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

Abstract

The high-mountain system, a storehouse of major waterways that supportimportant ecosystem services to about 1.5 billion people in the Himalaya, isfacing unprecedented challenges due to climate change during the 21st cen-tury. Intensified floods, accelerating glacial retreat, rapid permafrost degrada-tion, and prolonged droughts are altering the natural hydrological balancesand generating unpredictable spatial and temporal distributions of water avail-ability. Anthropogenic activities are adding further pressure onto Himalayanwaterways. The fundamental question of waterway management in this regionis therefore how this hydro-meteorological transformation, caused by climatechange and anthropogenic perturbations, can be tackled to find avenues forsustainability. This requires a framework that can diagnose threats at a rangeof spatial and temporal scales and provide recommendations for strong adap-tive measures for sustainable future waterways. This focus paper assesses thecurrent literature base to bring together our understanding of how recent cli-matic changes have threatened waterways in the Asian Himalayas, how societyhas been responding to rapidly changing waterway conditions, and what adap-tive options are available for the region. The study finds that Himalayan water-ways are crucial in protecting nature and society. The implementation ofintegrated waterways management measures, the rapid advancement of waterway infrastructure technologies, and the improved governance of water-ways are more critical than ever.