Climate change has the potential to disrupt rural communities worldwide, and there is a pressing need to test existing theories and conceptual models of community resiliency to such changes.  The remarkable variability in social and ecological systems along the Gandaki River corridor in Nepal’s Himalayan range provides ideal conditions to test these theories, and the goal of this project was to support a three-week research planning trip to develop collaborative relationships with Nepalese partners and to finalize research hypotheses on the impacts of climate change on rural communities in the region.  By supporting US researchers in Economics, Civil Engineering, and Earth Sciences to develop new international collaborations, this project helped to strengthen the nation’s STEM capabilities.

The primary focus area for this planning visit was the Gandaki River Corridor. The Gandaki is one of the major rivers of Nepal and it transects remarkably diverse landscapes from the arid Tibetan Plateau, through the Siwalik foothills, and into the humid Terai plains. The U.S. based research team included an atmospheric scientist, an economist, and a water resources engineer. The Nepalese partners included top researchers from both social and physical science backgrounds. Specifically, our primary collaboration coordinator in Nepal was Dr. Siddhartha Bajracharya, a senior environmental research scientist at the National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC),  who has extensive experience working along the Gandaki corridor. Three US graduate students also participated in the project. This project represents an initial step in our team's long-term research goal to advance understanding of the linkages and feedback mechanisms between  biophysical and social factors that influence vulnerability and resilience to climate change across  interacting spatial, temporal, and organizational scales.

The team visited Nepal from December 25th, 2014 through January 8th 2015.  The first day was spent in Kathmandu visiting with representatives from the World Wildlife Fund and the Nepal Academy of Science and Technology in addition to shorter meetings with governement agencies.  The group then traveled to Pokhara for meetings with local univiersities before traveling along the Gandaki River to Jomsom.  The group visited with several local community leaders along the corridor to learn about their concerns regarding the impact of climate change on the region.  The group then traveled back down the Gandaki River to Lumbini, where a large meeting was convened with representatives of many Nepal colleges and universities to explore the potential for collaboration on the subject of climate change and rural development.  An important idea that emerged from this meeting was for a Lumbini Center for Sustainability, which could serve as a coordinating hub for this sort of intellectual activity in Nepal.  The group then moved on to Chitwan National Park, where they met with wildlife conservationists focused on how tiger populations interact with local communities.  The potential for climate change to impact such interactions was noted and several research opportunities were identified.  The trip concluded by returning to Nepal and a final meeting with core stakeholders from NTNC, ICIMOD, and Kathmandu University.

In April 2015, the Gorkha Earthquake struck Nepal. causing catastrophic damage to Kathmandu and many outlying regions.  Owing to the research ties develeped on the research plannning trip, several of the graduate students from the trip organized a group called UNM4Nepal, with the specfic goal of using sustainable construction practices to aid in the rebuilding of several areas damaged by the earthquake.  Those students have g...

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