Your search found 6 records
1 Dhyani, B. L.; Samra, J. S.; Juyal, G. P.; Babu, R.; Katiyar, V. S. 1997. Socio-economic analysis of a participatory integrated watershed management in Garhwal Himalaya: Fakot Watershed. Dehradun, India: Central Soil and Water Conservation Research and Training Institute. x, 113p.
Watershed management ; Participatory management ; Farmer participation ; Farmers' attitudes ; Economic evaluation ; Land use ; Farm income ; Income generation ; Employment ; Gender ; Environmental effects ; Irrigation water ; Horticulture ; Livestock / India / Western Himalayas / Garhwal Region / Fakot Watershed
(Location: IWMI-HQ Call no: 631.7.5 G635 DHY Record No: H021226)
2 Baker, J. M. 2005. The Kuhls of Kangra: Community-managed irrigation in the Western Himalaya. Delhi, India: Permanent Black. xiii, 271p.
Communal irrigation systems ; Gravity flow ; Land ownership ; Privatization ; Cropping systems ; Rice ; Labor ; Water distribution ; Common property ; Political aspects ; colonialism ; History ; Land tenure / India / Western Himalayas / Himachal Pradesh / Kangra
(Location: IWMI-HQ Call no: 631.7.3 G635 BAK Record No: H038546)
3 Tahir, A. A.; Chevallier, P.; Arnaud, Y.; Ashraf, M.; Bhatti, Muhammad Tousif. 2015. Snow cover trend and hydrological characteristics of the Astore River basin (Western Himalayas) and its comparison to the Hunza basin (Karakoram region) Science of the Total Environment, 505:748-761. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2014.10.065]
Snow cover ; Glaciers ; Snowmelt ; Hydrological regime ; River basins ; Climatic data ; Meteorological stations ; Satellite observation ; Water resources ; Catchment areas / Pakistan / India / Western Himalayas / Karakoram Region / Indus River Basin / Astore River Basin / Hunza Basin
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H046709)
(4.13 MB)
A large proportion of Pakistan's irrigation water supply is taken from the Upper Indus River Basin (UIB) in the Himalaya–Karakoram–Hindukush range. More than half of the annual flow in the UIB is contributed by five of its snow and glacier-fed sub-basins including the Astore (Western Himalaya — south latitude of the UIB) and Hunza (Central Karakoram — north latitude of the UIB) River basins. Studying the snow cover, its spatiotemporal change and the hydrological response of these sub-basins is important so as to better managewater resources. This paper compares new data from the Astore River basin (mean catchment elevation, 4100 m above sea level; m asl afterwards), obtained using MODIS satellite snow cover images, with data from a previouslystudied high-altitude basin, the Hunza (mean catchment elevation, 4650 m asl). The hydrological regime of this sub-catchment was analyzed using the hydrological and climate data available at different altitudes from the basin area. The results suggest that the UIB is a region undergoing a stable or slightly increasing trend of snow cover in the southern (Western Himalayas) and northern (Central Karakoram) parts. Discharge from the UIB is a combination of snow and glacier melt with rainfall-runoff at southern part, but snow and glacier melt are dominant at the northern part of the catchment. Similar snow cover trends (stable or slightly increasing) but different river flow trends (increasing in Astore and decreasing in Hunza) suggest a sub-catchment level study of the UIB to understand thoroughly its hydrological behavior for better flood forecasting and water resources management.
4 Mukhopadhyay, B.; Khan, A. 2015. A reevaluation of the snowmelt and glacial melt in river flows within Upper Indus Basin and its significance in a changing climate. Journal of Hydrology, 527:119-132. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2015.04.045]
Climate change ; Glaciers ; Snowmelt ; River basins ; Flow discharge ; Watersheds ; Hydrological regime ; Valuation ; Temperature / Pakistan / Upper Indus Basin / Western Himalayas / Karakoram Mountains / Hindu Kush Region
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H047441)
(5.03 MB)
The hydrograph separation method, previously proposed to quantify base flow, seasonal snowmelt, and glacial melt components in river flows within Upper Indus basin underestimates glacial melt component. This is particularly limiting for highly glacierized watersheds. The limitation has been corrected by a further refinement of the method. The results with the refined procedure are highly consistent with the physical characteristics such as hypsometry and glacier extents of the watershed even though the method itself is completely independent of the physical characteristics of the watershed where it is applied. Glacial melt far outweigh snowmelt in the rivers draining the Karakoram and Zanskar ranges. In the Karakoram, on an annualized basis, glacial melt proportion varies from 43% to 50% whereas snowmelt varies from 27% to 31%. On the other hand, snowmelt dominates over glacial melt in the rivers draining the western Greater Himalayas and the Hindu Kush. Here snowmelt percentage in river discharge varies from 31% to 53% whereas that of glacial melt ranges from 16% to 30%. In the main stem of Upper Indus River, snowmelt fraction in most cases is slightly greater than the glacial melt fraction. In the main stem, snowmelt percentage ranges from 35% to 44% whereas glacial melt percentage ranges from 25% to 36%. Upper Indus River just upstream of Tarbela Reservoir carries annual flows constituted of 70% melt water of which 26% is contributed by glacial melts and 44% by snowmelts. We also show that during the later part of twentieth century and continuing into the early part of twenty first century glacial melt contributions to river discharge has decreased compared to the previous decades. This phenomenon can be ascribed to either basin wide loss of glacial mass in the recent decades in the elevation range from where most of the glacial melt originates or glacier growth and stability due to either reduction in energy inputs or increase in precipitation or both at the high altitude bands wherefrom glacial melt water originates.
5 Pandey, R.; Kumar, P.; Archie, K. M.; Gupta, A. K.; Joshi, P. K.; Valente, D.; Petrosillo, I. 2018. Climate change adaptation in the western-Himalayas: household level perspectives on impacts and barriers. Ecological Indicators, 84:27-37. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2017.08.021]
Climate change adaptation ; Resilience ; Households ; Coping strategies ; Indigenous knowledge ; Planning ; Communication ; Barriers ; Rural communities ; Socioeconomic environment ; Agriculture ; Mountains ; Land degradation ; Ecological factors / India / Western Himalayas / Nainital
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H048602)
(1.02 MB)
A vast amount of knowledge and experience on coping with climatic variability and extreme weather events exists within local communities, and indigenous coping strategies are important elements of successful adaptation plans. Traditional knowledge can help to provide efficient, appropriate and time-tested ways of responding to climate change especially in far-flung communities. However, little is known about how traditional coping strategies translate into adaptation to long-term changes, and to what degree they prevent pro-active, transformational responses to climate change. This paper assesses the use of climate related information for communities in the Himalayan foothills of rural India, and reports on the barriers to adaptation planning and actions. Surveys have been carried out to analyze the current practices and the role of information in planning for climate change adaptation in the rural areas of the Nainital region of India located in Western Himalaya. Respondents perceive the local climate change, the intensity of change, and the negative impacts on the community and landscape. Decreases in water quantity and changes in precipitation patterns are among the major concerns for respondents, however, communities have begun to use traditional knowledge and historical climate information for developing strategies suitable to cope with impacts of climate change. Going forward, additional information is needed to match the high priority community needs with viable adaptation strategies. Lack of money, lack of access to information, and lack of awareness or understanding are considered the three largest hurdles besides low priority for adaptation, recognized by community members as barriers to adaptation planning and actions. Adaptation plans must be integrated into both top-down and bottom-up approaches to plan for enabling sustainable development and the efficient use of information for adaptation. Finally, traditional knowledge seems to be useful not only in contrasting climate change impacts, but also in recovering several ecosystem services that work all together for enanching the quality of life of villagers at local scale.
6 Shah, R. D. T.; Sharma, S.; Bharati, Luna. 2020. Water diversion induced changes in aquatic biodiversity in monsoon-dominated rivers of western Himalayas in Nepal: implications for environmental flows. Ecological Indicators, 108:105735. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2019.105735]
Water extraction ; River basins ; Aquatic ecosystems ; Biodiversity ; Monsoon climate ; Environmental flows ; Irrigation programs ; Hydropower ; Invertebrates ; Indicators / Nepal / Western Himalayas / Mahakali River Basin / Karnali River Basin
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H049425)
(4.69 MB)
Water diversion projects across the world, for drinking water, energy production and irrigation, have threatened riverine ecosystems and organisms inhabiting those systems. However, the impacts of such projects on aquatic biodiversity in monsoon-dominated river ecosystems are little known, particularly in Nepal. This study examines the effects of flow reduction due to water diversion projects on the macroinvertebrate communities in the rivers of the Karnali and Mahakali basins in the Western Himalayas in Nepal. Macroinvertebrates were sampled during post-monsoon (November), baseflow (February) and pre-monsoon (May) seasons during 2016 and 2017. Nonmetric Multidimensional Scaling (NMDS) was performed to visualize clustering of sites according to percentage of water abstractions (extraction of water for various uses) and Redundancy Analysis (RDA) was used to explore environmental variables that explained variation in macroinvertebrate community composition. A significant pattern of macroinvertebrates across the water abstraction categories was only revealed for the baseflow season. NMDS clustered sites into three clumps: “none to slight water abstraction (< 30% – Class 1)”, “moderate water abstraction (> 30% to < 80% – Class 2)” and “heavy water abstraction (> 80% – Class 3)”. The study also showed that water abstraction varied seasonally in the region (Wilk’s Lambda = 0.697, F(2, 28) = 4.215, P = 0.025, n2 = 0.23). The RDA plot indicated that taxa such as Acentrella sp., Paragenetina sp., Hydropsyche sp., Glossosomatinae, Elmidae, Orthocladiinae and Dimesiinae were rheophilic i.e. positively correlated with water velocity. Taxa like Torleya sp., Caenis sp., Cinygmina sp., Choroterpes sp., Limonidae and Ceratopogoniidae were found in sites with high proportion of pool sections and relative high temperature induced by flow reduction among the sites. Indicator taxonomic groups for Class 1, 2 and 3 water abstraction levels, measured through high relative abundance values, were Trichoptera, Coleoptera, Odonata and Lepidoptera, respectively. Macroinvertebrate abundance was found to be the more sensitive metric than taxonomic richness in the abstracted sites. It is important to understand the relationship between flow alterations induced by water abstractions and changes in macroinvertebrates composition in order to determine sustainable and sound management strategies for river ecosystems.
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