From October 17 to 19, the 2nd International Conference on Mountain Science was held in Chengdu from October 17 to 19, bringing together about 400 leading scientists, policymakers, and practitioners from universities, research institutions, and enterprises around the world under the theme “Sustainable Mountain Development under Global Warming and Intensified Human Activities”. At the opening ceremony, HE Hongping, Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, delivered video remarks.
A Milestone Anniversary
The event coincided with the 60th anniversary of the founding of IMHE. “Our goal at this conference is to explore together the question of “sustainable mountain development in a warming world with intensifying human activities,” said KANG Shichang, Director General of IMHE, who also reviewed the institute’s 60-year journey of scientific and technological innovation at the ceremony.
Distinguished guests in attendance included CAS Member QIN Dahe, CUI Peng, CHEN Fahu, and PENG Jianbing; Mohammad Qasim Jan, foreign member of CAS; and Alessandro Pasuto, recipient of the Tianfu Friendship Award. Representatives from departments of science and technology, emergency management, human resources and social security, and natural resources of Sichuan Province, as well as representatives from the CAS Chengdu Branch and the Bureau of International Cooperation of CAS, also participated in the ceremony.
In response to common challenges facing the world today—climate change, frequent extreme weather events, record-breaking disasters, degradation of fragile ecosystems, and uneven regional development—the conference invited CAS Member Prof. CUI Peng, CAS Member Prof. CHEN Fahu, CAS Member Prof. PENG Jianbing, Prof. Alessandro Pasuto, Prof. ZHANG Qianggong of ICIMOD, Prof. WU Wei of the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Prof. DENG Wei of Sichuan Normal University, Prof. Jakob Steiner of the University of Graz, and Prof. KANG Shichang to deliver keynote reports. They shared frontier research advances on topics including disaster risk and resilience in a changing climate, prehistoric human adaption and civilization development on High-Altitude regions, genesis mechanisms of Ice-Rock avalanche hazards: insights from the “8·26” disaster chain at Gyirong Port, Building Trans-Himalayan Climate Resilience Together: From Shared Science to Collective Action, On the naturalness of disasters and the role of memory in their reduction, recent research on dense granular flow, reflections on advancing mountain science in a new era, A rapidly changing high mountain hazardsphere-considerations for science to policy in High Mountain Asia and rapid cryospheric shrinking caused hazards and solutions.
The conference also featured 19 parallel sessions for discussion and exchange on topics such as mountain hazards and risk management, mountain ecosystems and global change, intelligent remote sensing monitoring and simulation of mountain land surface processes.
During the conference, a series of associated events were also held, including the "AI-Driven Interdisciplinary Innovation for Young Mountain Scientists" national postdoctoral exchange program, the Editorial Board Meeting of the Journal of Mountain Science, the Journal Development and Journal Development and Editorial Board Forum for Cryospheric Science and Engineering and a graduate student forum.
About IMHE
The Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment (IMHE), Chinese Academy of Sciences, founded in 1966, is China’s leading research institution dedicated to the study of mountain hazards, mountain environments, and sustainable mountain development. Based in Chengdu, IMHE is committed to advancing mountain science and providing scientific support for the ecological security and sustainable development of mountain regions in China and worldwide.
Opening remarks (Image by IMHE)
Keynote Speech (Image by IMHE)