The main aim is to develop regional thresholds for landslide warnings from the real-time data of Amrita's field deployments in the Himalayas and the Western Ghats.

Landslides are considered the third most deadly natural disaster on Earth. Four hundred billion dollars are spent every year on landslide disaster management. Multiple collaborative and interdisciplinary research initiatives play a pivotal role in addressing these challenges.

Further to the ongoing collaborative activities between Amrita and the BGS such as the LANDSLIP project, an MoU was signed between the two institutions confirming their mutual interest in developing and reinforcing their cooperation in the fields of earth sciences, mineral prospecting and disaster management. Dr Maneesha V Ramesh, dean of international programs and director of the Center for Wireless Networks and Applications, Amrita, and Prof Christopher Luton, head of legal services at the BGS, signed the MoU.

The MoU is also an effort to improve cooperation between the UK and lndia with the intent of reinforcing and strengthening scientific links between the two countries. "It is a prestigious moment for Amrita, being the first university in India to have signed an MoU with the British Geological Survey," said Dr Ramesh. "We are looking forward to different forms of cooperation and collaborative activities under this MoU such as education, training and human resource development in the fields of landslide monitoring and research.

"Some specific areas of cooperation being focused on under this MoU include susceptibility, hazard and risk mapping; early warnings for landslide hazards; stakeholder communication or dissemination for early warning information (e.g. geohazards); geoscience information, and related informatics associated with landslide hazards," concluded Dr Ramesh.