Reconfiguration of ecohydrology as a sustainability tool for Himalayan waterways

Abstract

Twenty first century faces unprecedented challenges for the management of global waterways. The Himalayan waterways in Asia are exposed to unpredictable climatic warming together with anthropogenic perturbations caused by population growth, land use change and socio‐economic development. Given the increased public concerns on the Himalayan Mountain development programmes including the hydropower and tourism, there has been a growing need of the use of interdisciplinary scientific approaches to address water resources challenges that the Himalayan region has faced during the 21st century. Ecohydrology is an emerging scientific tool that explores key hydrological processes regulating structure and function of ecosystems, as well as assessing the impact of biological processes on water cycle variables under rapidly changing environment. The International Geosphere‐Biosphere Programme and the International Hydrological Programme hosted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization have adopted ecohydrology as a sustainable development tool by linking water resources and poverty eradication and ecosystem restoration, irrigation, energy and sanitation. However, ecohydrology tool needs to be reconfigured for sustainable development of rapidly changing Himalayan waterways. Here we propose the advancement of ecohydrology by developing various integrated frameworks of ecology, hydrology, hydraulics and sociology for resilient waterways in the Asian Himalayas.

How resilient are waterways of the Asian Himalayas? Finding adaptive measures for future sustainability

“…Hence, it is increasingly crucial that the resilience of Himalayan waterways can be assessed not only by quantifying the critical levels of nutrient load or temperature change, but also by developing the EWS metric systems. In situ observations of the biophysical system including biota, nutrients and the geo‐chemistry of water in remotely located areas of the Himalaya are therefore fundamental for better understanding the eco‐hydrologic processes, and other geomorphologic, and thermodynamics conditions (Kattel & Wu, 2023). As these systems are rapidly changing and are non‐linear in nature with complex interactions of various climatic and anthropogenic factors, real‐time monitoring of biophysical parameters would help develop adaptive measures for the Himalayan waterways (Krause et al, 2015; Leng et al, 2022).…”