NSF Award
1121325
1121325<br/>Byers <br/>This U.S.-Nepal award supports the workshop Adapting to a Changing Mountain World: Water as Resource and Threat in the Hindu Kush-Himalaya (HKH) and Andes Mountains, Kathmandu, September 2011. The workshop focuses on glacial recession and new lake formation resulting from changing mountain climate and the subsequent impact on water resources and local communities in the HKH and Andes mountains. Organized by Drs. Alton Byers, The Mountain Institute and Daene McKinney, University of Texas at Austin, the two-phased field expedition and Kathmandu-based workshop will bring together researchers, graduate students, practitioners, policy makers and local decision makers from the U.S., Nepal, and Peru to advance understanding of climate change in mountain regions and the impacts on water resources. It will also promote dialogue among interdisciplinary participants - geographers, hydrologists, civil and environmental engineers, glaciologists on vulnerability and adaptation options, and new field-based international collaborative research projects that address research priorities and facilitate glacial lake hazard reduction. <br/><br/>This workshop will make important contributions to fundamental knowledge about climate change in mountain regions, glacier retreat, lake formation, water supply and societal impacts through scientific collaboration and the exchange of technical and social perspectives among Andean, HKH, and North American researchers and practitioners. The South-South format will provide a venue for Peruvian glaciologists, now recognized as a world leader in tropical glacier research and glacial lake engineering, to share their knowledge beyond Peruvian borders with environmental engineers in other mountain regions. For the US PhD students, all of whom are conducting dissertation research on topics related to adaptation to climate change in high mountain regions, the workshop will stimulate further development of their research, provide an opportunity to make significant contributions to proposal development at the workshop, and facilitate an expanded network of professional contacts and mentoring relationships. Also, new interdisciplinary research and field projects of potential interest to NSF, USAID, and participating countries, is an important expected outcome. <br/><br/>Adapting to a Changing Mountain World is a direct result of the NSF-USAID funded workshop in Peru, July 2009, where all participants strongly recommended that a second workshop be held in the HKH region in 2011 based on the principles of Andean-Himalayan collaboration and exchange. This will directly facilitate the exchange of technical and social experience in mitigating the impacts of new glacial lakes and how people in both regions are adapting to water related challenges. Key funding partners are: NSF, USAID, DOS, and the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD).
