TY - JOUR A1 - Andermann, Christoff A1 - Crave, Alain A1 - Gloaguen, Richard A1 - Davy, Philippe A1 - Bonnet, Stephane T1 - Connecting source and transport: Suspended sediments in the Nepal Himalayas JF - Earth & planetary science letters N2 - Understanding the dynamics of sediment fluxes is a key issue to constrain modern erosion rates in mountain belts and determine the still debated level of control exerted by precipitation, topography and tectonics. The well defined monsoon seasonality in the Himalayas, together with active tectonics and strong relief provide an ideal environment to assess these possible interactions. For this purpose, we present a new compilation of daily suspended sediment data for 12 stations of the major rivers of the Nepal Himalayas. We analyze the relationships of sediment transport with daily river discharge and precipitation data as well as with morphometric parameters. We show that suspended sediment concentrations vary systematically through the seasons and asynchronously to river discharge displaying a hysteresis effect. This clockwise hysteresis effect disappears when suspended sediment fluxes are directly compared with direct storm discharge. Therefore we attribute the hysteresis effect to groundwater dilution rather than a sediment supply limitation. We infer a rating model to calculate erosion rates directly from long river discharge chronicles. We show that, when normalized by drainage area and mean sediment flux, all rivers exhibit the same trend. This similarity implies that all river basins have the same erosion behavior, independent of location, size and catchment characteristics. Erosion rates calculated from suspended sediment fluxes range between 0.1 and 2.8 mm/yr. The erosion rates of the three main basins of Nepal are in the range 0.9-1.5 mm/yr. Erosion rates in the Higher Himalayas are relatively low ( <0.5 mm/yr, except for Kali Gandaki), while in the Lesser Himalayas they range from 0.2 to 2 mm/yr. We propose that material transport in the rivers depends on hillslope sediment supply, which is, in turn, controlled by those rainfalls producing direct runoff. In other words, the rivers in the Nepal Himalayas are supply-limited and the hillsopes as a contributing source are transport-limited. We also show that erosion processes are not as much controlled by infrequently occurring extreme precipitation events, than by moderate ones with a high recurrence interval. KW - suspended sediment transport KW - Himalayas KW - erosion KW - sediment flux hysteresis KW - monsoon river hydrology KW - Himalayan rivers Y1 - 2012 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2012.06.059 SN - 0012-821X VL - 351 SP - 158 EP - 170 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Blöthe, Jan Henrik A1 - Korup, Oliver T1 - Millennial lag times in the Himalayan sediment routing system JF - Earth & planetary science letters N2 - Any understanding of sediment routing from mountain belts to their forelands and offshore sinks remains incomplete without estimates of intermediate storage that decisively buffers sediment yields from erosion rates, attenuates water and sediment fluxes, and protects underlying bedrock from incision. We quantify for the first time the sediment stored in > 38000 mainly postglacial Himalayan valley fills, based on an empirical volume-area scaling of valley-fill outlines automatically extracted from digital topographic data. The estimated total volume of 690(+452/-242) km(3) is mostly contained in few large valley fills > 1 km(3), while catastrophic mass wasting adds another 177(31) km(3). Sediment storage volumes are highly disparate along the strike of the orogen. Much of the Himalaya's stock of sediment is sequestered in glacially scoured valleys that provide accommodation space for similar to 44% of the total volume upstream of the rapidly exhuming and incising syntaxes. Conversely, the step-like long-wave topography of the central Himalayas limits glacier extent, and thus any significant glacier-derived storage of sediment away from tectonic basins. We show that exclusive removal of Himalayan valley fills could nourish contemporary sediment flux from the Indus and Brahmaputra basins for > 1 kyr, though individual fills may attain residence times of > 100 kyr. These millennial lag times in the Himalayan sediment routing system may sufficiently buffer signals of short-term seismic as well as climatic disturbances, thus complicating simple correlation and interpretation of sedimentary archives from the Himalayan orogen, its foreland, and its submarine fan systems. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. KW - sediment storage KW - Himalayas KW - sediment budget KW - tectonic geomorphology KW - geomorphometry Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2013.08.044 SN - 0012-821X SN - 1385-013X VL - 382 IS - 20 SP - 38 EP - 46 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - THES A1 - Fischer, Melanie T1 - Outburst floods in the Greater Himalayas T1 - Dammbruchfluten in der Großregion des Himalayas BT - from regional susceptibility to local hazard BT - von regionaler Suszeptibilität zu lokaler Gefährdung N2 - High-mountain regions provide valuable ecosystem services, including food, water, and energy production, to more than 900 million people worldwide. Projections hold, that this population number will rapidly increase in the next decades, accompanied by a continued urbanisation of cities located in mountain valleys. One of the manifestations of this ongoing socio-economic change of mountain societies is a rise in settlement areas and transportation infrastructure while an increased power need fuels the construction of hydropower plants along rivers in the high-mountain regions of the world. However, physical processes governing the cryosphere of these regions are highly sensitive to changes in climate and a global warming will likely alter the conditions in the headwaters of high-mountain rivers. One of the potential implications of this change is an increase in frequency and magnitude of outburst floods – highly dynamic flows capable of carrying large amounts of water and sediments. Sudden outbursts from lakes formed behind natural dams are complex geomorphological processes and are often part of a hazard cascade. In contrast to other types of natural hazards in high-alpine areas, for example landslides or avalanches, outburst floods are highly infrequent. Therefore, observations and data describing for example the mode of outburst or the hydraulic properties of the downstream propagating flow are very limited, which is a major challenge in contemporary (glacial) lake outburst flood research. Although glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) and landslide-dammed lake outburst floods (LLOFs) are rare, a number of documented events caused high fatality counts and damage. The highest documented losses due to outburst floods since the start of the 20th century were induced by only a few high-discharge events. Thus, outburst floods can be a significant hazard to downvalley communities and infrastructure in high-mountain regions worldwide. This thesis focuses on the Greater Himalayan region, a vast mountain belt stretching across 0.89 million km2. Although potentially hundreds of outburst floods have occurred there since the beginning of the 20th century, data on these events is still scarce. Projections of cryospheric change, including glacier-mass wastage and permafrost degradation, will likely result in an overall increase of the water volume stored in meltwater lakes as well as the destabilisation of mountain slopes in the Greater Himalayan region. Thus, the potential for outburst floods to affect the increasingly more densely populated valleys of this mountain belt is also likely to increase in the future. A prime example of one of these valleys is the Pokhara valley in Nepal, which is drained by the Seti Khola, a river crossing one of the steepest topographic gradients in the Himalayas. This valley is also home to Nepal’s second largest, rapidly growing city, Pokhara, which currently has a population of more than half a million people – some of which live in informal settlements within the floodplain of the Seti Khola. Although there is ample evidence for past outburst floods along this river in recent and historic times, these events have hardly been quantified. The main motivation of my thesis is to address the data scarcity on past and potential future outburst floods in the Greater Himalayan region, both at a regional and at a local scale. For the former, I compiled an inventory of >3,000 moraine-dammed lakes, of which about 1% had a documented sudden failure in the past four decades. I used this data to test whether a number of predictors that have been widely applied in previous GLOF assessments are statistically relevant when estimating past GLOF susceptibility. For this, I set up four Bayesian multi-level logistic regression models, in which I explored the credibility of the predictors lake area, lake-area dynamics, lake elevation, parent-glacier-mass balance, and monsoonality. By using a hierarchical approach consisting of two levels, this probabilistic framework also allowed for spatial variability on GLOF susceptibility across the vast study area, which until now had not been considered in studies of this scale. The model results suggest that in the Nyainqentanglha and Eastern Himalayas – regions with strong negative glacier-mass balances – lakes have been more prone to release GLOFs than in regions with less negative or even stable glacier-mass balances. Similarly, larger lakes in larger catchments had, on average, a higher probability to have had a GLOF in the past four decades. Yet, monsoonality, lake elevation, and lake-area dynamics were more ambiguous. This challenges the credibility of a lake’s rapid growth in surface area as an indicator of a pending outburst; a metric that has been applied to regional GLOF assessments worldwide. At a local scale, my thesis aims to overcome data scarcity concerning the flow characteristics of the catastrophic May 2012 flood along the Seti Khola, which caused 72 fatalities, as well as potentially much larger predecessors, which deposited >1 km³ of sediment in the Pokhara valley between the 12th and 14th century CE. To reconstruct peak discharges, flow depths, and flow velocities of the 2012 flood, I mapped the extents of flood sediments from RapidEye satellite imagery and used these as a proxy for inundation limits. To constrain the latter for the Mediaeval events, I utilised outcrops of slackwater deposits in the fills of tributary valleys. Using steady-state hydrodynamic modelling for a wide range of plausible scenarios, from meteorological (1,000 m³ s-1) to cataclysmic outburst floods (600,000 m³ s-1), I assessed the likely initial discharges of the recent and the Mediaeval floods based on the lowest mismatch between sedimentary evidence and simulated flood limits. One-dimensional HEC-RAS simulations suggest, that the 2012 flood most likely had a peak discharge of 3,700 m³ s-1 in the upper Seti Khola and attenuated to 500 m³ s-1 when arriving in Pokhara’s suburbs some 15 km downstream. Simulations of flow in two-dimensions with orders of magnitude higher peak discharges in ANUGA show extensive backwater effects in the main tributary valleys. These backwater effects match the locations of slackwater deposits and, hence, attest for the flood character of Mediaeval sediment pulses. This thesis provides first quantitative proof for the hypothesis, that the latter were linked to earthquake-triggered outbursts of large former lakes in the headwaters of the Seti Khola – producing floods with peak discharges of >50,000 m³ s-1. Building on this improved understanding of past floods along the Seti Khola, my thesis continues with an analysis of the impacts of potential future outburst floods on land cover, including built-up areas and infrastructure mapped from high-resolution satellite and OpenStreetMap data. HEC-RAS simulations of ten flood scenarios, with peak discharges ranging from 1,000 to 10,000 m³ s-1, show that the relative inundation hazard is highest in Pokhara’s north-western suburbs. There, the potential effects of hydraulic ponding upstream of narrow gorges might locally sustain higher flow depths. Yet, along this reach, informal settlements and gravel mining activities are close to the active channel. By tracing the construction dynamics in two of these potentially affected informal settlements on multi-temporal RapidEye, PlanetScope, and Google Earth imagery, I found that exposure increased locally between three- to twentyfold in just over a decade (2008 to 2021). In conclusion, this thesis provides new quantitative insights into the past controls on the susceptibility of glacial lakes to sudden outburst at a regional scale and the flow dynamics of propagating flood waves released by past events at a local scale, which can aid future hazard assessments on transient scales in the Greater Himalayan region. My subsequent exploration of the impacts of potential future outburst floods to exposed infrastructure and (informal) settlements might provide valuable inputs to anticipatory assessments of multiple risks in the Pokhara valley. N2 - Hochgebirgsregionen stellen wertvolle Ökosystemdienstleistungen wie Nahrung, Wasser und Energieerzeugung für weltweit mehr als 900 Millionen Menschen bereit. Prognosen zufolge wird diese Zahl in den nächsten Jahrzehnten weiter rapide ansteigen, begleitet von einer zunehmenden Urbanisierung der in den Bergtälern lebenden Bevölkerung. Dieser anhaltende sozioökonomische Wandel äußert sich unter anderem in der Zunahme von Siedlungsflächen und dem Ausbau der Verkehrsinfrastruktur, während gleichzeitig ein erhöhter Energiebedarf den Bau von Wasserkraftwerken entlang von Hochgebirgsflüssen vorantreibt. Physikalische Prozesse, welche die Hochgebirgs-Kryosphäre beeinflussen, reagieren jedoch sehr empfindlich auf Klimaveränderungen. Die globale Erwärmung wird somit wahrscheinlich auch die Bedingungen in den Einzugsgebieten und Oberläufen dieser Hochgebirgsflüsse verändern. Eine mögliche Folge dieses Wandels ist eine Zunahme der Frequenz und Magnitude von natürlichen Dammbruchfluten (im Englischen outburst floods), welche hochdynamisch sind und potenziell große Mengen Wasser und Sedimente mit sich führen können. Plötzliche Ausbrüche von Seen, welche sich zuvor hinter natürlichen Dämmen aufgestaut haben, sind komplexe geomorphologische Prozesse und oft Teil einer mehrteiligen Gefahrenkaskade. Dammbruchfluten sind jedoch, im Gegensatz zu anderen Naturgefahren im Hochgebirge wie beispielsweise Erdrutsche oder Lawinen, sehr selten. Daher sind direkte Beobachtungen und Messdaten, welche z.B. die Art des Ausbruchs oder die hydraulischen Eigenschaften der sich stromabwärts ausbreitenden Strömung festhalten, nur sehr begrenzt vorhanden, was eine der größten Herausforderungen für die gegenwärtige Forschung an natürlichen Dammbruchfluten darstellt. Trotz der Seltenheit von Ausbrüchen von Gletscherseen (glacial lake outburst floods oder GLOFs) beziehungsweise von durch Erdrutschmassen aufgestauten Seen (landslide-dammed lake outburst floods oder LLOFs), ist dieser Fluttyp für eine hohe Anzahl an dokumentierten Opferzahlen und Schäden weltweit verantwortlich. Ein Großteil dieser Schäden wurde dabei nach Aufzeichnungen seit Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts durch nur wenige Ereignisse verursacht. Natürliche Dammbruchfluten stellen somit eine ernsthafte Gefahr für weiter talabwärts gelegene Siedlungen und die Infrastruktur in den Hochgebirgsregionen der Welt dar. Die vorliegende Dissertation fokussiert sich räumlich auf den Himalaya und die angrenzenden Gebirgszüge – die sogenannte Großregion des Himalayas – welche sich über eine Fläche von 0.89 Millionen km² erstreckt. Obwohl sich in diesem Gebirgsgürtel seit Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts möglicherweise Hunderte natürlicher Dammbruchfluten ereignet haben, liegen nur wenige Daten über derartige Ereignisse vor. Aktuelle Prognosen der Veränderungen der Kryosphäre in diesem Gebiet zeigen einen zunehmenden Verlust an Gletschermasse und das Abtauen von Permafrostböden, was wahrscheinlich wiederum zu einem allgemeinen Anstieg des in den Gletscherseen gespeicherten Wasservolumens sowie zur Destabilisierung der Berghänge in der Großregion des Himalayas führen wird. In Zukunft ist somit auch eine Zunahme des Potenzials für solche Überschwemmungen in den zunehmend dichter besiedelten Tälern dieses Gebirgsgürtels wahrscheinlich. Ein Paradebeispiel eines solchen gefährdeten Himalaya-Tals ist das Pokhara Tal in Nepal, welches vom Seti Khola („Khola“ heißt auf Nepalesisch Fluss) entwässert wird, dem Hochgebirgsfluss mit dem steilsten topographischen Gefälle im zentralen Himalaya. Das Pokhara Tal beherbergt die gleichnamige Stadt Pokhara, welche mit einer Einwohnerzahl von über 500.000 die zweitgrößte und am schnellsten wachsende Stadt Nepals darstellt. Ein Teil der Einwohner Pokharas lebt in informellen Siedlungen, welche sich oftmals direkt im Überschwemmungsgebiet des Seti Khola befinden. Trotz zahlreicher Hinweise auf frühere natürliche Dammbruchfluten entlang dieses Flusses aus jüngerer und historischer Zeit, wurden diese Ereignisse bisher kaum quantifiziert. Die Hauptmotivation meiner Dissertation besteht darin, den Mangel an Daten über vergangene und potenzielle zukünftige natürliche Dammbruchfluten in der Großregion des Himalayas zu überwinden, sowohl auf regionaler als auch auf lokaler Ebene. Zu diesem Zweck habe ich ein Inventar von mehr als 3.000 hinter Moränen aufgestauten Gletscherseen erstellt, von welchen etwa 1% in den letzten vier Jahrzehnten einen dokumentierten GLOF produziert haben. Auf dieser Datengrundlage testete ich, ob eine Reihe von Prädiktoren, die in bisherigen GLOF-Studien häufig verwendet wurden, statistisch relevant für die Abschätzung der Suszeptibilität von moränengedämmten Gletscherseen für GLOFs in der Vergangenheit sind. Zu diesem Zweck habe ich vier Bayesische hierarchische logistische Regressionsmodelle aufgestellt, mit welchen ich die Glaubwürdigkeit der Prädiktoren Seefläche, Seeflächendynamik, Seehöhe über dem Meeresspiegel, Gletschermassenbilanz und „Monsunalität“ (definiert als der Anteil des während der Sommermonate fallenden Niederschlages am Jahresniederschlag) untersuchen konnte. Die Anwendung eines hierarchischen Ansatzes mit zwei Ebenen ermöglichte dabei die Berücksichtigung einer möglichen räumlichen Variabilität der GLOF-Suszeptibilität im Untersuchungsgebiet, was in bisherigen Studien dieser Größenordnung bislang nicht berücksichtigt worden ist. Die Modellergebnisse deuten darauf hin, dass Gletscherseen im Nyainqentanglha und im östlichen Himalaya, also Regionen mit stark negativen Gletschermassenbilanzen, eine höhere Suszeptibilität für GLOFs hatten als Gletscherseen in Regionen mit weniger stark negativen oder stabilen Gletschermassenbilanzen. Größere Gletscherseen in größeren Einzugsgebieten zeigten durchschnittlich ebenfalls eine höhere Wahrscheinlichkeit für einen nachgewiesenen GLOF in den letzten vier Jahrzehnten. Ein Einfluss der Monsunalität, der Höhe des Sees über dem Meeresspiegel sowie der Dynamik der Seefläche waren jedoch uneindeutig in den Modellen. Dieses Ergebnis stellt die Gültigkeit eines raschen Seewachstums als Indikator eines bevorstehenden GLOFs, ein in regionalen GLOF-Studien häufig angewandter Prädiktor, in Frage. Auf lokaler Ebene kann meine Dissertation dabei helfen, die Datenknappheit bezüglich der Fließcharakteristika der katastrophalen Flut vom Mai 2012 mit 72 Opfern entlang des Seti Khola sowie deren potenziell viel größeren Vorgängerereignissen des 12. bis 14. Jahrhunderts, welche >1 km³ an Sedimenten deponierten, zu überwinden. Um Spitzenabflüsse, Fließtiefen und Fließgeschwindigkeiten der 2012 Flut zu rekonstruieren, habe ich die Erstreckung der Flutsedimente aus RapidEye-Satellitenbildern kartiert und diese als Proxy für die Grenzen der Überflutungsflächen verwendet. Um letztere auch für die mittelalterlichen Ereignisse einzuschätzen, nutzte ich die Aufschlüsse von Stauwasserablagerungen (slackwater deposits) in den Talverfüllungen der Tributäre des Seti Kholas. Mit Hilfe stationärer hydrodynamischer Modelle simulierte ich eine breite Palette plausibler Fließszenarien, von meteorologischen Fluten (1.000 m³ s-1) bis hin zu kataklystischen Ausbrüchen (600.000 m³ s-1). Die Abschätzung der wahrscheinlichen anfänglichen Spitzenabflüsse der rezenten und mittelalterlichen Überschwemmungen geschah dabei auf der Grundlage der geringsten räumlichen Diskrepanz zwischen den sedimentären Beweisen und den simulierten Überflutungsgrenzen. Meine eindimensionalen Flutsimulationen mit der Modellierungssoftware HEC-RAS ergaben, dass die Flut von 2012 höchstwahrscheinlich einen Spitzenabfluss von 3.700 m³ s-1 im oberen Abschnitt des Seti Khola aufwies, sich jedoch beim Erreichen der etwa 15 km flussabwärts gelegenen Randbereiche Pokharas bereits auf 500 m³ s-1 abgeschwächt hatte. Um Größenordnungen höhere zweidimensionale Flutsimulationen mit der Modellierungssoftware ANUGA zeigen extensive Rückstaueffekte in den Haupttributären. Die Grenzen dieser Rückstaueffekte stimmen mit den Vorkommen von Stauwasserablagerungen überein und belegen somit den fluviatilen Charakter der mittelalterlichen Sedimentationsereignisse. Diese Dissertation liefert somit den ersten quantitativen Beweis für die Hypothese, dass die mächtigen mittelalterlichen Sedimentablagerungen des Pokhara Tals durch von starken Erdbeben ausgelösten Ausbrüchen großer ehemaliger Gletscherseen im Oberlauf des Seti Khola zusammenhängen, welche Fluten mit Spitzenabflüssen von >50.000 m³ s-1 produzierten. Aufbauend auf diesem verbesserten Verständnis vergangener Fluten entlang des Seti Khola analysierte ich die Auswirkungen potenzieller zukünftiger natürlicher Dammbruchfluten auf die Landbedeckung des Pokhara Tals, einschließlich Siedlungsfläche und Infrastruktur, anhand von hochauflösenden Satelliten- und OpenStreetMap-Daten. Meine HEC-RAS-Simulationen von zehn Flutszenarien mit Spitzenabflüssen zwischen 1.000 und 10.000 m³ s-1 ergaben, dass die relative Überflutungsgefahr in den nordwestlichen Randbereichen Pokharas am höchsten ist. Dort kann eine hydraulische Aufstauung oberhalb von engen Schluchten zu lokal höheren Überflutungstiefen führen, was eine potenzielle Gefahr für die sich in diesen Flussabschnitten befindenden informellen Siedlungen und Kiesabbaulokalitäten darstellt. Meine Analyse der Bebauungsdynamik zweier potenziell betroffener informeller Siedlungen mithilfe von hochauflösenden, multi-temporalen RapidEye-, PlanetScope- und Google Earth-Satellitenbildern ergab, dass sich die Exposition in etwas mehr als einem Jahrzehnt (2008 bis 2021) lokal um das Drei- bis Zwanzigfache erhöhte. Die vorliegende Dissertation liefert neue quantitative Erkenntnisse einerseits über die Suszeptibilität von moränengedämmten Seen für plötzliche Gletscherseeausbrüche (GLOFs) auf regionaler Ebene und andererseits, auf lokaler Ebene, über die Strömungsdynamik der sich talabwärtsbewegenden Flutwellen vergangener Ereignisse. Meine anschließende Untersuchung der Auswirkungen potenzieller künftiger natürlicher Dammbruchfluten auf exponierte Infrastruktur und (informelle) Siedlungen kann einen wertvollen Beitrag zu zukünftigen Multi-Risikobewertung für das Pokhara Tal leisten. KW - outburst floods KW - Bayesian multi-level logistic regression KW - hydrodynamic modelling KW - Himalayas KW - GLOF KW - Nepal KW - flood hazard KW - Bayes'sche Mehrebenenregression KW - GLOF (Gletscherseeausbruchsflut) KW - Himalaya-Gebirge KW - Nepal KW - Flutgefährdung KW - hydrodynamische Modellierung KW - Dammbruchfluten Y1 - 2022 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-569972 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Norris, Jesse A1 - Carvalho, Leila M. V. A1 - Jones, Charles A1 - Cannon, Forest A1 - Bookhagen, Bodo A1 - Palazzi, Elisa A1 - Tahir, Adnan Ahmad T1 - The spatiotemporal variability of precipitation over the Himalaya: evaluation of one-year WRF model simulation JF - Climate dynamics : observational, theoretical and computational research on the climate system N2 - The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model is used to simulate the spatiotemporal distribution of precipitation over central Asia over the year April 2005 through March 2006. Experiments are performed at 6.7 km horizontal grid spacing, with an emphasis on winter and summer precipitation over the Himalaya. The model and the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission show a similar inter-seasonal cycle of precipitation, from extratropical cyclones to monsoon precipitation, with agreement also in the diurnal cycle of monsoon precipitation. In winter months, WRF compares better in timeseries of daily precipitation to stations below than above 3-km elevation, likely due to inferior measurement of snow than rain by the stations, highlighting the need for reliable snowfall measurements at high elevations in winter. In summer months, the nocturnal precipitation cycle in the foothills and valleys of the Himalaya is captured by this 6.7-km WRF simulation, while coarser simulations with convective parameterization show near zero nocturnal precipitation. In winter months, higher resolution is less important, serving only to slightly increase precipitation magnitudes due to steeper slopes. However, even in the 6.7-km simulation, afternoon precipitation is overestimated at high elevations, which can be reduced by even higher-resolution (2.2-km) simulations. These results indicate that WRF provides skillful simulations of precipitation relevant for studies of water resources over the complex terrain in the Himalaya. KW - WRF KW - Himalayas KW - Mesoscale KW - Precipitation KW - Climate change KW - Orographicprecipitation KW - Water resources Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-016-3414-y SN - 0930-7575 SN - 1432-0894 VL - 49 SP - 2179 EP - 2204 PB - Springer CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ramachandran, Srikanthan A1 - Rupakheti, Maheswar A1 - Lawrence, Mark T1 - Black carbon dominates the aerosol absorption over the Indo-Gangetic Plain and the Himalayan foothills JF - Environment international : a journal of science, technology, health, monitoring and policy N2 - This study, based on new and high quality in situ observations, quantifies for the first time, the individual contributions of light-absorbing aerosols (black carbon (BC), brown carbon (BrC) and dust) to aerosol absorption over the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) and the Himalayan foothill region, a relatively poorly studied region with several sensitive ecosystems of global importance, as well as highly vulnerable populations. The annual and seasonal average single scattering albedo (SSA) over Kathmandu is the lowest of all the locations. The SSA over Kathmandu is < 0.89 during all seasons, which confirms the dominance of light-absorbing carbonaceous aerosols from local and regional sources over Kathmandu. It is observed here that the SSA decreases with increasing elevation, confirming the dominance of light absorbing carbonaceous aerosols at higher elevations. In contrast, the SSA over the IGP does not exhibit a pronounced spatial variation. BC dominates (>= 75%) the aerosol absorption over the IGP and the Himalayan foothills throughout the year. Higher BC concentration at elevated locations in the Himalayas leads to lower SSA at elevated locations in the Himalayas. The contribution of dust to aerosol absorption is higher throughout the year over the IGP than over the Himalayan foothills. The aerosol absorption over South Asia is very high, exceeding available observations over East Asia, and also exceeds previous model estimates. This quantification will be valuable as observational constraints to help improve regional simulations of climate change, impacts on the glaciers and the hydrological cycle, and will help to direct the focus towards BC as the main contributor to aerosol-induced warming in the region. KW - atmospheric aerosols KW - characteristics KW - absorption KW - black carbon KW - brown KW - carbon KW - dust KW - Himalayas KW - IGP KW - South Asia Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2020.105814 SN - 0160-4120 SN - 1873-6750 VL - 142 PB - Elsevier CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schwanghart, Wolfgang A1 - Worni, Raphael A1 - Huggel, Christian A1 - Stoffel, Markus A1 - Korup, Oliver T1 - Uncertainty in the Himalayan energy-water nexus: estimating regional exposure to glacial lake outburst floods JF - Environmental research letters N2 - Himalayan water resources attract a rapidly growing number of hydroelectric power projects (HPP) to satisfy Asia's soaring energy demands. Yet HPP operating or planned in steep, glacier-fed mountain rivers face hazards of glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) that can damage hydropower infrastructure, alter water and sediment yields, and compromise livelihoods downstream. Detailed appraisals of such GLOF hazards are limited to case studies, however, and a more comprehensive, systematic analysis remains elusive. To this end we estimate the regional exposure of 257 Himalayan HPP to GLOFs, using a flood-wave propagation model fed by Monte Carlo-derived outburst volumes of >2300 glacial lakes. We interpret the spread of thus modeled peak discharges as a predictive uncertainty that arises mainly from outburst volumes and dam-breach rates that are difficult to assess before dams fail. With 66% of sampled HPP are on potential GLOF tracks, up to one third of these HPP could experience GLOF discharges well above local design floods, as hydropower development continues to seek higher sites closer to glacial lakes. We compute that this systematic push of HPP into headwaters effectively doubles the uncertainty about GLOF peak discharge in these locations. Peak discharges farther downstream, in contrast, are easier to predict because GLOF waves attenuate rapidly. Considering this systematic pattern of regional GLOF exposure might aid the site selection of future Himalayan HPP. Our method can augment, and help to regularly update, current hazard assessments, given that global warming is likely changing the number and size of Himalayan meltwater lakes. KW - hydropower KW - water resources KW - glacial hazards KW - glacial lake outburst floods KW - Himalayas Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/11/7/074005 SN - 1748-9326 VL - 11 PB - IOP Publ. Ltd. CY - Bristol ER - TY - GEN A1 - Schwanghart, Wolfgang A1 - Worni, Raphael A1 - Huggel, Christian A1 - Stoffel, Markus A1 - Korup, Oliver T1 - Uncertainty in the Himalayan energy–water nexus BT - estimating regional exposure to glacial lake outburst floods N2 - Himalayan water resources attract a rapidly growing number of hydroelectric power projects (HPP) to satisfy Asia's soaring energy demands. Yet HPP operating or planned in steep, glacier-fed mountain rivers face hazards of glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) that can damage hydropower infrastructure, alter water and sediment yields, and compromise livelihoods downstream. Detailed appraisals of such GLOF hazards are limited to case studies, however, and a more comprehensive, systematic analysis remains elusive. To this end we estimate the regional exposure of 257 Himalayan HPP to GLOFs, using a flood-wave propagation model fed by Monte Carlo-derived outburst volumes of >2300 glacial lakes. We interpret the spread of thus modeled peak discharges as a predictive uncertainty that arises mainly from outburst volumes and dam-breach rates that are difficult to assess before dams fail. With 66% of sampled HPP are on potential GLOF tracks, up to one third of these HPP could experience GLOF discharges well above local design floods, as hydropower development continues to seek higher sites closer to glacial lakes. We compute that this systematic push of HPP into headwaters effectively doubles the uncertainty about GLOF peak discharge in these locations. Peak discharges farther downstream, in contrast, are easier to predict because GLOF waves attenuate rapidly. Considering this systematic pattern of regional GLOF exposure might aid the site selection of future Himalayan HPP. Our method can augment, and help to regularly update, current hazard assessments, given that global warming is likely changing the number and size of Himalayan meltwater lakes. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe - 266 KW - hydropower KW - water resources KW - glacial hazards KW - glacial lake outburst floods KW - Himalayas Y1 - 2016 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-97136 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schwanghart, Wolfgang A1 - Worni, Raphael A1 - Huggel, Christian A1 - Stoffel, Markus A1 - Korup, Oliver T1 - Uncertainty in the Himalayan energy–water nexus BT - estimating regional exposure to glacial lake outburst floods JF - Environmental research letters : ERL N2 - Himalayan water resources attract a rapidly growing number of hydroelectric power projects (HPP) to satisfy Asia's soaring energy demands. Yet HPP operating or planned in steep, glacier-fed mountain rivers face hazards of glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) that can damage hydropower infrastructure, alter water and sediment yields, and compromise livelihoods downstream. Detailed appraisals of such GLOF hazards are limited to case studies, however, and a more comprehensive, systematic analysis remains elusive. To this end we estimate the regional exposure of 257 Himalayan HPP to GLOFs, using a flood-wave propagation model fed by Monte Carlo-derived outburst volumes of >2300 glacial lakes. We interpret the spread of thus modeled peak discharges as a predictive uncertainty that arises mainly from outburst volumes and dam-breach rates that are difficult to assess before dams fail. With 66% of sampled HPP are on potential GLOF tracks, up to one third of these HPP could experience GLOF discharges well above local design floods, as hydropower development continues to seek higher sites closer to glacial lakes. We compute that this systematic push of HPP into headwaters effectively doubles the uncertainty about GLOF peak discharge in these locations. Peak discharges farther downstream, in contrast, are easier to predict because GLOF waves attenuate rapidly. Considering this systematic pattern of regional GLOF exposure might aid the site selection of future Himalayan HPP. Our method can augment, and help to regularly update, current hazard assessments, given that global warming is likely changing the number and size of Himalayan meltwater lakes. KW - Himalayas KW - glacial hazards KW - glacial lake outburst floods KW - hydropower KW - water resources Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/11/7/074005 SN - 1748-9326 VL - 11 PB - IOP Publ. CY - Bristol ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Struck, Martin A1 - Andermann, Christoff A1 - Hovius, Niels A1 - Korup, Oliver A1 - Turowski, Jens M. A1 - Bista, Raj A1 - Pandit, Hari P. A1 - Dahal, Ranjan K. T1 - Monsoonal hillslope processes determine grain size-specific suspended sediment fluxes in a trans-Himalayan river JF - Geophysical research letters N2 - Sediments in rivers record the dynamics of erosion processes. While bulk sediment fluxes are easily and routinely obtained, sediment caliber remains underexplored when inferring erosion mechanisms. Yet sediment grain size distributions may be the key to discriminating their origin. We have studied grain size-specific suspended sediment fluxes in the Kali Gandaki, a major trans-Himalayan river. Two strategically located gauging stations enable tracing of sediment caliber on either side of the Himalayan orographic barrier. The data show that fine sediment input into the northern headwaters is persistent, while coarse sediment comes from the High Himalayas during the summer monsoon. A temporally matching landslide inventory similarly indicates the prominence of monsoon-driven hillslope mass wasting. Thus, mechanisms of sediment supply can leave strong traces in the fluvial caliber, which could project well beyond the mountain front and add to the variability of the sedimentary record of orogen erosion. KW - Himalayas KW - erosion KW - grain size KW - suspended sediments KW - landslide KW - river transport Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/2015GL063360 SN - 0094-8276 SN - 1944-8007 VL - 42 IS - 7 SP - 2302 EP - 2308 PB - American Geophysical Union CY - Washington ER -