SDGs series: Lecture by Prof. Peter Sammonds, UCL, UK, on “Disaster Risk Reduction for Refugees: Example for the Rohingya in Bangladesh”
On March 23th (Thu) , 2023, we invited Professor (here in after Prof.) Peter Sammonds from University College London (UCL),UK. Prof. Sammonds is the former Director of the UCL Institute of Risk and Disaster Reduction (IRDR) and is currently the Gender for IRDR and Intersectionality Ambassador for GRRIPP (Gender Responsive Resilience & Intersectionality in Policy and Practice- Networking Plus Partnering for Resilience) a project led by the Center for Gender and Disaster Research at UCL, and conducts research on disasters from the aspect of the natural and social sciences.
On the day of the lecture, Prof. Sammonds visited the Faculty of Engineering at Tokiwa Campus in the morning to gather information on the University’s research activities in the fields of disaster prevention and applied satellite remote sensing, followed by a lecture on “Disaster Risk Reduction for Refugees: Example for the Rohingya in Bangladesh” at Yoshida Campus, attended by about 20 faculty staff members and students.
He began his lecture by mentioning the historical connection between UCL and the Choshu-Five, and then introduced his own research activities in Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake (January 1995) and Tohoku Earthquake (March 2011), and the landslide early warning system (EWS) that he developed as a research member of a project on Increasing Resilience to Environmental Hazards in Border Conflict Zones and Resilience Futures for the Rohingya Refugees. Also he explained about the Rohingya Refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar district in southeastern Bangladesh, which were the subject of the EWS development project, using a movie described how the camps are vulnerable to natural disasters such as cyclones, floods, and landslides because they live in simple houses made of bamboo and other materials.
International students from Bangladesh and Nepal attended the lecture. During the Q&A session, they lively exchanged their idea with Prof. Sammonds, including the Rohingya Refugee problem cannot be solved by neighboring countries of Myanmar alone, and delivering the international community should be involved with it more. After the lecture, Prof. Sammonds stopped by the monument to the Choshu-Five on the Yoshida campus.
Since concluding an inter-university agreement with UCL in November 2007, YU has continued academic exchange with UCL, mainly in the fields of chemistry, disaster prevention, and ophthalmology. We will continue to provide students and faculty with opportunities to develop a global mindset through exchanges with UCL.
