Back to news
23 Sep 2015 | News

Upper Indus Basin Network Meeting

2 mins Read

70% Complete

ICIMOD and its partner organisations of the Upper Indus Basin (UIB) Network — Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD), Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA), WWF-Gilgit Baltistan, FOCUS — came together for a meeting in Islamabad, Pakistan on 26 July 2015. The meeting was organised to report on progress made since November 2014 by the six technical working groups, and to discuss future network strategies. The UIB Network is a collaborative of organisations working in the region to improve present and future water availability, demand, and hazards, and to provide solutions for all with concerned with water usage.

Six thematic working group presented progress on: data collection; quality and sharing; climate variability and trends; cryosphere monitoring and modelling; hydrology; water availability and demand-basin scale; hazards and risks; adaptation strategies at the local-level water use; and management and socioeconomic factors.

During the general discussion, the group was updated on current partnership progress. ICIMOD and Future Water are working on improving the Spatial Processes in Hydrology (SPHY) model interface and plan to organise a second training in December 2015. Similarly, a joint study on migration and ecosystem based adaptation is being conducted by WWF and ICIMOD. Similarly, ICIMOD is conducting a joint study on migration, ecosystem based adaptation, and Payment Ecosystem Services (PES) with WWF. An irrigation, water conservation and hazard management study is being jointly conducted with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). FOCUS and ICIMOD will be installing early warning system to reduce the vulnerability of local communicates to glacial lake outburst floods (GLOF). As many ICIMOD partners are working in Gilgit Baltistan (GB), an inventory of the projects should be prepared and shared with policy makers that will help UIB Network to get new projects.

A separate strategic committee meeting was held concerning how to incorporate new members into the UIB Network and how to develop and share separate work plans from different institutions with the group. Other issues covered were the need for a data sharing policy, and the desire to approach relevant universities for wider dissemination of knowledge and sharing. A follow up workshop was agreed upon in late September during the Karakoram International University workshop in Gilgit.

In closing, the partners suggested that more institutions should be included in the UIB network. Separate meetings should be organized for each working group, detailed Terms of Reference (ToR) and action plan for each working group should be prepared. The members discussed that there should be uniformity in data collection, site selection, installation of equipment and identifying critical glaciers.

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

2 Jan 2015 News
Promoting regional efforts to reduce flood vulnerabilities

This final SRC meeting of the current phase was held from 22 to 24 September 2014 at the ...

24 Oct 2016 News
Monsoon Discharge Measurements of Langtang Khola and Lirung Outlet

To catch the highest discharge of Langtang Khola and Lirung outlet, a team of glacio-hydrologists from the International Centre for ...

14 Jul 2015 News
SERVIR-Himalaya project outcome promises impact in the field

Under its SERVIR-Himalaya Initiative, the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) has supported 14 research grants and small scale application ...

12 Jun 2017 News
Godavari Knowledge Park Virtual Tour Application Launched

The Godavari Knowledge Park virtual tour has been designed to share knowledge demonstrated at the park with a large mass ...

11 Oct 2015 News
Translating Koshi Basin Programme research into actionable policies

  Discussions on the preliminary findings of a recent socio-economic survey conducted on 1,600 households in 11 districts around the Koshi ...

3 May 2016 HKPL
Rangeland Resources Assessment Protocol for HKPL

ICIMOD met partners from China, Pakistan and Tajikistan in Kathmandu, Nepal on 28-29 April 2016 to discuss and finalize the ...

8 Apr 2016 News
Himalayan Monitoring And Assessment Programme (HIMAP) Gathers Momentum

The Comprehensive Assessment of the HKH Region: Actions to Sustain a Global Asset, conducted as part of the larger Hindu ...

15 Apr 2015 News
Mobilizing early response for combating forest fire

The SERVIR-Himalaya Initiative of ICIMOD, in collaboration with theDepartment of Forests (DoF) of Nepal, carried out field level awareness campaign in ...