Journal of
Climatology & Weather Forecasting
OPEN ACCESS Freely available online
Research Article
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ISSN: 2332-2594
INTRODUCTION
Mountain topography has resulted in distributional variation of
local climate (e.g., temperature, air pressure, wind, humidity, fog,
hailstorms, and precipitation) in season and space which can be
observed even between narrow geographical spaces [1,2]. However,
instruments and facilities to record weather patterns or climate
changes in the mountain are stationed mostly in valleys or on
ridges. Their data cannot be considered always well representative
of diverse agro-ecological regions and transitional belts in the
surrounding [2-4]. The instrumental data are also not available in
many localities, particularly in developing societies. The data from
the available facilities have been also affected by many sources of
problems. The information based on the data cannot be robust to
make policy decisions for socially and environmentally vulnerable
societies. The problems include instrumental faults, recording
errors, inadequate observations, and missing records. Other issues
include standardization flaws (e.g., averaging daily data into weekly,
monthly, or yearly figure) and local influences (e.g. dynamic of land-
use change). The homogenization approach also has limitations
in correcting localized historical problems in the data with few
records [5,6]. The errors associated with the problems can make
big differences in the results because the climate changes have
been mostly determined by fraction changes in the measurement
unit. Conflicting findings of climate change studies are potentially
associated with data problems [3,7]. Also, the records of most
stations are limited to rainfall and temperature dynamics, but
other climatic factors (e.g. fog, hailstorm, and humidity) are also
important for policy decisions and particularly on adaptation
measures.
Moreover, human belief and policy decisions on climate change
are determined more by human perceptions and experiences. In
such a situation, decision-makers require information about the
human dimension to devise adaptation measures appropriate for
local communities. Information from the instrumental data may
not be enough to explain the human stresses experienced from
emerging climate change. Experimental studies show that some
climatic factors interact with biotic and abiotic factors and result
in people’s feeling noticeably different from instrumental records.
For example, hotness feeling (measured in human-perceived
equivalent temperature) of people depends on the combination
levels of temperature, humidity, and airflow factors [8-11]. The
interpretation of the human feeling of the hotness feeling can be
misleading. Information from alternative sources may help decision-
makers in such complicated conditions [12]. Essentially, multiple
sources of information would give deeper insights regarding the
mechanisms of climate change and increase decision making
An Application of the Random Experience Theoretical Model for
Investigating Local Climatic Changes in the Himalayan Mountain Region
Bhubaneswor Dhakal
1*
, Salil Bhattarai
2
, Nischal Dhakal
3
1
University of Otago, Christchurch, New Zealand;
2
Addra-Nepal, Kathmandu, Nepal;
3
Laligunrash Boarding School, Lamjung, Nepal
ABSTRACT
Instruments of meteorological data collection in the mountain are mostly stationed either on hillsides or in valleys.
The data cannot well represent the state of climatic changes in transitional agro-ecological belts in the surroundings.
Moreover, the human’s stresses experienced from climatic changes are outcomes of interactions of many abiotic and
biotic factors, and cannot be well assessed with the instrumental data. The social science-based study is considered
a supporting approach to address the instrumental data problem. Previous social science studies consist of many
anomalies in research design, data collection, and analysis, intertation. The weaknesses in those studies are primarily
caused by a lack of well-developed theoretical models. To address the methodological problem, this study proposed
and illustrated “The Random Experience Model”, a pioneer theoretical framework in climate change study.
Applicability of the theoretical framework is demonstrated in a pilot study. A few points worth considering in future
studies for demonstrating the strengths of the model are listed.
Keywords: Exposure; Extreme-weathers; Mountain; Nepal; Theoretical model; Random-experience
Correspondence to: Bhubaneswor Dhakal, University of Otago, Christchurch, New Zealand, E-mail: Bhubaneswordhakal@gmail.com
Received: March 16, 2020; Accepted: May 04, 2020; Published: May 15, 2020
Citation: Dhakal B, Bhattarai S, Dhakal N (2020) An Application of the Random Experience Theoretical Model for Investigating Local Climatic Changes
in the Himalayan Mountain Region. J Climatol Weather Forecast 8:252. doi: 10.35248/2332-2594.2020.8.252
J Climatol Weather Forecasting, Vol. 8 Iss.2 No: 252
Copyright: ©2020 Dhakal B, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.