Preliminary activities: GIS project in the Sagarmatha National Park
The Ev-K²-CNR Committee has always sought to maximize the functional application of its research outputs, given the strong link with the territory in which the projects are carried out. Combining expertise and data gathered over a lengthy period of research experience, creation of a GIS (Geographical Information System) was thus identified as a strategic priority. The GIS, comprising the work, images and scientific results collected in the various sectors of Ev-K²-CNR activity, aims to provide the international scientific community with an instrument which can be used as an "interactive data bank", applied also to the management of the Everest National Park. Accordingly, staff training activities for GIS use and implementation are foreseen.
The most important aspect of this GIS is its great potential for management of data coming from various sources and with non-homogeneous formats and contents. With a high degree of flexibility, the GIS project will support researchers in the elaboration of data and allow them to obtain a representation of results in their required format. Such developments are particularly relevant since the degree of information and content they provide is much higher than that of the raw data available before elaboration and integration.
Finally, the value of a GIS depends not only on its intrinsic technical characteristics but also mostly on the quality of the data contained and on the possibility to easily update the database with new and more sophisticated information. This is possible, for example, through the application of mathematical models, such as numerical climate models, which allow information on climate-related effects to be "superimposed" on existing territorial information.
A first attempt to create a GIS for the Khumbu Valley was carried out in the mid-nineties, based on geological, glaciological, limnological, hydrographic and topographic data of the area surrounding the Pyramid. Scarce spatial resolution of existing topographic maps however strongly compromised the quality of the final product. The evolution of satellite survey technologies, new data gathered in the field and the availability of new and more complete topographic maps, will, from now on, allow for creation of a more complete and reliable GIS.
The characteristics of this GIS project also favour a multidisciplinary output, allowing various researchers to introduce their data within a common base set of geographic coordinates, on a single georeferenced map of the area in question.
The most important aspect of this GIS is its great potential for management of data coming from various sources and with non-homogeneous formats and contents. With a high degree of flexibility, the GIS project will support researchers in the elaboration of data and allow them to obtain a representation of results in their required format. Such developments are particularly relevant since the degree of information and content they provide is much higher than that of the raw data available before elaboration and integration.
Finally, the value of a GIS depends not only on its intrinsic technical characteristics but also mostly on the quality of the data contained and on the possibility to easily update the database with new and more sophisticated information. This is possible, for example, through the application of mathematical models, such as numerical climate models, which allow information on climate-related effects to be "superimposed" on existing territorial information.
A first attempt to create a GIS for the Khumbu Valley was carried out in the mid-nineties, based on geological, glaciological, limnological, hydrographic and topographic data of the area surrounding the Pyramid. Scarce spatial resolution of existing topographic maps however strongly compromised the quality of the final product. The evolution of satellite survey technologies, new data gathered in the field and the availability of new and more complete topographic maps, will, from now on, allow for creation of a more complete and reliable GIS.
The characteristics of this GIS project also favour a multidisciplinary output, allowing various researchers to introduce their data within a common base set of geographic coordinates, on a single georeferenced map of the area in question.