Country Report Nepal Geospatial Data Sharing Initiatives of Survey Department Supporting Disaster Management

Transcription

1 Third JPTM Step 2 for Sentinel Asia 6-8 July, 2010 Manila, The Philippines Country Report Nepal Geospatial Data Sharing Initiatives of Survey Department Supporting Disaster Management Durgendra M Kayastha Survey Department, Nepal durgendra.kayastha@gmail.com 1

2 Outline of Presentation Physical and Social Characteristics Brief Disasters Scenarios Disaster Management Initiatives Mapping Hazards Development of Database and Sharing Environments Sentinel Asia Platform Future scope Issues Conclusion 2

3 Physiograhic Regions 3

4 Location and Physical Characteristics Nepal is a small country (Area sq km) having diverse topographic setting. Five major physiographic regions which run in more or less parallel bands from northwest to southeast. -Tarai, Siwaliks, Middle Mountains, High Mountains and High Himalayas. Each region having distinct agricultural and forestry land utilization pattern. The composition of vegetation is closely related to the climate, which in turn is related to the physiographic region. There is not only a difference in vegetation from north to south, but also from east to west. The latter is caused by the decrease of monsoon rains in the western part and to some extent by the latitudinal differences between the eastern and western regions of Nepal. 4

5 Population and Socio-economy Population Census of population 23.1 million with annual growth rate of 2.25%. 52% population reside in the 80% of land - Himalayas and mountainous 48% population lives in 20% of plains in the southern belt called terai. The literacy rate is still low (54.1% in 2001). Nearly one third of the population (31.8%) lives below poverty line as per the Nepal Living Standard Survey 2003/04. 5

6 Disasters Nepal is one of the most disaster prone countries in the world owing to its natural conditions like fragile geology and steep topography. Multitude of natural hazards such as flood, landslide, earthquake, fire, hailstorms, and glacier lake outburst flood (GLOF), drought and epidemics. Industrial accidents, explosion, traffic accidents and hazardous events associated with poisonous substances are also recorded. 6

7 Flood 7

8 Land Slides 8

9 Fire 9

10 Fire raging in Panchase 10

11 Major Disasters Source:Kathmandu Valley, Nepal Disaster Risk Management Profile

12 Name and locations of potentially dangerous glacial lakes of Nepal 12

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14 Loss of Lives: All Types of disasters (Source:DWIDP 2005) 14

15 Loss of Lives:Floods Landslides, Avalanches (Source:DWIDP 2005) 15

16 Loss of Property in Millions of NPR: All Types of disasters (Source:DWIDP 2005) 16

17 Loss of Property in Millions of NPR: Floods, Landslides and Avalanches (Source:DWIDP 2005) 17

18 Mapping Hazards Different departments involved in mapping the natural hazards of Nepal. A variety of geologic, hydrologic, climatic hazard maps have been prepared at various scales by the respective technical departments and other agencies. 18

19 Quick Flood Map 19

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21 Database Development Geospatial data are required to manage mitigate and manage disaster related events. Among others the basic topographic database is prepared by the Survey Department. Survey Department has produced new set of topographic database (1:25K, 1:50K) during Initiated updating of the database using satellite imageries. Prepared multi-resolution databases comparable to the scales ranging from 1:100K to 1M, in order to address the varied needs of users for different applications. As regards land use/land cover database, Land Resource Mapping Project under the Survey Department has completed detailed land resources maps (Land system, land use, land capability, climatology, and geology) in

22 Landuse

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24 New Land Use Mapping National Land Use Project, Land Reform and Management Ministry under the direction of National Planning Commission will complete the new set of land use/cover database of Nepal by the end of A Land use Council was instituted under the chair of the Vice Chairperson of the National Planning Commission to oversee the development of a new land use plan for the country. District level land use committees are also formed to manage local level implementation. 24

25 Data Sharing Environment Sharing of data is an important aspect of management. The department has started development of an SDI environment under the National Geographic Information Infrastructure Project. Data standards and Metadata standards have been prepared. The environment thus developed at present allows sharing metadata of data being maintained by different agencies. The portal provides an interactive mapping application, where-in user can create different maps on the fly based on the administrative and census 2001 database. 25

26 SDI Initiative The system is in the development phase. 26

27 In future, the system will be developed into a full-fledged data portal. 27

28 Standards The sharing of data produced by different agencies requires development and adoption of common standards. Standards pertaining to the datum, projection system, feature and attribute code, data and metadata, quality, transfer including the sharing architecture etc. High Level Commission for Information Technology (HLCIT) has taken up the task of standardization of different kinds of data to facilitate sharing of information among the different agencies in the country. The commission has recently prepared a Nepal National Standard Codes for Information Inter-exchanges (NASCII) after several interactions among stakeholders including Survey Department. This is a welcome step towards the realization of long term objectives of e-governance in the country. 28

29 International Affiliations Survey Department has been affiliated with several international affiliations, like FIG, AARS, APRSAF, PCGIAP, GEO, ISPRS, GSDIA, Sentinel Asia. The department has already participated in Global Map by sharing the 1:1M datasets. Is about to share new set of data shortly. The department is actively engaged in the Sentinel Asia program as a user and local data provider node. Exploring the possibility of sharing meteorological data through installation of FENGYUNCast user station within the department complex. 29

30 Sentinel Asia Platform Survey Department has participated in in SA activities like JPTM, Flood and GLOf Working Groups in general. Participation in Sentinel Asia System (SAS) Operation Training as well as Mini projects helped in improving its human resource pool in the disaster management front. 30

31 Future Scope But the department is looking forward to using the platform in order to enhance its capabilities in transparently sharing the geospatial datasets within the users and stakeholders in the country. Being the National Mapping agency, the department focuses primarily in preparation of databases and creating environments for transparent sharing of datasets. 31

32 Future Scope. Besides, the department is looking forward to working closely with related agencies like SA in areas like disaster management as well in terms of exploring new possibilities like creating high resolution DEM, Image analysis etc. so that such data could be provided to the actual disaster management agencies promptly. 32

33 Issues Main challenges of natural disaster management relate to: Lack of coordination among authorities involved; The need to incorporate a preventive instead of responsive vision; The lack of modern or appropriate technology that provide preinformation and warning about the possible natural disasters; The lack of appraisal of natural disasters while selecting development projects; The lack of compliance with building codes; and The lack of rehabilitation, support, and risk transfer programs. 33

34 Other Issues Lack of adequate legal framework and clear responsibility assignment for disaster management at the national and local level; Lack of adequate funding for individual institutions; and Relief and rehabilitation focus on the organizational structure rather than efforts for preparedness and mitigation actions. 34

35 Conclusion Survey Department, being a national mapping agency, has taken up several initiatives towards data sharing, but require furthering them to support different application needs in the country disaster management, land management, and many others. The task of updating the basic topographical database (NTDB) has begun. Works have already begun in formulating a land policy in the country. High Level Scientific Land Reform Council has submitted its report, which will hopefully ensure improved land management in the country. Nepal is in the threshold of dramatic changes. A new constitution is in the making and expected to be ready by June This will have a major impact in the development process in the future. 35

36 Thank you 36