Towards a Decision Support System for environmental emergencies management in poor settlements in the Kathmandu Valley (Nepal)

Abstract

The output of the collaboration among ASIA Onlus and the University of Trento (Department of Civil, Environmental and Mechanical Engineering) in the analysis of environmental risk occurrences in the Kathmandu Valley is presented. Aim of the study was to design and implement a prototype of a practical Decision Support System for environmental emergencies management for the informal poor settlements in Kathmandu. Intensive fieldwork and analysis have been carried out to collect the necessary input data for the application. The population of informal urbanized areas has been involved with a participatory approach to discover perception and behaviors during environmental emergency occurrences and to share knowledge and procedures in risk management. The study focuses on one poor-area in the Kathmandu Valley considering flooding, earthquake and fire as environmental risks and aims to be extended to the entire city with the direct involvement of local authorities.