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Dear Friends,
ICIMOD is pleased to announce the release of the following knowledge products.
These products are available online and can be accessed/downloaded from HIMALDOC. We hope that you find them useful and would be happy to receive your comments.
New datasets are available from our Regional Database System Portal.
Happy reading!
Best regards,
Shiva
Shiva Hari Khatri
Communication and Distribution Associate
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To promote socially responsible and improved labour management practices in the brick industry in general and among its member industries in particular, our Air Pollutions Solutions Initiative has supported the Federation of Nepal Brick Industries (FNBI) in preparing and adopting a Social Code of Conduct (COC) in accordance with the Government of Nepal’s Labour Act (2074), Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Directive for Brick Industry (2074), and The Act Relating to Children (2075). The COC seeks to ensure the protection of the rights of all workers through implementation of the aforementioned policies.
Nepali version of this document is available online at https://lib.icimod.org/record/35124
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Regional climate projections can inform detailed impact and adaptation assessments and planning, especially in vulnerable regions like South Asia. ICIMOD, the Met Office, the World Climate Research Programme, and the Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX) office organized a six-day training event on regional climate change projections over two weeks in October 2020. The event was supported by the UK-funded Asia Regional Resilience to a Changing Climate (ARRCC) supported the event. Twenty-five participants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan – including eight women – participated. Held over the MS Teams platform, the training covered aspects of climate change science and projections, including how to access and analyse CORDEX data sets.
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Bilateral collaboration between India and Myanmar received a boost with the signing of an MoU for cooperation on “Combating timber trafficking and conservation of tigers and other wildlife” in February 2020. As a transboundary conservation and development initiative implemented by ICIMOD and our partners in China, India, and Myanmar, HI-LIFE is looking to strengthen bilateral conservation efforts between India and Myanmar by promoting the exchange of knowledge and best practices from across the Hindu Kush Himalaya. During a virtual meeting focused on tiger conservation and monitoring, we sought to identify possible areas where HI-LIFE can support the implementation of a bilateral mechanism to conserve tiger populations in the two countries. Close cross-border collaboration – through enhanced communication and information sharing, consultation, coordinated action, and joint implementation of wildlife management plans – can advance the mission of tiger conservation in the far-eastern Himalaya.
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The Koshi Disaster Risk Reduction Knowledge Hub (KDKH) provides a platform for discussions around research, policy, and practice for improving disaster risk reduction and collaboration between upstream and downstream communities and institutions. Country consultations are important milestones in establishing an effective knowledge hub on DRR for the Koshi River basin, which is spread across parts of China, India, and Nepal. A country consultation for India was hosted by the Bihar State Disaster Management Authority in 2019.
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The first Hindu Kush Himalaya Science-Policy Forum was held from 13–14 November at the ICIMOD headquarters in Kathmandu, Nepal. With the theme ‘Actions to sustain a global asset’, the event – organized by the Ministry of Forests and Environment, Government of Nepal, and ICIMOD – brought together more than 125 participants from the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region and beyond. Representatives of think-tanks, senior experts, and high-level decision makers discussed the key findings of the Hindu Kush Himalaya Assessment, contributed to the ‘HKH Call to Action’, and charted a way forward for strengthening regional cooperation.
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The Hindu Kush Himalaya Assessment: Mountains, Climate Change, Sustainability and People is a first-of-its-kind comprehensive assessment report of the HKH region. It took more than five years in its making and involved over 350 scientists and researchers from 22 countries and 185 organizations within the region and beyond. The report was launched by ICIMOD representatives and the chapter authors. This post-launch regional editors’ meet brought together editors, senior journalists, and other members of the media working within the region to collectively deliberate on the role of journalism and the media in communicating key messages highlighted in the HKH Assessment. The meeting also served as a platform for the media to directly interact with the scientists, lead authors, and others who were involved in the preparation of the assessment report and the research that supported it.
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The Strengthening Water Resources Management in Afghanistan (SWaRMA) project (2018–2020) was implemented by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) and the Commonwealth Scientific and Research Organization (CSIRO), supported by the National Water Affairs Regulation Authority (NWARA) of the Government of Afghanistan and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) of the Government of Australia. The project aimed to strengthen water resources management in Afghanistan by generating technical and institutional knowledge, developing a roadmap for a water information system, and increasing network and platforms for the increased participation of Afghan stakeholders.
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The first general meeting of the Upper Indus Basin Network–Pakistan Chapter (UIBN–PC), formed in November 2018, was organized in Islamabad in January 2020. As membership to the UIBN–PC continues to expand, the meeting discussed ways in which an inclusive network might be nurtured and more organizations might be brought into the fold of its Technical Working Groups (TWGs). Also discussed was the need for regional collaboration and regional comparative studies to better understand and tackle issues like pollution, black carbon, and smog, and the climate change-induced socio-economic challenges facing the basin and its inhabitants.
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A two-day regional knowledge forum on early warning for floods and high-impact weather events organized in October 2019 brought together professionals and researchers from across the Hindu Kush Himalaya to discuss the challenges associated with the development, implementation, dissemination, and sustained use of information services for water and weather-induced disasters. Disasters often transcend country boundaries, and regional cooperation is essential to combating them.
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Our Resilient Mountain Solutions Initiative hosted its second partners’ workshop at the ICIMOD headquarters in Kathmandu in January 2020. The main objectives of the workshop were to share the key results of the deliberations that took place in 2019 with all the partners; develop an appropriate scaling, monitoring, and communication approach; design an action plan for 2020 by integrating gender and social inclusion into the agenda; and to validate the resilience markers. Everyone agreed that efforts should be made to improve linkages across borders using academia, researchers, entrepreneurs, and the media. The event was attended by 39 professionals from various partner organizations and related institutions from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Norway, and Pakistan.
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Originally planned as an in-person gathering, the Third Upper Indus Basin Network Regional Strategic Committee meeting was held virtually during the COVID-19 crisis. The committee members acknowledged the severe impacts of the pandemic and expressed their commitment to supporting ongoing work within the network and prioritizing science-based collaboration. They assessed the progress of various network country chapters, and shared recent updates on scientific findings relevant to the Upper Indus basin in the context of COVID-19.
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ICIMOD’s brick interventions have trained 140 workers (mostly women) and their spouses in financial literacy and occupational health and safety, encouraging couples to approach household management as a collaborative effort. This is the first time most of the workers are learning about financial management. This is expected to help these vulnerable families manage their limited financial resources and plan for uncertainties and ultimately strengthens women’s economic independence and social empowerment. This manual has been developed to help financial literacy training in the brick sector in Nepal. It comprehensively outlines various aspects of savings and costs in concise Nepali, including exercises and opportunities for self-stock taking. It is anticipated that accountants engaged at kilns will deliver the training on-site to workers across kilns in Nepal.
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Our trainings have been instrumental in the steady transition of Nepal’s brick sector to the cleaner zig-zag brick production technology. Such efforts have catalyzed technology transfer and also enabled social changes in the kilns by raising entrepreneur awareness of labour-related legal requirements. They have helped kiln owners understand that ethical labour management and cleaner production are not only necessary for their continued existence but can also be profitable and feasible provided some key changes are made to current practices. This formal document is a significant step towards integrating gender and social issues to improve the working and living conditions of brick workers, both women and men.
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This booklet has been published in the context of International Women's Day by including the exemplary efforts made by various organizations involved in the Far Western Development Region, Nepal for gender equality and inclusive development. This includes the efforts of the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development's Kailash Sacred Landscape Conservation and Development Initiative, Resilient Mountain Solutions, Air Pollution Solutions Initiative, WWF Nepal, Community Forest Users Federation Nepal, and Himawanti Nepal.
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The glaciers in Afghanistan were mapped using Landsat satellite images from 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2015. An object-based image analysis was used to delineate the boundaries of clean-ice and debris-covered glaciers, which were further validated against high-resolution satellite images from Google Earth. The glaciers equal to or larger than 0.02 sq. km were mapped with 97% accuracy. Shuttle Radar Topography Mission digital elevation model using ArcGIS software was used to determine area, aspect, slope, elevation, and hypsography for each glacier. The number of glaciers and the total area they occupy decreased between 1990 and 2010, as well as in 2015. The number of glaciers of the smallest class increased in some decades in some sub-basins because bigger glaciers shrank and fragmented. But for the most part, small glaciers, including thin perennial ice sheets, have disappeared in Afghanistan.
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The excessive use of coal for brick firing is one of the main causes of black carbon, sulphur dioxide, carbon dioxide, and particulate matter pollution in the atmosphere. Around 1,349 brick kilns in Nepal. This coal is mainly imported from India, Indonesia, and the United States. Owing to a sharp increase in coals prices and associated environmental concerns, many brick entrepreneurs have shown great interest in alternative fuels.
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Climate change is leaving an indelible mark on the high-mountain regions of the Indus basin. Challenges stemming from this change have profound impacts on countries that share the basin: Afghanistan, China, India, and Pakistan. This underlines the need for regional cooperation and knowledge sharing. Prior to establishing the network, a monitoring working group (MWG) was setup in 2012 – with support from the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) – as a working group of professionals focused on the basin. In 2014, this group was established as the Upper Indus Basin Network (UIBN), a knowledge-sharing to address gaps in climate research, community interventions, and policies.
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The dataset provides second level or sub-basin boundary of ten major river basins in the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region - the Amu Darya, Indus, Ganges, Brahmaputra (Yarlungtsanpo), Irrawaddy, Salween (Nu), Mekong (Lancang), Yangtse (Jinsha), Yellow River (Huanghe), and Tarim (Dayan). In addition, it also includes boundaries of two interior basins. The dataset has been developed from NASA’s 90m resolution Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) digital elevation model.
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Land cover data of Hindu Kush Himalayan region of Pakistan for 2010. This dataset is created using the LandSat 30 meter spatial resolution satellite image of 2010.
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This dataset provides discharge measurements at the outlet or the terminus lake at Lirung Glacier in Langtang Valley. The station is no longer operational. Discharge calculated from stage height measurements over multiple years, based on a rating curve developed locally with rhodamine dilution. At the location of the station is now the inlet for the hydropower plant.
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