Interdisciplinary Monitoring, Data, and Capacity Sharing Across the Hindu Kush Himalaya

Agenda

This event is one of a series of engagements that GEO Mountains is undertaking during 2023 under the Adaptation at Altitude Programme. The primary aim of the workshop, is to provide a platform to bring together data providers and data users from a range of disciplines related to climate change and its impacts on environmental, ecological, and social systems across the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region with a view to ultimately informing effective climate change adaptation solutions.

The aims of the workshops are to:

1. Explore prospects for supporting ongoing efforts towards the establishment of a regional network (or sub-regional networks) of “Mountain Observatories” (MOs) which are multi-disciplinary and multi-method hubs, super-sites, or data rich regions at or across which long-term monitoring is conducted and training activities / student research projects are focused (Shahgedanova et al., 2021), with the resultant observations ideally being shared with the wider community;
2. Establish stronger links, understanding, and exchange of data and capacities between the research community and national hydrometeorological (and other environmental monitoring) agencies;
3. Identify opportunities to combine, integrate, or otherwise exploit existing datasets to address key outstanding scientific, practical, or policy-related issues via joint projects, especially related to the incorporation of socio-economic data.

The workshop will take a mixed format, with short invited presentations interspersed with ample opportunity for open discussion, likely in small groups depending upon the eventual number of participants. The workshop will seek to develop a comprehensive overview of what currently exists by way of cross-disciplinary in situ monitoring, which could eventually feed into refining GEO Mountains’ In Situ Inventory. On the basis of this, key gaps (spatial and/or disciplinary) can be identified. It is also indended to seek opportunities for embedding students and Early Career Researchers (ECRs), especially those affiliated with the Himalayan University Consortium, into ongoing monitoring activities, as well as sharing capacities, equipment, and data between sites. The potential to increase the standardisation of protocols and instrumentation for certain types of measurements across multiple sites may also form a topic of discussion.

Expected participants include scientists and practitioners working on in situ monitoring (across multiple disciplines), remote sensing, climate modelling / reanalysis topics (e.g. downscaling and bias correction), climate change impacts modelling (e.g. on hydrology, the cryosphere, and biosphere), climate-related natural hazard and risk quantification, citizen science (across various disciplines), and societal / economic data in both research and operational contexts. If possible, some individuals responsible for the implementation of mitigation / adaptation measures and other decision-makers will also be invited. This broad list reflects the cross-disciplinary / integrated and “multi-method” remit of GEO Mountains.

The event will be held in English, and will be free of charge. The number of places is limited. In-person registrations are closed, but you can still register for online participation until Wednesday, 1 November.

The flyer of the workshop can be downloaded here.