), from 1990 ‒ 2005. In her time at the UW, she also served, from 1990 ‒ 1997, in key leadership roles in the US NSF-sponsored Engineering Coalition of Schools for Excellence and Leadership (ECSEL), headquartered at Howard University. From 1982 ‒ 1990, Prof. Gretchen Kalonji served as Assistant and Associate Professor at MIT. During that time, she also worked with the leadership of the African National Congress, then in exile, on electronics and computer science programs for the Solomon Mahlangu Freedom College (SOMAFCO) in Tanzania.

She has served as visiting professor in prestigious universities in Japan, France, Germany and China, and on boards of directors for numerous international scientific initiatives. She currently serves as an Advisor to the High-Level Panel on Water and Disasters (HELP). She is the recipient of multiple honors and awards, including, in 2021, the China Friendship Award, which is the highest honor offerred to a foreigner for contributions to the social and economic development of China.

https://www.cbas.ac.cn/en/about/CBAS_Fellows_EN/CBASFellows_EN_1/202309/t20230926_489423.html

Dr. Yang Saini is the executive director of Integrated Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR), an international scientific programme cosponsored by the International Science Council (ISC) and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), and a professor at Beijing Normal University. She is the UNESCO co-Chair on Mountain Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience. Dr. Yang got her bachelor's and master's degrees from Southeast University, in Transportation Engineering, and PhD degree from University of Maryland, with a major in Civil and Environmental Engineering. Her research interests include disaster risk assessment, complex network modeling and optimization, and climate change adaptation. She is the PI of more than twenty research projects and has published more than 120 papers in academic journals, including Nature Climate Change and Nature Communications. She is the deputy director of the Assessment Working Group and Technique Working Group for the First National Survey on Integrated Disaster Risk in China. She is a member of the Expert Committee of the National Disaster Reduction Commission, National Expert Committee on Climate Change Adaptation, and a member of the Asia-Pacific Scientific and Technical Advisory Group of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR). She also serves as the editorial board member of several international academic journals. Dr. Yang also worked as a senior consultant for multiple United Nations Agencies, such as the World Bank Group, UNDP, UNICEF, etc.

https://geo.bnu.edu.cn/jgszbf/jzyjbk/jzryzc/33929.html

Prof. Xuanmei Fan is director of State Key Laboratory of Geohazard Prevention and Geoenvironment Protection (SKLGP) at Chengdu University of Technology, China. She received her PhD in Engineering Geology from the Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observations (ITC) at the University of Twente in 2013. In 2015, she became a leading professor at SKLGP. Prof. Fan’s research focuses on the earthquake- and climate change-induced chains of geological hazards, long-term landscape evolution and disaster risk reduction. She has made remarkable contributions to bridging the knowledge disparity regarding the intricate interconnections between earthquake-induced geological hazards and regional morpho-lithological, tectonic, and climatic specialties. Her work has been widely applied in the emergency response and rescue operations following major earthquakes. Due to her scientific achievements and contributions to society, she has recently received Chinese Young Women Scientists Award, Scientific Exploration Award, and the Science and Technology Awards of the International Association for Engineering Geology and the Environment (IAEG). As chair, she co-founded the Global Partnership for Smart Informatics and Multi-hazard Reduction (SIMR), aiming to address the global challenges created by increasing multi-hazard risk and climate change in a fast-changing world.

https://www.cdut.edu.cn/info/1319/7022.htm

Prof. Reinhard Hinkelmann is Head of the Chair of Water Resources Management and Modeling of Hydrosystems Technische Universität Berlin, Germany since 2004. His overarching research interests are (i) modelling of flow and transport processes in surface waters, (ii) modelling of flow and transport processes in subsurface systems and (iii) model development and hydroinformatics. In recent years, his chair had emphasis on rainfall-runoff simulations, shallow water flows, robust numerical methods, artificial neural networks, high-resolution two- and three-dimensional hydraulic and environmental flows applied to pluvial and fluvial floods, river restoration, urban waters, sewer systems, hyporheic zones and water quality. He was Speaker of the DFG (German Research Foundation) Research Training Group “Urban Water Interfaces“ (12 applicants; 2015 ‒ 2024) located at TU Berlin and the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB) in Berlin, Coordinator of the river restoration project “Placement of Ecologically Oriented Structures into the Panke and Optimisation of their Efficiency” (8 applicants; 2006 ‒ 2013), Speaker of DFG Research Unit “Coupling of Flow and Deformation Processes for Modeling the Movement of Natural Slopes” (6 applicants, 2011 ‒ 2015) and Coordinator oft he flood modelling project “Hyd³Flow -Coupling of Hydrological, Hydro-numerical and Hydro-informatics Models for an Improved Flood Prediction” (3 applicants, 2009 ‒2011). He has

supervised more than 70 PhDs, 3 habilitations, about 200 bachelor and master theses, co-authored more 150 journal papers and book chapters, 120 conference papers and about 200 further publications. Further information is found at:

https://www.tu.berlin/wahyd

Prof. Tristram Hales is an interdisciplinary Earth scientist specializing in environmental hazards and cascading Earth surface processes. Their research explores how natural events—such as earthquakes, landslides, and extreme weather—interact across time and space to create complex, multi-hazard scenarios. They have conducted extensive field-based research in mountainous and tropical regions, including western China, New Zealand, and Malaysia, focusing on how events like deforestation and seismic activity amplify downstream risks through processes such as large, mobile debris flows.

A strong advocate for collaborative and applied science, Prof. Hales works

across disciplines with ecologists, engineers, and social scientists to better understand hazard dynamics and inform sustainable risk management. Prof. Hales currently works at Cardiff University where he held leadership roles in interdisciplinary research initiatives and contributes internationally through editorial, advisory, and teaching roles. Their research increasingly integrates physical science with social and policy perspectives, aiming to support community resilience and evidence-based adaptation in the face of long-term environmental change.

https://profiles.cardiff.ac.uk/staff/halest

Prof. Guoqing Zhang is a Research Professor at the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and also serves as a Professor at Tibet University. He is recognized as a national high-level talent. With a long-term focus on studying lake changes and their impacts on the Tibetan Plateau, he has proposed response patterns of lakes to global warming and revealed associated disaster risks, contributing significantly to the advancement of lake remote sensing science. He has published over 100 papers in prestigious journals such as Nature Geo-science, Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, and Nature Climate Change, including nearly 60 as first or corresponding author, with a total citation count of approximately 12,000. His research achievements have been awarded the Second Prize of Science and Technology Award of Tibet Autonomous Region. He has been recognized as an Elsevier Highly Cited Chinese Researcher and ranked among the top 2% most influential scientists worldwide. Additionally, the Tibetan Plateau lake dataset developed by his team received the "Most Impactful Data Team Award". He has led and participated in multiple key research initiatives, including the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Strategic Priority Research Programs, and projects supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC). Additionally, he serves as a Scientific Editor for the Journal of Glaciology and an Associate Editor for Natural Hazards.

 

https://people.ucas.edu.cn/~gq

 

3. Venue Layout

All attendees can get into Chengdu University of Technology through West Gate, and then take shuttle buses to arrive at the main conference hall (SKLGP).

Campus Map of Chengdu University of Technology

The Layout of SKLGP

4. Registration

(1) Registration Time and Venue

① Registration and Check-in on September 11:

09:00-21:00, No. 48, Building 1, Phase 3 of Central Huacheng, No. 699 Shanbanqiao Road, Tiaodenghe Street, Chenghua District, Chengdu (Lobby on the 1st Floor of Chenghua Hilton Garden Inn)

② Registration and Check-in on September 12:

07:30-18:00, Entrance of the Main Venue, State Key Laboratory of Geohazard Prevention and Geoenvironment Protection, Chengdu University of Technology

③ Registration and Check-in on September 13-14:

08:30-18:00, No. 48, Building 1, Phase 3 of Central Huacheng, No. 699 Shanbanqiao Road, Tiaodenghe Street, Chenghua District, Chengdu (Lobby on the 1st Floor of Chenghua Hilton Garden Inn)

 

(2) Notes

① For those who have registered and paid: Present the conference QR code you received, scan it on-site to complete check-in, and collect the conference materials.

② For those who have registered but not paid: Present the conference QR code you received, complete the payment, and then collect the conference materials.

③ For on-site new registration: Scan the code to complete the conference information registration, finish the payment, and then collect the conference materials.

 

5. Training Course

Training Course 1：Using Data Policies for Disaster Risk Reduction to Address Multi-Hazards

Time：September 11 | 14:00 - 17:00

Venue：Meeting Room 211，SKLGP

Lecturer: Prof. Francis P. Crawley, Chair, International Data Policy Committee (IDPC), CODATA, ISC

Committee on Data (CODATA) of the International Science Council (ISC)

Dr. Lili Zhang (CNIC, CAS, Beijing)

 

Disaster risk reduction (DRR) in the 21st century requires robust data governance frameworks that facilitate timely, open, and ethical access to critical information. The UNESCO-CODATA Data Policies in Times of Crisis Facilitated by Open Science Project (DPTC Project) provides a foundation for

strengthening multi-hazard risk reduction through the use of data policies supported by open science, interoperability, and ethical data use. Aligned with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and incorporating the UNDRR and ISC Hazard Information Profiles (HIPs), this training course provides practical strategies for leveraging data policies to enhance collaboration and develop the needed digital approaches to multi-hazard management through preparedness, response, and recovery.

 

Training Course 2: Hands-on Training in High-Performance Flood Modelling and Risk Assessment: from Theory to Practice

Time: Theoretical Session: September 11 | 9:00 - 12:00

Practical Session: September 11 | 14:00 - 17:00

Venue：Meeting Room 318, SKLGP

Lecturers: Prof. Qiuhua Liang, Loughborough University, UK

Dr. Huili Chen, Loughborough University, UK

Dr. Jinghua Jiang, Loughborough University, UK

Dr. Xue Tong, Loughborough University, UK

This training course provides an integrated learning experience combining theoretical concepts and

hands-on practice in high-performance hydrodynamic modelling and flood risk assessment. The course is structured in two sessions: a theoretical component introducing key computational methods and risk assessment frameworks, followed by a practical computer-based session applying the open-source High-Performance Integrated hydrodynamic Modelling System (HiPIMS) to real-world scenarios.

The Link to Training Course :

https://docs.qq.com/form/page/DZFhhVHF4bFN5YnRD?is_no_hook_redirect=1

 

 

6. Field Trip

The deadline for field trip entries is September 11. If you need sign up, please click the link:

http://simr2025.simr2023.org/SIMRRegistrat.aspx

 

7. Attendee Guide Manual

To make sure your happy journey, we have prepared a manual, which includes transportation, recommended accommodation and introduction of Chengdu. Click the link and get the manual.

https://qr61.cn/ocpBpK/qhTSjdS

 

 

8. Contact Us

For the latest updates and detailed arrangements of the conference, please visit the official website of SIMR 2025 at http://www.simr2023.org.

 If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the conference secretariat via email at  simr2025@outlook.com