Your search found 9 records
1 Daron, J.; Soares, M. B.; Janes, T.; Colledge, F.; Srinivasan, G.; Agarwal, A.; Hewitt, C.; Richardson, K.; Nepal, Santosh; Shrestha, M. S.; Rasul, G.; Suckall, N.; Harrison, B.; Oakes, R. L.; Corbelli, D. 2022. Advancing climate services in South Asia. Climate Services, 26:100295. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cliser.2022.100295]
Climate services ; Partnerships ; Knowledge sharing ; Capacity development ; Climate change ; Risk reduction ; Weather forecasting ; Resilience ; Collaboration ; Development programmes ; Institutional development ; Stakeholders ; Decision making ; Investment ; Sustainability ; Socioeconomic aspects ; Coastal climate ; Sea level ; Hydropower / South Asia / Afghanistan / Bangladesh / Nepal / Pakistan
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H051038)
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405880722000139/pdfft?md5=31e69906f8e577f7ab197b3caec5eea2&pid=1-s2.0-S2405880722000139-main.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H051038.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H051038.pdf
(1.31 MB) (1.31 MB)
Many communities in South Asia are highly exposed and vulnerable to weather and climate hazards, and climate services play an important role in managing present and future climate risks. Here we take stock of ongoing climate service activities under the Asia Regional Resilience to a Changing Climate (ARRCC) Met Office Partnership programme. ARRCC aims to strengthen climate resilience in South Asia through co-producing weather and climate services, building institutional capacities, and enhancing coordination across the region and in focal countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan. We identify what is working well and challenges that remain in the provision and uptake of climate services, focusing on examples of applying seasonal forecasts, sea-level rise projections, and extreme rainfall information for hydropower decisions. We demonstrate the value of building equitable and sustainable partnerships, enhancing knowledge sharing, strengthening evaluation, and approaches that combine model information within a decision-centred framework. Based on experiences in ARRCC, we find that climate information alone is often insufficient to meet decision-maker needs, and discuss the role for new climate impact services that integrate climate information with knowledge and tools on climate impacts and vulnerabilities.
2 Li, D.; Lu, X.; Walling, D. E.; Zhang, T.; Steiner, J. F.; Wasson, R. J.; Harrison, S.; Nepal, Santosh; Nie, Y.; Immerzeel, W. W.; Shugar, D. H.; Koppes, M.; Lane, S.; Zeng, Z.; Sun, X.; Yegorov, A.; Bolch, T. 2022. High Mountain Asia hydropower systems threatened by climate-driven landscape instability. Nature Geoscience, 15(7):520-530. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-022-00953-y]
Hydropower ; Climate change ; Mountains ; Landscape ; Glaciers ; Snowmelt ; Extreme weather events ; Floods ; Rain ; Sediment load ; Erosion ; Resilience ; Dams ; Reservoirs ; Lakes / Asia / High Mountain Asia / Himalaya
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H051234)
(2.58 MB)
Global warming-induced melting and thawing of the cryosphere are severely altering the volume and timing of water supplied from High Mountain Asia, adversely affecting downstream food and energy systems that are relied on by billions of people. The construction of more reservoirs designed to regulate streamflow and produce hydropower is a critical part of strategies for adapting to these changes. However, these projects are vulnerable to a complex set of interacting processes that are destabilizing landscapes throughout the region. Ranging in severity and the pace of change, these processes include glacial retreat and detachments, permafrost thaw and associated landslides, rock–ice avalanches, debris flows and outburst floods from glacial lakes and landslide-dammed lakes. The result is large amounts of sediment being mobilized that can fill up reservoirs, cause dam failure and degrade power turbines. Here we recommend forward-looking design and maintenance measures and sustainable sediment management solutions that can help transition towards climate change-resilient dams and reservoirs in High Mountain Asia, in large part based on improved monitoring and prediction of compound and cascading hazards.
3 Shrestha, M.; Nepal, Santosh. 2022. Quantifying water-related ecosystem services potential of the Kangchenjunga Landscape in the eastern Himalaya: a modeling approach. Hydrology Research, 53(6):892-907. [doi: https://doi.org/10.2166/nh.2022.012]
Water availability ; Ecosystem services ; Water yield ; Hydrological modelling ; Regulating services ; Precipitation ; Glaciers ; Snow cover ; Snowmelt ; Rivers ; Discharge ; Indicators / Nepal / Bhutan / Himalaya / Kangchenjunga Landscape
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H051235)
https://iwaponline.com/hr/article-pdf/53/6/892/1065586/nh0530892.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H051235.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H051235.pdf
(1.25 MB) (1.25 MB)
Quantifying water-related ecosystem services (WES) helps to secure limited and valuable water resources sustainably. Mainstreaming these ecosystem services into policy and decision-making requires accurate information at the local level. This paper aims to quantify provisioning and regulating freshwater ecosystem services potential in the Kangchenjunga Landscape using a hydro-ecological model. This study is the first to use the J2000 hydrological model to estimate annual and seasonal WES. The model output was validated against snow-cover and river discharge, after conducting a sensitivity analysis of the input parameter. High precipitation and low evapotranspiration resulted in rich water availability in the landscape. It was found that the precipitation amount in the landscape is highly seasonal, resulting in high variation in water availability. Snowfall, accounting for 4% of the total precipitation still plays an important role in regulating water resources. Nearly 100% of the discharge during the dry period originates from groundwater and melt runoff. This study highlights the importance of the presence of snow and glacier to sustain the ecosystem in the landscape. This model-derived information could further be used for decision-making and evaluating the impact of climatic and land use changes.
4 Lutz, A. F.; Immerzeel, W. W.; Siderius, C.; Wijngaard, R. R.; Nepal, Santosh; Shrestha, A. B.; Wester, P.; Biemans, H. 2022. South Asian agriculture increasingly dependent on meltwater and groundwater. Nature Climate Change, 12(6):566-573. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-022-01355-z]
Meltwater ; Groundwater ; Agriculture ; Irrigated farming ; Climate change ; Forecasting ; Hydrological modelling ; Socioeconomic aspects ; Water availability ; Water supply ; Water demand ; Irrigation water ; Water extraction ; Rain ; Runoff ; Glaciers ; River basins ; Monsoon climate ; Crops / South Asia / Indus River Basin / Ganges River Basin / Brahmaputra River Basin
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H051247)
(4.42 MB)
Irrigated agriculture in South Asia depends on meltwater, monsoon rains and groundwater. Climate change alters the hydrology and causes shifts in the timing, composition and magnitude of these sources of water supply. Simultaneously, socio-economic growth increases water demand. Here we use a high-resolution cryosphere–hydrology–crop model forced with an ensemble of climate and socio-economic projections to assess how the sources of irrigation water supply may shift during the twenty-first century. We find increases in the importance of meltwater and groundwater for irrigated agriculture. An earlier melt peak increases meltwater withdrawal at the onset of the cropping season in May and June in the Indus, whereas increasing peak irrigation water demand during July and August aggravates non-renewable groundwater pumping in the Indus and Ganges despite runoff increases. Increasing inter-annual variability in rainfall runoff increases the need for meltwater and groundwater to complement rainfall runoff during future dry years.
5 Sharma, S.; Talchabhadel, R.; Nepal, Santosh; Ghimire, G. R.; Rakhal, B.; Panthi, J.; Adhikari, B. R.; Pradhanang, S. M.; Maskey, S.; Kumar, S. 2023. Increasing risk of cascading hazards in the central Himalayas. Natural Hazards, 119(2):1117-1126. (Special issue: Multimodal Characterization of Built and Natural Environments for Multi-Risk Assessment) [doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-022-05462-0]
Weather hazards ; Disaster risk management ; Forecasting ; Climate change ; Mitigation ; Adaptation ; Strategies ; Natural disasters ; Landslides ; Flooding ; Avalanches ; Earthquakes ; Early warning systems ; Modelling ; Infrastructure ; Rivers / South Asia / Nepal / Central Himalayas
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H051248)
(1.70 MB)
Cascading hazards are becoming more prevalent in the central Himalayas. Primary hazards (e.g., earthquakes, avalanches, and landslides) often trigger secondary hazards (e.g., landslide dam, debris flow, and flooding), compounding the risks to human settlements, infrastructures, and ecosystems. Risk management strategies are commonly tailored to a single hazard, leaving human and natural systems vulnerable to cascading hazards. In this commentary, we characterize diverse natural hazards in the central Himalayas, including their cascading mechanisms and potential impacts. A scientifically sound understanding of the cascading hazards, underlying mechanisms, and appropriate tools to account for the compounding risks are crucial to informing the design of risk management strategies. We also discuss the need for an integrated modeling framework, reliable prediction and early warning system, and sustainable disaster mitigation and adaptation strategies.
6 Kaini, S.; Harrison, M. T.; Gardner, T.; Nepal, Santosh; Sharma, A. K. 2022. The impacts of climate change on the irrigation water demand, grain yield, and biomass yield of wheat crop in Nepal. Water, 14(17):2728. (Special issue: How Does Agricultural Water Resources Management Adapt to Climate Change?) [doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/w14172728]
Climate change ; Irrigation water ; Water demand ; Crop yield ; Biomass ; Wheat ; Cropping systems ; Irrigation schemes ; Irrigation management ; Crop modelling ; Forecasting ; Water requirements ; Extreme weather events ; Farmers / Nepal / Sunsari Morang Irrigation Scheme
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H051485)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/14/17/2728/pdf?version=1662382187
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H051485.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H051485.pdf
(4.81 MB) (4.81 MB)
The Nepalese Sunsari Morang Irrigation district is the lifeblood of millions of people in the Koshi River basin. Despite its fundamental importance to food security, little is known about the impacts of climate change on future irrigation demand and grain yields in this region. Here, we examined the impacts of climate change on the irrigation demand and grain yield of wheat crop. Climate change was simulated using Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) of 4.5 and 8.5 for three time horizons (2016–2045, 2036–2065, and 2071–2100) in the Agricultural Production Systems Simulator (APSIM). For the field data’s measured period (2018–2020), we showed that farmers applied only 25% of the irrigation water required to achieve the maximum potential grain yield. Actual yields were less than 50% of the potential yields. Projected irrigation water demand is likely to increase for RCP4.5 (3%) but likely to decrease under RCP8.5 (8%) due to the truncated crop duration and lower maturity biomass by the end of the 21st century. However, simulated yields declined by 20%, suggesting that even irrigation will not be enough to mitigate the severe and detrimental effects of climate change on crop production. While our results herald positive implications for irrigation demand in the region, the implications for regional food security may be dire.
7 Wang, L.; Zhang, F.; Nepal, Santosh; Xiang, Y.; Tang, H.; Shi, X.; Zeng, C.; Ahmad, I.; Yu, Z. 2023. Response of runoff processes to temperature rise in basins with different glacier ratios in the monsoon-influenced southern Tibetan Plateau. Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies, 45:101299. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejrh.2022.101299]
River basins ; Runoff ; Temperature ; Glaciers ; Monsoons ; Forecasting / Asia / Tibetan Plateau / Karuxung River Basin / Dudh Koshi River Basin / Arun River Basin / Gandaki River Basin / Lhasa River Basin
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H051663)
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214581822003123/pdfft?md5=aad81fb593686cfca687574039f2915b&pid=1-s2.0-S2214581822003123-main.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H051663.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H051663.pdf
(9.56 MB) (9.56 MB)
Study region: River basins with glacier ratios ranging from 1.8% to 20.7% in the monsoon-influenced southern Tibetan Plateau.
Study focus: The response of runoff processes in basins with different glacier ratios under global warming of 1.5 C and 2 C was explored based on SPHY (Spatial Processes in Hydrology) model and GCMs (General Circulation Models).
New hydrological insights for the region: More prominent temperature and precipitation changes were observed in the monsoon-influenced southern Tibetan Plateau compared with the global averages. With increasing temperature and precipitation, the total runoff and glacier runoff of these basins showed increasing trends under global warming of 1.5 C and 2 C. Compared with the baseline period (1985–2014), increases were observed in the total runoff (1.7–20.6%), base flow (2.8–8.3%), glacier runoff (8.1–35.9%), and rainfall runoff (6.0–36.0%) of these basins. In contrast, snowmelt runoff decreased (- 28.3% - - 4.3%). Therefore, relevant management and allocation of water resources may be required. The hydrological regulation function of glaciers was found to be strongly correlated with glacier ratio. In general, the hydrological regulation function of glaciers would decrease in the future along with warming induced glacier retreat. These findings would help deepen the understanding of runoff processes on the Tibetan Plateau and other alpine regions, thus providing a scientific basis for water resources management under climate change.
Study focus: The response of runoff processes in basins with different glacier ratios under global warming of 1.5 C and 2 C was explored based on SPHY (Spatial Processes in Hydrology) model and GCMs (General Circulation Models).
New hydrological insights for the region: More prominent temperature and precipitation changes were observed in the monsoon-influenced southern Tibetan Plateau compared with the global averages. With increasing temperature and precipitation, the total runoff and glacier runoff of these basins showed increasing trends under global warming of 1.5 C and 2 C. Compared with the baseline period (1985–2014), increases were observed in the total runoff (1.7–20.6%), base flow (2.8–8.3%), glacier runoff (8.1–35.9%), and rainfall runoff (6.0–36.0%) of these basins. In contrast, snowmelt runoff decreased (- 28.3% - - 4.3%). Therefore, relevant management and allocation of water resources may be required. The hydrological regulation function of glaciers was found to be strongly correlated with glacier ratio. In general, the hydrological regulation function of glaciers would decrease in the future along with warming induced glacier retreat. These findings would help deepen the understanding of runoff processes on the Tibetan Plateau and other alpine regions, thus providing a scientific basis for water resources management under climate change.
8 Baral, S.; Nepal, Santosh; Pandey, V.; Khadka, Manohara; Gyawali, D. 2023. Position paper on enhancing water security in Nepal. Prepared for the UN 2023 Water Conference, New York, USA, 22-24 March 2023. Kathmandu, Nepal: Government of Nepal. Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation. 26p.
Water security ; Water resources ; Water management ; Water availability ; Natural resources management ; Sustainable Development Goals ; Water supply ; Gender equality ; Social inclusion ; Women ; Socioeconomic development ; Climate change ; Disaster risk reduction ; Water governance ; Policies ; Investment / Nepal
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H052326)
https://dwri.gov.np/un2023waterconference/Position-Paper.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H052326.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H052326.pdf
(3.59 MB) (3.59 MB)
9 Nepal, Santosh; Neupane, Nilhari; Koirala, Sanju; Lautze, Jonathan; Shrestha, Ram Narayan; Bhatt, D.; Shrestha, Nirman; Adhikari, Manju; Kaini, S.; Karki, S.; Yangkhurung, J. R.; Gnawali, K.; Pradhan, A. M. S.; Timsina, K.; Pradhananga, Saurav; Khadka, Manohara. 2024. Integrated assessment of irrigation and agriculture management challenges in Nepal: an interdisciplinary perspective. Heliyon, 10(9):E29407. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e29407]
Irrigation systems ; Agricultural water management ; Water availability ; Agricultural productivity ; Gender equality ; Social inclusion ; Governance ; Socioeconomic aspects ; Market prices / Nepal / Mahakali Irrigation Project / Rani Jamara Kulariya Irrigation Project / Babai Irrigation Project
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H052702)
https://www.cell.com/action/showPdf?pii=S2405-8440%2824%2905438-0
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H052702.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H052702.pdf
(4.32 MB) (4.32 MB)
Agriculture plays a critical role in ensuring food and nutrition security, livelihood, and rural employment in Nepal. Despite substantial investments and institutional reforms, irrigation projects have faced consistently low performance. While existing studies have shed light on technical aspects of irrigation performance, they often focus on specific themes rather than holistic evaluations of sustainability. This research systematically assesses barriers and challenges to effective irrigation water management in Nepal by assessing and ranking the challenges faced by three irrigation systems located in western Nepal: Mahakali, Rani Jamara Kulariya, and Babai. To investigate these challenges, we collected data from 449 households, which provided insights into 33 indicators representing key barriers to effective irrigation and agricultural management. The identified challenges were categorized into four broad thematic areas: physical and structural, agricultural and water, socioeconomic and market, and gender and governance. A comprehensive evaluation was conducted to compare these challenges among the three irrigation schemes, different thematic areas, and various locations within each scheme (namely, the head, mid, and tail sections of the system). The findings revealed that timely access and availability of fertilizers, spring water availability and fair market prices of agricultural products are the most significant challenges. The Babai irrigation system faced the most substantial challenges among the three systems, particularly in the middle section. These findings emphasize the interconnectedness of these challenges, highlighting the need for a holistic approach to planning, implementation, and management. Integrated strategies are essential to address socioeconomic, market, and endogenous farming issues, ensuring reliable irrigation water availability for sustainable agricultural production.
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