New Land Use / Hydrology Project

Within the PALM-ICARDA framework aiming at sustainable land management in the Pamir-Alai mountains we at the Kyrgyz GIS Association were awarded an ‘adaptive research grant’ by the United Nations University (UNU, Bonn) to develop “Regional Water and Small Hydropower Potentials in the Pamir-Alai Mountains”.

Starting from land cover and terrain analysis, the project will model the terrestrial phase of the water cycle for catchments in southern Kyrgyzstan. Results will be insights into local (small catchment area) potentials for hydropower and irrigation, with a particular focus on the evaluation of climate change scenarios to assess the potential impact on the seasonal availability of water for consumption and the production of food and energy.

The project is conducted in close cooperation with the Centre for Geoinformatics at the University of Salzburg and is coordinated through the Kyrgyz GIS Association (KGGISA) with support from the Kyrgyz GIS Centre by supplying hardware infrastructure and data. First results will be reported at the upcoming GISCA conference.