High Mountain Asia (HMA), extending from the Hindu Kush and Tien Shan in the west to the eastern Himalaya, holds large reservoirs of glaciers and snow that provide a source of water to more than a billion people in the region. Changes in climate are driving cryospheric changes that are altering the timing and magnitude of this water supply, with downstream impacts on land utilization practices, ecosystems and the frequency of hazardous events. Future changes in runoff due to climate change will influence food and water security in the region, emphasizing the need for improved quantification of climatic, cryospheric and hydrological changes to inform policy and resource management decisions.

We welcome studies that address changes to the HMA region with a focus on:

• climate assessment (precipitation, temperature, aerosol concentrations and other meteorological variables)
• regional water balance estimates and the partitioning of source components
• cryospheric responses to changing climate
• land/atmosphere interactions
• hazard prediction and mitigation
• social and economic impacts of hydrological changes
• downstream impacts to ecosystems
• projections of land surface responses to future changes in climate

This Research Topic will include cross-disciplinary studies that address the complexity of HMA’s physical, social and political landscape. We welcome collaborative research that use data assimilation or data driven modeling to integrate field and remote sensing observations.

Image copyright by Guest Editor Dr. David Rounce

Keywords: glaciers, climate change, cryosphere, Himalayas, hazards, snow, water, ecosystems

Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.