Stories

In a case illustrative of effective inter-agency collaboration and resource sharing, the flash flood in Panjshir Valley, north-central Afghanistan, on 12 July 2018 – which led to 10 people losing their lives – was investigated using satellite imagery and backed by on-site field appraisal.

Kabul University, the largest and oldest tertiary education institution in Afghanistan, inaugurated a new geographic information systems (GIS) and hydrology lab at its geosciences faculty premises on 11 March 2019.

Forest fires have adverse ecological and economic effects and are a major concern in many countries, including Nepal. During the long, dry summers, Nepal experiences many forest fires. In 2016, a record number of fires were reported killing 15 people and consuming an area of 13,000 square kilometers (1.3 hectares) in the span of just two weeks.

Afghanistan, a landlocked country characterized by rugged mountainous landscapes and scattered human settlements, is highly dependent on natural resources.

Understanding past and present glacier behavior and analyzing possible changes help us understand the impacts of climate change on water resources.

Forest biomass is the sum of the above ground living organic material contained in trees, which is expressed as dry weight per unit area. Forest carbon trading has gained attention in recent years, for which practical methods for estimating forest biomass as well as carbon stocks are vital...

Under ICIMOD’s SERVIR-Himalaya Small Grants Programme, the Centre for Environmental and Geographic Information Services (CEGIS) in Dhaka, Bangladesh, has developed a geospatial database and information system to identify potential water harvesting...

Across the Hindu Kush Himalayas, forest fires are devastating to local communities and ecosystems, and are a huge challenge for forest managers. The first challenge to stopping forest fires is getting accurate and timely information, including...

Over the years, the approach to natural disasters has changed from response and relief to risk reduction, with policy focusing more and more on building resilience and increasing preparedness among communities living in hazard prone areas...

The landslide early warning system developed by the BUET-JIDPUS will help authorities to reach out to these communities on time to alert and relocate them.

Disaster reporting in Nepal is still paper based, which is time consuming and information is often outdated before it can be disseminated. A digital system is needed to make planning easier for those working in disaster management.

The study of forest above-ground biomass (AGB) for estimating the carbon stock in each tree is important, as it is well established that the emission of carbon is the largest factor affecting today’s climate.

Bangladesh is one of the world's most vulnerable regions to floods, which kill and displace a huge number of people each year. Floods also destroy homes and damage agricultural land...

The Institute of Water Modeling (IWM) in Bangladesh has developed a cost-effective information system that provides 8-day flood forecasting. The system provides near real-time information through web GIS with local-level flood forecast maps for flood events...

The integration of earth observation and geospatial information for timely and reliable data has become critical for monitoring food security and vulnerabilities associated with disasters and climate change...

The community-based forest fire information system complements the efforts of ICIMOD to provide timely information about forest fire incidents in Nepal to relevant officials in the forestry sector. ICIMOD’s current forest fire Information system uses data collected...

The results of the project were discussed with stakeholders from Nepal’s Ministry of Agricultural Development and Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation, research institutes, non-governmental organizations, and farmers’ representatives...

The project ‘Engaging Local Citizens to Map Environmental, Agriculture and Food Security Data’ explores the use of free and open infrastructure of OpenStreetMap (OSM) to map data related to environment, agriculture, and food security...

Forest fires are a major challenge in Nepal, where large patches of forest are lost each year as a result of fire incidents. In recent years, the number of forest fire incidents has risen, further contributing to the destruction and degradation...