Dissemination Workshop on SERVIR Science Application

Date 10 Aug 2015 to 14 Aug 2015
Venue Kabul, Afghanistan
Contact Persons Birendra Bajracharya
Type Training
Programmes MENRIS, Geospatial Solutions

The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) is a regional intergovernmental learning and knowledge sharing centre serving the eight regional member countries of the Hindu Kush Himalayas (HKH) – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan – and based in Kathmandu, Nepal. Globalization and climate change have an increasing influence on the stability of fragile mountain ecosystems and the livelihoods of mountain people. ICIMOD aims to assist mountain people to understand these changes, adapt to them, and make the most of new opportunities, while addressing upstream-downstream issues.

ICIMOD, through its Mountain Environment Regional Information System (MENRIS) regional programme, has implemented the SERVIR-Himalaya initiative since 2010 with support from USAID and NASA. The main objective of the SERVIR Himalaya initiative is to improve environmental decision making in the HKH region through integration of earth observation information into geospatial tools and applications. The applications make use of most recent technologies and (near real time) satellite information from NASA’s satellite missions and other remote sensing products. Within the framework of SERVIR-Himalaya, a number of science applications have been developed to promote access to high quality, user tailored tools and information services that are focused on thematic areas.

Disaster Risk Assessment and Decision Support System for DRR (10 August 2015)

A dissemination workshop on SERVIR Science Application ”Disaster Risk Assessment and Decision Support System for DRR” is being organized to present the application and on-line tools to the relevant stakeholders from Nepal. As Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) effort needs understanding of interplay between hazard and vulnerability of single and multiple disaster types, the system provides an online framework to assimilate data (hazard and vulnerability indicators) from myriad sources to understand the interplay. The workshop will focus on flood hazard as a proof of concept for demonstration, but framework remains fully scalable to multi-hazard cases and other geographical extent. The system is envisaged to empower planners and decision makers to mainstream DRR into planning through informed decisions.

Satellite based Agriculture Drought Monitoring System for Nepal (11 August 2015)

A dissemination workshop on SERVIR Science Application “Satellite based Agriculture Drought Monitoring System for Nepal” is being organized to present the application and on-line tools to the relevant stakeholders from Nepal. Satellite remote sensing has become an integral component of operational agricultural monitoring systems, enabling crop analysts to track development of growing season, and provide actionable information to decision makers for developing effective agricultural policies and timely response to food shortfalls. ICIMOD has collaborated with the Ministry of Agricultural Development (MoAD) and World Food Programme (WFP) Nepal in designing, validating and operationalizing a robust agriculture monitoring system in Nepal. The system is based on MODIS fortnightly satellite data and is developed for rice, wheat and maize crops over Terai region. In addition, different MODIS products will be highlighted during the workshop. 

An online Nepal Agriculture Atlas will also be demonstrated during the workshop which includes comprehensive field based district level agriculture records of last thirty years. The atlas provides spatially explicit on-line query and information retrieval tools.

Geospatial Applications for Forest Monitoring and Assessment (13-14 August 2015)

Under the SERVIR Himalaya initiative, a number of applications related to forest monitoring and assessment has been carried out. They are i) Decadal land cover change assessment and periodic forest cover monitoring system using Landsat satellite images; ii) national and sub-national level Above Ground Biomass (AGB) assessment using multi-sensor satellite images and ground information; and iii) Geospatial tools on forest climate change vulnerability and adaptation to support diverse groups of forest managers. ICIMOD is organizing a national dissemination workshop on 13-14 August, 2015 to demonstrate the methodologies and online tools on the above applications. This workshop will provide a platform to make aware the larger stakeholders on different methods and tools and get their feedback for further augmentation and operationalizing the systems.