Asia and the Pacific

The Gorkha Earthquake that struck central Nepal on 25th April 2015 caused extensive damage to the historic centre of Kathmandu, much of which is inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The main palace that houses Hanuman Dhoka’s Palace Museum, as well as numerous temples and traditional Sattals (rest houses) or pavilions, were damaged or destroyed. In many LDC contexts like in Kathmandu, post-earthquake rehabilitation is dependent on the resilience of the communities, and their successful interaction with policy makers, engineers and architects.

In Turkey’s Western Anatolia, unprecedented funds are committed to the development of geothermal resources and energy infrastructure. Deep geothermal energy projects, in particular, grew in size and number in the last 15 years. These are almost always located in the proximity of largely agrarian communities in peri-urban and rural settings with a longstanding tradition of agriculture such as fig, grape and/or olive production.

Longer dry seasons & lower than average/erratic rainfall are feeding drought conditions in Cambodia. The impacts are serious for subsistence farmers, whose livlelihoods and food security depend on consistent rainfall. 

In 2004, 480,000+ ha. crops were destroyed due to drought; in 2018, drought affected 52,000+ people and 96,929 ha. Such events can be exacerbated by the El Nino Soutehrn Oscillation. 

The United Nations estimates that over one in ten people across the world do not have access to clean water. Hence, affordable, eco-sustainable methods for water collection are a major global challenge facing society today, especially in developing countries. In this project, we will focus on Indonesia. Indonesia is the fourth most populous country in the world with 260M people, and it is estimated that more than 27M Indonesians still lack access to clean water.

Bangladesh’s fertile land has been key to growth and has offered millions of people a hand out of poverty. 

That growth is becoming increasingly precarious as the impacts of a warming planet intensify.

The changes pose a particularly acute threat to the coastal poor, whose livelihoods depend on agriculture and whose homes sit atop the low-lying plain astride the Bay of Bengal.

The experience of the Saralbhanga River, which flows from Bhutan to India, shows the power of involving local people in river management.