Sebastian Wesselman

Geospatial solutions for the Himalayas SERVIR Himalaya

• The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) is working in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal and Pakistan

• Aim: Address challenges related to globalization and climate change that affect mountain ecosystems and livelihoods

An area of majestic beauty – a world heritage site for biodiversity

Sources of freshwater reserves - headwaters for 10 major river systems

Great relevance of Earth Observation due to inaccessible conditions and lack of data

The Hindu Kush-Himalayan Region

Climate Change

Demographic Change

Land use Change

Globalization Social Change

Increase adaptive capacity and resilience of mountain and downstream communities

SERVIR Facility at NASA

SERVIR-Mesoamerica

SERVIR-Africa

SERVIR-Himalaya

USAID-NASA SERVIR Initiative

SERVIR ~ to serve To improve environmental management and resilience to climate change by strengthening capacity of governments and key stakeholders to integrate EO and geospatial technologies into decision making for sustainable development

Questionnaire

survey

National

Workshops

Qualitative

Modeling

Pilot Applications

In-situ

Data

EO

Data

GIS

Data

Knowledge

Base

Issues/ Priorities

Thematic Applications

Quantitative

Modeling

(Near) Real-time

Information

Interactive

Mapping Decision Support

Plan / Policy & Decision making

Data Access and

Sharing

Capacity Building and

Training

SERVIR-Himalaya

Platform

Gap

Analysis

Tools and

Methods

Data and Information

Priority

Areas

Stakeholder

Consultations

Spatial

Analysis

Data and

Information

Integration

Framework

Analysis and

Modeling

Visualization

and web-

based

Platform

Institutional

Strengthening

and

networking

Framework for Science Applications and Information Systems

Earth Observation for sustainable mountain development Aligning with GEOSS Priority Areas

Cryosphere & Water

Cryosphere & Water

Glacier mapping

Automated snow cover product Hydrological modeling

Snow Melt Runoff Models

National partners

Basin level water management

Ancillary data

Product design

verification

Product use &

application

Tools adoption

Cryosphere & Water

• Glaciers Monitoring - decadal change 1980-2010

• Snow cover dynamics

Historic changes of Snow and Glaciers in the HKH

Monitoring changes in glaciers and glacier lakes

Image is a portion of an uncalibrated ASTER Level 1A VNIR false-color image (321RGB), acquired on November 20, 2001

Bhutan Himalaya

Tibet Himalaya

Cryosphere & Water

Cryosphere & Water

• Hydrological modeling

- Climate change and water availability scenarios (Wanchu basin, Bhutan)

MODIS based automated snow cover monitoring

Ecosystems & Biodiversity

• Land cover change and GHGs • Multi scale biomass modeling • Phobjika habitat conservation

National Partners

Field data support

Product design

verification

Product use &

application

Tools adoption

Forest cover reporting systems

REDD MRV framework

RAMSAR site monitoring

system

Ecosystems & Biodiversity

Forest Land cover Nepal 2010

Remote sensing based approaches for REDD+ mechanism in community forestry of Nepal Multi resolution satellite data based biomass models for baseline carbon assessment and monitoring

Green house gas inventory (Forest carbon flux)

Operational forest monitoring system

2010

2000

1990

Pragati , Janapragati and NibuwaterCommunity Forest

Pragati , Janapragati and NibuwaterCommunity Forest

Tree Crown Size Analysis

2002

Tree Crown Size 2002

<50

50-100

100-150

150-200

200-250

>250

2009

Tree Crown Size 2009

<50

50-100

100-150

150-200

200-250

250-300

300-350

>350

Multi-scale Biomass Modeling REDD MRV Framework

• To develop multi resolution satellite data based

biomass models for baseline carbon assessment and monitoring

• Spatial biomass models tested, under calibration

• Landsat TM Seasonal Multispectral Reflectance

• GeoEye based Stand level canopy Morphology

• GeoEye based Species level canopy projected area

• MRV Spatial frame work being worked out

R2=0.7674

Landsat TM based Spatial Biomass map (Decision tree model)

Parameter Variable Importance

Disasters & Natural Hazards

Disasters & Natural Hazards

Forest fire detection & monitoring

Flood early warning system

National Partners

Near real time fire reporting

system

Flood early warning system

Ancillary data

Product design

verification

Product use &

application

Tools adoption

Earth Observation: Forest fire detection

SMS alert

Agriculture & Food Security

Agriculture & Food Security

In season crop monitoring

Crop production assessment

National Partners

Agriculture Drought

Warning system

Crop Planning management

Historical data

Product design

verification

Product use &

application

Tools adoption

Crop Growth Monitoring and Production Assessment

In season crop growth monitoring Crop production assessment in peak of season

In season anomaly maps based on 10 years average vegetation conditions data within the agriculture areas of Nepal

Establishing relation between crop production and Season Max. NDVI based on 10 years data for wheat crop

Air & Atmosphere

Air & Atmosphere

Automated Aerosol Monitoring

Validation of MODIS Aerosol Data Air Quality and Health

Satellite based air quality reporting system

National Partners

Ancillary data

Product design

verification

Product use &

application

Tools adoption

MODIS based applications

Visibility and partnerships

Access to Information

Outreach and Capacity Building

• Symposium

• Workshops/Training

• Youth Forum

• Science Applications Showcase

Youth Programme

Way forward

• Raise awareness and make use of the wealth of Earth Observation data

• Regional collaboration, exchange of data and standardizing methodologies

• Capacity building

• Work with key partners to implement geospatial solutions

Thank You...