GEOG 1000 Winter 2019: Glacier Recession & Meltwater Impact Analysis

This essay examines the impact of glacier recession and declining meltwater on mountain societies, focusing on the Hindu Kush Himalayan region. It identifies linkages between interdependent components of the earth system, such as snow, glaciers, glacial lakes, and permafrost, and analyzes how changes in these natural processes disrupt the equilibrium in sub-systems. The study highlights adverse outcomes for humankind, including social, economic, and geopolitical impacts, such as risks to tourism, glacier lake outburst floods, and altered stream ecosystem services. The essay also suggests possible steps towards avoidance and remediation, such as reducing short-lived carbon pollutants. The report emphasizes the need for cross-provincial learning on hydrology, glaciers, risk, adaptation, and human environment connections concerning mountain provinces.

RUNNING HEAD: Geography 0
Geography

Geography 1
Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Identify and define linkages between inter dependent components of the earth system...........2
How changes in the natural process may be leading to the disruption of the equilibrium in
sub-system..................................................................................................................................4
Identify and explain the adverse outcomes for the human kind and possible steps towards
avoidance and remediation.........................................................................................................4
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................5
References..................................................................................................................................6

Geography 2
Impacts of glacier recession and declining meltwater on mountain societies
Introduction
The glacierized mountains are often stated as globe’s water towers as glaciers store water
over the time and control cyclical stream flow along with emancipating run off during the dry
seasons. The ice loss has potential of affecting the human societies in various ways
comprising agriculture, irrigation, potable power, hydropower, livelihoods, spirituality,
irrigation, recreation and demography. The research on the glaciers put impact in the various
ways like socioeconomic bearings, hydropower, agribusiness, irrigation, food safety along
with the cultural impacts. This report comprises paths for the social sciences, civilizations
and natural sciences investigation which can appropriately detect human impacts and
implementation of the Trans disciplinary research approaches to study glacier runoff. The
aim of the report is mainly to restate the glacier water difficulty faced by the human societies.
Other than assessing the human effects in various mountain provinces, the report attempts to
inspire cross provincial discerning and encourage learnings on hydrology, glaciers, risk,
adaption and human environment connections concerning mountain provinces.
Glacier retreat causes broad issues regarding water deliveries for the societies and around the
globe’s glacierized mountains. There is imperative requisite to comprehend the human
influences of glacier runoff unpredictability in the mountain provinces for the local societies,
social science, policy makers and humankind’s researches along with the natural scientists
who are reviewing glaciers. The natural scientists constantly mount and determine the
scientific periodicals with privileges regarding the hydrologic effects of glacier
transformation on the downstream civilisations (Rajan, et al. 2017). The research conducted
on the glacier runoff influences exaggerates the role of ice, embrace human civilizations
stagnant in the hydrologic models and no differentiation between the biophysical and social
forces of hydrologic revolution in the glacier nurtured crises.
Identify and define linkages between inter dependent components of the earth system
The diminishing crysopheric cover in Hindu Kush Himalayan Mountain Range has been
continuously increasing. The cryosphere defines to the manifestation of icy water in various
forms like ice caps, glaciers, snow, ice sheets, permafrost, river and lake ice. The Hindu Kush
Himalaya comprises the Tien Shan, Pamiras and Alatua. The cryosphere are considered
foremost freshwater resource and playing a vibrant protagonist in local and provincial

Geography 3
hydrology and biology (Carey, et al. 2017). The industry, cultivation and hydroelectric power
cohort depends on the suitable and appropriate distribution of water in foremost river
structures. If the variations occur in the cryospheric system than it can stance problems for
catastrophe risk lessening in the prolonged Hindu Kush Himalaya region. The constituent of
the climate variation diverges in both time and space. The glacier mass and extent variations
demonstrate significant provincial disparities. The reaction periods of snow cover and
permafrost to climate variation are immensely diverse (Osmanoglu, et al. 2017).
The cryosphere has linkage with the inter-dependent components of the earth system like:
Snow: The snow is a significant periodic water storage component in prolonged Hindu Kush
Himalaya and in several areas it is an acute source of stream flow for irrigation. The gridded
data tests can be assessed by the long term dimensions of the snow water corresponding. The
snow cover is highly variable in the prolonged Hindu Kush Himalaya. Whereas the satellite
consequential records are short and the perceived drifts in the snow cover are commonly
weak and unreliable between studies and provinces (Mukherji, et al. 2019).
Glacier: The glacier melt water has role in providing a steady and consistent source of stream
flow in glacerized river sinks. Such type of probability is specifically vibrant in the post
monsoon season and for the provinces with the lesser summer drizzle. As per the research of
collation of glacier form and area change, the glaciers in utmost of the areas are dwindling
and dropping mass. The glaciers in the eastern and western regions have gone less form than
others (Rittger, et al. 2017). The glacier frame loss will speed up through the twenty first
century. The higher release developments will also result in more mass loss.
Glacial lakes: The glacial lakes transpire repeatedly in the prolonged Hindu Kush Himalaya
and the several original lakes will custom in retort to the crysopheric change. The glacier
lakes represent a perfect growth in number and region from the last three decades. Both
prevalent total freezing lake area and the utmost whole entire glacial lake evolution rate seem
in the eastern and central Himalaya (Dilshad, et al. 2018).
Permafrost: Permafrost occurs under large parts of the prolonged Hindu Kush Himalaya and
the incidence and reputation is not extensively identified in the province. This situation is
seen easily so it is tranquil to overlook. Permafrost can form numerous climate influences on
cold provinces (Thakur, et al. 2017).

Geography 4
How changes in the natural process may be leading to the disruption of the equilibrium
in sub-system
The changes in the crysopheric lead to the disruption of the equilibrium in the sub-system.
The changes in the hydrological trends concerning cryospheric change are hard to identify
due to perplexing influences on emancipation, inadequacy of long term data groups and high
interannual changeability in emancipation. The large capacity of snow and ice in the
prolonged Hindu Kush Himalaya are significant water supplies. The upsurge in the air
temperature reduces the snowpack accruals and results in the snowmelt runoff dimensions.
The medium and long term changes in the glaciers can condense summer melt contributions.
Permafrost is ground frozen for minimum 2 years. It holds large amount of carbon stored as
organic material to decline in the freezing state (Singh, et al. 2018). Permafrost has role in
dropping summer melt contributions. The scientists have even warned regarding the potential
threat from melting permafrost. The regional and sector specific resources are required to
study for the cryospheric change impact. On the other side, melting ice has inferences for
water supply as millions of people around the world depend on the rivers served by the
mountain glaciers. For instance, Indus and Brahmaputra basins almost sixty million people
depend on the glacial melt water for the water supply. The glaciers melting at the fast rate
represents increasing river flow in the short term summer (Khan, Pant & Ravindra, 2018).
Identify and explain the adverse outcomes for the human kind and possible steps
towards avoidance and remediation
The Cryosphere loss results in social, economic and geopolitical impacts. The impacts
associated with the loss of snow cover and glacier melting has been identified. The
Cryosphere loss has resulted in the negative outcome in sustaining tourism. It puts barrier on
the visitor areas of Himalaya in the specific season when the Cryosphere dissolves. The
cryosphere related risks causes potential damage to the lives of people along with the cultural
heritage (You, et al. 2017). It even results in glacier lake outburst floods which causes socio
economic losses in Hindu Kush Himalaya. Recently Bhutan and Nepal have been identified
confronting greatest economic consequences from the glacier lake outburst floods. It threats
to the unique culture heritage. The climate changes occurred by the cryosphere can even gets
cyclonic hurricanes and irregular snowstorm over a short period. The snowmelt in mountain
areas affects stream ecosystem services like drinking water supply, wastewater integration
and hydropower. The less amount of snow also affects to the agriculture and the ability of

Geography 5
producing food through occurrence of drought and scarce supply of water for irrigation. The
variation in the snowmelt also increases the risk of forest fires (Matin, et al. 2017).
In order to stabilize the cryosphere, the practical measures have been enacted. It can radically
reduce the short lived carbon pollutants (SCPs) like primarily black carbon and methane. It
will even stabilize conditions in the globe’s threatened snow and ice bound regions. Doing so
can bring multiple health, ecosystem benefits and minimises risk of development from water
resource changes (Stumm, et al. 2017).
Conclusion
The cryosphere and its components like snow, glaciers, sea, lake, permafrost and river rice
are possibly the most promptly changing element of the Earth system. The cryosphere are
regarded foremost freshwater resource and playing a vibrant role in local and regional
hydrology and biology .The cryosphere loss is observed as a universal –scale redeployment
of solid water into liquid and gas phases. The cryosphere has been linked with the inter-
dependent components of the earth system like snow, glacier, glacial lakes and permafrost.
The variations in the crysopheric lead to the disruption of the equilibrium in the sub-system.
The melting ice has inferences for water supply as millions of people round the world rely on
the rivers served by the mountain glaciers. It has been observed that the glaciers melting at
the fast rate signifies increasing river flow in the short term summer. The cryosphere puts
adverse impacts on the human kind in the form of drinking water supply, wastewater
integration and hydropower. The climate change can even fetch cyclonic storms and irregular
snowstorm over a shorter period of time. The practical measures can be adopted to avoid
cryosphere.

Geography 6
References
Carey, M., Molden, O. C., Rasmussen, M. B., Jackson, M., Nolin, A. W., & Mark, B. G.
(2017). Impacts of glacier recession and declining meltwater on mountain
societies. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 107(2), 350-359.
Dilshad, T., Mallick, D., Udas, P. B., Goodrich, C. G., Prakash, A., Gorti, G., ... & Habib, N.
(2018). Growing social vulnerability in the river basins: Evidence from the Hindu
Kush Himalaya (HKH) Region. Environmental Development.
Khan, A. A., Pant, N. C., & Ravindra, R. (2018). Current Status of Himalayan Cryosphere
and Adjacent Mountains. In Science and Geopolitics of The White World (pp. 161-
182). Springer, Cham.
Matin, M. A., Chitale, V. S., Murthy, M. S., Uddin, K., Bajracharya, B., & Pradhan, S.
(2017). Understanding forest fire patterns and risk in Nepal using remote sensing,
geographic information system and historical fire data. International journal of
wildland fire, 26(4), 276-286.
Mukherji, A., Sinisalo, A., Nüsser, M., Garrard, R., & Eriksson, M. (2019). Contributions of
the cryosphere to mountain communities in the Hindu Kush Himalaya: a
review. Regional Environmental Change, 1-16.
Osmanoglu, B., Painter, T. H., Shean, D., Arendt, A., Kargel, J., & Margulis, S. A. (2017,
July). Remote sensing of the cryosphere in high mountain ASIA. In 2017 IEEE
International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS) (pp. 2813-2816).
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Rajan, K., Sudhirendar, S., Eklabya, S., & Hofer, T. (2017). Everybody lives upstream: the
watershed approach for the changing climate of the Hindu Kush Himalaya. ICIMOD
Working Paper, (2017/11).
Rittger, K., Armstrong, R. L., Bair, N., Racoviteanu, A., Brodzik, M. J., Hill, A. F., ... &
Barrett, A. P. (2017, December). The Contribution to High Asia Runoff from Ice and
Snow (CHARIS): Understanding the source and trends of cryospheric contributions to
the water balance. In AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts.

Geography 7
Singh, D. K., Gusain, H. S., Mishra, V., & Gupta, N. (2018). Snow cover variability in North-
West Himalaya during last decade. Arabian Journal of Geosciences, 11(19), 579.
Stumm, D., Joshi, S. P., Salzmann, N., & MacDonell, S. (2017). In situ monitoring of
mountain glaciers: experiences from mountain ranges around the world and
recommendations for the Hindu Kush Himalaya. ICIMOD Working Paper, (2017/7).
Thakur, P. K., Garg, V., Nikam, B. R., Chouksey, A., Aggarwal, S. P., & Dhote, P. R. (2017).
Cryospheric Studies in Indian Himalayan and Polar Region: Current Status, Advances
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Sciences, India Section A: Physical Sciences, 87(4), 593-616.
You, Q. L., Ren, G. Y., Zhang, Y. Q., Ren, Y. Y., Sun, X. B., Zhan, Y. J., ... & Krishnan, R.
(2017). An overview of studies of observed climate change in the Hindu Kush
Himalayan (HKH) region. Advances in Climate Change Research, 8(3), 141-147.