Need of integrated monitoring on reference glacier catchments for future water security in Himalaya

Abstract

The Himalayan glaciers partly cater to the water requirements of over a billion people living in the Indus, Ganga and Brahmaputra river basins. Climate change has affected most of these glaciers and has resulted in adverse societal impacts downstream. Several remote sensing and modelling studies have been developed to understand the recent evolution of glaciers and river runoff in these basins. So far, in-situ glacio-hydrological studies, pivotal for calibration/validation of the developed methods/models, are extremely sparse. This review discusses the integrated monitoring of a reference glacier ‘Chhota Shigri’ catchment (western Himalaya). Further, it highlights the importance of such monitoring network for calibration/validation of large-scale glacio-hydrological studies, and proposes a catchment-scale research strategy for sustainable management of future water resources in the Himalayan rivers.