On March 28, a 7.9-magnitude earthquake struck Myanmar, causing significant casualties and damage to infrastructure. The Institute for Disaster Management and Reconstruction (IDMR) at Sichuan University (SCU) immediately established the “Myanmar Earthquake Disaster Emergency Response Team” to provide humanitarian support，which is made up of 22 teachers who have garnered ample experience in global disaster support from rescue missions in Nepal and Turkey.

The IDMR emergency response team has organized teachers to compile a bilingual Earthquake Self Help and Mutual Aid Handbook in Chinese and Burmese. It will be distributed to overseas Chinese and Burmese people in the disaster-stricken areas through embassies and international aid organizations to help them improve their earthquake self-rescue and mutual aid capabilities and reduce the risk of secondary disasters. In the meantime, the team are working diligently to dispatch personnel to the disaster-stricken areas for humanitarian rescue in terms of disaster verification, temporary resettlement, secondary disaster risk assessment, emergency resource allocation, etc.

Earthquake peak ground velocity (left) and co-seismic landslide susceptibility (right)

The college has collaborated with the Chengdu Shouyu Public Welfare Development Center to assist Chinese non-governmental rescue teams in disaster-stricken areas. The person in charge of the Shouyu welfare center has arrived in the disaster-stricken area of Myanmar and established a Chinese social emergency coordination center. The IDMR team is using SAR remote sensing technology and geographic information technology to monitor and analyze the surface deformation caused by the earthquake, identify high damage areas, and provide professional technical support for Chinese rescue teams in earthquake relief work in a timely and efficient manner.

Being an innovative and interdisciplinary college with a focus on disaster prevention and reduction, IDMR was founded following the Wenchuan earthquake (an 8.0 magnitude earthquake in May 2008) with an initial donation by the Hong Kong Jockey Club.

The IDMR gave full play to its disciplinary advantages in disaster prevention and reduction, quickly responded to and deeply participated in humanitarian assistance and post-disaster reconstruction such as the 2015 Nepal earthquake and the 2023 Turkey earthquake. The faculty from the college takes the initiative to apply their professional knowledge in major disaster rescue and post disaster reconstruction, practicing the "SCU Responsibility" with actions.