The Small Earth Nepal (SEN) and Center of Environmental and Geographic Information Services (CEGIS), Bangladesh organized Regional Training Workshop on Climate Change Scenario, Water Resource Availability Assessment and Crop Modeling from 9 to 15 June 2013 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The training was one of the capacity building activities for researchers and project collaborators under a collaborative research project. Mr. Bikash KC from Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC), Ms. Bibhuti Pokharel from Department of Hydrology and Meteorology (DHM), Dr. Madan L. Shrestha, Mr. Piyush Dahal and Mr. Jeeban Panthi from the project team participated the workshop from Nepal.
The formal opening session was chaired by Dr. Maminul Haque Sarker, Deputy Executive Director of CEGIS that he welcomed all the participants of the training and wished great success of the training program. Mr. Motaleb H. Sarker, Director of Ecology Division at CEGIS briefly shared the project goals and its objectives. Dr. Madan Lall Shrestha, Advisor of SEN and project Co-Principal Investigator, stressed the trainee that they should learn a lot from the renowned experts/trainers as this is very good opportunity for the young researchers. Prof. R. Shrinivasan from the Texas Agro-Mechanical University (TAMU), the ArcSWAT trainer, shared his experiences in ArcSWAT modeling and encouraged the participants to regularly use the model in their professional life. Dr. R. Shrinivasan taught about the basics of hydrology, SWAT requirements and major tools and extensions of the SWAT. Mr. Tanvir Ahmed, Professional-CEGIS trained the participants about the pre-processing of the data before feeding to the model. Dr. Ahamedul Hassan, Director-R & D and training division at CEGIS shared about a project that he recently completed using the ArcSWAT model in the East Nile Basin of Africa. Dr. Ghulam Hussain, crop modeler and agriculture specialist at CEGIS was the lead trainer for the DSSAT modeling training that he shared the basic techniques of the model.
The closing session was chaired by Engr. Waji Ullah, the Executive Director of CEGIS where other distinguished guests and experts congratulated participants for successfully completing the training workshop.
This collaborative research project of Center for Environmental and Geographic Information Services (CEGIS), Bangladesh and The Small Earth Nepal (SEN), in close coordination with the DHM and Department of Agriculture (DoA), the government of Nepal, aims to assess the impacts of climate change on water resources availability in the Ganges-the Brahmaputra and the Meghna (GBM) basin, and enhance and sustain the food security in two case study areas located in the GBM basin. This project has been funded by ICIMOD and the World Bank under the Abu Dhabi Dialogue Knowledge Forum, Small Grants Program (ADDKF-SGP).
