Exhibition/showcase: Connecting from space to village - Enabling climate policy and actions in the Himalayas
An exhibition of posters and demonstrations on key Earth observation applications addressing climate change in the eastern Himalayan region, with a focus on Bhutan, will be held for summit delegates, symposium participants, and Bhutan government officials.
The applications are being developed largely within the framework of SERVIR-Himalaya, which features web-based access to satellite imagery, decision-support tools, and interactive visualisation, with the aim of providing scientists, environmental managers, and decision-makers with easy access to information.
The showcase will provide a wide array of Earth observation applications, with demonstrations of tools and technology that can be accessed by the general public and are useful for scientific analysis and to support policy and decision-making.
Within SERVIR’s framework to address the broad areas of adaptation to climate change and the GEOSS areas of societal benefit, the applications have mainly been developed on the basis of the preliminary needs assessment carried out by ICIMOD, and are grouped under the following broad themes:
• Cryosphere and water
- Decadal changes of glaciers in Bhutan
- Historic changes in glacier and snow cover in the HKH region
- Scenario-based climate change impact on water availability and hydrologic flows in the Wangchu basin of Bhutan
• Ecosystems and biodiversity
- Understanding natural resources dynamics in the HKH
- Resource inventory and assessment of Phobjikha wetland ecosystem
- Estimation of above ground biomass using high resolution satellite images for REDD+
• Disaster risk preparedness and emergency response
- Forest fire detection and monitoring system
- Emergency response system for Kathmandu Valley in the case of an earthquake disaster
- Eye on Eastern Himalayas
- Mapping haze as an indicator of air quality
• Transboundary air quality and black carbon
• Agriculture and food security
- Agricultural monitoring based on remote sensing to support food security in the eastern Himalayas