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.