USAID – Changing Glaciers and Hydrology in Asia: Addressing Vulnerabilities to Glacier Melt Impacts, 2010.
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- Report Appendices – (Main Database, Summary by Region, Summary by Theme)
Excerpt from the Conclusions
The review of scientific information about glacier melt in High Asia revealed, first and foremost, a lack of data and information, a lack that hampers attempts to project likely impacts and take action to adapt to changed conditions. Known near-term impacts include the increasing potential for GLOFs and the disappearance of small glaciers, especially at lower latitudes.
Understanding that glacier melt/retreat, although occurring at increasing rates, is not likely to produce widespread disastrous impacts in the next decade or two means that societies have time to build their resilience to changes in the amount of water available and when it arrives during the year. However, existing vulnerabilities in human health status, population pressure, degraded ecosystems and – especially – water stress make societies and ecosystems vulnerable to any changes in water availability as glacier melt accelerates in the coming decades.
As a result of this analysis, the program concepts developed in consultation with USAID addressed three different elements: the challenge of lack of information, vulnerabilities related to current societal and ecosystem conditions, and the need for mitigation, focusing on black carbon.
