OWSD Early Career
Dr. Hemu Kharel Kafle
About me
Hemu Kharel Kafle, PhD is a scientist at the Kathmandu Institute of Applied Sciences (KIAS) and Head at the Center for Water and Atmospheric Research within it. She graduated as an Environmentalist from the Ben-Gurion University (Israel) and obtained her PhD in Remote Sensing from the Nagoya University (Japan). Dr. Kafle’s research interest is in the extreme climatic condition like drought and desertification and its impact on agriculture and water resources. She has also been working on air and soil pollution of Kathmandu valley. Her post-doctoral research at Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel) focused mainly on afforested forest at the extreme climatic condition. Her research career thus far has resulted in several peer-reviewed publications with a dozen of them as a lead author in high-impact journals. Felicitated by The World Academy of Science (TWAS) as Young Scientist in 2014, she was one of the first women to receive the Early Career Women Scientist fellowship in 2018.
Currently, she is also working on commercializing her research products, “Low-cost automatic weather station”, build by her research team at KIAS, Nepal and “Nano-Pad”, (Body warming device) developed in Kathmandu University. Dr. Kafle is also passionate about public engagement with science and is serving as an honorable member of Planning commission, Gandaki Province. A mother of two, Dr. Kafle is also a founding president of the Organization of Women Scientist in Developing World- Nepal Chapter (OWSN) working to inspire a stronger female future for Nepalese science while empowering the existing generation of women scientists.
Dr. Kafle’s LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hemu-kafle-0b88b884/
Other Memberships/Affiliations
Degrees:
2. Jasmita Khadgi, Karuna Kafle, Geeta Thapa, Soni Khaitu, Chandan Sarangi, David Cohen and Hemu Kafle* (November 2024). Concentration of particulate matter and atmospheric pollutants in the residential area of Kathmandu Valley: A case study of March–April 2021 Forest fire events (2024-11-14), doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2024.125280
3. Kafle, H*., Khaitu, S., Gyawali, D., Shrestha, D., Koirala, D., Kamaruzzaman, M., Khawas, V., Rashid, A., Sobue, S., and Yamaguchi, Y. (January 2023). Historical drought and its trend in South Asia: Spatial and temporal analysis 2000-2020. APN Science Bulletin, 12(1), 192 – 204. https://www.apn-gcr.org/bulletin/article/historical-drought-and-its-trend-in-south-asia-spatial-and-temporal-analysis-2000-2020/
4. Sapkota, B., Ojha, R.B., Kafle, H.K, Paudel, A., Shrestha, S., Rai, S.M. and Maharjan, S., (December 2022). An Overview of Urban Soil Contamination and Need of Soil Quality Assessment Guidelines in Nepal. Journal of Development Innovations, 6 (2), 1–17. (ISSN: 2371-9540)
5. P. Neupane. S. Rai, H. Kafle and R. Ranjan, (2022), Growth performance of different fish species during dry period in Chitwan Nepal. Journal of Agriculture and Forestry University, Volume 5, ISSN 2594-3146.
6. Kafle, H*., Khadgi, J., Ojha, R.B. and Santoso, M., (2022), Concentration, Sources and Associated Risks of Trace Elements in the Surface Soil of Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. Journal of Water Air and Soil Pollution, 233, 46 (2022), https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-021-05444-1.
7. Kafle, H.K. (2016), Drought Analysis in Western, Central and Eastern Development Regions of Nepal using Reconnaissance Drought Index. Journal of Hydrology Meteorology 10(1): Pp: 20-29.
8. Kafle, H.K. (2014), Study of Drought in Far and Mid Western region of Nepal: Time Series Analysis 1982-2012. Nepal Journal of Science and Technology, 15(1): Pp: 35-45.
9. Kafle, H. K. and Yamaguchi, Y. (2009), Effects of topography on the spatial distribution of regional evapotranspiration over a complex terrain using Two-Source Energy Balance model with ASTER data; Hydrological Processes Volume 23, Issue 16, pages 2295–2306, 30 July 2009, doi 10.1002/hyp.7336
10. Kafle, H. K. and Bruins, H. J. (2009), Climatic trends in Israel 1970-2002: warmer and increasing aridity inland; Journal of Climatic Change, Vol.96 (2009) pages 63–77 (DOI 10.1007/s10584-009-9578-2
11. Kafle, H. K. and Yamaguchi, Y. (2008), Surface Heat Fluxes Estimated from the Two-Source Energy Balance Model using ASTER Data in a Heterogeneous area; International journal of Geoinformatics, Vol. 4, No. 4, Pp:1-7.
12. Kafle, H. K. and Yamaguchi, Y. (2008), Surface heat fluxes in heterogeneous area by remote sensing, Proc. The 26th International Symposium on Space Technology and Science, 2008-n-25p, 5 pp. (in CD-ROM)
13. Kafle, H. K. and Yamaguchi, Y. (2007), Estimation of regional evapotranspiration in a vegetated area using ASTER data, Proceeding of the 28th Asian Conference on Remote Sensing, Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC), Kuala Lumpur Malaysia
14. Kafle, H. K. and Bruins, H.J. (2004), Drought and Desertification Hazards in Israel: Time-Series Analysis 1970-2002. In Malzahn, D. and Plapp, T. (Eds.) Proceedings of the International Conference Disaster and Society- From Hazard Assessment to Risk Reduction”, 91-98, University of Karlsruhe (TH), Germany, July 26-27, Logos Verlag, Berlin
Books:
1. The Drought Atlas of Nepal (ISBN: 978-9937-1-3061-5)
2. The Drought Atlas of Sikkim (ISBN: 978-9937-1-3062-2)
3. The Drought Atlas of Bangladesh(ISBN: 978-9937-1-3063-)
4. The Drought Atlas of Pakistan(ISBN: 978-9937-1-3064-6)
5. The Drought Atlas of South Asia(ISBN: 978-9937-1-3065-3)