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oapen-20.500.12657-243482024-03-22T19:23:22Z Chapter 8 The Status and Role of the alpine Cryosphere in Central Asia Hoelzle, Martin Barandun, Martina Bolch, Tobias Fiddes, Joel Gafurov, Abror Muccione, Veruska Saks, Tomas Shahgedanova, Maria Smakhtin, Vladimir Alpine Crosphere River Basin Amu Darya Syr Darya Central Asia Water Resource Management Hydrology Environmental Policy Sustainable Development thema EDItEUR::R Earth Sciences, Geography, Environment, Planning::RB Earth sciences::RBK Hydrology and the hydrosphere thema EDItEUR::R Earth Sciences, Geography, Environment, Planning::RG Geography::RGC Human geography thema EDItEUR::R Earth Sciences, Geography, Environment, Planning::RN The environment::RNC Applied ecology thema EDItEUR::T Technology, Engineering, Agriculture, Industrial processes::TQ Environmental science, engineering and technology The alpine cryosphere including snow, glaciers and permafrost are critical to water management in the Aral Sea Basin (ASB) and larger Central Asia (CA) under changing climate: as they store large amounts of water in its solid forms. Most cryospheric components in the Aral Sea Basin are close to melting point, and hence very vulnerable to a slight increase in air temperature with significant consequences to long-term water availability and to water resources variability and extremes. Current knowledge about different components of cryosphere and their connection to climate in the Basin and in the entire Central Asia, varies. While it is advanced in the topics of snow and glaciers, knowledge on permafrost it rather limited. Observed trends in runoff point in the direction of increasing water availability in July and August at least until mid-century and increasing possibility for water storage in reservoirs and aquifers. However, eventually this will change as glaciers waste away. Future runoff may change considerably after mid-century and start to decline if not compensated by increasing precipitation. Cryosphere monitoring systems are the basis for sound estimates of water availability and water-related hazards associated with snow, glaciers and permafrost. They require a well-distributed observational network for all cryospheric variables. Such systems need to be re-established in the Basin after the breakup of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. This process is slowly emerging in the region. Collaboration between local operational hydro-meteorological services and academic sector, and with international research networks may improving the observing capabilities in high mountain regions of CA Asia in general and the ASB specifically. 2019-10-31 11:51:14 2020-04-01T09:56:26Z 2020-04-01T09:56:26Z 2019 chapter 1005783 OCN: 1135850118 9780429436475 http://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/24348 eng application/pdf n/a 9781138348882_oachapter08.pdf Taylor & Francis The Aral Sea Basin Routledge 7b3c7b10-5b1e-40b3-860e-c6dd5197f0bb 7dd38d57-494e-4aa0-8cde-0dbd6bd76d16 9780429436475 Routledge 23 open access
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The alpine cryosphere including snow, glaciers and permafrost are critical to water management in the Aral Sea Basin (ASB) and larger Central Asia (CA) under changing climate: as they store large amounts of water in its solid forms. Most cryospheric components in the Aral Sea Basin are close to melting point, and hence very vulnerable to a slight increase in air temperature with significant consequences to long-term water availability and to water resources variability and extremes. Current knowledge about different components of cryosphere and their connection to climate in the Basin and in the entire Central Asia, varies. While it is advanced in the topics of snow and glaciers, knowledge on permafrost it rather limited. Observed trends in runoff point in the direction of increasing water availability in July and August at least until mid-century and increasing possibility for water storage in reservoirs and aquifers. However, eventually this will change as glaciers waste away. Future runoff may change considerably after mid-century and start to decline if not compensated by increasing precipitation. Cryosphere monitoring systems are the basis for sound estimates of water availability and water-related hazards associated with snow, glaciers and permafrost. They require a well-distributed observational network for all cryospheric variables. Such systems need to be re-established in the Basin after the breakup of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. This process is slowly emerging in the region. Collaboration between local operational hydro-meteorological services and academic sector, and with international research networks may improving the observing capabilities in high mountain regions of CA Asia in general and the ASB specifically.
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