Summer Travel Grant 2016 Recipient

Ranjeeta Acharya

ADB-JSP Scholar

In the third week of May, I traveled to my home country of Nepal for research about the impact of built environment on urban heat island effect in Kathmandu. During my stay in Nepal, I visited the Department of Urban Development and Building Construction (DUDBC) to determine how new planning and reconstruction after the earthquake of April 2015 may contribute towards adapting and mitigating increasing urban temperatures in Kathmandu. I met officials in the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, and also collected and analyzed temperature data to examine the variation in temperature in Kathmandu from 1980 until 2015. After visiting the peri-urban areas of Kathmandu valley, I observed that agricultural land and green fields are being converted into the residential plots, without thought about open spaces for future neighborhoods.

Agricultural land being converted into a residential plot in the periphery of Kathmandu.

Last but not least, I am very thankful to the East-West Center Alumni Association for supporting my research with a travel grant.

The East-West Center Association (EWCA) and the EWCA Hawaii Chapter provided Travel Grants ($500 each) to 10 current East West Center students for the summer of 2016.