Background

Natural disasters have been causing severe damages to the development of human civilization. Natural disasters such as landslides, land erosion, land subsidence, glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) and so on have immensely slowed down the pace of development, and have destroyed human lives and infrastructures built using meagre resources of an underdeveloped mountainous country such as Nepal. It is therefore  necessary to further study these natural disasters as well as measures to mitigate them. So far, governmental and nongovernmental organizations of Nepal have made only limited efforts to undertake the study that also in an unplanned and sporadic way.

 
The experience in the field of disaster prevention and mitigation gained during the last decade in Nepal has shown that there is a need to make concerted efforts in this field and to create a forum of all experts and interested individuals dedicated to the study and the mitigation of natural disasters. Such a forum can be used to present a state-of-the-art researches carried out in various parts of the world, to exchange views, share experiences and create public awareness.