comments on Dr. Reynolds discussion

[hamm...@hotmail.com]

I have gone through the details of the comments made by Mr. John
Reynolds regarding GLOF project so I would like to comment GLOF
project in two ways firstly the Importance of GOLF project and
secondly the technical aspects of GLOF project.
As far as the Importance of GLOF project is concerned in Pakistan. The
funding was initiated on the basses of the NEPAL and Bhutan GLOF
project which an initial effort was providing the better improvement
in the later project like in Pakistan. This was the first effort for
data inventory development of the HKH region as no prior research work
was carried out, as Pakistan is in the developing stage regarding GIS
and RS the project funding was utilized for capacity building in both
personnel training and technology development.
Data inventory developed under GLOF project is a valuable resource for
administrative authorities as water resources becoming the most
valuable source in the world.
Data inventory has discovered such potentially dangerous lakes which
were even not being surveyed or known by the local residents living
down streams in acute critical regions so apart from objections on
GLOF project or its technical flaws its importance as a data
repository is of immense value.
As GLOF inventory was compiled through various resources and there
have always been certain limitations of primary data sources in GIS
i.e. in Pakistan toposheets used in this data inventory were produced
by survey of Pakistan but the surveying dates of these data were
varying over areas
As far as regarding the parameters of inventory like projection
parameters are considered its not a big issue in GIS perspective.
Which clearly indicates that the such objections on GLOF project have
been made by the people without GIS expertise.
As far as the verification of the data in the field acquired by Remote
Sensing or other sources is considered. There is no need to use RS
data if the study area can be properly surveyed by conventional
techniques as RS is the best tool for data acquisition for in
accessible areas and also RS is the most economical data acquisition
time.
However the GLOF resource persons cross checked the data by field
surveying of selected data.
A part from all the discussion I would like to appreciate GLOF
personnel and ICIMOD for their valuable effort regarding data
inventory development as well as data accessibility on web as it can
be a valuable data source for future researchers and educational
institutions as data share ability is the most unique and worthwhile
aspect of GIS