Capacity Building and Servicing

Established GIS Training Facilities or GIS Centres in: the Department of Geography, Tribhuvan University, Nepal; Bangladesh; Y.S. Parmar University, India; Institute of Pokhara, Nepal; Tibetan Academy of Agricultural Sciences (TAAS), Tibet; NARC/WRRI, Pakistan; and in the National Commission for Environmental Affairs, Myanmar;

GIS training in all member countries; advanced training at various levels for Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal and Pakistan; Under collaboration with the Centre for Space Science and Technology Education - Asia and Pacific (CSSTE-AP);

Established an Environment Information and Assessment (EIA) UNIT in the Ministry of Population and Environment, His Majesty's Government of Nepal; and initiated the Kathmandu Valley GIS project to develop various environmental scenarios of the valley;

Installed the MERCURE satellite B station;

Disseminated country profile of Nepal and bio-physical and socio-economic maps of Bangladesh;

Data management: 

Enhanced ICIMOD with equipment/software; developed ICIMOD CD-ROM for archiving and disseminating information; implemented corporate LAN environment with full internet connectivity; implemented MENRIS Intranet environment;

Produced core data sets for Nepal; for Bangladesh; for Pakistan; and for Tibet, China;

Initiated case Studies on GIS applications in Bangladesh and Myanmar to be completed; developed a concept paper to establish Digital Database Infrastructure in Nepal and attempt to advocate similar in member countries for National Digital Database Infrastructure;

Produced GIS Training Manual for Managers; GIS Training Manual at Policy level; Training Manual on ArcCAD for Engineers and initiated training manual on the Facilitation of HealthNet in Nepal, application of GIS/RS in location planning in Mountain environments;

Completed Case studies in Nepal; India; and Pakistan; 

Facilitated electronic networking for environmental agencies in the member countries;

Assessment and Reporting:

Initiated "Hot Spot" areas investigation through the Kathmandu Valley GIS project and Landcover Analysis of Nepal and Pakistan.

Establishing similar objectives and complementary activities;

Continued collaboration through written agreements;

Pooling of resources including those from other partners, donor agencies;

Sustaining long term goals through strong linkages and networking within the HKH region and with other subregional or regional institutions;

Maintaining aggressive communication/information dissemination and continued consultations or needs assessment especially with member countries;

Recognising the importance and complementary role of other subregional/regional bodies such as the South Asia Co-operative Environment Program (SACEP) and the Asia Pacific ENRIN.