The Gandaki Basin: Maintaining Livelihoods in the Face of Landslides, Floods, and Drought
Working Paper - 9, 2017
This situation analysis of the Gandaki Basin focuses on the opportunities and challenges for livelihood strategies and adaptive capacity of people in the Gandaki basin by analysing climate trends, literature review and detailing of field visits within the study site.
The Upper Ganga Basin: Will Drying Springs and Rising Floods Affect Agriculture?
Working Paper - 8, 2017
This situation analysis of the Gandaki Basin focuses on the opportunities and challenges for livelihood strategies and adaptive capacity of people in the Gandaki basin by analysing climate trends, literature review and detailing of field visits within the study site.
Transboundary Water Governance in the Hindu Kush Himalaya Region
Working Paper - 7, 2017
The querulous nature of transboundary water governance is as old as the concept and practice of transboundary water management. This narrative review attempts to provide a justification for a pragmatic approach to transboundary water governance that goes beyond the dialectics of conflict and cooperation, particularly for countries in the HKH
Classification of Adaptation Measures and Criteria for Evaluation: Case Studies in the Gandaki River Basin, Nepal
Working Paper - 6, 2017
The study shows that communities within the Gandaki river basin are already experiencing climate change impacts, with a visible effect on their livelihoods. Local practices and on-ground planned and autonomous adaptation innovations are identified and analysed.
The River Itself Warns Us
Working Paper - 5, 2017
In the flood prone context of the Gandaki river basin, this paper documents the complex interactions between local knowledge based forecasting of floods vs. official early warning systems.
Migration and the 2015 Gorkha Earthquake in Nepal – Effect on rescue and relief processes and lessons for the future
Working Paper - 4, 2016
The effects of the 2015 Gorkha earthquake had both positive and negative impacts on migration patterns in earthquake affected districts. Post-earthquake the process of rebuilding was quite challenging with varied experiences for migrant and non-migrant households. These differences are explored further in this paper.
Assessing Costs and Benefits of Climate Change Adaptation
Working Paper - 3, 2016
Existing documentation establishes evidence that the Hindu Kush Himalayan region is vulnerable to climatic and weather variability. Under these circumstances, it is important to put in place appropriate adaptation responses that build resilience and that reduce risks associated with a changing climate. Adaptation responses can follow multiple pathways to address the large gaps in achieving threshold levels of the quality of life, and the new risks posed by climate change.
Reference Climate Dataset for the Indus, Ganges, and Brahmaputra River Basins
Working Paper - 2, 2016
High-altitude climates are particularly uncertain, and commonly used climate datasets are grossly inaccurate at high altitudes. Therefore, a novel reference climate dataset covering the Indus, Ganges, and Brahmaputra (IGB) river basins has been constructed with a particular focus on improved representation of high-altitude precipitation
Selection of Climate Models for Developing Representative Climate Projections for the Hindu Kush Himalayan Region
Working Paper - 1, 2016
There are two fundamentally different methods for selecting appropriate general circulation and regional climate models (GCMs/RCMs). The first approach aims to cover the full envelope of possible futures ranging from dry and cold projections to wet and warm projections, while the second approach selects GCMs/RCMs on the basis of indicators of past performance. In the case of the Hindu Kush Himalayas (HKH), the first approach may be preferable as climate models have considerable difficulty in simulating past climate. In this study, we develop a new method that combines the two existing methods, so as to have a set of climate models that not only cover a wide range of possible futures but also reproduce the most important processes in the region.
Pinning Down Social Vulnerability in Sindh Province, Pakistan: From Narratives to Numbers, and Back Again
Peer Reviewed Journal Article, 2018
This paper reflects critically on the results of a vulnerability assessment process at the household and community scale using a quantitative vulnerabilities and capacities index. It validates a methodology for a social vulnerability assessment at the local scale in 62 villages across four agro‐ecological/livelihood zones in Sindh Province, Pakistan. The study finds that the move from vulnerability narratives to numbers improves the comparability and communicational strength of the concept.