Unzipping flood vulnerability and functionality loss:tale of struggle for existence of riparian buildings

Floods pose significant risk to riparian buildings as evidenced during many historical events. Although structural resilience to tsunami flooding is well studied in the literature, high-velocity and debris-laden floods in steep terrains are not considered adequately so far. Historical floods in steep terrains necessitate the need for flood vulnerability analysis of buildings. To this end, we report vulnerability of riparian-reinforced concrete buildings using forensic damage interpretations and empirical/analytical vulnerability analyses. Furthermore, we propose the concept and implications of functionality loss due to flooding in residential reinforced concrete (RC) buildings using empirical data. Fragility functions using inundation depth and momentum flux are presented for RC buildings considering a recent flooding event in Nepal. The results show that flow velocity and sediment load, rather than hydrostatic load, govern the damages in riparian RC buildings. However, at larger inundation depth, hydrostatic force alone may collapse some of the RC buildings

Time of use electricity pricing in power system planning and operation: Case study of Nepalese power system

The difference between load demand in the off-peak and peak period is usually high in the context of Nepal, and the highpeak load for a short time is the main reason for insufficiency in electricity, frequent electricity outage, and poor power quality.This paper investigates the effectiveness of the time of use (TOU) strategy to reduce peak demand and to improve powerquality. TOU electricity price is one of the electric demand response (DR) strategies, which may motivate the customers toreduce their consumption in peak periods and shift load in the off-peak period, which propel the electricity industry towardsa higher efficiency compared to that of common flat prices. In this paper, a process based on an equal step length iterationalgorithm is used to obtain an optimal period partition. Using the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm, a TOU-basedoptimization model is proposed to find the optimal electricity price. Then, its impact on peak demand reduction and voltagefluctuation is analyzed. The impact of TOU price on peak demand reduction is investigated in the hourly load profile of Nepal,which indicates the significant reduction in peak demand. Similarly, the impact on voltage fluctuation is analyzed through acase study of the IEEE 33-bus radial distribution test system, which shows voltage profile is improved

Strengthening the integration of midwifery in health systems; a leader-to-leader collaboration.

Barriers and facilitators for quality midwifery care exist on different levels in the health systems. After decades of challenges and varied degrees of success, a stakeholder leader-to-leader collaboration could provide added value through knowledge sharing on how to integrate the midwifery cadre into an existing health system. Initiated by The Midwifery Society of Nepal, Dalarna University Sweden and MAMTA-Health Institute for Mother and Child India, a research network focusing midwifery has been formed. The background, purpose and activities of this network has been described in this News and Events paper

Strengthening the integration of midwifery in health systems; a leader-to-leader collaboration.

Barriers and facilitators for quality midwifery care exist on different levels in the health systems. After decades of challenges and varied degrees of success, a stakeholder leader-to-leader collaboration could provide added value through knowledge sharing on how to integrate the midwifery cadre into an existing health system. Initiated by The Midwifery Society of Nepal, Dalarna University Sweden and MAMTA-Health Institute for Mother and Child India, a research network focusing midwifery has been formed. The background, purpose and activities of this network has been described in this News and Events paper