Factors determining English test score of high school students in rural Nepal

Due to globalization and internationalization of education, the importance of English language has been growing consistently. Like many other countries around the globe, English is taught as a compulsory subject from the primary level in Nepal. Despite continuous public and private efforts, achievement in English education is not satisfactory, especially in rural areas, due to numerous socio-cultural and other factors. Thus, this article explores some important determinants of English achievement of high school students in Rural Nepal. Through the questionnaire responses of 407 students from the four villages of Sindhupalchok district, which is explored using Cremer’s V analysis, a strong association between students English test score and their socio-cultural, family, school and personal factors was found

Illustration of Rapid Urban Growth in Surkhet Valley of Nepal via Land Use and Land Cover Dynamics

Surkhet Valley hosts Birendranagar City which is the capital of Karnali Province of Nepal and there is a rapid change in the landscape of this valley. This change can be attributed to its designation as an administrative capital and the leading economic center of the province. Thus, this study aimed to observe the changing land use and land cover (LULC) patterns of Surkhet Valley. Object-based image analysis was carried out for image classification for Landsat images of years 1989, 1999, 2009, and 2019. Key findings, for the area of 103.15 km2 Surkhet Valley, showed decreasing area of cultivated lands and increasing spatial coverage of built-up areas. The cultivated lands that measured 42 km2 for the year 1989 had plummeted to just 28.23 km2 in 2019. On the other side, the area covered by built-up class was only 1.16 km2 in 1989 which rose to 15.41 km2 in 2019. The changes in LULC coverage of other classes such as forests, shrub/grassland, sand, and water were negligible. The rate of change in the area of LULC classes built-up and cultivation was near but in the opposite direction. Built-up had an increasing rate of 0.49 km2year-1 while cultivation area had a decreasing rate of -0.46 km2year-1. When the built-up area of 2019 was compared to the base area of 1989 it had a gain of 1270.46% indicating its rapid growth in the past three decades. These reflected an increasing trend in spatial coverage of built-up areas indicating rapid urban growth

Land evaluation for peri-urban agriculture using analytical hierarchical process and geographic information system techniques: A case study of Hanoi

This paper presents an integrated technique of analytical hierarchical process (AHP) and geographic information system (GIS) to evaluate the land for peri-urban agriculture. Hanoi province, Vietnam was selected for the case study. Transformation of conventional agriculture to modern cash crops is the current trend in peri-urban Hanoi. A field survey with focused group discussions was conducted. Based on field survey data analysis, soil, land use, water resources, road network and market were chosen as major factors affecting the peri-urban agriculture. A map of each factor with different logical criteria was prepared. The AHP method was applied to identify the priority weight of each factor. Five spatial layers with their corresponding weights were linearly combined to prepare the suitability map. The map was further scaled as high suitable, medium suitable, low suitable and unsuitable land for the peri-urban agriculture. This empirical scenario provides a cost effective, rapid land evaluation framework which may help policy makers, urban and regional planners and researchers working in developing countries

City profile Kathmandu

Kathmandu is the capital of Nepal and forms the core of the nation’s most populous urban region. Thecity has been important economically, administratively, and politically for hundreds of years. With itsancient monuments scattered around, Kathmandu is an emerging city where several plans and conceptshave been implemented for its development. Like many cities of the developing world, it has been facingrapid population expansion and daunting socio-economic problems. There are issues of inadequateurban management of the city’s expansion, including inadequate infrastructure and squatter settlements,with severe environmental consequences including air, water and other forms of pollution. In thisprofile, Kathmandu is defined as comprising the two contiguous and closely interlinked administrativeentities, Kathmandu Metropolitan City and Lalitpur Sub-Metropolitan City. The paper analyzes historicalurban development process, current plans and programmes, land use change and some contemporarysocio-economic indicators for Kathmandu city, traces the major urban problems of the city, andconsiders future direction for its development

Preference for Sex of Children Among Women in Nepal

The preference for a son at birth is one of the key issues of demographic studies conducted in less developed countries; however, there is a rare exploration of child’s sex preference among women in Nepal. This paper estimates the likelihood of a preference for son or daughter using the 2011 Nepal Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) data, which contains a nationally representative sample of Nepalese women. A multinomial logistic regression analysis shows that son and daughter preferences widely vary across ethnicities, educational and economic status, and geographical region. Regarding ethnic origin, women from the Janajati (the largest ethnic minority group that consists of many sub-ethnic groups) prefer daughter more than the top two caste groups, the Brahman and Chhetri, whereas the Madhesi, Muslim, and other ethnic minority women prefer son more than the top two caste groups. Similarly, less educated, poorer, and rural women prefer son more than more educated, richer, urban women in general. Women who desire more of either sex end up with more children in their household

The SAR Handbook: Comprehensive Methodologies for Forest Monitoring and Biomass Estimation

This Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) handbook of applied methods for forest monitoring and biomass estimation has been developed by SERVIR in collaboration with SilvaCarbon to address pressing needs in the development of operational forest monitoring services. Despite the existence of SAR technology with all-weather capability for over 30 years, the applied use of this technology for operational purposes has proven difficult. This handbook seeks to provide understandable, easy-to-assimilate technical material to remote sensing specialists that may not have expertise on SAR but are interested in leveraging SAR technology in the forestry sector

Design Thinking for the Applied Sciences: Developing a Novel Approach to Encourage the Use of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and Open Source Tools for Forest Monitoring

Earth observations from Synthetic Aperture Radar, or SAR, have yet to be fully leveraged for forest monitoring applications. While SAR sensors are uniquely able to capture components of forest structure over optical imagery, especially in cloud-heavy regions, there is a shortage of freely-available applied training materials and related case studies. With the wealth of available datasets from Sentinel-1 and other missions, such as ALOS-Palsar open historical archive, and in preparation for upcoming opendata policy SAR missions (e.g. NISAR and BIOMASS), the applied forestry community would benefit from increased access to relevant, understandable SAR training materials. This work documents lessons learned and best practices for creating EO capacity building/training materials gleaned from the SAR Handbook project. Strategies for increasing legibility for both print and online applications, illustration and editing guidelines for original and modified figures, and the development of quick-reference guides will be shared. Additionally, the conception and use of companion explainer videos, using cartoon characters and humor to outline relevant SAR concepts will be explored. Preliminary results indicate the SAR Handbook and supplemental project materials are already having an impact in training sessions. Increased uptake of SAR technologies in SERVIR Hub regions, where Hubs are leading follow-on SAR trainings, has also been noted. In addition, a review of download statistics from the SERVIR global website indicates widespread worldwide access. We conclude similar holistic approaches integrating design concepts into future content development would help increase uptake of EO applications by the earth science community

Development of a Training Knowledge Management System for the SERVIR Global Network

No abstract availabl

How to Leverage the Power of SAR Observations for Forest Monitoring Systems

Earth observations from Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) can provide unique observations related to forest structure and condition. Furthermore, SAR has many potential applications in forest monitoring systems, particularly where clouds have impeded optical observations. Currently, there is a reliable, freely-available, provision of SAR datasets, such as Sentinel-1, and there are plans to have more observations in the near- future (NISAR, BIOMASS). Given SARs enhanced earth observation characteristics, there is broad interest in using SAR datasets for decision support systems, such as deforestation early warning systems. However, applications of SAR are still underutilized. What is preventing users from using SAR data in their decision support systems? This study documents the experiences and lessons learned from the SERVIR network on the main limitations of incorporating SAR datasets into existing forest monitoring systems. This research also focuses on the major technical and scientific barriers we experience and best practices to address them. The results of this study are part of the SERVIR- SilvaCarbon collaboration. The primary goal of this collaboration is to build capacity in the applied use of SAR for forest monitoring and biomass estimation. The products of this effort aim to start closing the gap between SAR-science and forest applications. We will also present results to generate applied-ready knowledge for SAR