U.S. Marines from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit unload food and supplies to Pakistanis in support of the flood relief effort in Pano Aqil, Pakistan, Sept. 11, 2010. Photo: U.S. Army/Sgt. Jason Bushong.

The International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) and Radiant.Earth have signed a strategic partnership agreement for knowledge and technology transfer of Earth Observation (EO). Under this agreement, the parties will establish and implement new EO and geospatial application services to support monitoring and assessment of climate change related impacts in the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region, with a particular focus on the United Nations’ (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

A large-scale blueprint to ensure socioeconomic progress globally without destroying the environment, SDG focuses on ending poverty, addressing climate change, and combating inequality and injustice.

According to ICIMOD, climate change is increasingly disrupting the way of life for communities living in the HKH region. People face constant threats of droughts, floods, and landslides. ICIMOD is a regional intergovernmental learning and knowledge sharing center serving the eight regional member countries of the Hindu Kush Himalayas: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan. The organization helps communities vulnerable to these natural disasters to understand the changes taking place and how to strengthen their resiliency.

David Molden, director general of ICIMOD, said achieving the Sustainable Development Goals involves dealing with complex challenges such as tackling climate change, coping with natural disasters, ensuring ecosystem services, and improving the resilience of mountain communities. EO in combination with emerging geo-information and communications technologies provides viable options to understand rapid social and environmental changes to develop actionable policy and programs in the region. “Our strategic partnership with Radiant.Earth will augment ICIMOD’s capacity to provide information services for monitoring and assessment of key concerns of regional significance,” Molden said.