Strategy

1. Background and Rationale

Innovation, technology transfer and effective communications are the key elements of ICIMOD to become recognized as a knowledge, learning and enabling centre to empower the regional member countries and promote regional cooperation in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan (HKH) region. With this mission, ICIMOD identified environmental change, water and poverty as the main strategic thrust areas to focus in the second medium term action plan (MTAP II). The strategy emphasizes that population dynamics, economic growth and climate change are emerging as major drivers concerning the livelihoods, and social and environmental security of the mountain people in the region. All of these issues in essence have strong spatial and temporal dimensions.

Mountains possess typical geographic setting giving rise to diverse physical, cultural, and socio-ecological conditions and playing a single most dominant factor influencing sustainable mountain development. ICIMOD is promoting the ‘mountain perspective framework’ to address the needs of sustainable mountain development at the local, national and regional levels and thereby promoting mountain development agenda globally. Addressing the needs of sustainable development of mountain areas demands special attention due to remoteness, vastly varying socio-ecological conditions and distinct spatial and temporal characteristics. Furthermore, the strategic priority areas of MTAP II - poverty reduction, environmental change, ecosystem services, natural resources management, water resources sharing, and disaster risk reduction are closely interlinked and interdependent to one another. There is an increased need to have better understanding of interrelationships between the different components by generating spatial and temporal data for planning and management in the context of mountain development.

Integrated and innovative solutions based on modern decision support tools and methods are considered crucial elements for better scientific understanding, supporting policy decisions and devising appropriate development interventions. In particular, geographic information represents a “common denominator” for many of these issues and a common geographic framework with a new generation of scientific tools and methods provide useful means to investigate key components of social, economic and environmental conditions through systematic generation of data indicating their present situation and changing status through space and time.

Unprecedented growth of geo-information and earth observation technologies and emergence of geographic information science now provide a viable institutional and technological framework to support informed decision-making by integrating many disciplines. Such a framework often termed as “Spatial Data Infrastructure” (SDI) is assuming greater significance at the global, regional, national and local levels. ICIMOD is institutionalizing such a framework through Mountain Environment and Natural Resources Information System (MENRIS) Division to support the development and adoption of mountain policies and practices. In particular in the MTAP II, MENRIS Division aims to support strategic goals by mainstreaming geo-based solutions (tools, technologies and methodologies) in programmatic areas and to contribute to the overall mission of ICIMOD by fostering effective geo-based information and knowledge management.

 

2. The Regional context

The history of Remote Sensing has been quite long in the region due to its close linkages to defense mapping. In terms of the Earth Observation capacities, India and China are major leading countries compared to other RMCs. India has come long way ever since setting up a receiving station at Hyderabad in 1979. Over a span of about 25 years, India now boasts of several remote sensing satellite launches. China too has made major advancement in space sciences since establishing national satellite meteorological center in 1971 capable of receiving and utilizing foreign weather satellite data. India and China have fleets of space vehicles and numerous sensors providing satellite dataset for applications such as weather forecasting, natural resources, environmental monitoring and disaster management.

Pakistan and Bangladesh have national institutions (SUPARCO and SPARRSO respectively) the promotion of space applications, whereas Afghanistan, Bhutan, Nepal and Myanmar do not even have master plan for space exploration and development as yet. They are entirely dependent on the commercially available satellite datasets for resource mapping and management.

The introduction of GIS technologies and applications in the region is relatively new as compared to remote sensing. ICIMOD is one of the first and foremost regional institutions promoting geo-based solutions for sustainable development in the HKH region since the early 1990’s. During this period, the RMC’s like China and India were starting GIS programs in some of their national institutions at the central levels.

Geographic Information and related technologies have made remarkable advancements in recent time, providing a new dimension for integration, analysis and communication of divergent sources of information for decision-making process at multiple levels. Its applications in public and private sector have seen tremendous growth both in India and China. In India, cities like Hyderabad, Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi have developed as centers for Geo-Information technologies creating a huge job market to cater not only the needs of the country, but also providing support services to foreign markets. However, the northern states of India, which are also the parts of the HKH region, are the least developed in terms of using these technologies. The 1990’s has also been an important period for the development of GIS in China with its opening to the outside world and its economic reform. The rapid urbanization and fast economic growth of the country has greatly increased the demands for GIS applications in urban planning and land management. GIS has been generally recognized as important part of IT in the country and the government has given a priority to the development of GIS. The GIS infrastructure setup and the number of research areas dedicated to GIS applications in the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) clearly show the strength and priority in this field at the central level. However, the capacities of the institutions in the areas like the Tibetan autonomous region are at initial stages. GIS technologies have been introduced in several government departments in the countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan and also some developments have been observed in the private sectors. However, the areas of applications have been quite isolated and limited to their own specific objectives. There have been formal National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) initiatives in the HKH countries like India, Nepal, Bhutan and Afghanistan which focused primarily in development of digital spatial data, and formulation of policies and specifications for their distribution. They have been successful in generating awareness on need of a SDI framework and there has been considerable growth in number of users and access to the technology in the region in the past decade. However, the users are yet to see real differences in terms of availability and accessibility of geographic information. The real applications of the technology are hindered due to lack of proper data sharing mechanisms. Although the GIS and RS technology has made significant inroads in the HKH region the level of applications greatly vary from country to country. As usual, the mountain areas have been the victim of marginalization and in particular, applications specific to mountain areas lack attention.

The essence of ICIMOD’s interventions has been its focus towards the national institutions in the mountain regions of these countries which are left out from the technological advances at the central level. The present strategy outlines realigning MENRIS in order to be more relevant considering both from internal and external drivers as well as keeping in view of comparative advantage of ICIMOD as a regional organization. To this effect, MENRIS is pursuing its goal through innovation and technology transfer, capacity building and up-scaling, development of mountain-specific applications and decision support systems, and as a clearing-house mechanism for geo-information within ICIMOD and agencies involved in sustainable mountain development.

 

3. Internal and External Demand, and Comparative Advantage

a. Internal Demand

ICIMOD is operationalizing medium term action plan with three main independent and interlinked thrust areas namely, Integrated water and hazard management (IWHM), Environment change and ecosystem services (ECES), and Sustainable livelihoods and poverty reduction (SLPR) with nine priority action areas. These action areas, in essence have strong spatial component as emphasized in various projects/programmes such as World bank Abhu Dhabi group, Sida and Norway – water and climate change programme, Macarthur - transboundary biodiversity programme, hazard mapping in disaster risk reduction, poverty mapping, REDD - carbon credit estimation and in other action areas. The internal discussion during the formulation of different action areas clearly indicated large interests among the team members and emphasized the need to integrate geo-based solutions (tools, technologies, and methodologies) in most action areas. The potential applications of MENRIS in respective strategic programmes are indicated below in the table which will need a coherent strategy for mainstreaming MENRIS instruments as well as strengthening GIS/RS capacity of relevant cooperation partners and potential up-scaling activities in the RMCs.

Strategic Thrusts Potential Applications
Integrated water and hazard management
  • Assessment and monitoring of water and ice resources
  • Risk, Hazard and vulnerability mapping
  • Flood modeling and early warning system
  • Satellite rainfall estimation
  • Integrated water resources management
Environmental change and ecosystem services
  • Environmental modeling and ecosystem management
  • Climate change impact assessment and monitoring
  • Rangeland mapping and monitoring
  • Integrated watershed management
  • Biodiversity corridor mapping; Protected Area DSS
Sustainable livelihood and poverty reduction
  • Poverty monitoring and mapping
  • Socio-economic analysis
  • Resources profile and mapping;
  • Mountain Eco-tourism
  • Participatory GIS; P3-D modeling

b. External Demand
MENRIS has a specific role to adapt advancements in tools, technologies and methodologies for mountain specific situation by building strategic alliance with key international organizations. The demand for MENRIS as a regional resource center is growing. The online tracer study on MENRIS capacity building programme in MTAP I (which included over 30 training courses in 12 thematic areas with over 700 participants from 300 institutions)conducted by ICIMOD at the end of 2007showed that the trainings were highly relevant and useful to their present jobs. The demands for the kind of activities being carried out by MENRIS are also clearly reflected during the Mountain GIS e-conference conducted together by ICIMOD and Mountain Forum in January 2008 with more than 750 registered participants from 72 countries. Through these specific studies and experiences accumulated over the years, the demand for MENRIS is evolving in a number of areas which can be summarized as below:

  • Need to engage in mountain focused GIS science training and education (specialized training courses) with key role from the academic sector;
  • Facilitate and develop regional databases with greater emphasis on spatial and temporal data dimensions for scientific monitoring and analyses for a wide variety of applications;
  • Facilitate harmonization and standardization of data and information for national and regional level applications and serve as a clearing house mechanism for geo-information;
  • Adapt geospatial tools, methods and approaches to mountain specific situations for integrated assessment, monitoring and modeling;
  • Keep pace with international state-of-the-art and customization of international knowledge through innovation; and
  • Regional platform and strategic alliance to promote Himalayan Spatial Data Infrastructure for access and use of geographic information for sustainable development of mountain areas.

c. Comparative Advantage
GI technology has evolved in many ways as an “enabling technology” with exponential growth of its applications in diverse areas. The recent survey of Indian geospatial industry 2008 pointed out that the application in commercial sector is growing rapidly while on the other hand there are limited applications in environment and natural resources sector with no mention of mountain specificities. Given the internal and external drivers, the comparative advantages of MENRIS can be summarized as below:

  • ICIMOD has played a catalytic role in the development and use of geographic information through its established networks of institutions in the region and strategic alliances and partnerships with international agencies, MENRIS is in a unique position to adapt innovative tools and methods for mountain specific situations;
  • Geo-based solution promotes integrated and multidisciplinary approach and its successful integration into the regular programmatic areas within ICIMOD provides a competitive edge to organization like ICIMOD.
  • Regional disparity exists in the region in terms of GIS and RS capacity. ICIMOD can continue to contribute meaningfully in building capability of less developed RMCs and promote regional cooperation through regional platforming.
  • The HKH region is data void as pointed out by IPCC AR4 as in the case of number of other disciplines such as biodiversity, natural resources and others. GI and EO technology is the key to filling data gap especially in remote and inaccessible region. ICIMOD as a mountain knowledge and information center can promote systematic development of database with national partners and bridge the important data gap thereby contributing to the regional and global efforts;
  • Geo-based solutions are extremely useful tools for regional issues that extend beyond the national boundaries which need to be considered in a homogenous unit across borders such as management of water resources, climate change biodiversity conservation, mountain hazard mitigation and others. In summary, ICIMOD has built up a niche in geographic information systems and has clearly established a strong reputation in the region and outside. MENRIS will need to continue to act as a regional resource center and the institutional foundation and its active network of national partners and key GIS organizations around the world thus established so far, can leapfrog regional efforts to attain higher stages of development in the HKH region.
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4. Major Focus in MTAP II

At the strategy level, MENRIS aims to mainstream geo-based solutions in the strategic thrust action areas by making them viable for practical applications and integrating their use in regular programme activities. Partnership with cooperation national institutions in the RMCs will be the key to enhance their capability for potential scaling-up. Special attention will be given to strengthen national and regional geo-information network to function in an open, distributed and decentralised manner as well as to establish linkages with relevant global networks.

At the mission level, MENRIS aims to develop integrated and innovative geo-based solutions of key emerging priorities by strengthening strategic alliances with regional and international partners and customizing relevant international knowledge that are of current strategic priorities or beyond the immediate interests of the strategic thrusts areas. Clearing house mechanism and regional platforming for dialogue and exchange will be the key elements for dissemination of geo-information and knowledge resources. Accordingly, MENRIS sets forth four functional areas to operationalise its programme as mentioned below:

a. Mainstreaming Geo-based Solutions
b. Capacity Building and Up-scaling
c. Innovation and Technology Transfer
d. Clearinghouse and Regional Platform


MENRIS Functional Areas

5. Goal and Outcomes

Goal:
To develop and institutionalize integrated and innovative solutions based on modern decision support tools, technologies and methods within ICIMOD and its cooperation partners to support informed decision-making for mountain development policies and practices.

Outcomes:
Integrated and innovative solutions are integral part of knowledge development cycle that facilitate systemic and interdisciplinary approach in operationalizing ICIMOD programmes. In particular, it envisages the following outcomes in MTAP II:

  • Geo-based solutions mainstreamed within ICIMOD as an important instrument for an interdisciplinary approach and closely integrated with action areas;
  • Increased capacities of ICIMOD and its cooperation partners through capacity building, up-scaling and operational regional geo-data sharing network;
  • Integrated and innovative decision support tools, technologies and methodologies developed and adapted for the mountain region; and
  • Strategic alliances and partnerships with key regional and international agencies established as a regional platform and ICIMOD recognized as a regional resource center for geo-information and earth observation application.

6. Actions and Outputs

As outlined above, MENRIS Division focuses its activities in four functional areas in the MTAP II, which are described below. The five-year logical framework is presented in the Annex 1.

A. Mainstreaming Geo-based Solutions

Geo-based solutions are essential cross-cutting elements for integrated approach to operationalise the action areas. Geo-based solutions help improve operational efficiency by promoting communication and collaboration as well as support inter-disciplinary approach by way of integration of social, economic and environmental parameters and analyze them in a common GIS platform.

This activity focuses on mainstreaming geo-based solutions within ICIMOD by integrating modern decision support tools and methods for assessment, monitoring, planning, and management of the prioritized action areas. Mainstreamed geo-based solutions within ICIMOD will be carried out through joint programme development with the action areas. Joint planning of action areas will be undertaken through a multi-disciplinary team to closely integrate GIS/RS and DSS components. Appropriate institutional guidelines with proper management directives will be put in place to mainstream geo-based solutions within ICIMOD and its partners. Technical backstopping and advisory services will be provided as per the needs of the action areas.

Outputs:

  • Application and decision support system in different action areas;
  • Center-wide meta-database adhering to the international metadata standardization for use within ICIMOD and its partners in the region;
  • Creation of key thematic regional geo-databases through integrated geo-data management approach;
  • Data packaging and geo-visualization of different thematic areas

B. Capacity Building and Up-scaling

Enhancement of capacity within ICIMOD and up-scaling among the network of cooperation partners are fundamental for proper utilization of geo-based solutions to keep pace with rapidly changing geo-information and earth observation technologies and its diverse applications. Capacity building initiatives will be undertaken to strengthen national partners in different application areas of strategic thrust programmes. Up-scaling activities will be pursued by strengthening collaborations with cooperation partners for joint programme development and implementation.

The capacity building will include development of standard training curriculum and packages, imparting national and regional training courses, exchange of scientists, and technical backstopping. Through the consortium of Himalayan University, MENRIS will develop and design geo-informatics curriculum and GIS/RS e-learning in close partnership with international academic institutions. Priority will be given to capacity building and the know-how to the RMCs having less capacity.

Outputs:

  • GIS and RS training modules, curriculum and manuals
  • Regional and nationalGIS/RS training courses and GIS e-learning environment
  • On-the-job training, exchange programme and technical backstopping
  • GIS/RS based pilot applications for up-scaling

C. Innovation and Technology Transfer

MENRIS will endeavour to build on existing strategic alliances with key regional and international partners to customize international knowledge and best practices of geo-based solutions to adapt to mountain-specific conditions. These initiatives will be seen as source of innovation emanating from partners within and outside the region. This activity focuses on developing and providing integrated and innovative tools, technologies and methodologies for mountain specific-problems with ultimate goal to be used by ICIMOD and its partners. More specifically, it will focus on the areas:

Disaster risk mapping and monitoring: International state-of-the-art geo-spatial tools and technologies will be customized for disaster risk mapping. Efforts will be made to enhance the capacity of ICIMOD and its cooperation partners to be a competence center for mountain hazard mapping and monitoring. Decisions support system (DSS) for decentralized planning: Modern decision support tools and methodologies will be developed for different thematic areas. New programme and proposal will be developed and efforts will be made to customize Protected Area DSS to other thematic areas. Regional Land cover mapping: Regional land cover mapping methodology using standardized classification system developed by FAO will be customized for the HKH region. Harmonization of land cover data and periodic generation of natural resources data will be given due priority for the region.

Outputs:
  • Generic decision support tools, technologies and methods
  • Regional land cover classification system and regional land cover database
  • DSS for protected area management ecosystem and other thematic areas
  • Hazard and vulnerability mapping at different levels.

D. Regional Platform and Clearing House

ICIMOD as a regional geo-information center, it will continue to function as a clearing house for geo-based information and knowledge resources for mountain development studies. Through the clearing house mechanism, a number of geo-information services will be provided namely- geo-data services, web-mapping services, training services, application services and metadata services. Mountain geo-Portal will continue to develop as a collaborative effort to build, share and disseminate geo-information and knowledge resources of the region. The portal will serve as a decentralized and distributed network of user and providers of information and act as a regional gateway for number of standardized geo-information services. Special focus will be given to build geo-based information and knowledge resources on environmental change, water and poverty and other relevant themes.

As a regional platform, MENRIS will continue to strengthen partnerships with UNEP as a GRID-Kathmandu node to work on environmental data, information and knowledge application and will act as a resource center for UNEP. Special initiatives will be developed on emerging environmental issues. Transboundary air pollution monitoring and assessment will be continuing programme to strengthen national institutions and build regional capcity. Regional dialogue and exchange for innovative and integrated solutions will be promoted through special initiatives, cross-learning and sharing of experiences by organizing international conferences, workshops and e-discussion forums.

Outputs:

  • Mountain Geoportal and standardized geo-information services
  • UNEP-GRID node and collaborative programmes
  • Transboundary air pollution programme
  • Regional and International workshops, conferences and online forums

7. Partnership Strategy

Strategy for effective use of geo-based solutions will be based on strengthening existing partnership and emergence of new partnerships with regional and international agencies to customise international knowledge for mountain specific conditions for use within ICIMOD and its partners. Partnerships with existing network of national and regional institutions and their capacity building will be the continuing strategies for the development of national and regional geo-information network. ICIMOD, in conjunction with these agencies promote integrated mountain development through developing appropriate tools, technologies and methodologies, sharing of geo-information, and enhancing scientific knowledge and expertise at the local, national and regional levels. The partnership strategy is also designed to develop mutually supportive programmes with national institutions, with a focus on up-scaling activities through pilot applications. Through multidisciplinary team approach, geo-based solutions will be promoted and used in ICIMOD programmatic areas.

Partnerships with the Universities and research institutions, space agencies, software vendors and other relevant global and UN-led initiatives and consortiums will be a continuing strategy to keep up-to-date with the latest developments and innovation. The current partnerships with space agencies (ESA, JAXA, USGS, NOAA and others) will be strengthened to acquire satellites image resources and products of ICIMOD’s interest. Special attention will be given to formalize relationship with NRSA, India, CAS China, and other space agencies in the region in Bangladesh, China and Pakistan. The partnerships with research and academic institutions in the frame of HUC and outside the region will be strengthened to develop curricula and capacity building programmes. Current partnerships with ITC-Netherlands, University of Salzburg and others will be strengthened. The continuing partnerships with software vendors (ESRI, ERDAS and IDRISI) will be maintained and software subscription arrangements will be made to continue their support for upgrading to the latest versions. Special focus will be given to exploit open source software platform such ILWIS, Diva-GIS and others. New forms of partnerships will be developed such as with Google Earth, NASA-Worldwind, GEOSS, OGC, ASPRS and others, and will establish linkages with relevant global initiatives including UN-led initiatives for spatial data infrastructure- UNSDI. Partnership with FAO will be operationlized to customize geo-based applications on mountain areas in particular on regional landcover mapping and interoperable metadata management system.

 

8. Implementation Strategy

8.1 Organogram and Human Resources Plan

In order to operationalize its programme, four mutually supportive teams have been formed based on different expertise and skills. Each team is led by a team leader with clear roles and responsibilities in the frame of change management conforming to the MBO. Accordingly, the MENRIS organogram is presented below with indication of different expertise required in each team.


*New Position

In addition, the following specific expertise will be required during the course of MTAP which will be provisioned through consultancies or recruitment basis.

8.2 Resource Mobilization and Financial Planning

In terms of funding mechanism, it is expected that the following different sources will be mobilized in order to effectively implement stipulated function and activities of MENRIS:

  • Strategic thrusts programmes for mainstreaming geo-based solutions Core Programme Support including GIS and RS facility (up-keep cost)
  • GTZ- Geo-information and knowledge management
  • Innovation and customizing international knowledge (New Project proposals)
    • Earth Observation Applications
    • Strengthening mountain hazard and risk mapping
  • Existing Projects and strategic alliances
    • SERVIR Himalaya, NASA and USAID partnership
    • Strategic alliances- FAO, UNEP, NASA, USAID, JAXA, Sentinal Asia

As a funding strategy, co-financing with national partner institutions will also be a major emphasis for up-scaling in the RMCs. MENRIS services will be provided in a cost- recovery basis both for internal and external users. A renewal costs for maintaining and upgrading the central GIS/RS facility will be needed and be provided under core support. Continuing partnerships with major software vendors (ESRI, ERDA and IDRISI) will be sought for University discount pricing for ICIMOD’s use.

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