Hindu Kush-Himalayan FRIEND project

The evolution of HKH-FRIEND goes back to 1989 when the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) in Kathmandu, Nepal and UNESCO/IHP jointly organised a workshop on the hydrology of mountainous areas in collaboration with the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology of His Majesty’s Government of Nepal (DHM).

This led to the establishment of a regional working group (RWG) on mountain hydrology.

HKH-FRIEND was formally launched in March 1996, evolved through a series of regional consultations and meetings of the RWG.

Activity within HKH-FRIEND is overseen by a steering committee with representatives from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal and Pakistan. It has six research groups comprising scientists and technical staff from universities, operational agencies and research institutes throughout the HKH region.

HKH-FRIEND has the following three main objectives:

• To promote and undertake research for optimal utilization and better management of water resources in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan region, which is the key resource to enhancing productivity in agriculture, hydropower generation and reducing poverty in the region

• To promote free exchange of data for hydrological research in the region through the Regional Hydrological Data Centre (RHDC) located at ICIMOD, Kathmandu

• To build capacity in hydrological research and water resources management through mutual exchange of information, training and skill transfer.

8.2 Research projects

The current six research groups of HKH-FRIEND are as follows:

• Database

• Low flows

• Floods

• Rainfall-runoff

• River water quality

• Snow and glaciers

Scientific and research activities are initiated at individual and institutional levels and proposals submitted to the Steering Committee for consideration (ICIMOD, 1998, 2000, 2003). The HKH-FRIEND received funding from the United Kingdom Department for International Development, through the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Wallingford, for their research and capacity-building activities for a three-year period which came to an end in 2003 (Rees, 2004). There was also seed money provided by UNESCO for research and capacity-building activities for the reporting period.

8.2.1 Database

In the HKH region hydrological data is not openly shared within countries or across national borders. Often relevant spatial information and maps are classified and not available even to researchers within the country. Data between regions may be incompatible due to differences in the types of instruments and methods of data collection, and varying standards and accuracies. The problem is most acute in areas under snow and at higher elevations, where access is difficult. Many of these are regions of territorial conflict. Fragmentation of information and restrictions on the free use of information has posed serious problems for generalizing hydrological processes in the region and the lack of a long-term historical database on hydrometeorology has been a major scientific constraint.

In response to such problems the thematic group on database was formed having the primary goal to create a common database to facilitate research on the hydrological behaviour of basins in different physiographic and climatic zones across the region. A dialogue on data-sharing was initiated and in May 1998 (ICIMOD, 1998) the Regional Hydrological Data Centre (RHDC) was established to archive and maintain the hydrological data generated by different research groups. A strategy document was completed in October 2001 and formally endorsed by the Steering Committee in January 2002 (Rajbhandari et al., 2004). The RHDC continues to operate under the overall guidance of the Database Group. Data experts from other regional FRIEND groups also provide guidance and technical advice as required. The RHDC serves to facilitate and coordinate the collection, exchange, processing and archiving of relevant hydrological data and information from participating institutions in the HKH region. A METADATA catalogue has been prepared for Nepal. Other countries have yet to provide information.

All participating countries are committed to providing time series of river flow and precipitation data to the RHDC, but so far only Nepal has provided data. The RHDC has received monthly and daily river discharge data from the Global Runoff Data Centre,

Koblenz, Germany (GRDC) and Department of Hydrology and Meteorology (DHM), Nepal for selected rivers. This includes 19 stations in Pakistan, 4 in India, 1 in China and 30 stations in Nepal from GRDC and daily discharge data for 36 stations in Nepal from DHM. Additional station information such as latitude, longitude, elevation, drainage area, data quality and meteorological point data, such as rainfall and temperature are also provided.

Regional Hydrological Data Centre (RHDC)

One of the primary achievements of RHDC since its establishment has been the design and development of the hydrological web database system. The database system provides a mechanism of "user" and "provider" for hydrological information using the Internet platform.

The website http://www.hkh-friend.net.np shown in Figure 8.2 has been launched to provide information about HKH-FRIEND activities as well as to be an Internet platform for RHDC.

Figure 8.2 HKH-FRIEND website

Work has been ongoing to develop a suitable hydrological and climate database, with emphasis on initially developing a metadata database. The database has been designed using the GIS platform to provide the visual GIS interface and also for superimposing the relevant GIS data layers such as drainage network, land-use, DEM, satellite imagery, etc.

The usefulness of RHDC and its activities are very much dependent on the proactive participation of the different research groups and the sharing of information. Efforts are also underway to integrate some pertinent applications and serve through the RHDC website, and this will be seen as encouragement to other research groups in the HKH-FRIEND network.

Attempts have been made to integrate other hydrological database projects within Nepal, such as Optimization of water use in Kathmandu valley, supported by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), National irrigation sector programme, supported by the World Bank, and others.