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 -

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