Juan Antonio Ballesteros Canovas, a Senior Researcher from the Spanish National Research Council, was invited to deliver an academic report entitled "Hydrorological-Related Hazards and Risk in Mountain Areas and Their Mitigation in the Context of Global Change".

At the beginning of the meeting, Dean Di Baofeng took the floor first to introduce the speaker. He elaborated on Prof. Juan's research focus, which covers the reconstruction of mountain hazards such as flash floods, debris flows, avalanches, and rockfalls. Meanwhile, Dean Di introduced and discussed the cooperation between the two institutions in the field of paleo-hazards research, with a specific focus on topics including the ancient Shu civilization and paleo-floods.

Subsequently, Prof. Juan officially started his report. He first elaborated on the research background, pointing out the common occurrence of hydrorological-related hazards in high mountain areas. To highlight the urgency of the research, he cited several recent typical disaster cases, such as the 2024 Valencia flood in Spain, the Chamoli ice-rock avalanche in India, and the Blaten ice-rock avalanche in Switzerland. After that, Prof. Juan systematically expounded on the core theories of disaster reconstruction using tree rings and sediments. He then proceeded to present four specific application cases of this reconstruction method:

- Glacial Lake Outburst Floods Reconstruction: Focused on the reconstruction of glacial lake outburst floods in Tajikistan;

- Extreme Floods Study: Presented tree ring and sedimentary evidence related to the 2024 Valencia flood;

- Avalanche Reconstruction: Conducted long-term avalanche reconstruction (including frequency and scale analysis) in the Pyrenees;

- Forest-Based Disaster Mitigation Measures: Covered research such as mechanical testing of trees and field tests on rockfall protection.

After the report, teachers and students in attendance engaged in a lively discussion. Scholars including Tang Ya, Niu Zhipan, Fu Binhua, and Wang Rong conducted in-depth exchanges on potential future cooperation in the field of flood research, covering areas such as joint field investigations and indoor flume experiments. Students also actively raised questions, such as "how to better apply tree rings in disaster research" and "whether tree roots can be used for erosion reconstruction", which triggered in-depth interactions with Juan.