1:250K Database for Nepal

The Hindu Kush-Himalayan (HKH) Region presents a formidable range of both ecological and developmental problems that have both physical as well as socioeconomic dimensions. Within this vast region, severe problems such as deforestation, land degradation, flooding and drought, and environmental degradation, as well as poor health and educational conditions present impediments to economic growth. An integrated approach to solving the problems needs a strong database. Advances in satellite image processing and computer analysis have made it possible to evolve a realistic, accurate, and uniform database.

Accordingly, MENRIS is in the process of building national level databases of the Regional Member Countries (RMCs) of ICIMOD on various scales, integrating spatial and non-spatial databases. During the first quarter of 1995, MENRIS established the Nepal database on a scale of 1:250,000. For establishment of the Nepal database, secondary sources of information were used. The infrastructures, i.e., international boundaries, district boundaries, roads, rivers, settlements, national parks, spot heights, and the contour lines at 500m intervals, are extracted from the topographical zonal maps of the Topographical Survey Branch of the Department of Survey, HMG. The ecological zones were extracted from the maps published by the Dobremez. The population-related, socio-economic characteristics of population and production-related data were extracted from publications of the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Ministry of Education, and Ministry of Health. These data were later integrated into GIS coverages and various thematic maps created at district level.

The details of the datasets are available upon request.