Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in Building Knowledge Processes in Vulnerable Ecosystems: A Case for Sustainability

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in Building Knowledge Processes in Vulnerable Ecosystems: A Case for Sustainability

Prakash Rao
Copyright: © 2011 |Pages: 15
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60960-531-5.ch009
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Abstract

The present chapter explores the use of some of the current state of the art technologies like ICTs including tools like Remote Sensing and GIS as a means for providing sound and efficient decision making across various sectors.
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Background

India is an agriculture based developing economy, surrounded by a long coast line and a mountainous Himalayan range in the north. Given this, the country is vulnerable to any major changes in the overall climate. There is an urgent need for developing strategic interventions to address the adaptation needs of local communities and ecosystems based on impact studies and the use of appropriate technology and communication based solutions and strategies. Regional climate variability and the various uncertainties involved in projecting future climate scenarios make local adaptation attributes a very complex issue and often region specific.

Civil society interventions often have strong linkages to field and grass roost based sustainable development projects with a particular focus on some of the vulnerable ecosystems of the Indian sub continent like the Himalayas, Sundarbans and the coastal regions and agriculture.

Himalaya

The vast number and range of glaciers and perennial river systems originating from the Himalaya mountain range in the north are the major source of freshwater supplies to the subcontinent. Due to rising temperature and changing precipitation pattern, the glaciers are retreating at an alarming rate, posing immediate threat to fresh water availability in the South Asian countries (WWF Report 2005). The direct evidence of real climate change impacts in the Himalaya requires immediate attention of the international community as well as regional and national policy makers for consideration in any future development planning.

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