THE SMALL EARTH NEPAL

Nepal is a mountainous country, where almost 70% of the land is hills and mountains. Karnali region of Western Nepal is one of the most vulnerable regions in Nepal, due to increasing occurrences of hydrometeorological hazards such as landslides and floods, and most of them are characterized both by severity and impacts. Thousands of people are affected by climate and water-induced hazards, as specified.

This project builds up on the L-EVO project, to make the collected hydro-meteorological data usable. The Small Earth Nepal (SEN) is continuing data collection from existing hydro-met stations and will be organizing several awareness-raising and capacity-building events, and popularize the outcomes of the project both in digital and print media.

This project focuses on two districts – Bajhang and Bajhura – in the remote and understudied basin of the Karnali River system. Due to landslides, these districts suffer serious damage to the local infrastructure and threaten the lives and livelihoods of local people. The goal of the project is to strengthen the resilience of vulnerable communities of Western Nepal to climate-induced hazards through building their capacity in the collection and usage of climate information. The objectives are:

1. To improve awareness of the local stakeholders and communities on hydrometeorological data and information for climate threats and risk reduction processes.
2. To enhance the usability of scientific weather data gathered through deployed sensors and citizen science approach to inform local stakeholders for planning and decision-making.
3. To improve climate risk assessment and management through the participation of the communities by educating them about hydrometeorological data usage.
4. To innovate multi-stakeholder processes to strengthen the linkages between communities and policymakers (local government) to integrate disaster management planning into local planning processes.
5. To popularize the project outcomes through digital and print media.

Project duration: 1 year (May 2022-May 2023)

Implemented by: United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)  and The Small Earth Nepal (SEN)