International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development

Kathmandu, Nepal

International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development

Kathmandu, Nepal

Mobile based applications in the area of Environment and Climate

Change

FORUM ON THE MOBILE ECOSYSTEM IN NEPAL: EXPLORING OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES

Sushil Pandey

About ICIMOD

- Regional knowledge based organisation with mountain perspective

- Serving 8 regional member countries

- www.icimod.org

Application of ICT at ICIMOD

• Mainstream IT – web, database, document management etc.

• Image Processing – Remote Sensing, GIS• Discussion Forums – Asia Pacific Mountain Forum to

instigate discussions• Project Specific – hydro-met data, telemetry (HYCOS

project); from space to village -SERVIR NASA Project; knowledge management – HICAP project

• Mobile – recently trying to make a footprint

• ‘Content’ is our focus !

Mobile Potentials as we see

• Beyond the voice call• The penetration and superiority of mobile

phones (even in rural and mountain areas) makes it possible to collect near-continuous, accurate datasets

• At a large scale• Users as producers of information• Allowing normal users to collect credible

data

ICIMOD on Mobile Tech

Handful of small applications as pilots for internal use – all based on SMS Security application – web SMS Server monitoring Contact querying

Emergency Response system for KTM in case of disaster – SMS,

photos integrated on geo-visualization

A quick glace at SMS gateway for ICIMOD

Modular systems Use of web-

services to talk to other machines

Applications can be easily plugged-in to make use of SMS

Safe – requires authentications before sending SMS

Makes use of queue to handle concurrent SMS

Some current ICIMOD work on environment and Climate Change

State of glaciers, snow cover mapping – impact of CC on high mountains

Water, Cryosphere The risk of flooding is also increasing with increased

variability of climate – flood information system (HYCOS) Adaptation and mitigation measures such as reducing

emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD/+)

Enhancement of resilience of mountain communities, particularly women, through improved understanding of vulnerabilities, opportunities, and potentials for adaptation

Regional cooperation around policies for managing water for energy, agriculture and development

Data gap – the big challenge

• Systematic data acquisition and data sharing in the areas of – biophysical observation– socioeconomic analysis– policy research

Opportunities

Mobile application developers canrespond by developing software to fill in the data acquisition pertaining to Climate Change

Room for innovation…

• Sensors/Field Servers– Most newer mobile models can record and

transmit sound, images, location, and motion data. By combining these data with Web services to aggregate and interpret the assembled information, mobile phones can be powerful proxy for data sensors/field servers ?

Usability Challenge…

• Simple easy interfaces will allow normal users to capture and transmit scientifically useful climate change data

• Solely based on icons, in order to accommodate a variety of literacy levels

Thank youMobile Technology could be a critical component in the fight against Climate Change. Lets give some thought !