UKIERI-DST Partnership Development Workshop

Partner universities:

UKIERI-DST Partnership development workshop is being organised jointly by University of Wolverhampton (UoW) and Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IITD)

Dates and venue:- 13-16 December 2021, Science Park, University of Wolverhampton, UK.

Workshop Title:

Urbanisation and Resilience against Natural and Man-made Disasters- Developing Roadmap for Building Resilient Cities in India (UBRESIND)

Workshop background:

India is a large country with a population of more than one billion. Over the years the proportion of the urban population has increased steadily due to several reasons, leading to rapid development and expansion of cities. Metropolitan cities such as the national capital Delhi, Mumbai and several others are among the large cities worldwide. In addition, there are many 2-tier and 3-tier cities with large populations. The expansion of these cities leading to their rapid urbanization has been more on a fire-fighting basis rather than based on a well thought out development plan, especially in earlier times. Consequently, the cities lack resilience against natural and man-made disasters. A unique feature of practically all Indian cities is that these have many areas within, which are densely populated. Also, India is a country with great diversity. In the present context, there is considerable variability in terms of climate, terrain, soil/ground conditions, seismicity, water flow etc. Consequently from the civil/structural engineers’ perspective, the building and construction practices, as well as the materials used for city infrastructures, also vary from region to region. There is also a concern for critical infrastructure due to increased levels of threat and therefore, designing resilient cities has gained importance.

The proposed UKIERI-DST Partnership Development Workshop (UBRESIND) will focus on technical aspects involving primarily the role of civil/structural engineers in designing/building resilient cities, as well as aimed at developing a roadmap to enhance the resilience of cities in India against natural and man-made disasters. The workshop will include keynote and invited lectures from leading academicians and industry experts, and presentations by ECRs. Round table discussions among the participants and with mentors and experts are planned to discuss and work out a roadmap for resilient cities. As one of the primary objectives of the UKIERI-DST PDW, participants will be encouraged to develop project proposals that may lead to short and long term collaborative research between researchers from the UK and India.