Climate Change And Himalaya Natural Hazards And Mountain Resources

The book “Climate Change and Himalaya- Natural hazards and mountain resources” presents the resources of Himalaya along with the potential natural hazards. It consists twenty two chapters from researchers working in different institutions with multi disciplinary approach. More than seven hundred glaciers were monitored and discussed in one of the chapter of this book. This book will be highly useful to researchers, policy makers, students and is an essential document to libraries of universities, colleges, research institutions and personnel collections.

Glaciers and snow cover of himalaya is the major source of water in central asia. Natural calamities and geo hydrological hazards occur in this regime due to rapid uplift of himalaya and the under thrusting of Indian plate and other extreme climate disturbances. The book " climate change and himalaya - Natural hazards and mountain resources" presents the resources of himalaya along with the potential natural hazards. More than seven hundred glaciers were monitored and discussed in one of the chapter of this book. Recently Indian himalaya region was rocked by a chain of calamities occurred due to cloudburst, excessive rain fall followed by flash floods and landslides during June 2013. This is one of the initial scientific attempts to understand the above natural calamity. Urbanisation of mountain and sustainable utilisation of mountain resources are discussed in this book. This book will be highly useful to researchers, policy makers, students and is an essential document to libraries of universities, colleges, research institutions and personnel collections.

This volume analyzes ecological and socio-economic risks due to climate change in the Himalayan mountain ecosystems, communities, and proposes adaptation strategies and sustainability practices. In order to better understand the potential actions required to improve natural resource conservation and the development of mountain people's livelihoods. The authors discuss the current status of local knowledge system on various environmental aspects of conservation and sustainable use of mountain resources in the Himalaya. The book addresses the institutional capacities, gaps, and priority areas of capacity building to strengthen policies and governance in regard to climate change, landuse management, biodiversity conservation, and sustainable management in the Himalayan region. The aim of this book is to enhance coordination building among policymakers, planners, mountain communities to foster collaboration between different stakeholders by understanding local perceptions of climate change as well as variability issues, and establishing adaptation strategies to cope with these impacts. The chapters incorporate theoretical and applied aspects, and may serve as baseline information for the sustainability of mountain ecosystems through the contribution of multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary expertise from the Himalayan region. The book will be useful for students, teachers, and researchers working in different areas pertaining to mountain ecosystems, as well as policymakers and planners working on issues related to the sustainability of the mountain ecosystem.

This book provides information essential for anyone interested in climate and environmental change of the Himalayan region, including land and resource managers, environmental planners, conservationists, environmentalists, geographers, climatologists, ecologists, and students. The book is unique in its coverage of the current understanding of the science of climate change in the Himalayan mountain system and of the major impacts on physical systems and ecosystems. The book gives an overview of the physical science basis of climate change and explains drivers and processes of glacier and vegetation dynamics. The book covers relevant aspects of accelerated climate change observed in the Himalayan mountain system, and highlights the regional differentiation of climatic changes and associated environmental modifications. The focus is on climate variability and change, and how physical systems and ecosystems respond to climate change impacts. Consequences include impacts on physical systems such as glacier shrinkage, glacial lake outburst floods, altered hydrological characteristics, permafrost warming and thawing, and mass movements on slopes. Climate change is also a powerful stressor on ecosystems and induces range shifts of plant and animal species and alterations in terms of phenology, biomass, plant cover, plant group dominance and species composition. Thus, ecosystem structure and functioning will be strongly affected. The book has an introductory chapter followed by a section on climate change, a section on impacts on glaciers and hydrology, and a section on vegetation dynamics. Each section has several chapters presenting key concepts, major drivers and key processes of environmental change in the Himalayan region from different perspectives. Climate change impacts in the Himalaya have not been studied in much detail, and respective findings were not presented so far in a comprehensive overview. This book summarizes the current knowledge of interactions between climate change and the dynamics of glaciers, hydrology, and vegetation.

Scientific evidence shows that most glaciers in South Asia's Hindu Kush Himalayan region are retreating, but the consequences for the region's water supply are unclear, this report finds. The Hindu Kush Himalayan region is the location of several of Asia's great river systems, which provide water for drinking, irrigation, and other uses for about 1.5 billion people. Recent studies show that at lower elevations, glacial retreat is unlikely to cause significant changes in water availability over the next several decades, but other factors, including groundwater depletion and increasing human water use, could have a greater impact. Higher elevation areas could experience altered water flow in some river basins if current rates of glacial retreat continue, but shifts in the location, intensity, and variability of rain and snow due to climate change will likely have a greater impact on regional water supplies. Himalayan Glaciers: Climate Change, Water Resources, and Water Security makes recommendations and sets guidelines for the future of climate change and water security in the Himalayan Region. This report emphasizes that social changes, such as changing patterns of water use and water management decisions, are likely to have at least as much of an impact on water demand as environmental factors do on water supply. Water scarcity will likely affect the rural and urban poor most severely, as these groups have the least capacity to move to new locations as needed. It is predicted that the region will become increasingly urbanized as cities expand to absorb migrants in search of economic opportunities. As living standards and populations rise, water use will likely increase-for example, as more people have diets rich in meat, more water will be needed for agricultural use. The effects of future climate change could further exacerbate water stress. Himalayan Glaciers: Climate Change, Water Resources, and Water Security explains that changes in the availability of water resources could play an increasing role in political tensions, especially if existing water management institutions do not better account for the social, economic, and ecological complexities of the region. To effectively respond to the effects of climate change, water management systems will need to take into account the social, economic, and ecological complexities of the region. This means it will be important to expand research and monitoring programs to gather more detailed, consistent, and accurate data on demographics, water supply, demand, and scarcity.

The Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region is highly vulnerable to earthquakes and water-induced disasters. This fragile mountain region is under tremendous stress from climate change and land-use degradation that has accelerated flash floods, river-line floods, erosion, and wet mass movements during the monsoon period and drought in the non-monsoon period. Against the backdrop of intensifying disasters and in the absence of a focused documentation of disaster risk reduction issues in the HKH region, this volume presents a comprehensive body of knowledge. The main purpose and objective of this publication is to connect existing data, research, conceptual work, and practical cases on risk, resilience, and risk reduction from the HKH region under a common analytical umbrella. The result is a contribution to advancing disaster resilience and risk reduction in the HKH region. The book will be of special interest to policy makers, donors, and researchers concerned with the disaster issues in the region.

Geodynamic process during the rapid growth ofHimalayahas holistic imprints of Climate Change in this region. “Climate Change & Himalayan Informatics” is an account of dedicated contribution for the above imprints. Impact of climate change is examined in this book for the ongoing process of rapid urbanization of the hinterlands ofHimalaya. It consists four sessions and seventeen chapters. Mass balance of glaciers in ChandrabasinofHimalayais presented as a predictive tool for spatially distributed estimates of mass balance of glaciers. An effective tool to identify and locate multiple natural hazards due to climate change inHimalayaespecially landslides and glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) is part of the book. Impacts of climate change on cropping strategies by mountain communities are ascribed in the session “socio-economic perspectives”. Information on ecologically and economically important plant species inHimalayathat have greater tolerance in drought, discussed in this book, is significant in the perspectives of global warming. A specific species is identified as an indicator of climate change forEastern Himalaya. Climatic impacts on different regional eco systems ofHimalayahad implications on ecological, cultural and socio economic process of the region. Multidimensional decision support system is essential for mitigation and adaptation for such implications. Present book consists studies from north to eastern part ofHimalaya. This will be beneficial to researchers, student, managers and administrators associated with Mountain ecosystem and Climate Change.

Mountain regions encompass nearly 24 percent of the total land surface of the earth and are home to approximately 12 percent of the world's population. Their ecosystems play a critical role in sustaining human life both in the highlands and the lowlands. During recent years, resource use in high mountain areas has changed mainly in response to the