The changing Himalayas - Impact of climate change on water resources and livelihoods in the Greater Himalayas – A report by ICIMOD

The water resources from this area drain through ten of the largest rivers in Asia, in the basins of which more than 1.3 billion people find their livelihoods. The region and its water resources play an important role in global atmospheric circulation, biodiversity, rainfed and irrigated agriculture, and hydropower, as well as in the production of commodities exported to markets worldwide. The water resources of this region are currently facing threats from a multitude of driving forces.

Global warming is having a severe impact on the amount of snow and ice, which has serious implications for downstream water availability in both short and long term as up to 50 per cent of the average annual flows in the rivers are contributed by snow and glacial melting. The warming in the Greater Himalayas has been much greater than the global average: for example, 0.6 degrees Celsius per decade in Nepal, compared with a global average of 0.74 degrees Celsius over the last 100 years.

Most studies have excluded the Himalayan region because of its extreme and complex topography and the lack of adequate rain gauge data. There is an urgent need to close the knowledge gap by establishing monitoring schemes for snow, ice, and water; downscaling climate models; applying hydrological models to predict water availability; and developing basin wide scenarios which also take water demand and socioeconomic development into account.

Download the report here -