Understanding urban growth trends in Kathmandu Valley

Utilising different tools for understanding urban growth and mapping has become an important aspect for comprehensive disaster risk reduction. These tools include GIS and Open Street Mapping. Each of these tools presents their own strengths and by utilising them, we are able to gain a holistic view of urban mapping and growth. This allows officials to adequately produce and implement risk sensitive land use plans to mitigate disaster risk.

As part of the capacity development of stakeholders on Urban Growth Trend Tools and Techniques, a week long training from 7 to 14 March 2013 was conducted in the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal with support from the UNDP Comprehensive Disaster Risk Management Programme. This included training in the use of GIS and Open Street Mapping. A total of 21 participants, from government, municipalities, private sector and academia, were involved in the training.

The objectives of the training were to enable participants to use Open Source Quantum GIS tools for land use trends and mapping of risk from hazards and to disseminate the basics of GIS and Open Source GIS tools.

The training supports efforts towards strengthening risk sensitive land use planning in the Kathmandu Valley. The tools utilised will allow stakeholders to map current ‘elements of risk’ and identify urban growth trends. This allows for understanding the level of risk within the Kathmandu Valley and how officials can plan to mitigate those risks.