Back to news
8 May 2015 | News

ICIMOD maps earthquake-affected settlements to aid relief and recovery efforts

1 min Read

70% Complete

Responding to a request from the Ministry of Home Affairs, ICIMOD has deployed a task force made up of GIS and remote sensing experts to map clusters of settlements in earthquake-affected areas. These maps are being used to aid in the deployment of relief materials to affected areas in need of urgent relief.

The team, based out of the ICIMOD headquarters, is using remote sensing imagery on Google Earth to identify and mapping clusters of settlements in earthquake-affected areas. The maps produced are being shared with the National Emergency Operation Center (NEOC) within the Ministry of Home Affairs as they are completed.

The settlement maps are available for download as .kml files, which can be opened in Google Earth.

The polygons on the maps indicate clusters of buildings across different districts; however, they do not indicate the type of building or the density of settlements. Proper field verification of the settlements still needs to be carried out, but these maps can be used a preliminary indication of the location of settlements in remote, earthquake-affected areas.

The team of experts has identified settlement clusters for eight of the thirteen earthquake-affected districts as requested by the government – Dhading, Dolakha, Kavrepalanchowk, Gorkha, Nuwakot, Rasuwa, Sindupalchowk, and Lamjung.

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

4 May 2016 News
REDD+ Gorkha International TV coverage

At the request of Deutsche Welle (DW) television service, a team from ICIMOD and DW, travelled to Ludhi Khola watershed in Gorkha, ...

3 Jul 2017 Cryosphere
Building Capacity on Database Management in Bhutan

Namgyal was introduced to data, data types, data format, database structure, MODIS snow data, and database management. He also learned ...

21 Jun 2018 Geospatial solutions
First comprehensive report on glacial lakes in the Hindu Kush Himalaya released

Experts refer to the different types of glacial lakes based on dam type and the process by which the lake ...

26 Dec 2016 News
Poster Presentation at the AGU

[caption id="attachment_7734" align="aligncenter" width="560"] Gunjan Silwal all set for her poster presentation.[/caption] Gunjan Silwal, ...

19 Feb 2016 Gender in Koshi
What do youth have to do with women’s participation?

An age old question that plagues our society is: where are the women? In my recent field visit to Sinduli, ...

Emissions Study to Differentiate Characteristics of Paddy and Wheat Crop Residue Burning

Mehra collected wheat residue samples from the same districts, Kapilvastu and Rupendehi, where she had collected the paddy residue samples ...

14 Aug 2015 News
Glacier and glacial lakes database of Bhutan released

Dignitaries and scientists gathered for a workshop 14th August 2015 at ...

10 Aug 2017 News
Tripartite Consultation on Gilgit Baltistan Disaster Management Plan

Zaheer Uddin Babar, Deputy Director of GB-DMA, said that the existing plan was developed in 2008 with the help of ...