Importance and vulnerability of the world’s water towers

Immerzeel, Walter W.; Lutz, Arthur; Andrade, Marcos; Bahl, Alexis; Biemans, Hester; Bolch, Tobias; Hyde, Samantha Brooks; Brumby, Steven P.; Davies, Bethan J.; Elmore, Aurora C.; Emmer, Adam; Feng, Mingming; Fernández, Alfonso; Haritashya, U. K.; Kargel, Jeffrey S.; Koppes, Michèle; Kraaijenbrink, Philip; Kulkarni, A. V.; Mayewski, Paul Andrew; Nepal, Santosh; Pacheco, Paula; Painter, T. H.; Pellicciotti, Francesca; Rajaram, Harihar; Rupper, S.; Sinisalo, Anna; Shrestha, A. B.; Viviroli, Daniel; Wada, Yoshihide; Xiao, Cunde; Yao, Tandong; Baillie, Jonathan

doi:10.1038/s41586-019-1822-y

Cited by 1,108 publications

(694 citation statements)

References 70 publications

(84 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

688

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Key challenges and opportunities for advancing large‐scale hydrological research relate to the use (and availability) of data and models to unravel processes across nested space–time domains. Notably, data availability (and the ability to validate model outputs) are often most limited in areas where the need is greatest, such as remote and topographically complex montane “water towers” (Immerzeel et al, ; Kaser, Grosshauser, & Marzeion, ). It is self‐evident (but cannot be overstated) that for a large‐scale perspective to hydrology, large‐scale data are needed for climate, land and hydrology variables, at a satisfactory resolution and extent and with comprehensive metadata.…”

Section: Challenges and Opportunities In Large‐scale Hydrologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Moving beyond the catchment scale: Value and opportunities in large‐scale hydrology to understand our changing world

Kingston

Massei

Dieppois

et al. 2020

Hydrological Processes

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Hydrological research is often focused at the catchment scale; but there are significant benefits of taking a broader spatial perspective (i.e., comparative hydrology) to advance the understanding of hydrological processes, especially in the context of global change. Indeed, many of the recently described "unsolved problems in hydrology" (Blöschl et al., 2019) refer to either global-scale processes (e.g., climate change), the hydrology of major physiographic zones (e.g., semi-arid or snowmelt regions) or require extensive comparisons across catchments. Moving beyond the catchment-scale frequently provides more holistic insights

show abstract

Section: Challenges and Opportunities In Large‐scale Hydrologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Moving beyond the catchment scale: Value and opportunities in large‐scale hydrology to understand our changing world

Kingston

Massei

Dieppois

et al. 2020

Hydrological Processes

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Mountains are noted for their important role as cradles of biodiversity [1][2][3]. It is also well known that mountains are the sources of all major drainage systems of the planet [4,5]. Lately, mountains have been assessed for their rich geodiversity [6]-which is defined as the abiotic diversity of planet earth [7].…”

Section: Mountains As Storehouses Of Natural Diversity Under Threatmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the Himalayas, a doubling of glacial mass loss was observed during 2000-2016 compared to 1975-2000 [27]. The situation is alarming both for cold-adapted endemic biota and the 1.9 billion people who depend on freshwater from mountains [5]. Milner et al (2017) detailed the planetary repercussions of glacial melt by analyzing snowmelt-dominated drainage systems and noted possible far-reaching negative effects on provisioning, regulating, and cultural ecosystem services derived from those systems [28].…”

Section: Mountains As Storehouses Of Natural Diversity Under Threatmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mountains as a Global Heritage: Arguments for Conserving the Natural Diversity of Mountain Regions

Chakraborty

2020

Heritage

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This concise review posits the urgent need for conserving the natural diversity of mountain environments by envisioning mountains as a global natural heritage. Mountains are recognized as cradles of biodiversity and for their important ecosystem services. Mountains also constitute the second most popular outdoor destination category at the global level after islands and beaches. However, in the current age of accelerating global environmental change, mountain systems face unprecedented change in their ecological characteristics, and consequent effects will extend to the millions who depend directly on ecosystem services from mountains. Moreover, growing tourism is putting fragile mountain ecosystems under increasing stress. This situation requires scientists and mountain area management stakeholders to come together in order to protect mountains as a global heritage. By underlining the salient natural diversity characteristics of mountains and their relevance for understanding global environmental change, this critical review argues that it is important to appreciate both biotic and abiotic diversity features of mountains in order to create a notion of mountains as a shared heritage for humanity. Accordingly, the development of soft infrastructure that can communicate the essence of mountain destinations and a committed network of scientists and tourism scholars working together at the global level are required for safeguarding this shared heritage.

show abstract

“…Water stored in the form of snow and glaciers in the High Mountain Asia (HMA) region regulates the water supply, and resultant water-based economies, that support the livelihoods of millions of people (Viviroli et al, 2011;Lutz et al, 2014;Biemans et al, 2019;Immerzeel et al, 2019;Pritchard, 2019). Climate-mediated changes, such as retreating glaciers, variability in precipitation, snow cover extent, and melting, have changed the availability of water downstream seasonally and over the century.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Differential Impact of Climate Change on the Hydropower Economics of Two River Basins in High Mountain Asia

Mishra

Veselka

Prusevich

et al. 2020

Front. Environ. Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Water stored in the form of snow and glaciers in the High Mountain Asia (HMA) region regulates the water supply, and resultant water-based economies, that support the livelihoods of millions of people. Trends in the seasonal and long-term melting of snow and glaciers, governed by initial ice reserves, meteorological factors and geographic features, vary across sub-basins in the HMA region. We examined the economic impacts of climate-led changes in river flow in two drainage basins, one each from the Karakoram and Central Himalaya region. We used an integrated assessment framework to estimate the changes in economic value of the hydropower generation from hydropower plants on rivers fed by snow and glacier melt in the two sub-basins. The framework, developed under a NASA High Mountain Asia project, coupled biophysical models (a suite of climate models, snow/glacier-hydrology, and hydropower model) with economic analysis. We compared the differences in estimated river flow over historic and future time using the water balance model in sixteen scenarios (eight climate models and two emissions scenarios) for rivers upstream of hydropower plants in each sub-basin. Using the hydropower model we developed, we estimated the changes in hydropower generation at the Naltar IV hydropower plant, with an 18 MW capacity, located in Hunza, Karakoram, and the Trishuli hydropower plant, with a 19.6 MW capacity, in Trishuli, Central Himalaya. When compared to their baselines, the estimated impact of climate change and temporal variability were higher for the Naltar plant than for the Trishuli plant. Our sensitivity analysis shows that hydropower plants with water storage facilities help reduce the impact of changes, but the estimated impacts are higher for the higher capacity plants. This study provides an example of the differential impacts of climate change on hydropower plants located in rivers fed by varying amounts of snow and glacier melt at different decades in this century. This type of integrated assessment of climate change impact will support the scientific understanding of hydrologic flow and its impacts on a hydropower economy under various climate scenarios, as well as generate information about water resource management in a changing climate.

show abstract

Importance and vulnerability of the world’s water towers

Cited by 1,108 publications

References 70 publications

Moving beyond the catchment scale: Value and opportunities in large‐scale hydrology to understand our changing world

Moving beyond the catchment scale: Value and opportunities in large‐scale hydrology to understand our changing world

Mountains as a Global Heritage: Arguments for Conserving the Natural Diversity of Mountain Regions

Differential Impact of Climate Change on the Hydropower Economics of Two River Basins in High Mountain Asia

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About