Past and Future Climate Assessments of Livestock Vulnerability in Nepal

PI: Robert Gillies, Utah State University , Director of the Utah Climate Center / State Climatologist (Utah), Associate Professor, Utah Climate Center (Dept. of Plants, Soils, and Climate)

Project: Past and Future Climate Assessments of Livestock Vulnerability in Nepal (CALVN)

Partner: Helen Keller International, Inc.

Recent work is being done in Nepal as part

of a project assessing livestock vulnerability

to climate change. Weather stations are

being installed in some of the most climate-

vulnerable sites in order to collect daily

records of precipitation and temperature.

Making some final adjustments on one of the climate monitoring stations.

The monitoring stations should be set up in an open space in the Village Model Farms.

With the collected information, the scientists

working on the project hope to be able to

quantify any microclimates that exist and to

gauge whether pronounced synoptic scale

weather events (such as monsoonal rainfall)

are significant enough to moderate the

effects of microclimates.

The collected data will be used to better predict the effects of climate change on livestock and rural life in Nepal.

Volunteers can use laptops or mobile phones to enter data collected from the weather station.

The initial testing consists of 30 sites (located on

women-run Village Model Farms) that monitor

temperature and precipitation as well as report

extreme weather events in order to collect

accurate data. The end goal for the project is to

link together climate assessments throughout

Nepal in order to better prepare herders for

climate change.

Digging a posthole in order to set up a climate monitoring station.

One of the volunteer monitors holding a rain gauge used to measure variation in rainfall for the area.

This slideshow was made possible by the US Agency for International Development and the generous support of the American people through Grant No. EEM-A-00-10-00001. The opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the US Agency for International Development or the US government.

PI: Robert Gillies, Utah State University , Director of the Utah Climate Center / State Climatologist (Utah), Associate Professor, Utah Climate Center (Dept. of Plants, Soils, and Climate)

Project: Past and Future Climate Assessments of Livestock Vulnerability in Nepal (CALVN)

Partner: Helen Keller International, Inc.