Environment, Development, and Social Change in the Himalayan Region

Environment, Development, and Social Change in the Himalayan Region PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN: 9788183703192
Category : Biodiversity
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Environment, Development, and Social Change in the Himalayan Region

Environment, Development, and Social Change in the Himalayan Region PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN: 9788183703192
Category : Biodiversity
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description


Himalayan Glaciers

Himalayan Glaciers PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309261015
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Book Description
Scientific evidence shows that most glaciers in South Asia's Hindu Kush Himalayan region are retreating, but the consequences for the region's water supply are unclear, this report finds. The Hindu Kush Himalayan region is the location of several of Asia's great river systems, which provide water for drinking, irrigation, and other uses for about 1.5 billion people. Recent studies show that at lower elevations, glacial retreat is unlikely to cause significant changes in water availability over the next several decades, but other factors, including groundwater depletion and increasing human water use, could have a greater impact. Higher elevation areas could experience altered water flow in some river basins if current rates of glacial retreat continue, but shifts in the location, intensity, and variability of rain and snow due to climate change will likely have a greater impact on regional water supplies. Himalayan Glaciers: Climate Change, Water Resources, and Water Security makes recommendations and sets guidelines for the future of climate change and water security in the Himalayan Region. This report emphasizes that social changes, such as changing patterns of water use and water management decisions, are likely to have at least as much of an impact on water demand as environmental factors do on water supply. Water scarcity will likely affect the rural and urban poor most severely, as these groups have the least capacity to move to new locations as needed. It is predicted that the region will become increasingly urbanized as cities expand to absorb migrants in search of economic opportunities. As living standards and populations rise, water use will likely increase-for example, as more people have diets rich in meat, more water will be needed for agricultural use. The effects of future climate change could further exacerbate water stress. Himalayan Glaciers: Climate Change, Water Resources, and Water Security explains that changes in the availability of water resources could play an increasing role in political tensions, especially if existing water management institutions do not better account for the social, economic, and ecological complexities of the region. To effectively respond to the effects of climate change, water management systems will need to take into account the social, economic, and ecological complexities of the region. This means it will be important to expand research and monitoring programs to gather more detailed, consistent, and accurate data on demographics, water supply, demand, and scarcity.

Himalayan Perceptions

Himalayan Perceptions PDF Author: Jack Ives
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134369085
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 294

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Book Description
In the 1970s and 1980s many institutions, agencies and scholars believed that the Himalayan region was facing severe environmental disaster, due primarily to rapid growth in population that has caused extensive deforestation, which in turn has led to massive landsliding and soil erosion. This series of assumptions was first challenged in the book: The Himalayan Dilemma (1989: Ives and Messerli, Routledge). Nevertheless, the environmental crisis paradigm still commands considerable support, including logging bans in the mountain watersheds of China, India, and Thailand, and is constantly being promoted by the news media. Himalayan Perceptions identifies the confusion of misunderstanding, vested interests, changing perceptions, and institutional unwillingness to base development policy on sound scientific knowledge. It analyzes the large amount of new research published since 1989 and totally refutes the entire construct. It examines recent social and economic developments in the region and identifies warfare, guerrilla activities, and widespread oppression of poor ethnic minorities as the primary cause for the instability that pervades the entire region. It is argued that the development controversy is further confounded by exaggerated reporting, even falsification, by news media, environmental publications, and agency reports alike.

The Hindu Kush Himalaya Assessment

The Hindu Kush Himalaya Assessment PDF Author: Philippus Wester
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319922882
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 627

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Book Description
This open access volume is the first comprehensive assessment of the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region. It comprises important scientific research on the social, economic, and environmental pillars of sustainable mountain development and will serve as a basis for evidence-based decision-making to safeguard the environment and advance people’s well-being. The compiled content is based on the collective knowledge of over 300 leading researchers, experts and policymakers, brought together by the Hindu Kush Himalayan Monitoring and Assessment Programme (HIMAP) under the coordination of the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD). This assessment was conducted between 2013 and 2017 as the first of a series of monitoring and assessment reports, under the guidance of the HIMAP Steering Committee: Eklabya Sharma (ICIMOD), Atiq Raman (Bangladesh), Yuba Raj Khatiwada (Nepal), Linxiu Zhang (China), Surendra Pratap Singh (India), Tandong Yao (China) and David Molden (ICIMOD and Chair of the HIMAP SC). This First HKH Assessment Report consists of 16 chapters, which comprehensively assess the current state of knowledge of the HKH region, increase the understanding of various drivers of change and their impacts, address critical data gaps and develop a set of evidence-based and actionable policy solutions and recommendations. These are linked to nine mountain priorities for the mountains and people of the HKH consistent with the Sustainable Development Goals. This book is a must-read for policy makers, academics and students interested in this important region and an essentially important resource for contributors to global assessments such as the IPCC reports.

Himalayan Perceptions

Himalayan Perceptions PDF Author: Jack Ives
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134369077
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
In the 1970s and 1980s many institutions, agencies and scholars believed that the Himalayan region was facing severe environmental disaster, due primarily to rapid growth in population that has caused extensive deforestation, which in turn has led to massive landsliding and soil erosion. This series of assumptions was first challenged in the book: The Himalayan Dilemma (1989: Ives and Messerli, Routledge). Nevertheless, the environmental crisis paradigm still commands considerable support, including logging bans in the mountain watersheds of China, India, and Thailand, and is constantly being promoted by the news media. Himalayan Perceptions identifies the confusion of misunderstanding, vested interests, changing perceptions, and institutional unwillingness to base development policy on sound scientific knowledge. It analyzes the large amount of new research published since 1989 and totally refutes the entire construct. It examines recent social and economic developments in the region and identifies warfare, guerrilla activities, and widespread oppression of poor ethnic minorities as the primary cause for the instability that pervades the entire region. It is argued that the development controversy is further confounded by exaggerated reporting, even falsification, by news media, environmental publications, and agency reports alike.

Environmental Sustainability from the Himalayas to the Oceans

Environmental Sustainability from the Himalayas to the Oceans PDF Author: Shikui Dong
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319440373
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
The book is written in the backdrop of the environmental impacts of and future requirements from the natural environment for rapid economic growth that has characterized recent economic history of China and India, especially over the past few decades. The environmental impacts of such rapid economic changes have been, more frequently than otherwise, degrading in character. Environmental impacts of economic activities create degraded natural ecosystems by over utilization of nature’s provisioning ecosystem services (from Himalaya to the Ocean), as well, by the use of the natural environment as sink for dumping of unmarketable products or unused inputs of economic activities. Such processes affect wide range of ecosystem processes on which the natural environment including human population depend on. Critical perspectives cast by various chapters in this book draw attention to the various ways in which space and power interact to produce diverse geographies of sustainability in a globalizing world. They also address the questions such as who decides what kind of a spatial arrangement of political power is needed for sustaining the environment. Who stands to gain (or lose) what, when, where, and why from certain geographical areas being demarcated as ecologically unique, fragile and vulnerable environments? Whose needs and values are being catered to by a given ecosystem service? What is the scope for critical inquiry into the ways in which the environment is imagined, represented and resisted in both geopolitical struggles and everyday life? The book provides insights to both academics from diverse disciplines and policy makers, civil society actors interested in mutual exchange of knowledge between China and India.

CLIMATE CHANGE & HIMALAYAN INFORMATICS

CLIMATE CHANGE & HIMALAYAN INFORMATICS PDF Author: J. Sundaresan
Publisher: Scientific Publishers
ISBN: 9386237652
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 197

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Book Description
Geodynamic process during the rapid growth ofHimalayahas holistic imprints of Climate Change in this region. “Climate Change & Himalayan Informatics” is an account of dedicated contribution for the above imprints. Impact of climate change is examined in this book for the ongoing process of rapid urbanization of the hinterlands ofHimalaya. It consists four sessions and seventeen chapters. Mass balance of glaciers in ChandrabasinofHimalayais presented as a predictive tool for spatially distributed estimates of mass balance of glaciers. An effective tool to identify and locate multiple natural hazards due to climate change inHimalayaespecially landslides and glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) is part of the book. Impacts of climate change on cropping strategies by mountain communities are ascribed in the session “socio-economic perspectives”. Information on ecologically and economically important plant species inHimalayathat have greater tolerance in drought, discussed in this book, is significant in the perspectives of global warming. A specific species is identified as an indicator of climate change forEastern Himalaya. Climatic impacts on different regional eco systems ofHimalayahad implications on ecological, cultural and socio economic process of the region. Multidimensional decision support system is essential for mitigation and adaptation for such implications. Present book consists studies from north to eastern part ofHimalaya. This will be beneficial to researchers, student, managers and administrators associated with Mountain ecosystem and Climate Change.

The Himalayas in the Anthropocene

The Himalayas in the Anthropocene PDF Author: Anwesha Borthakur
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9783031501005
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This book aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the current challenges in one of the most biodiverse regions in the world. Environmental sustainability and climate change implications in the mountain ecosystems in general and mountainous regions of the Global South in particular are key concerns of the present-day world. In particular, the mountainous regions in the Global South are excessively being subjected to haphazard developmental activities making them vulnerable to all possible aspects of climate change. Ecologically fragile and biodiversity-rich (considered ‘hotspot’ of biodiversity) Himalayan Region (HR) is subjected to high vulnerability due to climate change and unsustainable developmental activities. A major portion of the Indian HR, for instance, has gradually been endangered by intense environmental burden owing to rapid and haphazard urbanization, extreme weather events, etc. Unfortunately, environmental sustainability studies in many parts of the region are still inadequate. Accordingly, in this book, the authors provide a detailed account of the Himalayas in the epoch of Anthropocene—“the most recent period in Earth’s history when human activity started to have a significant impact on the planet’s climate and ecosystems" (as defined by the National Geographic Society). It is no secret that the haphazard developmental activities in the Himalayas are having tremendous impacts on the local ecosystems. Many of such impacts are irreversible over the next hundreds of years and it should ring an alarm to all of us alike. Therefore, it becomes increasingly imperative that we document the existing anthropogenic challenges in the Himalayas, analyse them and find a way where environment and development can go hand in hand. This book is an attempt in that direction. The authors aim to address issues ranging from unorganized tourism practices to the big dams in the Himalayas and from mining and quarrying activities to climate change implications and sustainable development goals (SDGs).

Environmental Humanities in the New Himalayas

Environmental Humanities in the New Himalayas PDF Author: Dan Smyer Yü
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000397580
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
Environmental Humanities in the New Himalayas: Symbiotic Indigeneity, Commoning, Sustainability showcases how the eco-geological creativity of the earth is integrally woven into the landforms, cultures, and cosmovisions of modern Himalayan communities. Unique in scope, this book features case studies from Bhutan, Assam, Sikkim, Tibet, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sino-Indian borderlands, many of which are documented by authors from indigenous Himalayan communities. It explores three environmental characteristics of modern Himalayas: the anthropogenic, the indigenous, and the animist. Focusing on the sentient relations of human-, animal-, and spirit-worlds with the earth in different parts of the Himalayas, the authors present the complex meanings of indigeneity, commoning and sustainability in the Anthropocene. In doing so, they show the vital role that indigenous stories and perspectives play in building new regional and planetary environmental ethics for a sustainable future. Drawing on a wide range of expert contributions from the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanist disciplines, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of environmental humanities, religion and ecology, indigenous knowledge and sustainable development more broadly.

Water, Cryosphere, and Climate Change in the Himalayas

Water, Cryosphere, and Climate Change in the Himalayas PDF Author: Ajay Kumar Taloor
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030679322
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 362

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Book Description
This edited book summarizes numerous research studies on remote sensing and GIS of natural resource management for the Himalaya region done by Indian Institutions and Universities over the last decade. It gives an overview of hydrometeorological studies on Himalayan water resources and addresses concerns in the development of water resources in this region, which is dealing with an increased pressure in population, industrialization and economic development. While the source of some of the major rivers of India are found in the Himalayas, the glaciers and water bodies in the region are continuously shrinking leading to a depletion of water and deterioration of water quality. This is affecting a population of up to 2.5 billion people. The ecosystems have been under threat due to deforestation, loss of biodiversity, expansion of agriculture and settlement, overexploitation of natural resources, habitat loss and fragmentation, poaching, mining, construction of roads and large dams, and unplanned tourism. Spaceborne remote sensing with its ability to provide synoptic and repetitive coverage has emerged as a powerful tool for assessment and monitoring of the Himalayan resources and phenomena. This work serves as a resource to students, researchers, scientists, professionals, and policy makers both in India and on a global level.