Research

The Kingdom of Bhutan is nestled in the Himalayas, sharing borders with India to the south and China to the north. The country is a net carbon sink and has committed to ensuring that 60% of its total land area will remain as forest. Despite efforts to encourage sustainable economic growth at the national level, the impacts of climate change, driven partly by the global greenhouse gas emissions, will continue to affect Bhutan. The agricultural sector, which employs about 69% of the total population, is the most vulnerable to the changing climate. There is need to identify which crops may become unsuitable under climate projections and, equally, which crops may offer new opportunities to rural communities. A joint study by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MoAF), funded by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), was undertaken to assess the impacts of climate change on five key crops (i.e. rice, maize, potat...

Creating annual crop type maps for enabling improved food security decision making has remained a challenge in Bhutan. This is in part due to the level of effort required for data collection, technical model development, and reliability of an on-the-ground application. Through focusing on advancing Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) in Bhutan, an effort to co-develop a geospatial application known as the Agricultural Classification and Estimation Service (ACES) was created. This paper focuses on the co-development of an Earth observation informed climate smart crop type framework which incorporates both modeling and training sample collection. The ACES web application and subsequent ACES modeling software package enables stakeholders to more readily use Earth observation into their decision making process. Additionally, this paper offers a transparent and replicable approach for addressing and combating remote sensing limitations due to topography and cloud cov...