Knowledge Priorities on Climate Change and Water in the Upper Indus
Basin: A Horizon Scanning Exercise to Identify the Top 100 Research
Questions in Social and Natural Sciences
Abstract
River systems originating from the Upper Indus Basin (UIB) are dominated
by runoff from snow and glacier melt and summer monsoonal rainfall.
These water resources are highly stressed as huge populations of people
living in this region depend on them, including for agriculture,
domestic use, and energy production. Projections suggest that the UIB
region will be affected by considerable (yet poorly quantified) changes
to the seasonality and composition of runoff in the future, which are
likely to have considerable impacts on these supplies. Given how
directly and indirectly communities and ecosystems are dependent on
these resources and the growing pressure on them due to ever-increasing
demands, the impacts of climate change pose considerable adaptation
challenges. The strong linkages between hydroclimate, cryosphere, water
resources, and human activities within the UIB suggest that a multi- and
inter-disciplinary research approach integrating the social and
natural/environmental sciences is critical for successful adaptation to
ongoing and future hydrological and climate change. Here we use a
horizon scanning technique to identify the Top 100 questions related to
the most pressing knowledge gaps and research priorities in social and
natural sciences on climate change and water in the UIB. These questions
are on the margins of current thinking and investigation and are
clustered into 14 themes, covering three overarching topics of
‘governance, policy, and sustainable solutions’, ‘socioeconomic
processes and livelihoods’, and ‘integrated Earth System processes’.
Raising awareness of these cutting-edge knowledge gaps and opportunities
will hopefully encourage researchers, funding bodies, practitioners, and
policy makers to address them.