HUNSA organized a Talk/Interaction program among their members on 11 October 2002 in Hokkaido University. The principal purpose of this program was to exchange and share the knowledge of their individual researches/findings, with the view that it could be informative and equally useful to other members too in order to grasp the broad spectrum of knowledge.

Active participation of members and constructive discussion on the presentation made the program much interesting and worthy. It was very enjoyable to have the discussion on our own Nepali language and was much understandable to everyone even though presentations were from various field of study. Due to such achievements, raise of enthusiasm for the organization of such activities in further days too have been realized among the members. In order to disseminate the general discussion of the program, the compilation of the abstracts of the presentation is provided below. For the detail query on the individual topic, it is requested to contact the respective authors directly.

The abstract of all the presentations is compiled below. Abstract of the presentation by Roshan Tuladhar is included under the topics ‘Thesis Abstract’.

In-situ state of stress in rock is very important for design aspects of any structure to be constructed below the ground. It is more important in the case of tunnel and large caverns that are being constructed in greater numbers in the recent years. In recent years, the trend of data obtained relating to the stresses in rock has been increasing. However, most of the data is from hard and moderately hard rocks. Therefore the development of stress measurement method for soft rock is felt very necessary.

The objective of this research is to develop an instrument for the measurement of in-situ stresses in soft rocks. A new stressmeter to measure the radial and axial deformation of a pilot borehole during overcoring has been developed. As the strain gauges are not directly in touch with the rock and as axial displacement is also measured, this stressmeter is applicable to soft rocks also. The stresses in the rock are evaluated based on the measured borehole deformations.

Calibration of the sensors of the new stress meter, to measure diametrical and axial displacement, was carried out to convert the microstrain reading to the respective micrometer displacement.

Laboratory experiments were carried out to simulate the functioning of the stressmeter with the use of a rectangular welded tuff block (40cm x 40cm x 40cm) having a borehole of 40mm diameter at the center. The stressmeter was inserted into the borehole and uniaxial load was applied to the block along x-axis and z-axis, to simulate the stress relief work in the stressed rock mass. The calculated stresses in both the cases were compared with the applied loads and were found to be in accordance with it. This indicates that the new stressmeter can be applied for the in-situ stress measurement with ovecoring method in soft rocks.

In the lack of the perennial rivers, for the peak load and dry season electricity demand it is necessary to have the storage type Hydro projects. For such projects, provision of detention dam causes the accumulation of the incoming sediment due to the checking of the sediment flow downstream of the rivers. As a result, useful life of the project come on depletion and may affect on its effective functioning. Especially for the country with the mountainous terrains with the fragile lands and the flash flood distinctive rivers, flow has the large possession of sediment on it. There are many challenges standing against the development of the storage type Hydro projects and sedimentation problem belongs to one of the technical challenges among them.

An integrated approach is necessary for the mitigation of the sediment hazard starting from the watershed area to the reservoir management. In order to check the incoming sediment entering in to the reservoir in advance, bypassing technique could be one of the countermeasures on that regard. It not only minimizes the sediment accumulation at the reservoir but also help in maintaining the sediment flow equilibrium downstream of the dam.

For such technique, Bypass tunnel or channel is necessary to divert the incoming sediment. In mountain regions where the river has the steep grade, bypass tunnel could be constructed with the sufficient slope so that it is not choked during its functioning. The major challenge in this technique is the abrasion and almost all the limited numbers of reported projects have faced this problem. Researches are being carried out on the development of high strength abrasion proof construction materials and designing of the bypass technique for its hydraulic efficient functioning etc.

Such technique could also be useful to our country "Nepal" towards the development of Hydropower, where we believe to have enormous potential of hydro wealth.

Transportation engineering is the part of engineering that deals with safe, convenient and efficient movement of people and goods from one place to another place. Various modes and means of transportation were introduced. Transportation industry is facing problem worldwide due to increasing travel demand. The construction of new infrastructure to meet travel demand is not always possible due to economic, social and environmental constraints. In such situation, Travel Demand Management (TDM) is a useful tool to control and manage travel demand. Various TDM measures were introduced including traffic regulations and restrictions, priority to high occupancy vehicles, mass transit, road pricing, area licensing etc.

Traffic engineering deals with planning and design of road facilities and control systems to provide safe, convenient and economic movement of persons and goods.

The road users, vehicles, roadways and control systems are four components of traffic system. The traffic characteristics are the result of many varied and complex interactions among these components. It is difficult to control or predict the behavior of road users while the safety and efficiency of road users and vehicles can be optimized through proper design of roads and control systems.

Intelligent Transportation Systems are basically implementation advanced information and control technologies in transportation systems to improve its efficiency and safety. Advanced Traffic Information System (ATIS) provides real time information to travelers about traffic conditions, accidental delays, transit schedules, parking availability, roadwork, route guidance from origin to destination etc to make safer and more efficient travel decisions.

  Automated Vehicle System (AHS) is perhaps the most technically advanced form of ITS which is aimed to improve efficiency of highway operation by automating the movement of vehicles.

Besides these common transportation issues a brief introduction to the current research topic of the author, which is about microscopic analysis traffic flow dynamics, was presented. The presentation covered information about car following experiments conducted in a test track using Real Time Kinematic (RTK) Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers for data collection.

Management of river training & rehabilitation works is still an art despite numerous studies. There are several studies that have been focused on bank protection technique, navigation improvement, habitats improvement etc. River training structures are the appropriate solution for multiple purposes. On the contrary, such structures have significant impact on hydraulic and geo-morphological changes of rivers. This may cause negative environmental consequences on the one hand and the failure of the structure itself on the other. It is thought that structure-induced impact appears to have been overlooked in previous works.

Of most problems that have been facing in river engineering since long, riverbank erosion is of great significance from practical engineering point of view, in particular, in the context of Nepal. Lack of proper construction technique in consideration of specific hydraulic and morphological condition of rivers and precise assessment of structure-induced impact on equilibrium river regime has thought to be underlying causes of negative environmental consequences as well as failure of structure. For an instance, field study that was made for 50 sites with river training structures in Nepal so as to evaluate their performance (Upadhyaya S.B.), more than 60% was found as failure sites. Such evidences point out towards the necessity for an integrated and state-of-the-art approach to be undertaken.

Despite tremendous efforts in the past, Nepalese agricultural sector did not grow well. Consequently, a long-term, called Perspective Agricultural Development Plan (APP) was formulated in 1995. It covers the period 1995-2015. This APP tries to accelerate the agricultural growth by increasing factor productivity, expanding employment opportunities, transformation of subsistence agriculture into a commercial one through diversification and with the principle of comparative advantage. There are immediate, short-term and long-term strategies for its implementation. It also includes the guidelines for preparing periodic plans and programs in future. 

APP’s implementation requires specific demands like large public sector investment and a set of institutional mechanisms at the central and district levels to promote coordination, monitoring and evaluation, which have always been Nepal’s problem in the previous plans as well. On top of that, changes on policy and institutional environment occurred in Nepal after its formulation has further complicated its successful implementation. All these have posed newer and perhaps more serious issues on APP’s application as a guide to Nepal’s national planning. However, this APP does not take prices in its entire analysis of growth. It presents a rather mechanical view on the promotion of technology and presents rather over-simplified assumptions regarding institutions, their policies and accountabilities. It has excessive focus on inputs rather than outcomes and appears to be rigid prescriptions coupled with fixed targets.