UNESCO Dual Seminar - Day 1 - Professor Saini Yang & Professor Desmond Kharmawphlang

IAS Visiting Fellow Professor Saini Yang and IAS Guest Speaker Professor Desmond Kharmawphlang each deliver a seminar on their research -

Professor Saini Yang - Transportation Infrastructure Risk Assessment on the context of Climate Change 

Climate change poses a critical threat to the resilience and functionality of transportation infrastructure. Traditional risk assessments, often focused on physical losses and single assets, are inadequate for addressing the complex, interconnected, and non-stationary nature of climate impacts on transportation system. This necessitates a shift towards a holistic risk assessment framework. Such a framework moves beyond evaluating individual components like bridges or roads in isolation, instead considering the entire transportation system as a dynamic network. It employs high-resolution climate projections to understand future hazard exposure, including sea-level rise, extreme precipitation, and heatwaves, and conducts a multi-faceted vulnerability analysis that assesses not only physical susceptibility but also functional dependencies, operational capacity, and socioeconomic consequences of service disruption. Finally, it quantifies systemic risk by modeling cascading failures across the network, where damage to one node can propagate and cripple regional mobility and supply chains. This integrated framework enables policymakers and engineers to identify critical vulnerabilities, prioritize cost-effective adaptation investments, and enhance the long-term resilience of transportation infrastructure, ensuring its continued role in economic stability and societal well-being. 

Lunch will be available from 1pm to 2pm inbetween these two talks.

Professor Desmond Kharmawphlang - Tales that Trees Tell: A Khasi Ecocritical Perspective

The slopes of the Khasi and Jaintia hills in the state of Meghalaya in India are home to swaths of rainforests. The forests are dominated by ficus elastica, such as banyan, Indian rubber and ficus Khasiana named after the Khasi tribe of Meghalaya. While these trees with aerial roots grow profusely in the wild, they are also grown and nurtured by the people for multiple reasons. A tree is planted to mark the naming ceremony of a child. The trees are also believed to protect villages from the plague, from storms and flash floods, a frequent occurrence in the area which experiences the heaviest rainfall on earth. These trees also serve as bridges. The talk will centre around the trees as part of the community of flora and fauna and the stories they engender and embody.

Arrivals from 11:45 am for a 12:00 noon start. For those joining in-person, lunch will be served after the first seminar from 1:00pm to 2:00pm. The second seminar will start after lunch.

This event is hybrid format, please use the required booking button at the bottom of the page to choose either in-person or online attendance.
(Please note that in-person spaces are limited and booking is required, so we can manage numbers for catering and also the space in the seminar room)

By booking a place at this event, attendees agree to behave in a respectful manner such that everyone feels comfortable contributing as they wish. The IAS reserves the right to eject anyone who does not abide by this policy.

IAS seminars are typically recorded, minus any Q&A sessions at the end, again to encourage contributions. The recordings are then uploaded to our website on a Fellows bio page and/or Programme page, along with our IAS YouTube Channel. If you are not able to attend a seminar live, please do still register as we will email everyone who registered to let them know once the recordings are made available.