Scope: This proposal is to support a US-Pakistan Workshop, to be held in Lahore, Pakistan March 2006. The U.S. organizers are Dr. John Shroder and Dr. Michael Bishop, Department of Geography and Geology, University of Nebraska, Omaha, Nebraska. The foreign organizers are Dr. Syed Hamidullah, Director, Center of Excellence in Geology, University of Peshawar, Peshawar, Pakistan and Dr. Sayed Hsnain, Vice Chancellor, University of Calicut, Kerala, India. The Karakoram Science Project (KSP) Workshop is to engage Himalayan specialists from the USA with Indian, Pakistani, and other Asian counterparts to discuss problems and possibilities associated with the Karakoram Himalaya in a setting conducive to augmentation of science in the region. By establishing cross-border scientific dialog in person, and through electronic and paper means, significant advances in science quality in the region are expected, as well as the building of future continuing cooperative links. A description of the KSP workshop will be submitted to EOS and Geotimes, papers from the workshop will be published in a book, a website will be developed, and follow-up collaborative activities are planned.
Intellectual merit: A host of excellent scientific problems exist in the Karakoram Himalaya. The focus will be mainly upon areas in glacier and mass-movement characteristics and evolution, glacier fluctuations, and related natural hazards, together with the GLIMS (Global Land Ice Measurements from Space) Project that is establishing remote sensing and field-based studies of the basic snow, ice, and melt water for Southwest Asia. Topics of particular interest that will enable previously restricted cross-border collaborations will include new remote-sensing studies, production of digital elevation models from the new ASTER and other imagery, geographic information system software writing and transfer, establishment of new ground-based assessment techniques of benchmark glaciers, new educational examples and techniques for the Himalaya about glaciers, melt water, associated natural hazards, shared resources. Some workshop attendees will present their own materials on other geoscience topics. Collectively the participants will bring together significant geoscience expertise for the Western Himalaya and therefore will brainstorm the new ideas and procedures to study the mountain region.
Broader Impacts: The workshop will host a diverse group of established scientists, as well as new scientists and younger students of both genders, selected on the basis of interest, expertise, diversity, and their plans for future collaboration. The workshop will engage this group of South Asian scientists in meetings with American scientists, which will enable direct discussion of shared problems and possibilities for the Karakoram Himalaya in a completely new fashion. The PIs have decades of research experience in South Asia, and their counterparts in India and Pakistan are senior scientists who have similar lengthy experience in the Himalaya, as well as elite positions in their universities. They are finding the best scientists from their own countries and from China who will attend the Workshop. This project is funded by the Office of International Science and Engineering and the Division of Earth Sciences.
