Snowpack and glacier melt are critical water resources for more than two billion people around the globe. In non-rainy seasons, snow and glacier melt constitute major sources of municipal water supply, irrigation, hydropower, and other environmental requirements. Anthropogenic climate change has caused drastic changes in many characteristics of snowpack and glaciers. With higher temperatures, a large fraction of precipitation in low-elevation mountain ranges is falling as rainfall rather than snow; compounded by heavy rainfall events and most glaciers losing significant masses during the last half-century. Incidentally, snowpack and ice melting are observed to happen earlier in spring seasons, leading to early-season runoff, and many occasions of flooding in downstream rivers.
In many mountainous regions, the projection of snowpack and glacier masses at the regional and local scales are not well understood. This is mainly due to the limited availability of long-term spatially and temporally consistent observations of snowpack/ice mass, precipitation, etc. In addition, poor understanding of some important physical and hydrological processes governing the melting rates and downstream responses have led to inadequate model structures and large uncertainties in their predictions. This has important implications on agriculture and the management of water resources in the downstream basins. Quantifying and managing water resources of mountainous regions under future climate change would entail understating local and regional scale processes and operations, which includes the present irrigation and water management, potential adaptation options, among many other covariates.
This Research Topic aims to bring together the latest advancements in regional observational data, monitoring techniques, and planning of water resources and agricultural systems for managing water resources over mountainous regions around the globe.
Authors should look to submit manuscripts addressing, but not limited to, the following areas of interest:
• Improved predictions and projections of the contribution of snow/glacier melt to streamflow;
• Snowmelt/ice melt driven floods;
• Water resources systems planning in snowmelt/glacier melt dominated basins for a changing climate;
• Effect of snowmelt/ice melt changes on surface and groundwater resources and agriculture; and,
• Improved modeling, monitoring, and observational analysis of snowpack and glaciers.
Snowpack and glacier melt are critical water resources for more than two billion people around the globe. In non-rainy seasons, snow and glacier melt constitute major sources of municipal water supply, irrigation, hydropower, and other environmental requirements. Anthropogenic climate change has caused drastic changes in many characteristics of snowpack and glaciers. With higher temperatures, a large fraction of precipitation in low-elevation mountain ranges is falling as rainfall rather than snow; compounded by heavy rainfall events and most glaciers losing significant masses during the last half-century. Incidentally, snowpack and ice melting are observed to happen earlier in spring seasons, leading to early-season runoff, and many occasions of flooding in downstream rivers.
In many mountainous regions, the projection of snowpack and glacier masses at the regional and local scales are not well understood. This is mainly due to the limited availability of long-term spatially and temporally consistent observations of snowpack/ice mass, precipitation, etc. In addition, poor understanding of some important physical and hydrological processes governing the melting rates and downstream responses have led to inadequate model structures and large uncertainties in their predictions. This has important implications on agriculture and the management of water resources in the downstream basins. Quantifying and managing water resources of mountainous regions under future climate change would entail understating local and regional scale processes and operations, which includes the present irrigation and water management, potential adaptation options, among many other covariates.
This Research Topic aims to bring together the latest advancements in regional observational data, monitoring techniques, and planning of water resources and agricultural systems for managing water resources over mountainous regions around the globe.
Authors should look to submit manuscripts addressing, but not limited to, the following areas of interest:
• Improved predictions and projections of the contribution of snow/glacier melt to streamflow;
• Snowmelt/ice melt driven floods;
• Water resources systems planning in snowmelt/glacier melt dominated basins for a changing climate;
• Effect of snowmelt/ice melt changes on surface and groundwater resources and agriculture; and,
• Improved modeling, monitoring, and observational analysis of snowpack and glaciers.