CASE STUDY
With the help of cutting-edge surveying technology, the Nepal Survey Department measured the height of Sagarmatha, or the Mount Everest, and will soon reveal how high the world’s highest mountain is.
T
he 2015 earthquake of 7.8 magnitude in Nepal not only claimed around 9,000 lives and injured over 22,000, it also raised speculation about the height of the Mount Everest, known as Sagarmatha (head of the sky) in Nepalese, as scientists believed that the world’s highest mountain may have shrunk slightly. To put to rest such speculations, the Nepal Survey Department decided to go ahead with the measurement of the Everest. “Nepal hadn’t done anything like that before, and so we thought why not do it now? But we required high-end technology, and Trimble provided that to us,” recalls Ganesh Prasad Bhatta, Executive Director of Land Management Training Center and former Director General of Nepal Survey Department. 56
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“We are the national mapping agency of Nepal and so this is a very important project for us as it will go on to enhance our overall capacity. Countries have measured the Everest in the past, but this is the first time that Nepal has done it. The conclusion of the project will be a proud moment for us,” feels Prakash Joshi, Director General of Nepal Survey Department. The most commonly accepted figure for the Everest’s height is 29,029 feet, a measurement provided by the Survey of India in 1954.
Devising methodology After devising a detailed internal methodology based on GNSS surveying, gravity surveying, precise levelling and trigonometric levelling, the department started the project (field work) early in 2018. “Towards the
end of 2017, we organized an international workshop, which was attended by experts from the US, Europe, New Zealand, India and China. The sole objective of the event was to showcase our methodology to the world,” says Susheel Dangol, Chief Survey Officer and Coordinator of The Mount Everest Height Measurement Program.
Technological edge It was during this workshop that the department contacted Trimble, which readily agreed to offer its cutting-edge surveying solutions that made a task as mammoth as surveying the Everest possible. “Trimble is proud to be associated with the Nepal Survey Department for this project to measure Sagarmatha. This is one of the most prestigious projects for us in the region. We recommended the department
