The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Technical Paper Climate Change and Water draws together and evaluates the information in IPCC Assessment and Special Reports concerning the impacts of climate change on hydrological processes and regimes, and on freshwater resources – their availability, quality, use and management. It takes into account current and projected regional key vulnerabilities, prospects for adaptation, and the relationships between climate change mitigation and water. Its objectives are:

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Climate change and water.

The science of the total environment

Landslide hazard evaluation: a review of current techniques and their application in a multi-scale study, Central Italy

The goal of this article is to revise several aspects of the well-known classification of landslides, developed by Varnes (1978). The primary recommendation is to modify the definition of landslide-forming materials, to provide compatibility with accepted geotechnical and geological terminology of rocks and soils. Other, less important modifications of the classification system are suggested, resulting from recent developments of the landslide science. The modified Varnes classification of landslides has 32 landslide types, each of which is backed by a formal definition. The definitions should facilitate backward compatibility of the system as well as possible translation to other languages. Complex landslides are not included as a separate category type, but composite types can be constructed by the user of the classification by combining two or more type names, if advantageous.

The Varnes classification of landslide types, an update

Changes in climate extremes and their impacts on the natural physical environment: An overview of the IPCC SREX report

Inventory of glaciers, glacial lakes and glacial lake outburst floods. Monitoring and early warning systems in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan Region: Bhutan.

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Inventory of glaciers, glacial lakes and glacial lake outburst floods : monitoring and early warning systems in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan region, Bhutan

Recent climate changes have had a significant impact on the high-mountain glacial environment. Rapid melting of glaciers has resulted in the formation and expansion of moraine-dammed lakes, creating a potential danger from glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs). Most lakes have formed during the second half of the 20th century. Glaciers in the Mount Everest (Sagamartha) region, Nepal, are retreating at an average rate of 10-59 m a -1 . From 1976 to 2000, Lumding and Imja Glaciers retreated 42 and 34 m a -1 , respectively, a rate that increased to 74 m a -1 for both glaciers from 2000 to 2007. During the past decade, Himalayan glaciers have generally been shrinking and retreating faster while moraine-dammed lakes have been proliferating. Although the number of lakes above 3500 m a.s.l. has decreased, the overall area of moraine-dammed lakes is increasing. Understanding the behaviour of glaciers and glacial lakes is a vital aspect of GLOF disaster management.

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Glaciers, glacial lakes and glacial lake outburst floods in the Mount Everest region, Nepal.

The Himalayas have the largest concentration of glaciers outside the polar region. These glaciers are a freshwater reserve; they provide the headwaters for nine major river systems in Asia – a lifeline for almost one-third of humanity. There is clear evidence that Himalayan glaciers have been melting at an unprecedented rate in recent decades; this trend causes major changes in freshwater flow regimes and is likely to have a dramatic impact on drinking water supplies, biodiversity, hydropower, industry, agriculture and others, with far-reaching implications for the people of the region and the earth’s environment. One result of glacial retreat has been an increase in the number and size of glacial lakes forming at the new terminal ends behind the exposed end moraines. These in turn give rise to an increase in the potential threat of glacial lake outburst floods occurring. Such disasters often cross boundaries; the water from a lake in one country threatens the lives and properties of people in another. Regional cooperation is needed to formulate a coordinated strategy to deal effectively both with the risk of outburst floods and with water management issues.

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Impact of climate change on Himalayan glaciers and glacial lakes: case studies on GLOF and associated hazards in Nepal and Bhutan.

The world’s climate has been warming for more than a hundred years: there have been fluctuations, notably cooling phases in the 1960s and 1970s, although long-term records indicate an accelerating warming trend from about 1980. Although this has influenced ecosystems worldwide, its effects on glaciers and the duration of winter snow cover have been particularly noticeable, especially in the European Alps and Greenland, and on the reduction of sea ice cover in the Arctic Ocean. The Hindu Kush-Himalayan region has been no exception. One of the more spectacular effects of recent atmospheric warming in the Himalayas has been the creation of meltwater lakes on the lower sections of many glaciers. In an increasing number of instances, especially well-documented in Nepal, several of these lakes have burst their natural retaining dams (usually old end moraines that were formed when the glaciers were thicker and more extensive than today). This has produced catastrophic flood surges (glacial lake outburst floods or GLOFs) that have destroyed infrastructure and taken human lives in the valleys below. The report is based upon information and experience accumulated during collaboration with several partner institutions in Nepal. It outlines a stepwise approach to assessment of risk beginning with an extensive desk study of aerial photographs and satellite images that provided the first reconnaissance mapping of more than a thousand glacial lakes. There followed a provisional identification of six lakes that were considered to be potentially dangerous and that warranted special study. Three lakes, namely, Tsho Rolpa, Thulagi Lake, and Imja Tsho, were selected for detailed field investigation, application of computer dam-break modelling, and assessment of the vulnerability of human life and property for up to 100 kilometres downstream.

Pradeep K. Mool

Papers

Inventory of glaciers, glacial lakes and glacial lake outburst floods. Monitoring and early warning systems in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan Region: Bhutan.

Inventory of glaciers, glacial lakes and glacial lake outburst floods : monitoring and early warning systems in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan region, Bhutan

Glaciers, glacial lakes and glacial lake outburst floods in the Mount Everest region, Nepal.

Impact of climate change on Himalayan glaciers and glacial lakes: case studies on GLOF and associated hazards in Nepal and Bhutan.

Glacial lakes and glacial lake outburst floods in Nepal