Relocating Lubra Village and Visualizing Himalayan Flood Damages with Remote Sensing

As weather patterns change worldwide, isolated communities impacted by climate change go unnoticed and we need community-driven solutions. In Himalayan Mustang, Nepal, indigenous Lubra Village faces threats of increasing flash flooding. After every flood, residual muddy sediment hardens across the riverbed like concrete, causing the riverbed elevation to rise. As elevation increases, sediment encroaches on Lubra's agricultural fields and homes, magnifying flood vulnerability. In the last monsoon season alone, the Lubra community witnessed floods swallowing several agricultural fields and damaging two homes. One solution considers relocating the village to a new location entirely. However, relocation poses a challenging task, as eight centuries of ancestry, heritage, and nuanced cultural complexities exist in both aspects of communal opinion and civil engineering. To investigate this issue further, we utilize remote sensing technologies such as drones and satellite imagery to create unique, highly detailed 3D visualizations and 2D maps to document climate-related impacts in Lubra Village. We also investigate quantifying riverbed elevation trends with digital elevation models to address how the riverbed elevation changes overtime. In tandem, we conduct oral interviews with members of Lubra to understand how flooding and droughts affect their ways of life, allowing us to contextualize these models. Pairing visualized data with personal accounts, we provide an informative story that depicts Himalayan climate change on a local level for supporting Lubra in informing local policy and requesting relief aid.