Improving the Physical Processes and Model Integration Functionality of an Energy Balance Model for Snow and Glacier Melt

The Hindu-Kush Himalayan region possesses a large resource of snow and ice, which acts as a freshwater reservoir for irrigation, domestic water consumption or hydroelectric power for billions of people in South Asia. Monitoring hydrologic resources in this region is challenging because of the difficulty of installing and maintaining a climate and hydrologic monitoring network, limited transportation and communication infrastructure and difficult access to glaciers. As a result of the high, rugged topographic relief, ground observations in the region are extremely sparse. Reanalysis data offer the potential to compensate for the data scarcity, which is a barrier in hydrological modeling and analysis for improving water resources management. Reanalysis weather data products integrate observations with atmospheric model physics to produce a spatially and temporally complete weather record in the post-satellite era. This dissertation creates an integrated hydrologic modeling system that tests whether streamflow prediction can be improved by taking advantage of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) remote sensing and reanalysis weather data products in physically based energy balance snow melt and hydrologic models. This study also enhances the energy balance snowmelt model by adding capability to quantify glacier melt. The novelty of this integrated modeling tool resides in allowing the user to isolate various components of surface water inputs (rainfall, snow and glacier ice melt) in a cost-free, open source graphical-user interface-based system that can be used for government and institutional decision-making. Direct, physically based validation of this system is challenging due to the data scarcity in this region, but, to the extent possible, the model was validated through comparison to observed streamflow and to point measurements at locations in the United States having available dat

Earth Observation Science and Applications for Risk Reduction and Enhanced Resilience in Hindu Kush Himalaya Region

This open access book is a consolidation of lessons learnt and experiences gathered from our efforts to utilise Earth observation (EO) science and applications to address environmental challenges in the Hindu Kush Himalayan region. It includes a complete package of knowledge on service life cycles including multi-disciplinary topics and practically tested applications for the HKH. It comprises 19 chapters drawing from a decade’s worth of experience gleaned over the course of our implementation of SERVIR-HKH – a joint initiative of NASA, USAID, and ICIMOD – to build capacity on using EO and geospatial technology for effective decision making in the region. The book highlights SERVIR’s approaches to the design and delivery of information services – in agriculture and food security; land cover and land use change, and ecosystems; water resources and hydro-climatic disasters; and weather and climate services. It also touches upon multidisciplinary topics such as service planning; gender integration; user engagement; capacity building; communication; and monitoring, evaluation, and learning. We hope that this book will be a good reference document for professionals and practitioners working in remote sensing, geographic information systems, regional and spatial sciences, climate change, ecosystems, and environmental analysis. Furthermore, we are hopeful that policymakers, academics, and other informed audiences working in sustainable development and evaluation – beyond the wider SERVIR network and well as within it – will greatly benefit from what we share here on our applications, case studies, and documentation across cross-cutting topics

Factors influencing river discharge variability in the Himalayan mountain region: a case study of two catchments with contrasting geographical settings

This study examined variabilities in precipitation, temperature, river discharge and land use/land cover in two of the Ganges sub-catchments in the Himalayan mountains region of Nepal using historical data between 1970 and 2017. Urban land increased substantially in Bagmati catchment while snow/glacier cover decreased in the Marsyangdi catchment. Precipitation showed decreasing trend while minimum and maximum temperatures as well as diurnal temperature range were increasing. Consequently, river discharge in Bagmati catchment was decreasing but was increasing in Marsyangdi basin

The Hindu Kush Himalaya Assessment

This open access volume is the first comprehensive assessment of the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region. It comprises important scientific research on the social, economic, and environmental pillars of sustainable mountain development and will serve as a basis for evidence-based decision-making to safeguard the environment and advance people’s well-being. The compiled content is based on the collective knowledge of over 300 leading researchers, experts and policymakers, brought together by the Hindu Kush Himalayan Monitoring and Assessment Programme (HIMAP) under the coordination of the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD). This assessment was conducted between 2013 and 2017 as the first of a series of monitoring and assessment reports, under the guidance of the HIMAP Steering Committee: Eklabya Sharma (ICIMOD), Atiq Raman (Bangladesh), Yuba Raj Khatiwada (Nepal), Linxiu Zhang (China), Surendra Pratap Singh (India), Tandong Yao (China) and David Molden (ICIMOD and Chair of the HIMAP SC). This First HKH Assessment Report consists of 16 chapters, which comprehensively assess the current state of knowledge of the HKH region, increase the understanding of various drivers of change and their impacts, address critical data gaps and develop a set of evidence-based and actionable policy solutions and recommendations. These are linked to nine mountain priorities for the mountains and people of the HKH consistent with the Sustainable Development Goals. This book is a must-read for policy makers, academics and students interested in this important region and an essentially important resource for contributors to global assessments such as the IPCC reports. ; Constitutes the first comprehensive assessment of the Hindu Kush Himalaya region, providing an authoritative overview of the region Assembles the collective knowledge of over 300 leading researchers, practitioners, experts, and policymakers Combines the current state of knowledge of the Hindu Kush Himalaya region in one volume Offers Open Access to a set of practically oriented policy recommendation

Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) Hazard Mitigation at Himalayan Region, Nepal

Glacier retreat is a strong indicator of climate change and global warming. The anthropogenic changes in the Earth's atmosphere are mostly to blame for the climate extremes and their consequences in the last few decades. The Himalayan region is no exclusion to the trend. As glaciers begin to retreat, the glacial lake starts to fill or form behind the natural moraine or ice dam in the glaciers. The sudden release of the water, known as the Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF), can release a large amount of water and sediment. There have been various destructive GLOFs recorded in Nepal since the 1960s. It is vital to understand the GLOF dynamics, geomorphology and historical events to mitigate the GLOF hazards in the region. An advanced approach based on remote sensing data and empirical evidence is more suitable to tackle these issues. This research investigated 11 among 30 past events recorded in the HKH region (Nepal) to establish the causes and triggering factors that led to the catastrophic failure, which helped establish the vulnerability assessment of these glacial lakes. This eventually led to creating a GLOF vulnerability assessment framework that is unique and useful to the communities. This research concluded that 40% of the GLOF events was due to the moraine dam failure. In the retrospective approach, 5 out of 11 glacial lakes scored a very high total vulnerability score (TVR), which suffered catastrophic events in the past. The TVR of the currently existing 21 potential dangerous glacial lakes (PDGL) in Nepal was also conducted using the proposed assessment framework that concluded the 7 very high, 4 high, 5 medium, and the rest are low. Hence, this assessment tool's reliability is very high. This research also concluded that there should integrated approach to climate change adaptation and hazard mitigations in the region

Drivers of Change to Mountain Sustainability in the Hindu Kush Himalaya

Key Findings 1. Looming challenges characterize the HKH as environmental, sociocultural, and economic changes are dynamically impacting livelihoods, environmental conditions, and ultimately sustainability. Many challenges for sustainability are related to weak governance, natural resource overexploitation, environmental degradation, certain aspects of unregulated or rapid urbanization, and loss of traditional culture. Addressing these problems will require policy and action at local, national, and international levels, including common action among HKH states. 2. However, for mountain societies of the HKH, some changes may also bring novel opportunities for sustainable development. A range of opportunities lie in improved connectivity including transportation and communication, which increases access to information, partnerships, and markets. Enhanced access to social services may be enabled and strengthened by economic growth and the advancement of science and technology. Additionally, a growing network of local urban centres may support the transmission of new prosperity to rural populations, as the development of mountain towns and cities often can help — besides their mere economic power — to enhance the political influence of these regions within the national states. 3. The drivers of change to environmental, socio-cultural, and economic sustainability in the HKH are interactive, inextricably linked, and increasingly influenced by regional and global developments. Among the most important drivers in this intricate network of causes and effects are demographic changes and current governance systems, as well as land use and land cover change, over-exploitation of natural resources, economic growth and differentiation, and climate change

21st Annual Fulbright Symposium - Harmony and Dissonance in International Law

Conference proceedings from The 21st Annual Fulbright Symposium on International Legal Problems

21st Annual Fulbright Symposium - Harmony and Dissonance in International Law

Conference proceedings from The 21st Annual Fulbright Symposium on International Legal Problems

Variability of Anthropogenic Gases: Nitrogen Oxides, Sulfur Dioxide, Ozone and Ammonia in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal

Background: Kathmandu Valley is one of the largest and most polluted metropolitan regions in the Himalayan foothills. Rapidly expanding urban sprawl and growing fleet of vehicles, and industrial facilities such as brick factories across the valley have led to conditions where ambient concentrations of key gaseous air pollutants are expected to exceed Nepal’s National Ambient Air Quality Standards and World Health Organization guidelines. Objectives: The aim of this study is to quantify the distribution of gaseous pollutants across the valley characterized by different emission sources, and also assess influence of meteorology in the region on the temporal variability and spatial distribution of these gases, including differences at sites upwind and/or downwind of three major cities in the Kathmandu Valley. Methods: In order to understand the spatial variation of the trace gases in the Kathmandu Valley, passive samples of SO2, NOx, NO2, NH3, and O3 were simultaneously collected from fifteen locations between March and May 2013. A follow-up study during two separate campaigns in 2014 sampled these gases, except ammonia, one site at a time from thirteen urban, suburban and rural stationary sites. Results: In 2013, urban sites were observed to have higher weekly averaged NO2 and SO2 (22.4 ± 8.1 µg/m3 and 14.5 ± 11.1 µg/m3, respectively) than sub-urban sites (9.2 ± 3.9 µg/m3 and 7.6 ± 2.8 µg/m3, respectively). Regions located within 3 km of brick factories exhibited higher SO2 concentrations (22.3 ± 14.7 µg/m3) than sites at least than 3 km away (5.8 ± 1.1 µg/m3). Increased NH3 levels were observed at sites downstream from polluted rivers (25.8 ± 5.5 µg/m3) compared to upstream sites (19.9 ± 3.6 µg/m3). Increased O3 was observed in rural locations (108.5 ± 31.4 µg/m3) compared to urban sites (87.1 ± 9.2 µg/m3) (ANOVA, p Conclusions: Parallel to previous studies that found O3 levels that exceeded guideline, these results suggest that ground-level O3, as its levels frequently exceeded guidelines throughout the sampling periods, is an important concern throughout the valley. NH3 near polluted rivers, NO2 near high traffic activity and SO2 around brick factories are also important pollutants that need more intensive monitoring, primarily due to their importance in particulate matter formation chemistry

Potential impacts of climatic warming on glacier-fed river flows in the Himalaya

The Himalayan region is one of the most highly glacierised areas on Earth. Regarded as the “water towers” of Asia, the Himalayas are the source of several of the world’s major rivers. The region is inhabited by some 140 million people and ten times as many (~1.4 billion) live in its downstream river basins. Freshwater from the mountains is vital for the region’s economy and for sustaining the livelihoods of a fast-growing population. Climatic warming and the rapid retreat of Himalayan glaciers over recent decades have raised concerns about the future reliability of mountain melt-water resources, leading to warnings of catastrophic water shortages. Several previous studies have assessed climate change impacts on specific glacier-fed rivers, usually applying meso-scale catchment models for short simulation periods during which glacier dimensions remain unchanged. Few studies have attempted to estimate the effects on a regional scale, partly because of the paucity of good quality data across the Himalaya. The aim of this study was to develop a parsimonious grid-based macro-scale hydrological model for the Indus, Ganges and Brahmaputra basins that, in order to represent transient melt-water contributions from retreating glaciers, innovatively allowed glacier dimensions to change over time. The model initially was validated over the 1961-90 standard period and then applied in each basin with a range of climate-change scenarios (sensitivity analysis- and climate-model-based) over a 100-year period, to gain insight on potential changes in mean annual and winter flows (water availability proxies) at decadal time-steps. Plausible results were obtained, showing impacts vary considerably across the region (catchments in the east appear much less susceptible to glacier retreat effects than those in the west, due to the influence of the summer monsoon), and, in central and eastern Himalayan catchments, from upstream to downstream (effects diminish rapidly downstream due to higher runoff from non-glaciated parts)