Scientific Conference

International Conference on Rivers in the Hindu Kush Himalaya: Ecology and Environmental Assessment.
3-7 March 2008, Kathmandu/Nepal

Second announcement and call for papers

Background

The Hindu Kush-Himalayan (HKH) region is world-famous for its beauty and biodiversity. Its rivers provide water and power for hundreds of millions people downstream. However, exploitation of the natural resources has to be managed in a sustainable way to prevent deterioration and depletion. The preservation and enhancement of water quality is a key issue of environmental protection in this area. However, the basic scientific fundamentals of a sustainable water management in the HKH area are still quite poor. Biological monitoring of river quality, which is crucial for an understanding and managing aquatic ecosystems, is mostly unfamiliar in this region. This is probably due to a lack of knowledge on the indigenous fauna in the HKH rivers and due to a lack of appropriate monitoring methodologies.

Within a research project funded by the EU, Asian scientists from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Pakistan and European scientists from Austria, the Czech Republic and Germany developed tools for water quality assessment in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan region.

This conference aims at presenting the project’s results to students, water managers and scientists. A further vital interest covers the exchange of knowledge about biological methods used in the Asian countries. Thus this conference is seen as a forum to discuss aspects of Himalayan river ecology, the taxonomic status of the HKH river fauna, water quality monitoring and the protection of aquatic biodiversity in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan region with local and international representatives of theoretic and applied river ecology sensu lato.

Programme

The programme will be broken down into four sessions:

Oral and poster presentations by ASSESS-HKH partners as well as water managers and scientists of all different fields of interest are welcome. The scientific results will be published in a book.

Scientific committee

Otto Moog, BOKU – Austria (otto.moog@boku.ac.at)
University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Vienna
Department Water - Atmosphere - Environment
Institute of Hydrobiology & Aquatic Ecosystem Management

Daniel Hering, UDE – Germany (daniel.hering@uni-due.de)
University of Duisburg-Essen
Centre for Microscale Ecosystem
Department of Hydrobiology

Subodh Sharma, KU – Nepal (kuhimal@ku.edu.np)
Kathmandu University, Dhulikhel

Mandira Shrestha, ICIMOD (mshrestha@icimod.org)
International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development
Kathmandu, Nepal

Schedule and venue

3/3/2008: Arrival day
4-6/3/2008: Scientific programme
7/3/2008: Departure day

Afternoon excursions will lead to the most famous places of interest in the Kathmandu Valley, including the cultural heritage sites Patan and Bhaktapur as well as religious places like Pashupatinath or Swayambunath.

Conference venue:
Dhulikhel Mountain Resort (Lazimpat, Kathmandu), Nepal

Fees

European delegates: 500 Euro
Other countries: 650 USD
SAARC nations delegates: 250 USD
Nepalese delegates: 5000 NRs

The fee includes accommodation, meals/snacks, local transport for airport pickup drop and field trips.
SAARC nation delegates and students will be lodged at different hotels.
Details of payment will be announced soon.

Registration and call for papers

To register, please send an email stating the following informations:

We would be happy if you contribute to the success of the meeting with an oral or a poster presentation.

Last submission appointment for abstracts is March 31st, 2008.

Download guidelines for abstracts and full papers: ASSESS_HKH_paper_guidelines.doc (32 KB)

Download conference flyer: hkh_conference_flyer.pdf (225 KB)

This conference is part of the project STREP - specific targeted research or innovation project
Contract number: INCO-CT-2005-003659

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