ABSTRACT
Kathmandu Valley is a fast-growing city of Nepal. Extreme rainfall events often lead to flooding, causing serious damages to agricultural land, lives and properties, in the Kathmandu Valley. Lack of historical/current data (eg. hydrological data) in tributaries is one of the major challenges for solving flooding issue. The essence of hydro-meteorological data has more significance in a country like Nepal where water-induced hazards are more frequent. This study presents the feasibility of establishing a hydro-meteorological monitoring system using citizen scientists in Hanumante River, one of the major tributaries of the Bagmati River in the Kathmandu Valley. We discussed various methods to encourage citizen scientists for regular measurement and analysed the collected data of 2019. We believe such data could help better understand the dynamics of pluvial and fluvial inundation. We hope to numerically simulate the process and upscale similar studies in other tributaries in the coming days.
