Climate change is expected to increase temperatures in Nepal by several degrees by 2060, but a new database set up by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) should help this geographically diverse country better prepare for the various climate change impacts.
“The potential applications of this database are manifold: If a farmer has a better idea of how rain patterns are going to change, he can make better decisions about the crops he will plant, while the engineer can make a more informed decision about how to build roads that will last, and the government official can better direct public spending,” said Cindy Malvicini, Senior Water Resources Specialist, at ADB.
Under a project called “Strengthening Capacity for Managing Climate Change and the Environment,” ADB has coordinated a more specific set of climate change projections for areas as small as 12 square kilometers. Previous climate change data provided projections for wide swathes of up to 100 square kilometers. The new data are more targeted, allowing for more effective climate response plans to be drawn up.
The data show that between 2030 and 2060, the annual mean maximum temperature will increase in most areas of Nepal. While it will rise only slightly in the central part of the country, it will go up by about 3°C in the northwestern high mountain region. Meanwhile, average annual rainfall will increase slightly across the whole country, but increase most in the western and northern high mountain regions.
The projections have been made available through the Nepal Climate Data Portal on http://dhm.gov.np/dpc
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