Background
GBCRP “Improving Climate Resilience of Vulnerable Communities and Ecosystems in the Gandaki Basin, Nepal” is a GCF Funded project that seeks to enhance climate resilience in the Gandaki River Basin (GRB) in Nepal. A key focus of this project is to fund nature-based infrastructures in communities that are susceptible to climate-induced events such as altered rainfall patterns, soil erosions, droughts, floods, and landslides.
SWN was awarded this assignment by IUCN (The International Union for Conservation of Nature) Nepal to identify climate-vulnerable sites to select or design bioengineering techniques and Nature-based Solutions (NbS) to strengthen the climate resilience of communities and ecosystems for the GBCRP project.
Objective of the Assignment
The main objective of the assignment is to identify climate-vulnerable sites of climate-resilient green belts and desing an affordable Nature-Based Solutions (NbS) within the Gandaki River Basin.
The specific objective of the assignment is to provide indicative designs for structures using concepts of NbS and appropriate bioengineering techniques along the identified green belts, landslide prone rural roads, degraded lands with enrichment plantation opportunities, and highly vulnerable areas in consultation with communities and other project stakeholders.
Key Activities and Service Provided by SWN
Under this project, SWN undertook the following activities:
- Conducted vulnerability assessment in prioritized local levels based on both flood and landslide hazard analyses, along with physical, social, economic, and environmental indicators.
- Identified vulnerable sites based on analysis of data received from secondary source, geospatial tools, remote sensing, community consultations, and selected site visits.
- Proposed appropriate bioengineering techniques and NbS along the identified green belts, landslide-prone rural roads, gullies, rivers, and agricultural lands.
- Utilized digital mapping approach to identify specific degraded and vulnerable land sites covering forest land, wetlands, grasslands, and conservation ponds for enrichment plantation.
Outputs
- Integrated Hazard and Vulnerability Maps of 53 Local Governments (LGs) to identify highly vulnerable wards for site prioritization.
- A total of 1,616 vulnerable sites within 151 LGs.
- Potential enrichment plantation area of 6,867.65 Ha.
- Indicative design, drawings, location maps, and cost estimates of proposed structures by using bioengineering techniques and NbS.
- Validation of sites through field visits and consultation meetings with representatives of Local Governments, DFOs, SWMOs, and Provincial Governments.
