IRES: US-China Collaboration on Landslide Research and Student Training

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The U.S. and China both suffer great life and property losses due to landslide hazards. The proposed International Research Experiences for Students (IRES) program will support 18 U.S. students (two graduates and four undergraduates per year) to conduct advanced landslide research in the Three Gorges area in China during the summer of 2016, 2017, and 2018. The IRES students will attend a two-week intensive Chinese language and cultural course at the main campus of CUG and then conduct a five-week field investigation in the Three Gorges Reservoir area. The field investigations will be supervised by the PI and three professors at CUG, Drs. Huiming Tang, Hanwen Zhou, and Changqian Ma from the China University of Geosciences (CUG) in Wuhan. The eight-week-long collaborative project is designed to expose U.S. students to the international landslide research community at an early stage of their careers. The IRES project will increase the visibility of U.S. students in China through their activities in the CUG campus and in the Three Gorges Reservoir area.The IRES project will provide U.S. students with hands-on field research experience in landslide surveying, mapping, monitoring, and early-warning. The main research objectives are to (1) develop a GPS based real-time landslide monitoring and early-warning system at the Huangtupo landslide site, (2) develop a rapid landslide mapping method using high-accuracy GPS and LiDAR integrated technologies, and (3) study the correlation of landslide movements with fluctuation of the water level within the Three Gorges Reservoir. The methods developed through this project can be modified to serve other regions prone to landslides. The knowledge and skills that students learn from this project will better prepare them for their professional careers.