Back to news
12 Jul 2019 | Regional Database System

Bhutan’s first training on Google Earth Engine

2 mins Read

70% Complete
ICIMOD’s Sudip Pradhan, Programme Coordinator for the Regional Database System (RDS) Initiative, delivered a training on the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform in Bhutan. The National Center for Hydrology and Meteorology (NCHM) in Bhutan hosted the training and facilitated the participation of professionals from various government agencies in Bhutan. (Photo: NCHM)

The Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform is increasingly finding acceptance across academic, business, non-profit, and government users for scientific analysis and visualization of geospatial datasets in the region. Accordingly, ICIMOD supported the National Center for Hydrology and Meteorology (NCHM), Royal Government of Bhutan, in organizing Bhutan’s first GEE training in June 2019. The five-day training involved 20 professionals from various government agencies in the country.

ICIMOD – under its SERVIR Hindu Kush Himalaya (SERVIR-HKH) Initiative – conducted the first training on the GEE platform in Nepal (more trainings have followed) in collaboration with the GEE outreach team. Trainings have also been conducted in Bangladesh. The GEE platform stores, organizes, and provides access to a wide variety of satellite imageries and geospatial datasets and offers global-scale environmental data analysis capabilities. In addition to the tools and cloud computational powers necessary to analyse large datasets, the platform offers application programme interfaces (APIs) in JavaScript and Python. Acknowledging the platform’s high-performance computing environment for processing large datasets and quick turn-around of analysis, the NCHM reached out to ICIMOD to collaborate on organizing a training workshop on GEE in Bhutan.

The training in Bhutan provided an overview of the GEE platform and multiple datasets hosted on the platform. It included hands-on exercises on GEE JavaScript API for viewing, processing, and analysing Earth observation and geospatial datasets. The training also showcased different science applications such as the resource accounting tool and wheat mapping application being developed at ICIMOD that make use of the platform’s scalable cloud computing architecture and suite of datasets.

ICIMOD’s Sudip Pradhan, Programme Coordinator, Regional Database System (RDS) Initiative, delivered the training. Besides staff from the NCHM, professionals from the Department of Forests and Park Services of Bhutan (DoFPS), Department of Geology and Mines (DGM), Department of Hydropower and Power Systems (DHPS), National Land Commission Secretariat (NLCS), and Ugyen Wangchuck Institute for Conservation and Environmental Research (UWICER) attended the workshop.

ICIMOD’s longstanding relationship with the NCHM led to the successful organization of the workshop as a collaboration between the NCHM and ICIMOD’s RDS Initiative. Part of ICIMOD’s Regional Programme on Mountain Environment Regional Information System (MENRIS), the Initiative manages the institution’s regional database system – a central data repository for different thematic areas in the Hindu Kush Himalayan region.

What is GEE?

Google Earth Engine (GEE) can be used for large and small-scale scientific analysis and visualization of geospatial datasets. It is widely used by researchers, non-profit organizations, educators, and governmental agencies to analyse large-scale geospatial data and is available free of cost for non-commercial users by signing up here.

Participants use GEE's Code Editor 2
1. ICIMOD’s Sudip Pradhan, Programme Coordinator for the Regional Database System (RDS) Initiative, delivered a training on the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform in Bhutan. The National Center for Hydrology and Meteorology (NCHM) in Bhutan hosted the training and facilitated the participation of professionals from various government agencies in Bhutan. (Photo: NCHM) 2. Participants use GEE's Code Editor to perform geospatial tasks. (Photo: Sudip Pradhan/ICIMOD)

Stay current

Stay up to date on what’s happening around the HKH with our most recent publications and find out how you can help by subscribing to our mailing list.

Sign Up

RELATED CONTENTS

Continue exploring this topic

14 Jun 2016 Water and air
Spring Management in Darchula

At daybreak, the villagers, mostly women and children, come out carrying containers of different shapes and sizes. They walk to ...

24 May 2017 Himalica
Himalica Action Research – The Journey: From Disaster to Preparedness

Women from migrant-sending households are increasingly responsible for managing disaster risks as well as household resources. Raising their awareness, improving ...

Kidney Beans Improve Income and Nutrition in Kailash Sacred Landscape

  ICIMOD’s Kailash Sacred Landscape Conservation and Development Initiative (KSLCDI), in partnership with the Central Himalayan Environment Association (CHEA), has identified ...

14 Dec 2015 Atmosphere Initiative
Motivating Journalists on Atmospheric Issues

  Twenty eight highly motivated journalists from eight countries of the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region —Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, ...

31 Jul 2017 Himalica
Smarter Cardamom Farming Using SMS Advisories

Presently, more than 200 cardamom farmers subscribe to the service. Almost every day, they receive SMS advisories in the Nepali ...

26 May 2015 News
Indian farmers meet local entrepreneurs in Dadeldhura

ICIMOD and the Central Himalayan Environmental Association (CHEA) organized a five-day visit for the farmers/ beekeepers and the staff of partner organization ...

1 May 2019 CryoHub
More research needed to understand the impact of cryosphere changes on mountain communities in the HKH

The review brings the much needed discussion on cryosphere services and their importance to the spotlight. The high-mountain societies that ...

13 Sep 2019 Cryosphere
Towards data-driven hydropower development in Nepal

Countries in the Hindu Kush Himalayan region have been endowed with immense hydropower generation potential, but the changing climate and ...