A interaction workshop titled "Flight 4 Purpose : Combating land tenure insecurity in Nepal’s remote and vulnerable areas using UAVs" was conducted jointly by Department of Geomatics Engineering, Kathmandu University and Kadastre International, Netherland on 26 July, 2019. The workshop is organized at senate Hall of Kathmandu University.

Dr. Damber Bahadur Nepali, Dean, SOE, welcomed all the distinguished participant at the workshop and delivered a short introduction about the Geomatics Engineering at Kathmandu Univeristy.

The workshop aims to explore how to build upon Nepal’s recent advances in land policy development and to share knowledge about awareness, needs, and partnership potentials for operationalization of UAV for land rights mapping for women and vulnerable groups in Nepal.

A team from Kadaster (Ms Paula Dijkstra - Regional Manager Kadaster, Ms Eva-Maria Unger ( Advisor), Mr Rohan Bennett ( Advisor) and Mr Niels Koefoed Nielsen, LE34, Chartered Land Surveyor) visited and co-organized the workshop.

Mr. Subash Jha , Dy. Director from Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal also participated in the event and presented about Drones regulations in Nepal and also interacted with the participants on their drones permissions related queries.

Mr. Uma Shankar Panday, Assistant Professor, Department of Geomatics Engineering presented on Recent UAV Applications and the UAV projects carried out by Geomatics Engineering Department. Similarly, Mr. Uttam Pudasaini, CEO, NAXA presented on UAV Applications in Nepal and some major projects ongoing at NAXA and Nepal Flying Lab. The representatives from Ministry of Land Management, Co-operatives and Poverty Allievation, Survey Department, Land Management Training Center and DRONepal presented about new drones related surveying and mapping initiatives by the Government of Nepal.

Moreover, the representative from Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation, Land Management Training Center, NAXA, Nepal Flying Labs, DroNEPAL and other related organisation actively took part in the workshop. Also the students of Geomatics Engineering at Kathmandu University actively participated in the workshop.

UAV flight set up and demonstration in the vicinity of KU boy’s hostel was co-ordinated by Mr. Basant Awasthi, Faculty, Department of Geomatics Engineering. The result of field work of UAV was presented by Mr. Uma Shankar Panday and Dr. Rohan Bennett, Advisor, Kadaster International, the Netherlands. Mr. Neils Koefoed Nielsen, LE34, Chartered Land Surveyor presented on opportunity for PPS and Dr. Rohan Bennet from Kadaster International provided the introduction of Artificial intelligence and Big Data Analytics. Ms. Eva Unger, Kadaster, International presented on AFE and validation in the field.

Group work and presentation of findings of group work were carried out to find out the ways to scale up UAV application in order to achieve tenure security in Nepal. The participants of the workshop were KU faculties, LMTC staff, officials from Survey Department, Ministry of Land Management, Co-operatives and Poverty Alleviation and Geomatics Engineering III year and Fourth students of Kathmandu University. The program was facilitated by Dr. Reshma Shrestha, Assistant Professor at the Department of Geomatics Engineering.

The closing remarks with a vote of thanks were delivered by Ms. Paula Dijkstra, Regional manager, Kadaster International and Dr. Subash Ghimire, Assistant Professor and Acting Head of Department of Geomatics Engineering.