Empowering Women in GIT

What is Empowering Women in GIT [ Geospatial Information Technology]?

The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), in partnership with Robotics Association of Nepal (RAN), will conduct a four-day training on “Empowering Women in Geospatial Information Technology (GIT)”, Kathmandu, under its SERVIR Hindu Kush Himalaya (SERVIR-HKH) Initiative. In recent years, technology has developed drastically and new innovation is growing day by day. Nepal, though in a slow pace, is also adapting to the technology being developed. But this adaptation has not been proportional in terms of gender. GIS Mapping, one of the leading innovative technology is creating jobs and confidence in people that supports landscape mapping, smart planning and decision making but inclusion of women in GIT related jobs is very less in Nepal as well as in other regional member countries in the HKH region. Therefore, SERVIR-HKH is promoting capacity building activities specially designed for women to develop gender balance workforce in the region. This training course will bring young women from Nepal together and provide theoretical as well as hands on exercises on the use of satellite Earth observation data and GIT. This will cover a range of topics including Earth observation for societal benefits, GIT applications in HKH, concepts of remote sensing and GIS, gender perspectives in GIT, team building, importance of women in GIT, GIS operation and mapping using open source tools, python coding, and use of GEE cloud computing environment to solve emerging environmental problems.   

Why Empowering Women in GIT?

Empowering Women in GIT is to help women start and navigate their geospatial careers, gear towards helping women navigate their careers in geospatial industries. . The program believes in advancing the presence of young women in GIT and make them leader in the field of Geospatial technology. While the opportunity is growing in this sector with the change in governance into federal system, the male/female ratio has been uneven and  unequal.  Male counterparts has been leading this sector and earning a healthy income but female counterparts are out of scope. We believe Empowering Women in GIT would support build a better career with equal opportunity.

 

Objective

This training aims to train young women from Nepal on the use of Earth observation data and geospatial information technology which will support the efforts to bridge the gender gap in GIT field through empowering and encouraging women to consider careers in GIT and its applications.

 

Expected Outcomes

Upon the completion of the training, the participants will have a better understanding about the concepts and general applications of Earth observation data and GIT.

 

Expected Participants

About 80 young women participants with technical knowledge in either field of engineering, survey, computer science, or information technology are expected in this training. Register here: https://goo.gl/EkSA4i

Resource Persons:

 

Mr. Birendra Bajracharya, Chief of Party, SERVIR-HKH Initiative and Regional Program Manager, MENRIS, ICIMOD

Dr. Mir Matin, Theme Leader, Geospatial Solutions, ICIMOD

Mr. Sudip Pradhan, Program Coordinator – Regional Database Initiative, MENRIS, ICIMOD,

Dr. Laurie Ann Vasily, Head, Knowledge Management and Communication, ICIMOD,

Dr. Rajesh Bahadur Thapa, Capacity Building Specialist, Geospatial Solutions, ICIMOD

Dr. Pranita Bhusan Udas, Gender, Water and Adaptation Specialist, Livelihoods, ICIMOD

Ms. Naina Shakya, Partnership and Private Sector Specialist, SCU, ICIMOD

Mr. Santosh Raj Pathak, Partnership Contract Officer, SCU, ICIMOD

Mr. Utsab Shrestha, Vice-President, Electronics and Communication Engineer, Python Coding Specialist, RAN

Mr. Binod Kandel, Secretary, Electronics and Communication Engineer, QGIS Trainer, RAN

Mr. Rabi Raj Khakda, R&D Head-Software, GEE Trainer, RAN

Mr. Bikash Gurung, President, RAN

 

Event Day Planning:

Day 1

Time Topic
9:00- 9:30 Registration
9:30-10:00 Opening session
  • Program Overview and Introduction to the Participants
  • Opening and Welcome Remarks
10:00-10:30 Photo Session and Coffee/Tea Break
10:30-12:30 Morning session
  • Earth Observation and Societal Benefits – Birendra Bajracharya
  • GIT Applications in Hindu Kush Himalaya – Sudip Pradhan
  • Team Building – Naina Shakya and Santosh Raj Pathak
12:30-13:30 Lunch
13:30-15:00 Afternoon session
  • Remote Sensing and Geospatial Concepts – Rajesh Bahadur Thapa
15:00-16:30 Coffee/Tea break
  • Gender Perspectives in GIT – Pranita Bhushan Udas
  • Importance of Women in Technology – Bikash Gurung

 

Day 2

Time Topic
9:00 -12:30 Morning session
Registration and Stationery Distribution
Introduction to open source GIS – Binod Kandel

  • Overview of QGIS
  • Making a map, working with attributes, importing spreadsheets or CSV files, using plugins, searching and downloading OpenStreetMap Data
10:30-11:00 Coffee/Tea break
Session continue
12:30-13:30 Lunch
13:30-15:00 Afternoon session
  • Vector styling, calculating line lengths and statistics, raster styling and analysis, raster mosaicing and clipping, working with terrain and WMS data, working with projections
  • Vector calculation, functions: geometric, arithmetic, mathematic, aggregate, etc.
  • Georeferencing toposheets, scanned maps, and aerial imagery
  • Digitizing map data
15:00-15:30 Coffee/Tea break
Session continue

 

Day 3

Time Topic
9:15-12:30 Morning session
  • Performing table and spatial joins
  • Points in polygon analysis, spatial queries, creating heatmaps
  • Raster calculation and expression
  • Exploring tools: geoprocessing, geometry, analysis, and research
10:30-11:00 Coffee/Tea break
  • Working with software tools through QGIS
    • SAGA, GRASS, GDAL, etc.
  • Nearest neighbor analysis
  • Sampling raster data using points or polygons, interpolating point data, and batch processing
12:30-13:30 Lunch
13:30-15:00 Afternoon session
Python coding for geospatial data analysis – Utsab Shrestha

  • Introduction, basics operations, working with functions, lambda function, modules, conditions, loops, lists and dictionaries, exception handling, file handling
15:00-16:30 Coffee/Tea break
Session continue

 

Day 4

Time Topic
9:15-12:30 Morning session
Python coding in QGIS – Binod Kandel

  • Environment setup, python console, python API
  • Read & display single and multi-bands raster data
  • Manipulating and visualize Vector data
  • Image collections
10:30-11:00 Coffee/Tea break
Google Earth Engine using Python Coding – Rabi Raj Khadka

  • Introduction to Earth Engine, exploring GEE Interface, datasets, arrays and matrices, time series analysis, tables and vectors, classification, importing and exporting, google maps API, publishing and storytelling
12:30-13:30 Lunch
13:30-16:50 Afternoon session
  • Clipping a raster using a feature, band arithmetic and threshold operations on raster data, resampling a raster, raster to vector – vector to raster conversion
15:00-15:30 Coffee/Tea break
  • Reflections
  • Certificate distribution
  • Vote of thanks
  • Closing remarks

Venue location:

Kanchanjunga Hall, ICIMOD, Lalitpur
Geographic coordinates: 27° 38’ 47” N, 85° 19’ 24”

ICIMOD Direction