MENRIS has developed Mountain-focussed GIS training for applications associated with issues of mountain environment and natural resources. During 1995, MENRIS conducted training courses on GIS technology at different levels in the Regional Member Countries (RMCs) of ICIMOD.
The second cycle of GIS Professional Level Training for the Pakistan node was conducted in March - April 1995 at the Pakistan Forestry Institute (PFI), Pakistan. Eleven professionals participated in this training programme. They were - Dr. Syed Hamudullah from the National Centre of Excellence in Geology, Dr. Badshah Khan from the Physics Department of Peshawar University, Mr. Mohammad Zafar from the Sindh Forest Department, Mr. Aamir Zeb Khan from the Forest Management Centre, Mr. Syed Mustafa Shah Naqvi from the Secretariat of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Northern Resource Management Project, Mr. Syed Maqbool Hussain Shah from the Forest Land Use Planning Office, Mr. Arshad Ashraf from the Water Resources’ Research Institute, NARC, Mr. P.M. Moshabbir from the Water Resources’ Research Institute, NARC, Dr. Mohammad Jamal Khan from the Department of Water Management, Dr. M. Asif Khan from the National Centre of Excellence in Geology of Peshawar University, and Mr. Taj Mohammad Khan from the Soil Survey of Pakistan, Zaryab Colony.
The four-week first cycle of GIS Professional Level Training for the Bhutan node was held by MENRIS at UNEP/EAP - AP, AIT, Bangkok from September 11 to October 7, 1995.
Altogether eight officials of the Bhutanese Government participated in this training programme. They were: Mr. Nedup Tshering from the Ministry of the Environment, Mr. Dukpa Dorji from the Ministry of Land Record and Survey, Mr. D.K. Pradhan from the Ministry of Education, Ms. Kinga Deki from the Ministry of Forests, Ms. Dechen Wangmo from the Ministry of Land Record and Survey, Mr. Thinlay Dorji from the Ministry of Communications, and Mr. Sonam Penjore from the Ministry of Agriculture.
The Central Department of Geography of Tribhuvan University (CeDeGe/TU), Nepal, is designated as the focal node to disseminate GIS technology through training programmes to nodal institutions in Nepal. Its GIS facility was established with the joint assistance of ADB, UNEP/EAP-AP, and ICIMOD. Besides providing GIS training courses for Nepal’s nodal agencies, the GIS centre also imparts education for the post-graduate students of the University.
In 1994 (June 27 - July 29), the CeDeGE/ TU conducted its first training course on GIS Applications for Natural Resource Management for the Nepal node. Similarly, the CeDeGe/TU conducted the second training course from February 6 to March 5, 1995.
Recently, from August 21 to Sept. 22, the CeDeGe/TU conducted its third national level GIS training course for the Nepal node. Sixteen professionals from various institutions participated in this professional level training course.
The sixteen professionals were: Mr. Bhusan Pradhan, from the Biratnagar Milk Supply Scheme, Mr. Rajesh Raj Shrestha from the Research and Study Centre, Mr. Kishore Raj Panta from the Dept. Of Irrigation, Mr. Sharas Pd. Joshi, from the Institutional Support Programme, Mr. Ken Bauer, from the WWF Nepal Programme, Mr. Pradyumna Lal Pradhan from the Medium Hydroelectric Project, Mr. Ghanshyam Raj Acharya from the Dept. of Civil Aviation, Dr.
Danda Pani Adhikari from the Dept. Of Geology/T.C. Campus, Mr. Tej Kumar Karki from the Kathmandu Valley Town Dev. Planning, Mr. Bikash Pradhan from Plan International/Nepal, Lal Mai Gurung from Plan International, Mr. Lok Bdr. Kunwar from the Soil Science Division/NARC, Mr. Devendra Gauchan from the Outreach
Research Division/NARC, Mr. Prakash Man Shrestha from the Dept. of Irrigation, Mr. Mukunda P. Joshi from Tri-Chandra Campus, and Mrs. Shoba Shrestha from CeDeGe /TU.
The second cycle of GIS Professional Level Training was conducted at the G.B. Pant Institute, Almora, from 6 to 25 November, 1995. Eleven professionals from different organisations in India participated in this training programme.
The eleven professionals were: from Kumaon University - Dr. P.C. Tiwari and Dr. G.L. Shah; from the University of
Horticulture and Forestry at Solan - Dr. N.K. Gupta and Dr. Sudhir Mahajan; from the Government College of Sikkim - Dr. P. Saha; from IDRC-ICFRE - Dr. K.P. Singh; and from the G.B. Pant Institute of Himalayan Environment & Development - Dr. J.C. Kuniyal, Dr. V. Joshi, Dr. G. Satyal, Dr. Mukesh Joshi, and Dr. B. Bisht.
The Pakistan Forest Institute (PFI) conducted a GIS training course for professionals in collaboration with MENRIS/ICIMOD from October 29 to November 16, 1995.
MENRIS provided a resource person/ instructor for this training programme. Twelve professionals from different
organisations in Pakistan had participated in this training programme. They are: from Malakand Fruit & Vegetable Development Project - Mr. Muhammad Riaz and Mr. Sohail Ahmad; from the PATA Project -
Mr. Sohal Zaki, Mr. Sami Ullah, Mr. Mohammad Sami Ullah, and Mrs. Marijke Van Blom; from the Department of
Geology/University of Peshawar - Dr. S, Shafiqur Rehman; from the Agriculture & Animal Husbandry Secretariat - Mr. Mushtaq Hussain Pirzada; from the Forest Development Corporation, Swat - Mr. Moshin Farooque; from the Department of Archaeology/ University of Peshawar - Mr. Waqar Ahmad; from the Forest Development corporation of NWFP - Mr. Gohar Rahman Marwat; and from the IUCN, SPCS Unit Planning, Environment &
Development Department - Mr. Mohammad Sajjad.
The Pakistan Forest Institute (PFI) in Peshawar is MENRIS’ focal node in Pakistan to disseminate GIS technology in the mountainous area of the country. The GIS facility was established in 1994 with the joint assistance of GTZ, UNEP, and ICIMOD. Similar to Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu, the PFI provides GIS training courses for other organisations.
Recently, from October 29 to November 16, 1995, PFI conducted its first national-level GIS training course for the Pakistan node with the assistance of ICIMOD/MENRIS. Twelve professionals from various institutions participated.
The participants were: Mr. Muhammad Riaz and Mr. Sohail Ahmad, from the Malakand Fruit & Vegetable Development Project; Mr. Sohail Zaki, Mr. Sami Ullah, Mr. Mohammad Sami Ullah, and Mrs. Marijke van Blom, from
the PATA Project in Swat; Dr. S. Shafiqur Rehman from the Department of Geology, University of Peshawar; Mr.
Mushtaq Hussain Pirzada from the Agriculture & Animal Husbandry Secretariat, Muzaffarabad; Mr. Mohsin
Farooque from the Forest Development Corporation Swat; Mr. Waqar Ahmad from the Department of Archaeology,
University of Peshawar; Mr. Gohar Rahman Marwat from the Forest Development Corporation of NWFP; and
Mr. Mohammad Sajjad from IUCN, Peshawar.
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 for 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 Dobremez. The population-related, socioeconomic 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.
MENRIS/ICIMOD is conducting a collaborative case study with the Rural Development through Self-Help Promotion (RDSP) Lamjung Project in Nepal. The district information system, based on ARC/INFO software, covers data on natural resources and socioeconomic data of 61 Village Development Committees and more than 1,100 settlements. The assessment of settlement locations is still being carried out using several sources and tools, topographical maps, aerial photos, and intensive field studies along with the Global Positioning System (GPS). The analysis of recent land cover has commenced using three satellite images (Landsat TM); viz., of December 1991 and February and May 1994. ILWIS and ERDAS software are being applied for this study.
Several case studies have been completed so far: (1) agroclimatic zonation based on temperature and moisture regimes in the district, taking into account data from meteorological stations and elevation; (2) land-use changes from 1960 to 1979 using topographical maps from the 1960s and land utilisation maps published in 1986; (3) horticultural development, considering tropical, citrus, and temperate fruits, (4) potato production and seasonality of particular areas, and (5) development of accessibility to road infrastructure in relation to population over one decade from 1990 to 2000. Road infrastructure refers to fair-weather roads which cannot be used during the monsoon season from June to September. A model was developed for this study taking into account the topography, major rivers and bridges, and the walking distance per hour. The distribution of population was calculated according to areas of VDCs and the size and location of agricultural land. Population figures are based on the 1991 Census only since there is hardly an increase in total district figures since the 1981 Census. Due to heavy construction of local roads during the last five years, accessibility has improved tremendously, and this trend will go on considering the future plans for road building in the district (Map; Table).
Table 1
Population of Lamjung District Relative to Accessibility to Road Infrastructure in 1990, 1995, and 2000
Per cent of Population in | |||
---|---|---|---|
Walking time to roads (hours) | 1990 | 1995 | 2000 |
< 1 | 17.7 | 27.5 | 35.7 |
1 - 2 | 13.1 | 18.7 | 20.9 |
2 - 4 | 26.5 | 29.1 | 26.6 |
4 - 7 | 33.0 | 18.0 | 14.7 |
7 - 10 | 8.6 | 6.2 | 2.1 |
10 - 14 | 1.1 | 0.5 | 0.0 |
A project for preparation of a Climatic Atlas of Nepal has been carried out by ICIMOD. The Atlas mainly deals with the climatic features of Nepal although some hydrological features are also presented. The Atlas project was initiated by the Mountain Natural Resources’ (MNR) Division of ICIMOD in active collaboration with MENRIS for digital data processing and map outputs for publication.
This project is carried out with financial support from the Government of Japan for Landslide Hazard Management and Control.
ARC/INFO and SURFER for Windows software have been used to prepare
the maps. The Atlas is being prepared with the active cooperation of the Department of Hydrology and Metereology of His Majesty’s Government of Nepal and Tribhuvan
University (TU). There are 102 climatic and hydrological maps in the Atlas which is now being processed for publication.
In 1995, MENRIS/ICIMOD carried out extensive capacity building and institutional strengthening programmes in the RMCs. In this respect, various nodal agencies were equipped with compatible hardware and software and GIS training courses conducted.
The nodal agencies are collaborating with ICIMOD in the promotion of environmentally-sound mountain development and the exchange of a public domain database, professional scientific knowledge, and expertise on regional as well as international scales.
MENRIS has installed GIS equipment at various nodal agencies in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Myanmar, China, and Pakistan. MENRIS staff members travelled extensively in the region to establish networks with various institutions engaged in environmental and natural resource management.
MENRIS/ICIMOD, with the cooperation of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), is undertaking a GIS/RS assisted analysis of the Mid-Western Development Region of Nepal over the next couple of years.
The Mid-Western Region covers an area of about 42,400sq.km., consists of 15 districts, and is populated by approximately 2.41 million people. The scope of the project is to support two development projects in this region, the Environment and Forest Enterprise Project (EFEP) and the Market Access for Rural Development Project (MARD), which are being implemented by the Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation and USAID.
A digital database will be prepared based on secondary data, including information
on land use, land systems, road and trail networks, and administrative boundaries.
The GIS analysis will focus on crop production, marketing of crops, e.g., distance analysis to markets and roadheads, and on forest utilisation by communities. Additionally, aerial photos of selected districts will be used for monitoring the extent of community forests. Comparative analysis of the forest vegetation of particular areas will be assessed using satellite imagery (Landsat TM, SPOT). The Global
Positioning System (GPS) will be explored for field validation of community forest areas and the preparation of community forest maps.
In November 1995, Prof. Pei Shengji, Head of ICIMOD’s Mountain Natural Resources’ Division, Mr. Pramod Pradhan, Head, MENRIS, and Mr. Hubert Trapp, GIS Specialist, participated in a three-day experts’ meeting on biodiversity information systems in Nepal conducted by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) and the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation. The meeting focussed on habitat classification systems and on approaches to developing biodiversity information systems and exchanging information to avoid duplication of efforts. Fifteen government institutions, NGOs, INGOs, and private companies participated in the meeting. IUCN, the Forest Resources’ Information System Project (FRISP) Nepal, The Mountain Institute (TMI), World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the King Mahendra Trust for Nature Conservation (KMTNC), and MENRIS/ICIMOD presented the information systems and data banks at their facilities.
A three-week training course on Desktop Cartography was held in Kathmandu from October 30 to 17 November, 1995. The training was jointly organised by the ITC of The Netherlands and Tribhuvan University, Nepal. The main objective of the training was to recharge the ITC alumni with recent GIS and Cartography-related tools to enhance professional productivity among its alumni.
Altogether 20 ITC alumni from the region and beyond participated in the training. The training was very successful in orienting the alumni in the application of Desktop Cartography. However, amongst a number of suggestions made to realise the effectiveness of such training, the availability of the system (both hardware and software) was emphasised.
A Policy-level Workshop and the concluding session of the Professional Level Training course were held on 27th of April at PFI, Peshawar, in Pakistan. Mr. Egbert Pelinck, Director General of ICIMOD, Mr. Pramod Pradhan, Head of MENRIS, and Basanta Shrestha, Systems’ Specialist, were present during the workshop. The workshop was opened by Dr. K.M. Siddique, Director General of PFI, who delivered the opening speech. The Director General of ICIMOD handed over the certificates to participants and delivered an address to the Policy-level Workshop. Altogether there were 72 participants. The workshop was quite successful in terms of delivering GIS technology as a tool for the decision-making process and it was felt that a complementary approach and information sharing among the institutions were of vital importance for implementing a GIS. Many institutions sought ICIMOD’s assistance for establishing and implementing GIS technology.
In September 1995, the 4th Annual ESRI South Asia Users’ Conference was held in Singapore. Mr. Pramod Pradhan, Head of MENRIS, and Mr. Basanta Shrestha, Systems’ Specialist, attended and jointly presented a paper on 'Implementing GIS in Mountain Regions - An Experience from the Hindu Kush-Himalayan (HKH) Region'. The paper focussed on and gave an overview of MENRIS activities in the dissemination and utilisation of GIS and Remote Sensing technology to promote the development of an economically and environmentally sound mountain ecosystem.
The conference mostly focussed on sharing users’ experiences in GIS technology and applications through papers, posters, presentations, and discussions.
The German Foundation for International Development (DSE), in cooperation with FAO, conducted a four- week training/workshop on Application of Remote Sensing and GIS in Managing Tropical Forests and Conserving Natural Resources in Southeast Asia in Samarinda/East Kalimantan of the Republic of Indonesia from September 4 to October 4, 1995.
On behalf of MENRIS/ICIMOD, GIS Programme Analyst, Mr. Sushil Pradhan, attended this workshop and presented a paper on the Implementation of Remote Sensing (RS) and GIS Technology in the Hindu-Kush Himalayan (HKH) Region, giving an overview of ongoing activities on Remote Sensing and GIS activities in environmental and natural resources’ management in the HKH Region.
The general objective of this workshop was to improve and impart the latest knowledge in the use of Remote Sensing techniques (air-borne and space-borne) and GIS for collection and analysis of spatial data and map production. The workshop mainly focussed on digital image processing/enhancement, image rectification, and classification of satellite imagery data. Altogether, 18 participants from nine Southeast Asian countries - Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, and Thailand - participated in this workshop.
The Second Asia Regional GlobeSAR conference was held in Beijing, the Peoples’ Republic of China, from 9 to 12 October, 1995. It was jointly organised by the Canadian Centre for Remote Sensing (CCRS), the Institute of Remote Sensing Applications (IRSA), and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The Nepalese team included Mr. Pradeep K. Mool of MENRIS/ICIMOD, Mr. Krishna Poudel of CeDeGe/TU, and Mr. Samjwal R. Bajracharya of the Department of Geology/Tri-Chandra Campus/TU. More than one hundred participants from 17 countries of Asia and the Pacific, including the organisers, participated in the workshop. A country paper on Remote Sensing Activities in Different Organisations of Nepal was presented by the Nepalese Team. The paper mainly focussed on the possibilities of the application of SAR data for flood monitoring, including GLOF, river channel monitoring, forest monitoring, and geological structure identification.
A one-week workshop on NOAA AVHRR Data Handling was held at UNEP/EAP-AP, AIT, Bangkok, from 16 to 20 October, 1995. The workshop was coordinated by Mr. Chandra Giri of UNEP/EAP-AP.
Remote Sensing Analyst, Mr. Pradeep K. Mool, attended this workshop on
behalf of MENRIS. The workshop focussed on the information from the NOAA Satellite, AVHRR data, processing of digital data, and land cover classification. The NOAA data emphasised the AVHRR (Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer) due to the nature of synoptic coverage and low data volume, high radiometric resolution (10 bit), relative low cost, and high possibilities of cloud free data.
Postal Address:
INTERNATIONAL CENTRE FOR INTEGRATED MOUNTAIN DEVELOPMENT
MOUNTAIN ENVIRONMENT AND NATURAL RESOURCES' INFORMATION SERVICES (MENRIS)
P.O. BOX 3226
KATHMANDU, NEPAL
TEL.: 977 1 525313
FAX: 977 1 524509, 524317