Bidya Banmali attended the Network Meeting and Regional Stakeholder Workshop on Male Declaration in Dhaka from 5 to 10 October. The main aims of the stakeholders forum were to increase awareness on the transboundary air pollution; share and receive the stakeholders views and ideas on the implementation on Male Declaration; improve information exchange between information generators and users; and information of a regional network of stakeholders.

Bidya Banmali was in Swedish Meterological Hydrological Institute & Stockholm Environment Institute, Sweden from 12 October to 16 November attending the advanced international training programme on "Air Pollution Management & Technology". The main objective of this training was to give the participants the insights in air pollution management and technology revealing the factors, links and processes governing air pollution. The training included all important aspects and technologies of air quality management.

Basanta Shrestha attended the to attend the 4th collaborative assessment network (CAN) in Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok from 17 to 21 November.

Sudip Pradhan participated in the international training workshop on web-based Management information system at International service for National agricultural research (ISNAR) in The Hague, The Netherlands from 1 to 13 December. ISNAR had developed a MIS called INFORM-R Light, a MS Access database containing various information related to agricultural research. The major part of the training was devoted in giving concepts and components of database design with hands on exercises on creating Tables, Queries, Forms and Reports in MS Access

Visit to Pakistan and India

Samjwal Bajracharya visited Water Resources Research Institute, Pakistan from 8 to 24 October to give on the job training to the staffs of Water Resource and Research Institute (WRRI) in Islamabad and to develop database of glaciers and glacial lakes of Indus basin in Pakistan using geographic information system and remote sensing of APN 2003-05 GLOF Project in Pakistan. WRRI and MENRIS/ICIMOD have been carrying out joint collaborative activities since 2002 under the APN 2002-15 project.

He also visited Chaudhry Srawan Kumar Himachal Pradesh Agricultural University (CSKHPAU), Palampur India from 30 October to 30 November to give on the job training and facilitate the professionals of CSK Himanchal Pradesh Agricultural University in the APN 2003-05 GLOF Project in Himachal Pradesh, India. The main purpose of the visit was to demonstrate the methodology to generate the database of glaciers, and glacial lakes using remote sensing satellite images and geographic information system as a capacity building and technology transfer and professionals in CSKHPAU have shown great interest in further collaboration in the continuation of the GLOF project as well as with other GIS/RS related activities with ICIMOD in Himachal Pradesh.

 

Visit to Palampur, India

Sudip Pradhan was in CSKHPAU, Palampur India from 30 October to 9 November to follow up on the ongoing activities of Development Indicators on Himachal Pradesh and HASIF project in India.

 

12th AMIC Annual Conference 

Basanta Shrestha and Sushil Pandey visited Asian media Information and communication centre, Singapore in relation to participating in the 12^th AMIC Annual Conference at the invitation of AMIC. AMIC which is a charity-registered organization, aims to spearhead the development of media and communication expertise in the Asia-Pacific to foster socio-economic progress in the region. Basanta Shrestha presented the paper on the Mountain GIS Portal in the conference. During the visit discussions were also held on the IDRC project and the upcoming next series of Digital Review Meeting.

 

Bangladesh Visit  

Walter Immerzeel participated as a resource person in the geo-informatics for Water Resource Management course in Dhaka from 7 to 12 November at Local government engineering department (LGED) and global water partnership (GWP), Bangladesh.

 

Basanta Shrestha visited Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) from 12 to 14 November for the closing of the ' Water Resources Management Training using GIS' in Dhaka.

 

TAAAS Visit 

Saisab Pradhan traveled to TAAAS, Lhasa from 8 to 15 November for setting up intranet system in TAAAS and training on system management.

 

4th Collaborative Assessment Network (CAN)

Basanta Shrestha attended the 4th Collaborative Assessment Network (CAN) in Asian Institute of Technology from 17 to 21 November in Bangkok, Thailand.

 

Bhutan Visit 

Sushil Pandey and Kiran Shakya visited Department of Survey and Land Records (DSLR) in Bhutan from 24 November to 3 December to work on the GIS Portal for Bhutan, which primarily is aiming towards a Regional Geographic Information Infrastructure (RGII) in HKH by sharing geographic information in HKH region. MENRIS has developed a framework and an underlying structure to share such information exploiting the full potential of Internet and GIS technology. The specific development of GIS Portal for Bhutan is being carried out by DSLR bearing also the additional capacity of National Agency of GIS Coordination (NAGISC). After the completion, the portal will be made available at national level (independently) through URL:  www.bhutan-gis.net.