Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh has reiterated India's commitment to deepening regional cooperation and institution-building in the fields of environment, forestry and climate change.
Mr. Ramesh was in Nepal last week to inaugurate a conference organised by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), which works on fragile mountain eco-systems and livelihoods of mountain people in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan region.
In an exclusive conversation with The Hindu, Mr. Ramesh said India was intensifying its relationship with the ICIMOD. “Between 1983 and 2006, we gave $1 million to the regional organisation. In three years alone — 2009, 10 and 11 — India would contribute half-a-million dollars to the ICIMOD.” The ICIMOD's areas of operations include India, China, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Bhutan.
More details...
This platform will enable the participants of the different events during the Symposium to interact virtually, stay updated on the ongoing sessions and provide a room for debate and creative exchanges.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Friday, October 8, 2010
IISD News
International Symposium on Adaptation in Himalayan Region Highlights Role of Earth Observations
The Symposium was hosted by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) and focused on: remote sensing of the cryosphere; spatial decision support systems for ecosystems; space-based information for disaster management; land-cover change and carbon stocks; transboundary air pollution monitoring; and spatial data infrastructure for adaptation. More...
The Symposium was hosted by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) and focused on: remote sensing of the cryosphere; spatial decision support systems for ecosystems; space-based information for disaster management; land-cover change and carbon stocks; transboundary air pollution monitoring; and spatial data infrastructure for adaptation. More...
Thursday, October 7, 2010
SERVIR Regional Inception Workshop 7 October 2010
On 7 October the SERVIR-Himalaya Inception Workshop officially introduced the new SERVIR system at the Headquarters of the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) in Kathmandu. The one-day workshop on "SERVIR-Himalaya: Expectations and Challenges" was organized by ICIMOD in cooperation with the United States Agency for International Development and the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). SERVIR is an earth observation, monitoring, and visualization system that integrates satellite and other geospatial data for improved scientific knowledge and decision-making by managers, researchers, students, and the general public. Such improved scientific knowledge will be beneficial in the areas of disaster management, biodiversity conservation, transboundary air pollution monitoring, snow and glacier monitoring and mountain ecosystem management.
The workshop focused on four thematic areas: 1) Identification of stakeholders and key applications; 2) Priority products and services; 3) Policy issues; and 4) Institutional arrangements for participation and collaboration in SERVIR. More details...
Valedictory Session of the International Symposium on Earth Observation
During a Panel Discussion on the last day of the International Symposium distinguished participants resumed their take-away and action points in a plenary session. Professor Fukui proposed an integration of the regions online portal sites that have so far served the purpose of making data available to end users, in particular on issues of mitigation. He further emphasized the importance of communication within stakeholders, not only in this region but international, he encouraged a review process of the symposium outcomes, to take the cooperation a step further. Prof Li Jing saw the Symposium as a good platform to tap many resources. He suggested to also keep in mind that it is not only data but information which can be understood by the end user that is needed, in particular especially during disasters. That is why the platform could be used to share more than data, but best practices in production and technology.
Dr Thomas Painter made three points on the importance of face-to-face encounters, the applicability of the data for those implementing and youth’s role to ask questions. “Make sure that the answers you get make sense, if not, ask again. And we as the scientific community should do the same”. Soonchang Yoon commented that there is a need for concrete and accurate numbers on climate change from earth observation, as well as sound modeling and the creation of an inventory. To carry out earth observation through ground, satellite and airborne observation regional cooperation will be key in sharing the costs. In the same line, Yussif Hussin encouraged regional cooperation in capacity-building.
Jeffrey Kargel showed himself struck by the solid achievements in the form of SERVIR and the JAXA receiving station, which in his view are “semanting some of the longstanding contributions between the wealthy world and ICIMOD.” Further he saw humans as the key to understanding and supporting mountain systems: those living in them, those studying them, and those benefiting from change, downstream, and there are those that must solve problems: “Most notably the young, who will really have to grapple with the successes and failures of my generation.”
Following the deliberations participants gave their comments on the way forward after the symposium. Ramesh Maski, from Kathmandu University asked for suggestions on how to bridge the dissemination gap, in particular at the level of research institutions. Two participants from Bangladesh asked for a mechanism to access real-time data, in particular for disaster situations. Furthermore, the suggestion was made for ICIMOD to include the downstream effects of climate change – which are mainly affecting Bangladesh – to be studied as well. Further suggestions aimed at the inclusion of a regional mechanism to coordinate ground observation were also made. Finally, a representative from the youth forum asked for concrete suggestions on how youth as a stakeholder can get involved.
The chair, Tej Partop, summed up the discussion. He showed himself happy that “everybody seems to have realized the need for cooperation, need for a glue, a platform, and the role for institutions like ICIMODO.” For him the most important way for youth to get involved was to increase the critical mass of expert human resources. During the discussions he found one dimension missing, which is that of those communities already affected by climate change, such as many farming communities. Finally he suggested a future reinforced focus on the impact of snow and rainfall. Co-chair Madhav Karki underlined the role of the media and it to be more knowledge-based and informed.
ICIMOD DG Andreas Schild in his concluding remark showed himself overwhelmed with the wide participation and the political support given by ministers and agencies. He expressed his special thanks to the support received during the seminar from JAXA, NASA, USAID, and key personalities of Minister Shri Jairam Ramesh, Charles Bolden, Michael Yates and Jose Achache. In his message to the youth he picked up Bolden’s remarks: “Don’t wait to be invited, take initiative”. Schild expressed his gratitude for the many suggestions and the trust given to ICIMOD. “It is an enormous responsibility. You are expecting our staff not only to be very proficient, they also have to be able to interpret data and be able to respond to the users’ needs. It is a noble task, which will need assistance of international resource centers to make it possible.”
The session was closed by a vote of thanks by Basanta Shrestha, MENRIS Head and main symposium organizer. He was delighted about many collaborations, with NASA, USAID, GEOSS, JAXA and most recently the Chinese Meteorological Administration. His final thanks went to all the delegates and his ICIMOD team. “The kind of vibration I could feel not only during the sessions but everywhere, is calling for a new beginning.”
Speech by Hari Priya of the Youth Forum during the Valedictory Session Oct 6
An era of consumerism, an era of unsustainable practices, an era of lack of responsibility towards planet Earth. Yes, welcome to the anthropocene era that finds its luxury and happiness by slowly poisoning lives around. These words might sound cruel, but it is evident that we, the sixth sensed species are spreading like an incurable infection on the planet, disturbing the delicate balance of the earth’s climate.
Honourable Dignitaries, Delegates of the International Symposium and friends from the media, Namasthe, Good Afternoon. I am Haripriya Madhavan from India. Today I feel privileged to represent my young friends from 8 countries belonging to the Hindu Kush Himalayan region, to share the experiences we had during the 6 days of the forum on Empowering Youth with Earth Observation Information for Climate Action.
Understanding GIS and remote sensing, learning about landscape changes in HKH region, snow-cover mapping, glacier inventories and disaster risk management, performing numerous hands-on activities, listening to power-packed guest lectures by experts from ICIMOD and the supporting organizations – That was a fraction of what the youth forum equipped all of us with, in such a short period of time. Yet, it is so fascinating to realize the impact this learning could have on our community when we go back home and advocate about consequences of climate change on the HKH region. We are indeed thankful to ICIMOD because this forum has helped us to feel more attached to mountain ecosystems, especially the Himalayas, our pride and heritage that we must conserve for our future generations. We, the participants now have the responsibility to tackle our area-specific impacts of climate change by connecting with potential solution makers to fuel immediate mitigation action and also build capacities of communities to adapt. The youth forum has made us recognize the power of communication and effective sharing as key necessities for securing our future.
We look forward to play a vital role in building decision support systems with the help of Earth Observation tools and resources. Thus, with the wisdom and will of the experienced and the energy and ideas that we have, we the youth are committed to transform our world into a better place for ourselves and the young of the future.
If you have assumed that the participants of the youth forum are a group of only environmental science graduates, you are probably wrong because we also have a good representation from youth belonging to the social sciences and media background. Being a media student myself, it is my duty to voice the concerns of this section as well. Media is a platform with immense potential to reach the people at their doorsteps and desktops. So it is essential that the issues surrounding climate change are given prominent space in newspapers, television, radio and online news portals. Hence, we urge the media community to bridge your knowledge gaps in the field of climate change in order to ensure responsible coverage backed with the necessary follow-up and not just momentary reporting. Moreover, a participatory approach to involve the people, especially vulnerable communities, in the process of reporting, popularly known as citizen journalism, could enable media to act as catalysts of change in the society.
At the outset, we also have a message for the women community at this international forum. We are considered as creators of the human race. Hence it is our duty to take up the mission of conservation as a challenge to prove our willpower and determination in protecting our Earth. What we require is women activism to combat climate change.
We might represent different professions, different genders, different communities, different ideologies, but we are all under one sky, as humans, humans with love for each other. We are not deterred by differences. We, the youth are concerned about a secure future not just for ourselves, but for the entire human kind. We do not want our children to be born as environmental refugees. We do not want to see suffering and pain in the eyes of our kith and kin whose lives are dependent on the Himalayan ecosystem. The fact that the countries from the HKH region are extremely dependent on climate sensitive sectors makes us the most likely victims of failing crops, potential famine, floods and disease. We do not want to wait for major disasters to happen, which is why we look up to our leaders and policy makers of our respective countries for immediate affirmative action.
The message from the youth forum is going to be a beginning in itself – for advocacy based on good science, for building regional and international cooperation, for responsible action, and we hope, for good governance as well. I would like to share with you an inspirational quote by one of my friends, “What will decide the destiny of our future is not the power of uranium or plutonium, but the power of this millennium’s youthanium”.
Honourable Dignitaries, Delegates of the International Symposium and friends from the media, Namasthe, Good Afternoon. I am Haripriya Madhavan from India. Today I feel privileged to represent my young friends from 8 countries belonging to the Hindu Kush Himalayan region, to share the experiences we had during the 6 days of the forum on Empowering Youth with Earth Observation Information for Climate Action.
Understanding GIS and remote sensing, learning about landscape changes in HKH region, snow-cover mapping, glacier inventories and disaster risk management, performing numerous hands-on activities, listening to power-packed guest lectures by experts from ICIMOD and the supporting organizations – That was a fraction of what the youth forum equipped all of us with, in such a short period of time. Yet, it is so fascinating to realize the impact this learning could have on our community when we go back home and advocate about consequences of climate change on the HKH region. We are indeed thankful to ICIMOD because this forum has helped us to feel more attached to mountain ecosystems, especially the Himalayas, our pride and heritage that we must conserve for our future generations. We, the participants now have the responsibility to tackle our area-specific impacts of climate change by connecting with potential solution makers to fuel immediate mitigation action and also build capacities of communities to adapt. The youth forum has made us recognize the power of communication and effective sharing as key necessities for securing our future.
We look forward to play a vital role in building decision support systems with the help of Earth Observation tools and resources. Thus, with the wisdom and will of the experienced and the energy and ideas that we have, we the youth are committed to transform our world into a better place for ourselves and the young of the future.
If you have assumed that the participants of the youth forum are a group of only environmental science graduates, you are probably wrong because we also have a good representation from youth belonging to the social sciences and media background. Being a media student myself, it is my duty to voice the concerns of this section as well. Media is a platform with immense potential to reach the people at their doorsteps and desktops. So it is essential that the issues surrounding climate change are given prominent space in newspapers, television, radio and online news portals. Hence, we urge the media community to bridge your knowledge gaps in the field of climate change in order to ensure responsible coverage backed with the necessary follow-up and not just momentary reporting. Moreover, a participatory approach to involve the people, especially vulnerable communities, in the process of reporting, popularly known as citizen journalism, could enable media to act as catalysts of change in the society.
At the outset, we also have a message for the women community at this international forum. We are considered as creators of the human race. Hence it is our duty to take up the mission of conservation as a challenge to prove our willpower and determination in protecting our Earth. What we require is women activism to combat climate change.
We might represent different professions, different genders, different communities, different ideologies, but we are all under one sky, as humans, humans with love for each other. We are not deterred by differences. We, the youth are concerned about a secure future not just for ourselves, but for the entire human kind. We do not want our children to be born as environmental refugees. We do not want to see suffering and pain in the eyes of our kith and kin whose lives are dependent on the Himalayan ecosystem. The fact that the countries from the HKH region are extremely dependent on climate sensitive sectors makes us the most likely victims of failing crops, potential famine, floods and disease. We do not want to wait for major disasters to happen, which is why we look up to our leaders and policy makers of our respective countries for immediate affirmative action.
The message from the youth forum is going to be a beginning in itself – for advocacy based on good science, for building regional and international cooperation, for responsible action, and we hope, for good governance as well. I would like to share with you an inspirational quote by one of my friends, “What will decide the destiny of our future is not the power of uranium or plutonium, but the power of this millennium’s youthanium”.
Speech by Kamran Hussain of the Youth Forum during the Valedictory Session Oct 6
My name is Kamran Hussain and I am representing the Youth Forum on Empowering Youth with Earth Observation Information for Climate Actions. The Youth Forum represents the Hindu-Kush-Himalayan regions from China, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Bhutan, Nepal, Myanmar and Afghanistan. We are among the hundreds of millions of young people who are frightened about their future because we know that we will become in the age group of 62 to 68 in the year 2050. We read science and we understand that we must now release ourselves from business as usual and take a momentous leap forward to grasp our sustainable future with both hands. Because we all know that HKH region needs much more attention from local to global levels as hotspot of climate change and calls for urgent action. Climate Change, no doubt, is one of the most critical global concerns of this generation where the youth of the region will face enormous challenges in future and our future depends on your decisions which you are going to take today. Therefore, it is important to actively engage us in the areas of preparedness, risk reduction, adaptation and mitigation because we, the youth, believe that we have innovative ideas and abundant energy to take the local actions.
We would like to thank specially ICIMOD and also NASA, USAID and SERVIR-Himalaya for recognizing the role of youth as agents for change and effective communicators because raising awareness among youth and engaging them in action on ground is an important factor for addressing the climate change issues in HKH.
Earth Observation is proving to be vital tool to improve our understanding the climate change phenomenon by providing information on the changes on various attributes which are indicators to climate change and will also help us to use the scientific approaches in advocacy.
The six day youth forum exposed us to various earth observation tools like satellite images, GIS/RS and Google earth to analyze the impacts of climate change on land, water, air and glaciers and identifying the climate change issues in our communities. The forum enhanced our capacities to use the climate, EO data and products more effectively to integrate climate risk management into national policies for sustainable development.
To the delegates of this symposium: you have only few months to improve your position and we implore you to work harder. We urge you too to take ambitious nationality appropriate mitigation strategies to take action now. We can’t solve climate change without you. We would like to ask you, all here, a very important question which we think you will all take a moment to consider – How old will you be in the year 2050? I said that we will be in the age group of 62 to 68 hoping to retire after 4 decades of working for capacity building of youth on earth observation, awareness campaigns within the communities on climate change issues, bridging the data gaps between generations and institutions and decarbonising our society.
As a youth, we commit to working with all of you now and over forty years to achieve this transformation. Inter-generational equity is crucial but we need more than that because we are the people who will be implementing these targets.
To conclude : we challenge each one of you to come and meet us here and back home in your country and guarantee that you are confident that we still have a liveable planet in the year 2050? We need this guarantee because in 2050 we will still be here in this planet earth.
We would like to thank specially ICIMOD and also NASA, USAID and SERVIR-Himalaya for recognizing the role of youth as agents for change and effective communicators because raising awareness among youth and engaging them in action on ground is an important factor for addressing the climate change issues in HKH.
Earth Observation is proving to be vital tool to improve our understanding the climate change phenomenon by providing information on the changes on various attributes which are indicators to climate change and will also help us to use the scientific approaches in advocacy.
The six day youth forum exposed us to various earth observation tools like satellite images, GIS/RS and Google earth to analyze the impacts of climate change on land, water, air and glaciers and identifying the climate change issues in our communities. The forum enhanced our capacities to use the climate, EO data and products more effectively to integrate climate risk management into national policies for sustainable development.
To the delegates of this symposium: you have only few months to improve your position and we implore you to work harder. We urge you too to take ambitious nationality appropriate mitigation strategies to take action now. We can’t solve climate change without you. We would like to ask you, all here, a very important question which we think you will all take a moment to consider – How old will you be in the year 2050? I said that we will be in the age group of 62 to 68 hoping to retire after 4 decades of working for capacity building of youth on earth observation, awareness campaigns within the communities on climate change issues, bridging the data gaps between generations and institutions and decarbonising our society.
As a youth, we commit to working with all of you now and over forty years to achieve this transformation. Inter-generational equity is crucial but we need more than that because we are the people who will be implementing these targets.
To conclude : we challenge each one of you to come and meet us here and back home in your country and guarantee that you are confident that we still have a liveable planet in the year 2050? We need this guarantee because in 2050 we will still be here in this planet earth.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Nepali Times: Kailash conservation
Announcing the plan for the trans-boundary sanctuary in the Himalaya, India’s Minister for Environment and Forestry, Shri Jairam Ramesh said: “This is an important regional eco-system initiative and will address
the environmental, economic and spiritual aspects of Kailash-Mansarovar and will be similar to other transboundary initiatives like Kangchenjunga and the Tarai Arc landscape.”
Ramesh was in Kathmandu on a three-day visit to attend a regional conference on climate change in the Himalaya organised by ICIMOD. He said India had decided to be “much more active” in supporting ICIMOD and would take on an “expanded role”. He handed over a cheque for $160,000 for this year, and pledged another $200,000 for next year.More details...
the environmental, economic and spiritual aspects of Kailash-Mansarovar and will be similar to other transboundary initiatives like Kangchenjunga and the Tarai Arc landscape.”
Ramesh was in Kathmandu on a three-day visit to attend a regional conference on climate change in the Himalaya organised by ICIMOD. He said India had decided to be “much more active” in supporting ICIMOD and would take on an “expanded role”. He handed over a cheque for $160,000 for this year, and pledged another $200,000 for next year.More details...
Climate Change Monitoring System Expanded To Himalayas
NASA has launched a new system which will help experts keep an eye on the impact of climate change in the Himalayan Mountains, an important source of water for more than a million people, according to an AFP report on Tuesday. The new initiative is part of NASA’s ongoing SERVIR project, a regional monitoring system named for the Spanish word to serve. It is also a Spanish-language acronym for Regional Visualization and Monitoring System for Mesoamerica, according to a 2005 press release announcing its launch. More details...
Summary of Thematic session IV: Spatial Decision Support System for Ecosystem Management
Landscape level planning towards developing a decision support system for sustainable management and eco-restoration of protected areas (PAs)
Md. Abu Syed from the Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies presented about the importance of landscape level planning for natural resource management and sustainable development. He thoroughly explained procedure of the landscape planning through conservation analysis and need to consider issues encountered in conservation areas during the planning. He gave an example of Teknaf landscape in Bangladesh that the Center has developed and presented sustainable landscape management recommendations prepared for Teknaf by using geo-spatial mapping. The centre has used the geo-spatial mapping for developing sustainable eco-restoration of protected areas by considering climate change and land use/land cover monitoring scenarios in Bangladesh. He concluded his presentation by highlighting the importance of Decision Support System (DSS) in management of ecosystem and protected areas; and need to make the make DSS applicable at landscape level.
The participants recommended to exchange the generated data from the Centre with the Department of Forest in Bangladesh and suggested to apply the model of Teknaf as widely as possible.
Decision Support toolbox for protected area ecosystem management
Mr. Sudip Pradhan from ICIMOD presented about the Decision Support Toolbox (DST) software developed by the Centre to support the institutional capacity for systematic planning and management of protected areas (PAs) in the Hindu Kush-Himalaya (HKH) region. He explained about the system dynamics approach being used by DST that simulates and quantifies the behavior of system over time to understand the interrelationships between elements within a system. The software was applied in the Sagarmatha National Park and Buffer Zone of Nepal by developing system dynamic models to address management problems of the park such as solid waste management or mass tourism. He thoroughly explained a tourism model developed by ICIMOD for the Sagarmatha National Park and its applicability for the management of the park.
The presentation was concluded by explanation on use of DST which provides tools to integrate spatial component into system dynamics modeling, whose user-friendly interface allows users with little or no knowledge about system dynamics modeling to run the models and generate scenarios which they can ultimately use in their decision making process, and which provides a framework that can be applied in any given protected area.
ARANYA: A comprehensive spatial decision support system for forest management
Mr. Manish P Kale from the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, India presented about the Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS) Developed for Aranya (forest) and the approach used in developing the system. The approach included the use of GIS database, Python and other software. The SDSS was developed for the Department of Forest, Assam with several functions. He showed how to use those functions like planning of forest village relocation, habitat suitability analysis, vegetation carbon calculation etc. Such SDSS facilitates decision making based on specific GIS analysis, helps in land allocation planning and makes the administrative system accountable and transparent.
Pakistan wetlands inventory data portal – an integrated GIS tool for the wetlands knowledge and management
Mr. Faisal Mueen Qamer from WWF Pakistan presented about the Pakistan Wetlands GIS programme and data portal developed for sharing information on wetlands of Pakistan. He explained the data model used in the portal and standardised data used which is open sourced based Web-GIS architecture. He also showed how to use the interactive data portal to extract the required information of the wetlands of Pakistan. The climatic data and species sighting are publicly available on the portal. A special data query builder is available for exploring specific questions on wetland biodiversity. The portal is a good knowledgebase on wetlands of Pakistan and associated biodiversity. He concluded his talk by sharing how the developed system has enhanced the planning and management capacity for wetlands conservation by introducing GIS based decision support tool.
Indian Forest Fire Response and Assessment System (INFFRAS)
Mr. G. Rajasekhar from the National Remote Sensing Centre, India explained about the Indian Forest Fire Response and Assessment System (INFFRAS). He briefly talked about the Aqua Modis Processing used in the Forest Fire Decision Support System and use of those modis data to prepare a forest fire information sheet. Maps are being produced by using information produced from the daily forest fire alerts and further used for preparing burnt area assessment report. He explained how those reports with detailed information on fire likely occurrence area, are being used by forest managers. The forest fire watch tower visibility analysis was further explained. He concluded his presentation by explaining the eestablishment of Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) at NRSC, Hyderabad, for totally automated generation and dissemination of fire and burnt area products.
Climate change impact and mountain farmers adaptive strategies: Need for integrating farmers innovations into mountain agro-ecosystems management DSS
Mr. Tej Partap from the Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agriculture Science and Technology, India focused his presentation on climate change impact on mountain agro-ecosystems and explained a case study. Besides explaining the methodology and study area, he shared the study findings on ‘Mountain farmers as climate change observers and mitigation strategists’ with the audience. The mountain farmers noticed climate change indicators and were aware of climate change process. He shared how the change forced the farmers to replace their traditional cropping patterns and crops in the mountains with new systems and crops. Climate change is not always negative as the replacement with new cropping pattern was success and farmer’s economy was enhanced. However, farmer’s success in replacing crops depends on level of access to institutional support services and marketing opportunities for their new produce.
He ended his presentation by focusing on importance of spatial information for designing DSS and its use in policy making and development planning.
Development of a National Flood Monitoring System (NFMS) based on remote sensing techniques
Mr. Zahedul Islam from the SPARRSO Bangladesh explained about the National Flood Monitoring System (NFMS). He particularly focused on the designing of NFMS, research for development and its operation. NFMS has been designed based on grading system with different themes like flood area, population, damage and early warning. Its research is focused on generation of perennial flood water digital data layer of Bangladesh using optical and micro-wave remote sensing datasets. It has been focusing to develop GIS based methodology for estimation of the population affected by flood and its impact on crop damage. The system also gives an early warning within 3-7 day lead time.
Geospatial analysis for prospecting of biological resource, species exploration in Alpine cold desert areas of Jammu and Kashmir
Mr. Ashok Peddi from the National Remote Sensing Centre, India shared their work on developing a model for exploration of plant resources in Jammu and Kashmir by the help of remote sensing and GIS tools. Digital Elevation Model and vegetation type maps were prepared of the study area by using Spatial Analyst which showed the importance of plant resources. He also shared how their study found out the area with highest yield and how their study proved that the increasing number of sample points gave yield of exploration with less cost uncertainty.
He concluded his presentation by saying that their study reported a successful validation of GIS application designed to enhance the effectiveness of cost uncertainty in yield exploration.
Use of GIS/RS for the improvement of legal notification of Khunjerab National Park – a step towards better ecosystem management
Mr. Naeem Shahzad from WWF Pakistan presented their initiative on boundary delineation and refortification of protected areas in Pakistan. The initiative delineates the GIS based boundary of parks with the Park management, formulates a GIS based notification and re-notifies the boundary with the proposed notification. In particular, he shared their recent work on the boundary delineation of the Khunjerab National Park by the use of GIS and Remote Sensing applications. A GIS based boundary notification was prepared through consensus with the local communities and the Park authorities. The prepared notification of the National Park was then successfully issued by the Government of Gilgit-Baltistan. The GIS/RS was used for the improvement of legal notification of the national which was a step towards a better management of ecosystems of protected areas.
Md. Abu Syed from the Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies presented about the importance of landscape level planning for natural resource management and sustainable development. He thoroughly explained procedure of the landscape planning through conservation analysis and need to consider issues encountered in conservation areas during the planning. He gave an example of Teknaf landscape in Bangladesh that the Center has developed and presented sustainable landscape management recommendations prepared for Teknaf by using geo-spatial mapping. The centre has used the geo-spatial mapping for developing sustainable eco-restoration of protected areas by considering climate change and land use/land cover monitoring scenarios in Bangladesh. He concluded his presentation by highlighting the importance of Decision Support System (DSS) in management of ecosystem and protected areas; and need to make the make DSS applicable at landscape level.
The participants recommended to exchange the generated data from the Centre with the Department of Forest in Bangladesh and suggested to apply the model of Teknaf as widely as possible.
Decision Support toolbox for protected area ecosystem management
Mr. Sudip Pradhan from ICIMOD presented about the Decision Support Toolbox (DST) software developed by the Centre to support the institutional capacity for systematic planning and management of protected areas (PAs) in the Hindu Kush-Himalaya (HKH) region. He explained about the system dynamics approach being used by DST that simulates and quantifies the behavior of system over time to understand the interrelationships between elements within a system. The software was applied in the Sagarmatha National Park and Buffer Zone of Nepal by developing system dynamic models to address management problems of the park such as solid waste management or mass tourism. He thoroughly explained a tourism model developed by ICIMOD for the Sagarmatha National Park and its applicability for the management of the park.
The presentation was concluded by explanation on use of DST which provides tools to integrate spatial component into system dynamics modeling, whose user-friendly interface allows users with little or no knowledge about system dynamics modeling to run the models and generate scenarios which they can ultimately use in their decision making process, and which provides a framework that can be applied in any given protected area.
ARANYA: A comprehensive spatial decision support system for forest management
Mr. Manish P Kale from the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, India presented about the Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS) Developed for Aranya (forest) and the approach used in developing the system. The approach included the use of GIS database, Python and other software. The SDSS was developed for the Department of Forest, Assam with several functions. He showed how to use those functions like planning of forest village relocation, habitat suitability analysis, vegetation carbon calculation etc. Such SDSS facilitates decision making based on specific GIS analysis, helps in land allocation planning and makes the administrative system accountable and transparent.
Pakistan wetlands inventory data portal – an integrated GIS tool for the wetlands knowledge and management
Mr. Faisal Mueen Qamer from WWF Pakistan presented about the Pakistan Wetlands GIS programme and data portal developed for sharing information on wetlands of Pakistan. He explained the data model used in the portal and standardised data used which is open sourced based Web-GIS architecture. He also showed how to use the interactive data portal to extract the required information of the wetlands of Pakistan. The climatic data and species sighting are publicly available on the portal. A special data query builder is available for exploring specific questions on wetland biodiversity. The portal is a good knowledgebase on wetlands of Pakistan and associated biodiversity. He concluded his talk by sharing how the developed system has enhanced the planning and management capacity for wetlands conservation by introducing GIS based decision support tool.
Indian Forest Fire Response and Assessment System (INFFRAS)
Mr. G. Rajasekhar from the National Remote Sensing Centre, India explained about the Indian Forest Fire Response and Assessment System (INFFRAS). He briefly talked about the Aqua Modis Processing used in the Forest Fire Decision Support System and use of those modis data to prepare a forest fire information sheet. Maps are being produced by using information produced from the daily forest fire alerts and further used for preparing burnt area assessment report. He explained how those reports with detailed information on fire likely occurrence area, are being used by forest managers. The forest fire watch tower visibility analysis was further explained. He concluded his presentation by explaining the eestablishment of Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) at NRSC, Hyderabad, for totally automated generation and dissemination of fire and burnt area products.
Climate change impact and mountain farmers adaptive strategies: Need for integrating farmers innovations into mountain agro-ecosystems management DSS
Mr. Tej Partap from the Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agriculture Science and Technology, India focused his presentation on climate change impact on mountain agro-ecosystems and explained a case study. Besides explaining the methodology and study area, he shared the study findings on ‘Mountain farmers as climate change observers and mitigation strategists’ with the audience. The mountain farmers noticed climate change indicators and were aware of climate change process. He shared how the change forced the farmers to replace their traditional cropping patterns and crops in the mountains with new systems and crops. Climate change is not always negative as the replacement with new cropping pattern was success and farmer’s economy was enhanced. However, farmer’s success in replacing crops depends on level of access to institutional support services and marketing opportunities for their new produce.
He ended his presentation by focusing on importance of spatial information for designing DSS and its use in policy making and development planning.
Development of a National Flood Monitoring System (NFMS) based on remote sensing techniques
Mr. Zahedul Islam from the SPARRSO Bangladesh explained about the National Flood Monitoring System (NFMS). He particularly focused on the designing of NFMS, research for development and its operation. NFMS has been designed based on grading system with different themes like flood area, population, damage and early warning. Its research is focused on generation of perennial flood water digital data layer of Bangladesh using optical and micro-wave remote sensing datasets. It has been focusing to develop GIS based methodology for estimation of the population affected by flood and its impact on crop damage. The system also gives an early warning within 3-7 day lead time.
Geospatial analysis for prospecting of biological resource, species exploration in Alpine cold desert areas of Jammu and Kashmir
Mr. Ashok Peddi from the National Remote Sensing Centre, India shared their work on developing a model for exploration of plant resources in Jammu and Kashmir by the help of remote sensing and GIS tools. Digital Elevation Model and vegetation type maps were prepared of the study area by using Spatial Analyst which showed the importance of plant resources. He also shared how their study found out the area with highest yield and how their study proved that the increasing number of sample points gave yield of exploration with less cost uncertainty.
He concluded his presentation by saying that their study reported a successful validation of GIS application designed to enhance the effectiveness of cost uncertainty in yield exploration.
Use of GIS/RS for the improvement of legal notification of Khunjerab National Park – a step towards better ecosystem management
Mr. Naeem Shahzad from WWF Pakistan presented their initiative on boundary delineation and refortification of protected areas in Pakistan. The initiative delineates the GIS based boundary of parks with the Park management, formulates a GIS based notification and re-notifies the boundary with the proposed notification. In particular, he shared their recent work on the boundary delineation of the Khunjerab National Park by the use of GIS and Remote Sensing applications. A GIS based boundary notification was prepared through consensus with the local communities and the Park authorities. The prepared notification of the National Park was then successfully issued by the Government of Gilgit-Baltistan. The GIS/RS was used for the improvement of legal notification of the national which was a step towards a better management of ecosystems of protected areas.
Overheard at the Coffee Break
"For our last hydrology studies some countries suddenly didn't allow us to access and gather data anymore." - "So, how did you get it?" - "We just didn't. That is why I wish all this talk about regional cooperation will really become a reality. If we can only change people's minds that sharing your data doesn't disadvantage you but benefit society and our common goals - much can be achieved."
"The fact that the Indian Minister of Environment and Forestry inaugurated the Symposium is not only ground-breaking for ICIMOD but also for Nepal. It demonstrates the recognition of this partnership and issue to be of absolute relevance for the two countries. ICIMOD is being confirmed to be on the right track, where support from two important partners, the U.S. and India, will accompany and strengthen its work for the years to come."
"The fact that the Indian Minister of Environment and Forestry inaugurated the Symposium is not only ground-breaking for ICIMOD but also for Nepal. It demonstrates the recognition of this partnership and issue to be of absolute relevance for the two countries. ICIMOD is being confirmed to be on the right track, where support from two important partners, the U.S. and India, will accompany and strengthen its work for the years to come."
Himalayan Times: I never dreamt I'd be a spaceman: NASA chief
Ramesh Prasad Bhushal "A risk taker wins the game but risk should not be taken in haste."
Summary of Thematic Session III on Cryosphere (Glacier mapping and monitoring)
Theme Coordinator: Samjwal Bajracharya
Chair: Anil Kulkarni
Co-Chair: Liu Shiyin
Rapporteur: Rajendra Shrestha
Presenters:
Jeffrey S. Kargel: Science and Technology Basis for Operational High-Frequency Monitoring of Glaciers and their Environs in the Himalaya-Hindu Kush Region
Bruce Raup: GLIMS Glacier Mapping: Lessons from the past and future directions
Dhananjay Regmi: Current knowledge on Mountain Permafrost in Nepal Himalaya and Future Research Prospective in the Context of Global Climate Change.
Guo Wanqin: Data and Methods in Second Glacier Inventory of China
Bajracharya SR: Second generation glacier inventory of HKH region (Afghanistan, Bhutan, Myanmar and Nepal)
Tobias Bolch: Glacier mass changes at Mt. Everest/Nepal 1962 – 2007 based on multi-temporal digital terrain models
Qamar-ul-Zaman: Recent Surge in Tributaries of Panmah Glacier in Karakoram Ranges Pakistan
Rupal M. Brahmbhatt: A comparison of glacial retreat in two adjacent basins of Western Himalaya, India: Study using RS and GIS .
R.K. Ganjoo: Are secular movements in the glaciers of Ladakh Mountains, Ladakh (J & K State), India a response to climate change?
D.J. Quincy: Radar remote sensing for evaluating climatically induced hazards in the Himalaya.
Chair: Anil Kulkarni
Co-Chair: Liu Shiyin
Rapporteur: Rajendra Shrestha
The thematic session on remote sensing of Cryosphere (Glacier mapping and monitoring) has highlighted that glacier response patterns and behaviours of individual glaciers show exceeding complexity in the HKH. There is difference in the behavior of Himalayan glaciers across the mountain range from east to west because of regional variation in the trends of precipitation and temperature. In the east, sustained warming is leading to the formation of glacial lakes and causing floods associated with them. But in the west, number of glaciers are thickening and their termini advancing resulting in a number of glacial hazards. Also, lack of mass-balance data, hampering the assessment of the glacier changes in the HKH has been highlighted.
Great efforts have been made in mapping and monitoring of the cryosphere. The GLIMS database is being used both in regional and global studies and analysis of glacier surface area.
From GLIMS database, use have been made of glacier area in combination with SRTM topographic data to derive glacier hypsometry in the Himalaya as input to area-distributed models for determining the contribution of glaciers to stream flow in Nepalese basins. GLIMS glacier outlines have been used to assess the accuracy of a glacier-mapping algorithm based on the coarser resolution imagery from MODIS, applied to the Nepal Himalaya. Similarly, a Second Generation Glacier Inventory of the HKH is being prepared using only remotely sensed single source (multi-spectral Landsat satellite data) of narrow temporal range (2005-2009 only). Second glacier inventory of China is compiled based on RS data, and 563 ASTER and 84 Landsat TM/ETM+ using the band ratio method to extract debris free glacier outlines by manual digitization.
It had been shown that the multi-temporal digital terrain models allow to calculate glacier mass changes by the geodetic method, e.g. using stereo optical data (Corona KH-4, year 1962, KH-4B, 1970, aerial imagery, 1984, ASTER, 2002, and Cartosat-1, 2007 in south of Mt. Everest/Nepal 1962 – 2007, calculation of glacier volume changes indicated all glaciers lost mass over the whole period and thinning with a rate of 0.37+ 0.27 m/a and lost about 0.6 cu. Km of ice with a specific mass balance of 0.32+ 0.23 m w.e/a between 1970 and 2007. Mass loss is accelerated when compared with recent DTM.
Glaciers studies in the Ladakh mountain had shown that glaciers in Ladakh are significantly different to the rest of glaciers in the Himalaya for their preferred geographical location. Similarly, comparison of glacial retreat in Warwan and Bhut basins of Chenab river of western Indian Himalaya using RS and GIS has shown that there are many factors that have influence in glacier retreat or advance such as altitude of glaciers, depth of glacier, debris cover as well as amount of changes in moraine cover.
Emphasis was also laid upon the improved transnational cooperation and study of the shared HKH resources and hazards which can also allay territorial and security concerns and economic development of many nations in the region.
Great efforts have been made in mapping and monitoring of the cryosphere. The GLIMS database is being used both in regional and global studies and analysis of glacier surface area.
From GLIMS database, use have been made of glacier area in combination with SRTM topographic data to derive glacier hypsometry in the Himalaya as input to area-distributed models for determining the contribution of glaciers to stream flow in Nepalese basins. GLIMS glacier outlines have been used to assess the accuracy of a glacier-mapping algorithm based on the coarser resolution imagery from MODIS, applied to the Nepal Himalaya. Similarly, a Second Generation Glacier Inventory of the HKH is being prepared using only remotely sensed single source (multi-spectral Landsat satellite data) of narrow temporal range (2005-2009 only). Second glacier inventory of China is compiled based on RS data, and 563 ASTER and 84 Landsat TM/ETM+ using the band ratio method to extract debris free glacier outlines by manual digitization.
It had been shown that the multi-temporal digital terrain models allow to calculate glacier mass changes by the geodetic method, e.g. using stereo optical data (Corona KH-4, year 1962, KH-4B, 1970, aerial imagery, 1984, ASTER, 2002, and Cartosat-1, 2007 in south of Mt. Everest/Nepal 1962 – 2007, calculation of glacier volume changes indicated all glaciers lost mass over the whole period and thinning with a rate of 0.37+ 0.27 m/a and lost about 0.6 cu. Km of ice with a specific mass balance of 0.32+ 0.23 m w.e/a between 1970 and 2007. Mass loss is accelerated when compared with recent DTM.
Glaciers studies in the Ladakh mountain had shown that glaciers in Ladakh are significantly different to the rest of glaciers in the Himalaya for their preferred geographical location. Similarly, comparison of glacial retreat in Warwan and Bhut basins of Chenab river of western Indian Himalaya using RS and GIS has shown that there are many factors that have influence in glacier retreat or advance such as altitude of glaciers, depth of glacier, debris cover as well as amount of changes in moraine cover.
Emphasis was also laid upon the improved transnational cooperation and study of the shared HKH resources and hazards which can also allay territorial and security concerns and economic development of many nations in the region.
Presenters:
Jeffrey S. Kargel: Science and Technology Basis for Operational High-Frequency Monitoring of Glaciers and their Environs in the Himalaya-Hindu Kush Region
Bruce Raup: GLIMS Glacier Mapping: Lessons from the past and future directions
Dhananjay Regmi: Current knowledge on Mountain Permafrost in Nepal Himalaya and Future Research Prospective in the Context of Global Climate Change.
Guo Wanqin: Data and Methods in Second Glacier Inventory of China
Bajracharya SR: Second generation glacier inventory of HKH region (Afghanistan, Bhutan, Myanmar and Nepal)
Tobias Bolch: Glacier mass changes at Mt. Everest/Nepal 1962 – 2007 based on multi-temporal digital terrain models
Qamar-ul-Zaman: Recent Surge in Tributaries of Panmah Glacier in Karakoram Ranges Pakistan
Rupal M. Brahmbhatt: A comparison of glacial retreat in two adjacent basins of Western Himalaya, India: Study using RS and GIS .
R.K. Ganjoo: Are secular movements in the glaciers of Ladakh Mountains, Ladakh (J & K State), India a response to climate change?
D.J. Quincy: Radar remote sensing for evaluating climatically induced hazards in the Himalaya.
SERVIR-Himalaya launched
The chief of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Charles F. Bolden, along with Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Michael Yates, on Tuesday launched the SERVIR-Himalaya system in Nepal.
Addressing a youth symposium that is being organised by ICIMOD between October 1 and 6, the NASA chief said there is a need for technological advancement to help in the risk management, caused due to climate change and natural disasters in the region. “There is also a need to develop an economic growth strategy to cope with the impacts of climate change in the region,” he said. More details....
Addressing a youth symposium that is being organised by ICIMOD between October 1 and 6, the NASA chief said there is a need for technological advancement to help in the risk management, caused due to climate change and natural disasters in the region. “There is also a need to develop an economic growth strategy to cope with the impacts of climate change in the region,” he said. More details....
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Summary of Plenary Session “Regional and Global Initiative: Climate Change and Earth Observation”
5 October 2010 (10:20 – 12:30)
Chair Prof. Jose Achache, GEO Secretariat Director
Co-Chair Prof. Hiromichi Fukui, Keio University, Japan
Rapporteur Olivia Gippner, ICIMOD
Remote Sensing Acitivites in Bangladesh in Support of Climate Change Approach: Regional Database and Framework for Strenghtening Satellite-based Surveillance against Climate Change Vulnerability in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan Region (Muzibur Rahman Howlader, Chairman SPARSO)
The last few years have seen a surge in intensity and frequency of natural disasters in Bangladesh, which have been affecting the livelihood of the people. The high population has led to an overexploitation of the land and has made the country suffer from climate change in terms of cyclones, floods and earthquakes. Bangladesh’s geographic position as a down-riparian country, while at the same time being affected by the downstream upsurge from the Bay of Bengal due to Sea Level Rise, has exposed it particularly. SPARSO is carrying out a variety of Initiatives and space applications, such as the monitoring of disasters and its impacts on resources, agricultural economy and food security; Search and rescue maps; capacity building and collaborations, generation and dissemination of real time data during disaster vulnerability and risk reduction; need-based multidisciplinary methodological development. Most importantly it is assisting the government on satellite data acquisition, agricultural, flood flash flood, water logging and meteorological monitoring, river morphological changes study / river courses, monitoring the changes of water bodies.
During the 1st water summit in 2007 it was decided to pursue a regional approach for deeper research and a Regional Service Platform. This will be a common platform with effective technology and algorithm for acquisition, processing and archival of data. The key for these initiatives are concrete action plans which will enforce implementation.
A plateau-ocean atmosphere water cycle and Field Experiments of the Tibetan Plateau (Xiangde Xu, Chinese Meterological Organization)
The research addressed the curious heat pump effect surrounding the Tibetan Plateau. Furthermore they investigated the main channels of water vapor transport. During his research he managed to explain the effect that the Tibetan Plateau acts as a driving for the monsoon rainbelt. The reasons were identified as the land sea thermal difference between the East Asia continent and the low latitude ocean, as well as the land-air temperature difference.
Earth Observation for climate change: Indian Initiatives (PS Roy, Dean, IIRS, Indian Space Research Organization)
The mission of the Indian Space Programme for four decades has been: “we must be second to none in the application of advanced technologies to the real problems of man and society”. The programme has been focused on a very strong partnership with the industry to promote indigenous capabilities. He presented some of the satellite systems used. For example RESOURCESAT -1, which is used to measure for natural resources census, improved crop discrimination, vegetation dynamics, crop yields, disaster management support, forestry and biodiversity etc: INSAT 3A &METSAT (Kalpana 1) are used for cloud and moisture movements. Altogether in the IRS International Ground Stations IGS Network, there are 22 stations and 20 resellers.
Quite timely the IRS is offering a Disaster Management Support programme. Its website Dissemination and Sharing of Geo-spatial Information Derived from IRS Data on Land use and Land cover of India provides a comprehensive database to end users and policy-makers. As a way forward the key words for IRS are scaling up, enhancement, and sophistication.
SUPARCO and its role in socio-economic development in Pakistan (Imran Iqbal, Space Applications and Research, Pakistan)
National Space Agency of Pakistan was set up in 1961 on advice of nobel laureate Dr. Abdul Salam and launched its first scientific rocket, Rehber I, in collaboration with NASA one year later. Very early on it saw its call in connecting space-based information to the socio-economic development of the country. The areas of application were identified as agriculture and food security, environment and climate change, natural disaster monitoring, forestry, water resources, cryosphere (in cooperation with ICIMOD), Urban planningLand use/land cover planning, coastal ecosystem, space based communication services. Examples of such application-oriented work are the programs on crop monitoring through satellite technology, where since 2007 SUPARCO would provide timely estimates to the government for it to react and prepare for surpluses or shortages. Another project was on the dense fog outbreaks in Punjab, the breadbasket of Pakistan. SUPARCO found the fogs to have negative effects on agriculture and even health (eg in Lahore), report will come out in 2010.
JAXA’s contributions to climate change adaptiation and Asia-Pacific Regional Space Agency Forum (Shinichi Mizumoto, Director, JAXA Bangkok Office).
JAXA started as a university space-related research. Now it has a personnel of 1,565 and a budget of 1.8bn USD, as well as field centers in Washington, Houston, Paris and Bangkok. Within the GEOSS societal benefit priority areas JAXA is working in the fields of disaster, climate and water. Several new satellites are planned for 2012. Some of the activites are its climate change cooperation with NASA, monitoring forests in the amazonas, disaster monitoring earthquake in China (ALOS), flood in Myanmar after Nargis in 2008, GLOF monitoring in Bhutan, 2007, Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), launch in 1997 and many more. It has three space related sub-initiatives, Sentinel Asia, SAFE and STAR. Sentinel Asia is a joint project team bringing together the disaster management community, space community, and international community. It is active in emergency observation, wildfire monitoring, flood, GLOF capacity building and makes use of ALOS, THEOS, ISRO, KARI, TAIWAN, NARLS. New regional WINDS receiving stations and servers are planned for Fiji, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Vietnam. The session was closed by Chairman Jose Achache.
Chair Prof. Jose Achache, GEO Secretariat Director
Co-Chair Prof. Hiromichi Fukui, Keio University, Japan
Rapporteur Olivia Gippner, ICIMOD
Remote Sensing Acitivites in Bangladesh in Support of Climate Change Approach: Regional Database and Framework for Strenghtening Satellite-based Surveillance against Climate Change Vulnerability in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan Region (Muzibur Rahman Howlader, Chairman SPARSO)
The last few years have seen a surge in intensity and frequency of natural disasters in Bangladesh, which have been affecting the livelihood of the people. The high population has led to an overexploitation of the land and has made the country suffer from climate change in terms of cyclones, floods and earthquakes. Bangladesh’s geographic position as a down-riparian country, while at the same time being affected by the downstream upsurge from the Bay of Bengal due to Sea Level Rise, has exposed it particularly. SPARSO is carrying out a variety of Initiatives and space applications, such as the monitoring of disasters and its impacts on resources, agricultural economy and food security; Search and rescue maps; capacity building and collaborations, generation and dissemination of real time data during disaster vulnerability and risk reduction; need-based multidisciplinary methodological development. Most importantly it is assisting the government on satellite data acquisition, agricultural, flood flash flood, water logging and meteorological monitoring, river morphological changes study / river courses, monitoring the changes of water bodies.
During the 1st water summit in 2007 it was decided to pursue a regional approach for deeper research and a Regional Service Platform. This will be a common platform with effective technology and algorithm for acquisition, processing and archival of data. The key for these initiatives are concrete action plans which will enforce implementation.
A plateau-ocean atmosphere water cycle and Field Experiments of the Tibetan Plateau (Xiangde Xu, Chinese Meterological Organization)
The research addressed the curious heat pump effect surrounding the Tibetan Plateau. Furthermore they investigated the main channels of water vapor transport. During his research he managed to explain the effect that the Tibetan Plateau acts as a driving for the monsoon rainbelt. The reasons were identified as the land sea thermal difference between the East Asia continent and the low latitude ocean, as well as the land-air temperature difference.
Earth Observation for climate change: Indian Initiatives (PS Roy, Dean, IIRS, Indian Space Research Organization)
The mission of the Indian Space Programme for four decades has been: “we must be second to none in the application of advanced technologies to the real problems of man and society”. The programme has been focused on a very strong partnership with the industry to promote indigenous capabilities. He presented some of the satellite systems used. For example RESOURCESAT -1, which is used to measure for natural resources census, improved crop discrimination, vegetation dynamics, crop yields, disaster management support, forestry and biodiversity etc: INSAT 3A &METSAT (Kalpana 1) are used for cloud and moisture movements. Altogether in the IRS International Ground Stations IGS Network, there are 22 stations and 20 resellers.
Quite timely the IRS is offering a Disaster Management Support programme. Its website Dissemination and Sharing of Geo-spatial Information Derived from IRS Data on Land use and Land cover of India provides a comprehensive database to end users and policy-makers. As a way forward the key words for IRS are scaling up, enhancement, and sophistication.
SUPARCO and its role in socio-economic development in Pakistan (Imran Iqbal, Space Applications and Research, Pakistan)
National Space Agency of Pakistan was set up in 1961 on advice of nobel laureate Dr. Abdul Salam and launched its first scientific rocket, Rehber I, in collaboration with NASA one year later. Very early on it saw its call in connecting space-based information to the socio-economic development of the country. The areas of application were identified as agriculture and food security, environment and climate change, natural disaster monitoring, forestry, water resources, cryosphere (in cooperation with ICIMOD), Urban planningLand use/land cover planning, coastal ecosystem, space based communication services. Examples of such application-oriented work are the programs on crop monitoring through satellite technology, where since 2007 SUPARCO would provide timely estimates to the government for it to react and prepare for surpluses or shortages. Another project was on the dense fog outbreaks in Punjab, the breadbasket of Pakistan. SUPARCO found the fogs to have negative effects on agriculture and even health (eg in Lahore), report will come out in 2010.
JAXA’s contributions to climate change adaptiation and Asia-Pacific Regional Space Agency Forum (Shinichi Mizumoto, Director, JAXA Bangkok Office).
JAXA started as a university space-related research. Now it has a personnel of 1,565 and a budget of 1.8bn USD, as well as field centers in Washington, Houston, Paris and Bangkok. Within the GEOSS societal benefit priority areas JAXA is working in the fields of disaster, climate and water. Several new satellites are planned for 2012. Some of the activites are its climate change cooperation with NASA, monitoring forests in the amazonas, disaster monitoring earthquake in China (ALOS), flood in Myanmar after Nargis in 2008, GLOF monitoring in Bhutan, 2007, Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), launch in 1997 and many more. It has three space related sub-initiatives, Sentinel Asia, SAFE and STAR. Sentinel Asia is a joint project team bringing together the disaster management community, space community, and international community. It is active in emergency observation, wildfire monitoring, flood, GLOF capacity building and makes use of ALOS, THEOS, ISRO, KARI, TAIWAN, NARLS. New regional WINDS receiving stations and servers are planned for Fiji, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Vietnam. The session was closed by Chairman Jose Achache.
SERVIR Himalaya Launch
Regional and Global Initiative: Climate Change and Earth Observation
The SERVIR-Himalaya system was being launched today, 5th October, by Mr. Charles F. Bolden Jr., NASA Administrator, and Mr. Michael Yates, Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator of USAID in Kathmandu.
Andreas Schild, Director General of ICIMOD, in his opening words communicated a message from his meeting with the Indian Minister of Environment and Forestry the previous day. First, India is considering ICIMOD as an anchor. Full cooperation of all regional countries and stakeholder is an attainable goal and the window of opportunity is widening.” Secondly, the Minister had emphasized India’s strong support regional cooperation based on strong national institutions.” Schild asked the present organistions to support ICIMOD in its task. He accepted the high obligation that the launch of SERVIR is putting on the organization in serving the stakeholders of the region. “We consider this as a very important and noble task.”
NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden Jr. started his speech with sharing his experience from his first space expedition, when looking from a height of 600 km he realized that the world really only is one big body of water, which is only periodically interrupted by pieces of land. He explained how the human induced changes in the world have to be measured using all available knowledge sources. This means to combine space-based satellites with in-situ observations to make earth observation a predictive science. That is why NASA has reinvigorated its applied sciences program – to address immediate needs, nine of which have been identified by Global Earth Observation. He welcomed national cooperation between NASA and USAID and international body of GEOSS, to bring together the world’s earth observation agencies. Bolden closed his speech with the words “From space this is a world without borders – we all have a responsibility to cooperate to making our village, our country, our region and this planet a better place.”
The keynote address was delivered by Senior Deputy Assistant, USAID, Michael Yates. He spoke about the present trend within the US administration. “We are all looking for scientific collaboration as a true game-changer and SERVIR is a step into this direction. It combines NASA’s research and technology experience with USAID’s comprehensive development expertise from working with many partners around the world. “According to him, no single government ministry or organization can tackle all the available information offered in the different areas, “that is why SERVIR is the newest node in the vision of a truly global network. It will be powered by electricity but also by trust. We have to understand how people make decisions and how information can feed into that. That is why SERVIR will also bridge the gap to social science research as well.”
Basanta Shrestha, MENRIS Division Head, ICIMOD, had the floor for his presentation on “Bridging the data gap for climate change adaptation in the Hindu-Kush Himalayan (HKH) Region” which related the SERVIR launch back to the overall theme of the International Symposium. Upon outlining the major drivers of Climate Change he explained how it is creating a particular strain on the mountain ecosystem and the downstream areas affected. Mountain communities had demonstrated to be slow in adaptation and that is why ICIMOD’s focus and mission for many years has been to increase the adaptive capacity and resilience of mountain communities. “Our understanding on the complexity of the interlinking issues, however, is still at a very early stage and the HKH has been identified as a data gap region”. That is why ICIMOD is directing its various programs at the different aspects of that knowledge gap, just to name a few: Regional snow monitoring, Regional Mapping and Inventory of Glaciers, Mountain Biodiversity, Mountain Socio-cultural Diversity, Regional and national land cover mapping, Capacity building, Rapid response mapping together with JAXA WINDS, Satellite based Forest Fire Detection and Monitoring, Transboundary air pollution, Reaching the Users through the Mountain GeoPortal and GEOSS. “The way forward is through regional and international cooperation whic
h will help build synergies between different initiatives and promote the complementary development of a regional database and Himalayan Spatial Data Infrastructure (HSDI).”
The launch ended in the official opening of the SERVIR-Himalaya Network through the present dignitaries.
For more information on SERVIR Himalaya...
The SERVIR-Himalaya system was being launched today, 5th October, by Mr. Charles F. Bolden Jr., NASA Administrator, and Mr. Michael Yates, Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator of USAID in Kathmandu.
Andreas Schild, Director General of ICIMOD, in his opening words communicated a message from his meeting with the Indian Minister of Environment and Forestry the previous day. First, India is considering ICIMOD as an anchor. Full cooperation of all regional countries and stakeholder is an attainable goal and the window of opportunity is widening.” Secondly, the Minister had emphasized India’s strong support regional cooperation based on strong national institutions.” Schild asked the present organistions to support ICIMOD in its task. He accepted the high obligation that the launch of SERVIR is putting on the organization in serving the stakeholders of the region. “We consider this as a very important and noble task.”
NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden Jr. started his speech with sharing his experience from his first space expedition, when looking from a height of 600 km he realized that the world really only is one big body of water, which is only periodically interrupted by pieces of land. He explained how the human induced changes in the world have to be measured using all available knowledge sources. This means to combine space-based satellites with in-situ observations to make earth observation a predictive science. That is why NASA has reinvigorated its applied sciences program – to address immediate needs, nine of which have been identified by Global Earth Observation. He welcomed national cooperation between NASA and USAID and international body of GEOSS, to bring together the world’s earth observation agencies. Bolden closed his speech with the words “From space this is a world without borders – we all have a responsibility to cooperate to making our village, our country, our region and this planet a better place.”
The keynote address was delivered by Senior Deputy Assistant, USAID, Michael Yates. He spoke about the present trend within the US administration. “We are all looking for scientific collaboration as a true game-changer and SERVIR is a step into this direction. It combines NASA’s research and technology experience with USAID’s comprehensive development expertise from working with many partners around the world. “According to him, no single government ministry or organization can tackle all the available information offered in the different areas, “that is why SERVIR is the newest node in the vision of a truly global network. It will be powered by electricity but also by trust. We have to understand how people make decisions and how information can feed into that. That is why SERVIR will also bridge the gap to social science research as well.”
Basanta Shrestha, MENRIS Division Head, ICIMOD, had the floor for his presentation on “Bridging the data gap for climate change adaptation in the Hindu-Kush Himalayan (HKH) Region” which related the SERVIR launch back to the overall theme of the International Symposium. Upon outlining the major drivers of Climate Change he explained how it is creating a particular strain on the mountain ecosystem and the downstream areas affected. Mountain communities had demonstrated to be slow in adaptation and that is why ICIMOD’s focus and mission for many years has been to increase the adaptive capacity and resilience of mountain communities. “Our understanding on the complexity of the interlinking issues, however, is still at a very early stage and the HKH has been identified as a data gap region”. That is why ICIMOD is directing its various programs at the different aspects of that knowledge gap, just to name a few: Regional snow monitoring, Regional Mapping and Inventory of Glaciers, Mountain Biodiversity, Mountain Socio-cultural Diversity, Regional and national land cover mapping, Capacity building, Rapid response mapping together with JAXA WINDS, Satellite based Forest Fire Detection and Monitoring, Transboundary air pollution, Reaching the Users through the Mountain GeoPortal and GEOSS. “The way forward is through regional and international cooperation whic
h will help build synergies between different initiatives and promote the complementary development of a regional database and Himalayan Spatial Data Infrastructure (HSDI).”The launch ended in the official opening of the SERVIR-Himalaya Network through the present dignitaries.
For more information on SERVIR Himalaya...
"The future lies in regional cooperation based on strong national institutions," he added.
India's Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh has stressed the need for regional cooperation for the protection of Himalayan glaciers, an official release said Tuesday. Addressing a symposium on 'Bridging the Data Gap for Adaptation to Climate Change in the Hindu-Kush Himalayan Region' in Kathmandu, the minister reiterated the challenges facing the region and the need for solid scientific information as the basis for decision making and improving governance. "The future lies in regional cooperation based on strong national institutions," he added. More details...
Himalayan climate change action urged
More regional and bilateral cooperation is needed to tackle climate change in the Himalayas, an Indian official said. "The behavior of Himalayan glaciers is fundamentally different from that of glaciers in the polar regions and they need special investigation and analysis," Indian Minister for Environment and Forests Shri Jairam Ramesh said Monday, The Himalayan Times reports. Biodiversity does not stop at geographical boundaries and countries have no choice but to work together for protection and management and also to support adaptation," he said. More details...
Nasa launches monitoring system
Kathmandu – A new system that will allow scientists to monitor the impact of climate change in the Himalayas using images from Nasa satellites was launched in the Nepalese capital Kathmandu on Tuesday.
Around 1.3 billion people depend on the water that flows down from the Himalayan glaciers, which experts say are melting at an alarming rate, threatening to bring floods and later drought to the region. More details...
Around 1.3 billion people depend on the water that flows down from the Himalayan glaciers, which experts say are melting at an alarming rate, threatening to bring floods and later drought to the region. More details...
NASA, USAID Expand Environmental Monitoring System to Another Continent
The partners inaugurated this state-of-the-art regional monitoring system, known as SERVIR-Himalaya, at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development in Kathmandu, Nepal on Oct. 5. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and USAID's Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Bureau for Economic Growth, Agriculture and Trade Michael Yates attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony in Nepal. More details...
NASA, USAID Expand Web-Based Environmental Monitoring System
SERVIR Program Brings Satellite Imagery, Decision-Support Tools To Himalayan Region
WASHINGTON — NASA and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) have expanded their successful collaboration with international partners to launch an innovative, web-based environmental management system for the Himalayan region. More details...
WASHINGTON — NASA and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) have expanded their successful collaboration with international partners to launch an innovative, web-based environmental management system for the Himalayan region. More details...
NASA Press Release: NASA, USAID Expand Web-Based Environmental Monitoring System
WASHINGTON -- NASA and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) have expanded their successful collaboration with international partners to launch an innovative, web-based environmental management system for the Himalayan region. More details..
SERVIR: Program Brings Satellite Imagery, Decision Support Tools to Himalayan Region
SERVIR works from space to village, bringing people and their environment into harmony. SERVIR does this by providing access to data and models, coupled with training and capacity building that can be used to help decision makers and their constituencies with climate change, environmental monitoring, and assessment of extreme events. In fact, SERVIR-Himalaya has already been helping to map the recent flooding in Pakistan, shown below, through USAID support and NASA satellite data. More details...
Republica: Earth Observation key to tackle climate change
KATHMANDU, Oct 5: Participants at a symposium Monday aired the view that Earth Observation was one of the keys to improving scientific knowledge and understanding of the climate change phenomena in the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region.
Some 250 participants from 24 countries, who gathered here for a three-day international symposium that kicked off Monday, articulated this view. More details...
Some 250 participants from 24 countries, who gathered here for a three-day international symposium that kicked off Monday, articulated this view. More details...
Himalayan Times India ready for regional cooperation
Himalayan News Service
KATHMANDU: The Indian Minister for Environment and Forests Shri Jairam Ramesh urged enhanced regional cooperation to tackle environment issues, including climate change. Minister Ramesh is here on a three-day visit to discuss environment and conservation issues with the authorities of Nepal.“The objective of my visit is to prepare better environment for bilateral and regional cooperation in the field of climate change and other trans-boundary issues on environment and conservation,” said Ramesh to media persons at an international symposium organised by International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD). More details...
Kathmandu Post: India to give aid to LDCs on climate change
KATHMANDU, OCT 04 -
India has said that it will not submit to any global emission reduction regime, but expressed willingness to assist least developed countries in adapting to the impacts of climate change.
A visiting Indian minister said on Monday that India will not commit to any legal binding emission reduction targets under any global climate treaty to be signed in future but is ready to assist developing countries including Nepal to adapt to the impacts of climate change in the region. More Details...
SERVIR Himalaya will be launched today
On the second day of the International Symposium on Earth Observation, the SERVIR-Himalaya system will be inaugurated. Distinguished dignitaries present are NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden Jr and Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator USAID, Michael Yates. The other speakers are Andreas Schild, DG ICIMOD, Jose Achache, GEO Secretariat Director, and Hirumichi Fukui, Keio University. The official launch will take place at 9:40 at Soaltee Hotel.
Monday, October 4, 2010
Summary of Thematic Session "Space-based Information for Disaster Management"
4 October 2010 (13:30 – 17:30)
Chair Mohammad Asif Khan, University of Peshawar, Pakistan
Co-Chair P. S. Roy, Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, ISRO, India
Rapporteur Tek Jung Mahat, ICIMOD
Coordinator Amarnath Giriraj, ICIMOD
Support from space: The United Nations Platform for Space-based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response (UNSPIDER
Shirish Ravan, UN-SPIDER, Austria
Managed by the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), United Nations Platform for Space-based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response (UN-SPIDER) Programme works as a platform to facilitate the use of space-based technologies for disaster management and emergency response. Currently operating from its head quarter in Vienna and another office in Bonn, soon UN SPIDER will start working from Beijing with the focus in the Asia-Pacific region.
UN-SPIDER aims to improve coordination among the geo-spatial community, improve access of members to space-based information, increase awareness and help develop capacity of the users. UN-SPIDER gets data from International and Regional Initiatives/Institutions, including ICIMOD, Regional Support Offices, UN Agencies and National Focal points.
Rapid response mapping to support disaster management in Himalayan region
Amarnath Giriraj, ICIMOD
For any countries in the region, developing capacity to deal with the disasters is the biggest challenge, which is very complicated due to nature and distribution of the disasters. Several organisations are in working in this area which needs to be further enhanced to have more harmonised response in order to meet regional challenges. Starting from floods and earthquakes to forest fires and to GLOF events, application of space technologies is very critical in effectively addressing the disaster events.
Space-based information for assessing the community vulnerability to flood disasters in mountainous Himalayas
Shakil A. Romshoo, University of Kashmir, India
Himalayan ecosystem is very fragile hence we need to have better understanding of any problems before we start responding. A small failure in our disaster plan may fail the overall response, which leads to increased cost in the next phase with exaggerated loss. Only the better understanding of all the contributing factors will help to develop effective disaster response. The research methodology established should help “socialization” of the science and technology that benefits for the flood disaster prone communities by developing robust strategies for reducing their vulnerability and risk to disasters through appropriate development planning.
Monitoring vulnerability: Integration of earth observation for enhanced disaster risk reduction
Stefan Kienberger, Salzburg, University, Austria
Vulnerability has to be seen in different contexts; temporal, spatial and subject. For the information generated by the experts in very technical ways, to be better noticed by the policy makers, the information has to go in condensed form. There should be clear understanding from community to district level and if needed to other higher levels too. Understanding of the driving forces from a perspective of the communities is very important which later should be quantified and prioritized for effective response
Spatial modelling of fire-induced carbon emission in tropical forests: a case study of Afram Headwaters
Forest Reserve, Ghana
Yousif Hussin, ITC, Netherlands
Tropical forests are a major reservoir of global terrestrial carbon, and thus play an essential role in the carbon cycle. However, the alarming rate of deforestation and degradation in recent times is changing the status of tropical forests in the global carbon-climate regime. Fire does not only reduce the forest, but also implies that more carbon remain in the atmosphere because they are not sequestered. More importantly, large amounts of carbon held in the forest biomass are released into the atmosphere when the trees are burned. Degraded forest experienced the most intensity fires in the experiment sites in comparison to others.
The Attabad debris dam, Upper Hunza Valley, North Pakistan: A potential hazard
Ghazanfar Khattak, University of Peshawar, Pakistan
On January 04, 2010, a massive landslide was triggered in upper Hunza Valley. The landslide buried the lower Attabad village, damaging 3km stretch of Karakoram Highway (KKH) and resulted in 20 fatalities. The landslide mass also blocked the Hunza River and impounded a lake within the blocked drainage. However this issue didn’t receive much attention after the Pakistan Flood and similar disaster in neighbouring countries. This has shown the increase disaster incidences and a clear need to be better prepared to respond to these disasters more effectively, and even within very short period of time.
Seismic vulnerability assessment for Chittagong Hill Tract municipalities of Bangladesh
Anisur Rahman, Asian Disaster Preparedness, Centre, Thailand
Vulnerability assessment is very important to indentify areas that may require planning considerations, assess level of readiness and preparedness to deal with a disaster before disaster occurs, estimate potential losses (before or after earthquake or other disaster hit) and to prioritize mitigation measures that need to be implemented to reduce future losses.
Reconstructing Indian census variables using remotely sensed environmental metrics
Gary Watmough, University of Southampton, UK
Limitations of the census can limit the usefulness of risk maps. Remote sensing increased spatial and temporal resolution may provide methods for up-dating census between enumerations. Hence for better reliability of out information it is important explore relationships between census variables and earth observation data.
Spatial and non-spatial information on flood monitoring and early warning system
Ponthip Limlahapun, Keio University, Japan
Integrated Flood Analysis System (IFAS) is a freeware. The result derived using IFAS is displayed over the web-based - increase local recognition on critical disaster information and it provides better visualization of flood occurrence - Flood extent affected areas local infrastructure such as houses, roads, etc. in order to be prepared for mitigation and recovery plans. The data format can be converted and transferred to compatible GIS software.
Glacial Lakes and Glacial Lake Outburst Floods in the Himalayas
Pradeep Mool, ICIMOD
Monitoring of ice, snow and glacial lakes is not one time event. It needs to be regularly monitored considering its complexity, uncertainty, dynamics and risks associated with it. Hence we have to go for regular mapping of the glacial environment, its monitoring, operation of early warning systems, continuing mitigation works, develop capacity of the people associated, including local communities and promote knowledge and experience sharing at regional scale. Professionals in the Himalayan region can benefit from similar experience in the Andes.
Current Technologies to Better Assess and Monitor Potential Glacial Hazards
Jeffery Kargel, University of Arizonia, USA
Application of state of the art technologies, like UAV and USV platforms and other sensor signals can are critical to better monitor moraine dams and GLOF.
Overall summary:
All the presentations emphasized the use of Earth Observation data in making effective decisions and executing smart responses to disaster incidences. Fostering regional cooperation among ICIMOD member countries and others would help better understand different phases of disaster management cycle. It was stressed often times to bridge the data gap and promote the culture of sharing of information and knowledge among the research communities for decision making process, where Earth Observation plays pivotal role. In order to maximize the benefits from Earth Observation technologies, it was suggested that the regional member countries activate charters and transfer that information to disaster communities.
Chair Mohammad Asif Khan, University of Peshawar, Pakistan
Co-Chair P. S. Roy, Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, ISRO, India
Rapporteur Tek Jung Mahat, ICIMOD
Coordinator Amarnath Giriraj, ICIMOD
Support from space: The United Nations Platform for Space-based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response (UNSPIDER
Shirish Ravan, UN-SPIDER, Austria
Managed by the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), United Nations Platform for Space-based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response (UN-SPIDER) Programme works as a platform to facilitate the use of space-based technologies for disaster management and emergency response. Currently operating from its head quarter in Vienna and another office in Bonn, soon UN SPIDER will start working from Beijing with the focus in the Asia-Pacific region.
UN-SPIDER aims to improve coordination among the geo-spatial community, improve access of members to space-based information, increase awareness and help develop capacity of the users. UN-SPIDER gets data from International and Regional Initiatives/Institutions, including ICIMOD, Regional Support Offices, UN Agencies and National Focal points.
Rapid response mapping to support disaster management in Himalayan region
Amarnath Giriraj, ICIMOD
For any countries in the region, developing capacity to deal with the disasters is the biggest challenge, which is very complicated due to nature and distribution of the disasters. Several organisations are in working in this area which needs to be further enhanced to have more harmonised response in order to meet regional challenges. Starting from floods and earthquakes to forest fires and to GLOF events, application of space technologies is very critical in effectively addressing the disaster events.
Space-based information for assessing the community vulnerability to flood disasters in mountainous Himalayas
Shakil A. Romshoo, University of Kashmir, India
Himalayan ecosystem is very fragile hence we need to have better understanding of any problems before we start responding. A small failure in our disaster plan may fail the overall response, which leads to increased cost in the next phase with exaggerated loss. Only the better understanding of all the contributing factors will help to develop effective disaster response. The research methodology established should help “socialization” of the science and technology that benefits for the flood disaster prone communities by developing robust strategies for reducing their vulnerability and risk to disasters through appropriate development planning.
Monitoring vulnerability: Integration of earth observation for enhanced disaster risk reduction
Stefan Kienberger, Salzburg, University, Austria
Vulnerability has to be seen in different contexts; temporal, spatial and subject. For the information generated by the experts in very technical ways, to be better noticed by the policy makers, the information has to go in condensed form. There should be clear understanding from community to district level and if needed to other higher levels too. Understanding of the driving forces from a perspective of the communities is very important which later should be quantified and prioritized for effective response
Spatial modelling of fire-induced carbon emission in tropical forests: a case study of Afram Headwaters
Forest Reserve, Ghana
Yousif Hussin, ITC, Netherlands
Tropical forests are a major reservoir of global terrestrial carbon, and thus play an essential role in the carbon cycle. However, the alarming rate of deforestation and degradation in recent times is changing the status of tropical forests in the global carbon-climate regime. Fire does not only reduce the forest, but also implies that more carbon remain in the atmosphere because they are not sequestered. More importantly, large amounts of carbon held in the forest biomass are released into the atmosphere when the trees are burned. Degraded forest experienced the most intensity fires in the experiment sites in comparison to others.
The Attabad debris dam, Upper Hunza Valley, North Pakistan: A potential hazard
Ghazanfar Khattak, University of Peshawar, Pakistan
On January 04, 2010, a massive landslide was triggered in upper Hunza Valley. The landslide buried the lower Attabad village, damaging 3km stretch of Karakoram Highway (KKH) and resulted in 20 fatalities. The landslide mass also blocked the Hunza River and impounded a lake within the blocked drainage. However this issue didn’t receive much attention after the Pakistan Flood and similar disaster in neighbouring countries. This has shown the increase disaster incidences and a clear need to be better prepared to respond to these disasters more effectively, and even within very short period of time.
Seismic vulnerability assessment for Chittagong Hill Tract municipalities of Bangladesh
Anisur Rahman, Asian Disaster Preparedness, Centre, Thailand
Vulnerability assessment is very important to indentify areas that may require planning considerations, assess level of readiness and preparedness to deal with a disaster before disaster occurs, estimate potential losses (before or after earthquake or other disaster hit) and to prioritize mitigation measures that need to be implemented to reduce future losses.
Reconstructing Indian census variables using remotely sensed environmental metrics
Gary Watmough, University of Southampton, UK
Limitations of the census can limit the usefulness of risk maps. Remote sensing increased spatial and temporal resolution may provide methods for up-dating census between enumerations. Hence for better reliability of out information it is important explore relationships between census variables and earth observation data.
Spatial and non-spatial information on flood monitoring and early warning system
Ponthip Limlahapun, Keio University, Japan
Integrated Flood Analysis System (IFAS) is a freeware. The result derived using IFAS is displayed over the web-based - increase local recognition on critical disaster information and it provides better visualization of flood occurrence - Flood extent affected areas local infrastructure such as houses, roads, etc. in order to be prepared for mitigation and recovery plans. The data format can be converted and transferred to compatible GIS software.
Glacial Lakes and Glacial Lake Outburst Floods in the Himalayas
Pradeep Mool, ICIMOD
Monitoring of ice, snow and glacial lakes is not one time event. It needs to be regularly monitored considering its complexity, uncertainty, dynamics and risks associated with it. Hence we have to go for regular mapping of the glacial environment, its monitoring, operation of early warning systems, continuing mitigation works, develop capacity of the people associated, including local communities and promote knowledge and experience sharing at regional scale. Professionals in the Himalayan region can benefit from similar experience in the Andes.
Current Technologies to Better Assess and Monitor Potential Glacial Hazards
Jeffery Kargel, University of Arizonia, USA
Application of state of the art technologies, like UAV and USV platforms and other sensor signals can are critical to better monitor moraine dams and GLOF.
Overall summary:
All the presentations emphasized the use of Earth Observation data in making effective decisions and executing smart responses to disaster incidences. Fostering regional cooperation among ICIMOD member countries and others would help better understand different phases of disaster management cycle. It was stressed often times to bridge the data gap and promote the culture of sharing of information and knowledge among the research communities for decision making process, where Earth Observation plays pivotal role. In order to maximize the benefits from Earth Observation technologies, it was suggested that the regional member countries activate charters and transfer that information to disaster communities.
Summary of Thematic Session on "Remote Sensing of Cryosphere"
Thematic Session II: "Remote Sensing of Cryosphere"
Venue: Malhar Hall, Hotel Soaltee, Kathmandu, Nepal
Date: 4 October 2010 (13:30-17:30)
Chair: Bruce Raup, NSIDC, USA
Co-chair: Arun B. Shrestha, ICIMOD
Rapporteur: Ujol Sherchan, ICIMOD
Coordinator: Deo Raj Gurung, ICIMOD
The thematic session focused on the issues of snow cover mapping and modeling. Much of the papers presented focused on the improvement of accuracy of the predominant MODIS snow cover algorithm. Several factors, such as mountain shadows, (ice) clouds, and the snow albedo effect in particular in higher altitudes, have been reducing the accuracy of conventional algorithms.
Imaging spectroscopy of light-absorbing impurities in snow and ice, Thomas H. Painter, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, USA
Studies of aerosols and their impacts on snow are relatively brand new. Dust particles from the deserts of Western America are getting into the mountain systems of the region. If one puts aerosols in snow, it melts faster. However the full implications of this phenomenon are not known. There is not adequate Earth Observation system in place for light –absorbing impurities in snow and ice. In the IPCC report, the understanding of surface albedo land use is seen as medium to low, hence the need to ramp up research in this poorly understood area. Some of the findings of the research done in Western America:
- Snow melts 26-56 days earlier,
- Five- fold increase in dustloading since the 1800s,
- Run off comes 3 weeks earlier and loss of runoff in the order of 5% every year
Comparable study in the Himalaya shows a 4-fold increase in dustloading since the 1850s, this means substantial quantity of dust particles are getting into the atmosphere, including black carbon, which affects albedo.
Snow properties from MODIS show that radiative forcing in snow is relatively qualitative, the greater the red in the image shown the greater the radiative forcing. And where MODIS doesn’t have a band- there is spectral problem. IPCC has been insisting on quantitative analysis, so there is still a long way to go to meet that expectation.
Development and validation of snow cover monitoring algorithm for Himalayan region, Anil V. Kulkarni, Indian Institute of Sciences, India
An algorithm based on Normalised Difference Snow Index (NDSI) has been developed using data of AWiFS sensor of Indian Remote Sensing Satellite. Is NDSI a unique value? Field validation of NDSI was obtained for different Himalayan features (snow, vegetation, water, etc), not to mention slope angle. Slope angle has very little impact on NDSI. Influence of mixed pixels (mixed vegetation: ¼.1/2, ¾, 0, vegetation full) on spectral reflectance and NDSI was also determined. Snow cover mapping of selected basins was conducted for October – June (2002-2005), using the10-DAILY BASIN-WISE MAXIMUM SNOW COVER. Validation of algorithm: Out of 207 observatories, there were 132 matches, 2 unmatches, 73 excluded due to cloud. If there are clouds, there is problem as they are mostly ice clouds. If iced clouds data set was rejected, if ice-free clouds, used. Validation of algorithm: between 95.8% to 99.6% accuracy for various classes such as dense vegetation and snow/ice.
Some results obtained are as follows:
- Mean snow fall Western Himalaya (Bhaga and Ravi basins): 2004-5: 739 cm; 2005-6: 606 cm; 2006-7: 596 cm
- There was some stabilization in the Bhaga basin, but no stabilization in Ravi basin.
A refinement of MODIS snow cover area algorithm for mountainous Tibetan Plateau region, Bohui Tang, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
Tang’s presentation highlighted NSIDC’s snow cover algorithm and its drawbacks, lack of corrections for atmospheric effect, topography, not eliminating the effects of illumination and viewing geometry on the values of the used reflectance. He proposed a better algorithm that tries to address all these drawbacks, which was tried in the Hindu-Kush Himalayan region, with the result that it maximized snow cover area, reduced cloud contamination and filled the gap. One finding was that NSIDC’s algorithm mistakes many pixels as snow covers in southern Bhutan which does not exist as snow cover in the true color composited image. Validation of the proposed method was done in relation to in situ data obtained from 95 stations in the HKH region for the following five dates – January 10,22, Apr14,Oct16, Nov 22, Dec12 of the year 2003- and the corrected classification (%) obtained was above 91% for each of those days.
The conclusions from the study were as follows:
- NSIDC’s MODIS snow cover products overestimate the snow cover
- The proposed algorithm can estimate the snow cover for the Himalayan region more feasible with accuracy better than 90%
- Estimating of the snow cover over heavy mountain regions needs to do atmospheric and topographic corrections
Large scale monitoring of snow cover area and variability in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan region, Deo Raj Gurung, ICIMOD, Nepal
The lack of data on cryosphere is a problem in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan region, which boasts 10 major river systems. The scope of the study was snow cover distribution pattern with respect to aspect, altitude and slope; intra-annual and inter- annual trend and seasonal trend in the HKH region. It used MODIS 8-day products, SRTM DEM v4 for slope, elevation and aspect, and HKH boundary data from ICIMOD file and basin boundary data were generated from SRTM DEM. Cloud removal methods employed in the study were successful in removing clouds significantly and improving the products. Snow cover area was found to be in agreement with the trend. It was depleting except in Amudarya, Indus and Yangtse basins. Depletion rate was highest in Brahmaputra basin and accumulation was highest in Indus basin. Strong linear regression relation was observed between percent snow cover and elevation in all basins except in Tarim basin (R=69). Jan, Feb, Mar, Oct, Nov, Dec indicate maximum monthly variation in snow cover area. While absolute accuracy based on in-situ data from 168 stations varied from 46.5% to 97.30%, relative accuracy based on high resolution snow product stood at 93%.
However with regard to inter-annual and seasonal trends, no clear pattern or trend was seen.
Monitoring Sikkim Himalayan Cryosphere, Smriti Basnet, Department of Science and Technology, Sikkim, India
The study was carried out in the Tista and Rangit Subbasins of Sikkim using AWiFS data of Oct-June taken in 5-day intervals from 2004-2008. It was the first study of its kind in the Sikkim Himalayas. The NDSI-based algorithm was run on fully automated mode. It generated snow and cloud for 5 daily products and maximum snow extent for composite (10 daily) product.
The following results and conclusions were obtained:
- All four years (2004-2008) showed similar snow cover patterns throughout Sikkim state, including in the two sub-basins.
- Maximum snow extent in February suggests Sikkim receives higher snow precipitation from Western Disturbances than North East Monsoon.
- Continuous snow precipitation even during summer months unlike in the Western Himalayas
The challenge remaining is how to address the problem associated with cloud cover and vegetation. The former may be addressed with development of newer microwave technique, where RISAT data would be of prime importance; the latter, through the development of a better algorithm to monitor snow cover under canopy.
Monitoring snow cover dynamic in the trans-Himalayan region of Nepal using MODIS data, Keshav P. Paudel, University of Bergen, Norway
The study focused on the Mustang District of Nepal had a two-fold objective: to improve and develop method to reduce cloud cover as well as examine the spatial and temporal variability of snow cover. At the heart of the study was a 5-step cloud removal methodology. The results obtained were as follows:
- This cloud removal methodology was found to be a robust technique
- High interannual and intra-seasonal variability
- Peak snow day shifted forward by 6.7 days per year
- Feb/March are main snow months
- Declining trend of snow cover duration in agro-pastoral areas of Mustang
Simulation of the spatial distribution of snow cover in the Himalayan river basin of Nepal and comparison with MODIS satellite product, Maheswor Shrestha, University of Tokyo, Japan
In Nepal, many studies have been conducted using conventional hydrological models, but none gives spatial –distributed snow cover. The model used in the study is Water and Energy Budget based Distributed Hydrological Model (WEB-DHM). The study coverd the period 2 Oct 2002 to 25 June 2003 and simulated the spatial distribution of snow cover in the Dudh Koshi basin of Nepal.
The results obtained were as follows:
- In general, WEB-DHM-S with a three layered energy balance based snowmelt module is found to be able to simulate the spatial distribution of snow cover in theDudhkoshi region of eastern Nepal Himalaya.
- Snow cover simulation is comparable to the MODIS 8 daily snow cover product (MOD10A2). Land surface temperature compared to MODIS 8 daily LSTV5 (MOD11A2) shows that LST is underestimated during the entire post monsoon and winter season.
- The snow line altitude has been simulated well and the elevation zone 4500-5500 is found very sensitive in the overestimation of SCA.
- The seasonal snowmelt contribution to the discharge at Rabuwabazar is found insignificant however multiyear simulation is necessary to draw a solid conclusion. Nevertheless, this study provides a basis for the application of WEB-DHM-S in cold and high elevated regions to simulate spatial distribution of seasonal snow coverage.
Remote sensing inputs for snowmelt runoff modeling and glacial lakes mapping
K Abdul Hakeem, NRSC, India
The study focused on the snowmelt runoff modelling in the Sutlej Basin of India, especially with reference to seasonal forecasting in April and revised forecasting in May. Although there are lots of observation points in the lower part of the basin, the upper part actually lies outside India (and in China). The timely forecast is important for planning and adaptive management of multipurpose projects (drinking water, electricity, etc) in the region. It was found that the highflow season (April, May, June) contributed to 27% of annual flows, out of that, the month of June alone contributed about 57%, while the rest was made up by April and May. Temperature trend closely followed the discharge trend in the Bagra reservoir. Also efforts were underway to develop an inventory of glacial lakes and water bodies in Tawang basin and other basins of the India Himalayas.
The research of snow cover monitoring and analysis with multi data source over Tibetan Plateau, Liu Yujie, China Meteorological Administration, China
The research objective was to figure out the main characteristics of snow cover over the Tibetan Plateau using satellite data useful in climate analysis. The data showed the main climatic characteristics of snow cover in duration, variation and distribution over the Tibetan Plateau and helped better understand the relationship between winter snow over TP and the next summer precipitation in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.
Based on the 13-year data, in both winter half year (Nov-Apr) and summer half year (May-Oct), there were two rich snow cover regions seen in the western and eastern parts of the Tibetan Plateau. This finding calls for detailed sub-regional analysis to better understand these two rich snow cover regions. The snow coverage duration varied from year to year. Snow cover decreased from 1980 to 1990, and increased until 1998, and then decreased again until recently, but snow cover above 3000 m has been decreasing more slowly. The snow cover over TP has 18-20 years large period variation and 3-5 years short period variation The snowline over TP has been upward of 3000 m height in summers and autumns in recent years. Moreover, winter snow cover in Tibetan Plateau has positive correlation with spring and summer precipitation along the Yangtze River, and Inverse correlation with spring and summer precipitation in Hunan and Heibei regions. This analysis is useful as it can potentially help identify factors contributing to “flooding in South China and drought in North China in spring and summer time.”
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS & DISCUSSIONS
A few of the salient points that emerged from the question and answer session and ensuing discussions are summarized below:
- There was a case study presented on the application of snow melt run off forecast in the Sutlej basin of India, first in April and then the revised forecast in June based on the availability of newer data. As the timely forecast is very useful for planning and adaptive management of multi-purpose projects downstream, this good practice has a potential for replication and upscaling in the other major river basins of the region.
- With regard to snow cover mapping and modelling the issue of time period covered in the study was seen as crucial. The general impression was that the 10-year period was inadequate for snow trend analysis or for drawing any broad generalisations. The suggestion was to go for longer-period data, up to 30-years. A suggestion was put forward to also consider historical data such as AVHRR snow products.
- There was a suggestion from participants to complement data obtained from optical remote sensing with microwave remote sensing since the latter has the capability to penetrate cloud covers. However, there are limitations associated with microwave remote sensing due to mountain topography, not to mention cost. As one participant put it: “Passive microwave may introduce far greater errors than waiting for clouds to go away!”
- As India is developing an inventory of glacial lakes and water bodies in the basins of the Indian Himalayas, perhaps the institute in charge – the Central Water Commission under the Ministry of Water Resources - could inform ICIMOD of the goings-on and may be also collaborate together – as ICIMOD already has some experience in inventorying glacial lakes in the region.
- It was felt that the culture of data sharing has quite a way to go in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan region. It was suggested that access to data should be provided to all in the region and beyond in order to accelerate the progress of science for the benefits of humanity. For instance, ICIMOD makes data available through its GeoPortal. Perhaps the countries of the region should have a clear and more generous policy toward provision of satellite images to aid with disaster preparedness (not just in post disaster situations) as well as climate change adaptation.
- Ø There was a call for communicating the (cryospheric) research findings to the world-at-large in layman's terms, including their implications on the livelihoods of mountain inhabitants and those living downstream, especially in the context of climate change adaptation.
Thematic Sessions: Spatial/Disaster and Cryospere/snow
Today’s afternoon programme saw the two first technical sessions of the International Symposium on Benefiting from Earth Observation. The first theme was Space-based Information for Disaster Management. While most of the speakers presented opportunities of space-based information for disasters caused by fires, floods, GLOFs and earth quakes, a common theme of the session was on communicating these opportunities to policy- and decision-makers. The interface between the communities and the experts, as well as the politicians and the specified data would have another important benefit. To contribute to disaster prevention and preparedness. Institutions such as UN-Spider and SERVIR are already readily providing disaster-related data. However, only ten countries are signatories to the International Charter on and still most countries are lacking the capacity to actually activate the charter. The policy support and the condensing of information therefore – next to the gathering and analysis of it – becomes a key area for involvement.The second Thematic Session dealt with the Remoting Sensing of Cryosphere and focused on the issues of snow cover mapping and modeling. Much of the papers presented focused on the improvement of accuracy of the predominant MODIS snow cover algorithm. Several factors, such as mountain shadows, (ice) clouds, and the snow albedo effect in particular in higher altitudes, have been reducing the accuracy of conventional algorithms. A second session dedicated to the cryosphere is planned for tomorrow morning and will focus on glacier mapping and monitoring.
Inauguration of Earth Symposium 2010 a full success
The inauguration event brought together dignitaries from the Governments of Nepal and India, the Group on Earth Observation, USAID, researchers and scientists from the region and abroad, policy-makers.
In its introduction Andreas Schild, Director-General of ICIMOD, expressed his anticipation of the event. Describing ICIMOD’s mandate he emphasized the role of ICIMOD’s contribution in three crucial ways: by focusing on the mountain perspective, catering to niches ignored by other players and cater to the needs of the various stakeholders around the Hindu Kush-Himalaya region. While acknowledging the rising impact and responsibility ICIMOD is carrying, also with the inauguration of SERVIR Himalaya he encouraged the participants: “We cannot play this role unless you are helping us – do not limit yourselves in looking solely at the opportunities, but identify the applications.”
The inaugural address was delivered by Rt. Honourable Subash Chandra Nembang, The Constituent Assembly Chairman, Government of Nepal. He emphasized the topicality of the issue. The government had been making conscious efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and in that context cooperated on a regional and international level. “Nepal is extremely vulnerable to both natural and human-induced climate change. As a developing country we are highly affected by changes in the monsoon patterns, the glaciers and our biodiversity. However, ICIMOD’s promotion of regional cooperation and international connections, for instance to NASA, will help improve our ability to take sound environmental decisions.”
Kevin Rushing, USAID, Nepal, addressed the distinguished audience: “We are improving our capacities and in strong need of your data, not only on what is happening, but also where it is happening. So many areas are affected, poverty, diseases, conflicts, biodiversity, food and security, access to natural resources, schools – if we know the locations, we can design our programs in such a meaningful way.”
Mr Michel Jarraud of the World Meteorological Organisation addressed the assembly through a video message and expressed his wish for increased cooperation with ICIMOD. The keynote speaker Prof. José Achache gave an overview over the international cooperation on geo-spatial data that has been so successful ever since the inception of GEOSS in 2007 and advocated the adherence to the GEO data sharing principles, at least amongst the ten GEO members.
Shri Jairam Ramesh, Minister of State for Environment and Forests, Government of India conveyed his enthusiastic message to build closer partnerships with Nepal and institutions like ICIMOD. In a rare event of a State Minister’s visit to Nepal his plea for cooperation was well-received by the audience.He announced the Indian government’s plan to start new satellites to observing climatic changes and forest cover changes. “We are setting up a new national institute of glaciology and are giving two fellowships to Nepali researchers under 35 years old.” He further alluded to future problems of water reduction and natural resources in forest areas. “We take our responsibilities very seriously. Although we did not cause global warming we want o be part of the solutions.” A first step is this year’s publication of the 2007 Climate Change inventory, as one of the first countries in the world.
Chairperson, Mr. Prasad Sharma, Minister of Environment, Nepal, closed the session by extending his congrats for the timely symposium, which is an “important milestone to synergize international benefits.” Basanta Shrestha, MENRIS Division Head, in his vote of thanks addressed all the speakers and reminded them of their common goal that had brought them together on that day, “to bring the benefits of Earth Observation to the mountain communities in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan region”. Mr. Shrestha further welcomed the presence of representatives from all eight member countries’ space agencies and closed the session with a special round of applause to the youngest members of the conference, who are taking part in a week-long workshop. “You will be ambassadors of what you learn here and we wish that the knowledge and awareness will affect your networks and your actions.”
India ready for regional cooperation
KATHMANDU: The Indian Minister for Environment and Forests Shri Jairam Ramesh urged enhanced regional cooperation to tackle environment issues, including climate change.Minister Ramesh is here on a three-day visit to discuss environment and conservation issues with the authorities of Nepal.
“The objective of my visit is to prepare better environment for bilateral and regional cooperation in the field of climate change and other trans-boundary issues on environment and conservation,” said Ramesh to media persons at an international symposium organised by International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD). More details...
“The objective of my visit is to prepare better environment for bilateral and regional cooperation in the field of climate change and other trans-boundary issues on environment and conservation,” said Ramesh to media persons at an international symposium organised by International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD). More details...
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