sagbajracharya@icimod.org
International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development
Kathmandu, Nepal

ICIMOD – an intergovernmental organisation with 8 member countries
• Vision: The mountain population of the greater Himalayas enjoys improved well-being in a sustainable global environment
• Mission: To enable and facilitate the equitable and sustainable well-being of the people of the Hindu Kush-Himalayas by supporting sustainable mountain development through active regional cooperation.
www.icimod.org

1.
Sustainable Livelihoods and Poverty Reduction
(SLPR)
2.
Adaptation to Environmental Change and
Ecosystem Services (ECES)
3. Integrated Water and Hazards
Management (IWHM)
IWHM Action areas:
• Monitoring and assessment of ice and water resources (including wetlands)
• Disaster Risk Reduction and community resilience
• Upstream-downstream benefit sharing and risk management
Establishment of a regional ice and water -related database

WATER TOWER OF SOUTH ASIA!
Sustaining over 2 b people in the River basins
Impacting on food and energy production of 3 b people

• The climatic information gathered, managed and analyzed helps decision-makers plan and adapt their activities and projects to expected conditions, which intern enables people to reduce risks and optimize socio-economic benefits.

Information and data sharing are key issues regarding to the gaps in the HKH region. The information on number, types, location etc of hydro-meteorological stations which have been in operational at different countries of the region is not available entirely. The information is hard to gather particularly if those stations are not in operational network of WMO. Hence, development of modality and regional platform for sharing of information and data is very urgently needed.)

( Source: Arun Bhakta Shrestha)
This analysis suggests that the spatial data gaps increases with increasing altitude. In addition, largest area in HKH region is occupied by 4000 m or higher altitudes. This will further make worse spatial representation of weather by observation at most of
HKH region and strongly supports the AR4 which stated that the
Himalayan region is a white spot in terms of meteorological data coverage.

• Sentinel Asia led by the Asia-
Pacific Regional Space Agency
Forum to support disaster management activity
• JAXA WINDS Communication receiving station launched in
ICIMOD
• Regional Server to access at
ICIMOD to use WEB-GIS technology and space based technology, such as earth observation satellites data

MODIS Terra Satellite Data Landsat (Before and After Crisis)
Sep 17, 2009 Aug 24, 2010
Regional and International Partners
( Source: Giriraj Amarnath)

After process in ICIMOD
Before process in ICIMOD

( Source: Pradeep Mool)
Within studied/mapped areas: >8000 glacial lakes mapped;
≈200 potentially dangerous glacial lakes identified

( Source: Pradeep Mool)

Establishment of a regional ice and water
-related database
Design and populate ICIMOD water, snow & ice and hazard database to share within the ICIMOD knowledge management framework http://www.ghwis.icimod.org:8081/wetlandsnew2/

http://geoportal.icimod.org/downloads/

Collaborative and complementary approach for long-term ecosystem monitoring;
Common regional protocol and methodology
Consistent timeseries information to understand and adapt to the impacts of climate change

SERVIR has been recognized by the Group on Earth
Observations as an early achiever of the GEO vision

SERVIR
Facility at NASA
SERVIR-Mesoamerica
SERVIR-Himalaya
SERVIR-Africa

SERVIR ~ to serve
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;
SERVIR provides a model for capacity building of countries to use earth observations and geospatial information technologies thorough partnership and networking;
( Source: Basanta Shrestha)

Special observation systems ( Project) in the HKH region
A number of initiatives currently implemented in the region, which operate specialized observatories for monitoring hydro-meteorological parameters
• STORM Program
• Third Pole Environmental Program ( TPE)
• Finnish Nepalese Project
• Irrigation and Water Resources Management Project(IWRMP)
• DANIDA Program
• French Program
• ICIMOD Establishment of Regional Flood Information System
( HKH-HYCOS)
• The Water and Power Development Authority( WAPDA)
• Climate Tower
• Station at High Altitude for research on the Environment
(SHARE)
• GEWEX Asian Monsoon Experiment ( GAME) Tibet Project

• Data gaps exert major hindrance in the study climate change and impact, although those subject need more thorough investigation.
• Information and data sharing are key issues regarding to the gaps in the HKH region and there should development of modality and regional platform for sharing of information and data is very urgently needed among the neighboring countries.
• In HKH region the details of the climate normal, and their variability and trend are still poorly understood particularly over the mountainous area due to difficulties of establishing and maintaining the observation networks, problem associated with measurement of solid precipitation, representativeness of measured precipitation in windy condition etc.

• Inventory of rain gauge data available in the HKH region ,
Hydro-met Database Development and Current Status of
Rain gauge Station of entire HKH.
• Modified RFE product
• Inventory of Glaciers, Glacial lakes and GLOF in the
Himalaya .
• Inventory of Himalayan Wetland

Thank You for your
Attention and
Namaste!
GEOSS support for IPCC assessments
A workshop on the data needs of the climate impacts, adaptation and vulnerability research community
1 – 4 February 2011, Geneva
For more information see www.icimod.org