The IRD research teams from the ‘Department of Internal and Surface Dynamics of Continents’ (Disco) study the physical and biogeochemical functioning of continental environments, in a context where global changes (climatic, economic, demographic and so on) mean that we need to revise some of the knowledge acquired over the past few decades and consider the fact that the tipping points in the earth’s ‘operating system’ may soon be crossed. The work done by the Disco teams focuses on two main structural areas: observation and modelling of the continents’ physical environments, and the interactions between changes to the physical environments and socio-economic dynamics. The scientific goals are the understanding of global changes and above all climate change, the quantification of hazards, risk mitigation and the prospects for new resources.
IRD researchers and their partners from the University of Chili tracked the volcano’s eruption on 22 April 2015 after 43 years’ dormancy.
Researchers from IRD, the Grenoble Polytech institute and their French, Belgian and Vietnamese partners opened the second French-language MOOC on ‘Rivers and People’ in 2015.
