Nanga Parbat (NW-Himalaya) : Naturräumliche Ressourcenausstattung und humanökologische Gefügemuster der Landnutzung

Das Untersuchungsgebiet, der Nanga Parbat in Nordpakistan, stellt eine Region großer wissenschaftlicher Tradition dar. In der vorliegenden Studie wird versucht, das human-ökologische Geflügemuster der naturräumlichen Ressourcenausstattung und der Landnutzung im Zusammenhang zu analysieren. Die hier vorgelegte Dissertation wurde am Institut für Geographische Wissenschaften der Freien Universität Berlin erstellt und bildete ein Teilprojekt des interdisziplinären Schwerpunktes „Kulturraum Karakorum" (CAK) der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)

Surface and subsurface flow of a glacierised catchment in the cold-arid region of Ladakh, Trans-Himalaya

We are grateful to the School of Environmental Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), India for supporting the fieldwork campaigns and data collection. We extend our gratitude to all the people or organisations who directly or indirectly supported this study. We would also like to express our gratitude to the three anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and valuable suggestions that have significantly improved the quality of the article.Peer reviewe

Knowledge Priorities on Climate Change and Water in the Upper Indus Basin: A Horizon Scanning Exercise to Identify the Top 100 Research Questions in Social and Natural Sciences

River systems originating from the Upper Indus Basin (UIB) are dominated by runoff from snow and glacier melt and summer monsoonal rainfall. These water resources are highly stressed as huge populations of people living in this region depend on them, including for agriculture, domestic use, and energy production. Projections suggest that the UIB region will be affected by considerable (yet poorly quantified) changes to the seasonality and composition of runoff in the future, which are likely to have considerable impacts on these supplies. Given how directly and indirectly communities and ecosystems are dependent on these resources and the growing pressure on them due to ever-increasing demands, the impacts of climate change pose considerable adaptation challenges. The strong linkages between hydroclimate, cryosphere, water resources, and human activities within the UIB suggest that a multi- and inter-disciplinary research approach integrating the social and natural/environmental sciences is critical for successful adaptation to ongoing and future hydrological and climate change. Here we use a horizon scanning technique to identify the Top 100 questions related to the most pressing knowledge gaps and research priorities in social and natural sciences on climate change and water in the UIB. These questions are on the margins of current thinking and investigation and are clustered into 14 themes, covering three overarching topics of ‘governance, policy, and sustainable solutions’, ‘socioeconomic processes and livelihoods’, and ‘integrated Earth System processes’. Raising awareness of these cutting-edge knowledge gaps and opportunities will hopefully encourage researchers, funding bodies, practitioners, and policy makers to address them

50 Jahre Südasieninstitut an der Universität Heidelberg : Erforscht wird der Indische Subkontinent unter wirtschaftlichen, geographischen und religiösen Aspekten.

Das Südasien-Institut (SAI) wurde im Mai 1962 mit einer Außenstelle in Neu Delhi als wissenschaftliche Einrichtung der Ruperto Carola gegründet. Im Mittelpunkt von Forschung und Lehre stehen die Länder Indien, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh und Sri Lanka. Angrenzende Länder und Kulturregionen wie Afghanistan und Tibet werden aufgrund der engen Verflechtungen mit dem südasiatischen Subkontinent ebenfalls in die Arbeit des SAI einbezogen. Das Jubiläum des Instituts wurde mit zahlreichen Veranstaltungen in Heidelberg, aber auch in Südasien gefeiert. Campus-TV berichtet in der Juni-Sendung 2012 über das Jubiläum

Socio-hydrology: A New Perspective on Mountain Waterscapes at the Nexus of Natural and Social Processes

MountainViews articl

Discussing Large Dams in Asia after the World Commission on Dams: Is a Political Ecology Approach the Way Forward?

The guidelines proposed in the World Commission on Dams (WCD) final report were vehemently rejected by several Asian governments, and dam building has continued apace in most Asian countries. This reaction is in line with the simplistic dam debate, where dam critics offer laundry lists of socioeconomic and environmental costs, and dam proponents highlight the benefits while underestimating associated costs. Whereas the WCD sought to evaluate dams in terms of 'costs and benefits', this approach is self-defeating due to the very subjectivity of such measurements. This paper argues that the way ahead must be to move beyond a consensus evaluation of dams, and instead examine the shifting asymmetries and discursive flows that sustain and promote dam building over time. However, such an analysis of the dam discourse must incorporate an understanding of the multiple actors and driving forces, as well as the underlying power relations within this politicised environment. We therefore suggest that a post-structural political ecology approach provides a suitable framework for the future examination of large dams in Asia

Assessing glacier changes in the Nanga Parbat region using a multitemporal photographic dataset

This article presents a multitemporal photographic dataset from the Rupal Valley, south of Nanga Parbat in the north-western Himalaya. The historical metric photographs were taken in 1934, 1958 and 1987 during scientific expeditions focussing on topographical mapping and glacier dynamics of the mountain massif. All photographs showing glacier aspects have been collected from archives and repeated from the same viewpoints during several surveys between 1992 and 2010. This dataset allows for a detailed visual assessment of glacier fluctuations, changes in snout positions, ice volumes, and debris cover over almost eighty years. It offers insights for a better understanding of glacier changes in this prominent Himalayan mountain region. The dataset supports a recently published article (Nüsser and Schmidt, 2021) with original archival material