Hazard Mitigation and Climate Change in the Himalayas–Policy and Decision Making

Climate change has drastic impacts on the patterns of precipitation across the world. These changes have greatly affected the mountainous regions where the frequency of disasters have increased rapidly. Flash floods, Glacier Lake outburst floods (GLOF), Snow avalanches, Landslides, and Landslide Lake Outburst floods (LLOF) all are increasing in the number as well as in the magnitude of their adverse consequences. One phenomenon describes the climate of one region and the other has dominance at other parts of the region. However, the precipitation over the Indian region hinge on the monsoon, where the southwest monsoon has a major role as it dominates a larger area. On the other hand Himalayan region is mostly dominated by the western disturbances. Precipitation extremes have increased by almost 77.52% per unit increase in temperature over India from last 113 years which have resulted in the surge of disasters. Air temperatures show increasing trends over the Himalayan region, and are consistent with the decrease in the snowfall. In the Himalayan region, approximately 25% decrease in snowfall has been linked with the increase in the minimum temperatures. This has greatly influenced the snow depth, and as such there is 71 ± 24% decline in it in the region. Warming due to climate change has dire consequences, over the Himalayas. The increased occurrences of extreme/heavy precipitation events due to warming climate is the most impact-relevant consequence as it directly impacts the sustainability of these regions. The climate models predict intensification of extreme rain events including intensification of cyclones. So, estimating the precipitation precisely is of utmost importance.