Training on Climate Data Analyses and Downscaling

The Small Earth Nepal (SEN) in collaboration with Global Change Impact Studies Center (GCISC) and Asia Pacific Network for Global Change Research (APN) conducted a three day training on “Climate Data Analyses and Downscaling” 23-25 November, 2022 at Hotel Greenwich Village, Lalitpur. This was a part of the APN supported project “Towards robust projections of climate extremes and adaptation plans over South Asia” implemented by GCISC. Dr. Jagadishwor Karmacharya, Joint Secretary, Water and Energy Commission Secretariat (WECS) chaired the inaugural season and Professor Suresh Raj Chalise (Former Dean, Tribhuvan University and Advisor to SEN) was the chief guest. Dr. Dhiraj Pradhananga, President of SEN welcomed all the participants of the program. Dr. Shaukat Ali, GCISC provided a project overview, Dr. Madan Lall Shrestha, Academician, Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) and Advisor to SEN provided an overview of APN. Dr. Md. Mizanur Rahman (Director, Save Earth Climate Services Ltd.) shared a brief about the changing pattern of climate in Bangladesh. Followed by Dr. Rahman, Mr. Arif Goheer (Principal Scientific Officer, GCISC) virtually provided an overview of various climate adaptation activities in Pakistan and also shared about the past projects of APN implemented by GCISC. Inaugural session was followed by technical and training sessions.

Technical sessions of the training followed with the presentations from experts, and hands-on training facilitated by the trainers from GCISC, SEN, and WECS. First day focused on the theory of “Climate Data Analysis” facilitated by Dr. Michelle Reboita (Associate Professor, Natural Resources Institute, Brazil) and Dr. Shaukat Ali (GCISC, Pakistan). Second day focused on “Monsoon Variability and Extremes using Machine learning” facilitated by Dr. Firdos Khan, Asst. Professor, School of Natural Sciences (SNS), National University of Sciences and Technology, Pakistan. As resource persons of the training, Dr. Jagadishwor Karmacharya, (WECS) shared on “Climate Model Scenario Development Efforts in Nepal” and Dr. Dhiraj Pradhananga (SEN) shared on “Meteorological Forcing for Cold Region Hydrological Models”. Last and third day focused on “Downscaling Techniques” facilitate by Dr. Firdos Khan and Mr. Muhammad Shahbaz, GCISC, Pakistan. Professor Rupak Rajbhandari, (SEN) shared on “Future Climate Scenario of Nepal” as a resource person.

The training event gathered 39 individuals together with the training participants of 21 from Nepal. Majority of the participants were young graduates and early career researchers from different institutions and departments of Tribhuvan University (TU) and Kathmandu University (KU), Department of Hydrology and Meteorology (DHM), and research based NGOs.Dr. Dhiraj Pradhananga in the inaugural sessionPhoto of the Chief Guests and trainers