South Asia focussed network was initiated as a result of community feedback from one of the Land Cover/Land Use Change (LCLUC) science meetings and field visits held during January 19-23, 2013 at Coimbatore, India (http://lcluc.umd.edu). The meeting served as an international forum to bring scientists together to discuss LCLUC, drivers and its impacts, with a regional focus. This science meeting was sponsored by NASA’s LCLUC Program, the International System for Analysis Research and Training (START) Program and the Indian counterpart the Karunya University (Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu). Nearly 120 participants from India attended the meeting. In addition, there were 18 researchers from the U.S., 3 from Nepal, 2 from Sri Lanka, and 1 each from Myanmar, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh. Based on the presentations and discussions, an invited panel of experts concluded the meeting with the following recommendations:

• Developing bilateral collaboration activities between south Asia countries and the U.S. would strengthen regional LCLUC research and enable the exchange of students and researchers.
• Research into the links between LCLUC and climate-change studies are needed, as are studies focusing on the impact of LCLUC on human livelihoods.
• Develop methodologies at large spatial scales to address LCLUC and disaster-related events (fires, floods, landslides, etc.) using multi-satellite datasets, ground-based measurements, and modeling studies.
• A multi-year regional science initiative is needed, complementing initial national funding and international funding. Such an initiative should include data sharing and infrastructure, including data centers focused on the implementation of the initiative.
• The panel was in full agreement that developing a major regional integrated science initiative—with a central theme of LCLUC aspects.
• There is a need to strengthen capacity-building activities on the use of satellite remote sensing datasets for LCLUC research.
• A regional integrated science initiative would enable regional scientists to promote scientific data collection and dissemination activities. This would be facilitated by developing a dedicated data center.

For implementing the above recommendations, since 2013, we are eagerly pursuing collaborative research and capacity building programs involving South Asia researchers. As a result, a focussed regional initiative, the South/Southeast Asia Research Initiative (SARI) was formed which includes GOFC-GOLD SARIN researchers. Both SARIN and SARI's vision is to develop innovative research, education, capacity building, and training programs involving state-of-the-art remote sensing, natural sciences, engineering and social sciences useful for both US and South Asia country researchers. Moreover, we would like to emphasize fundamental ecological and social processes including climate changes that reflect regional concerns relating to LCLUC and impacts that cut across regional boundaries. Some of the important land use/cover change drivers identified by the SARI researchers in South Asia countries are shown in the figure.

This network is being expanded and we are eagerly looking for international collaborative research and network opportunities with other network researchers.  We are engaging in international programs such as MAIRS, GEO-GLAM, SARI, HARVEST, etc. for strengthening this network.