EU project to study glaciers’ retreat
The European Union (EU) of late launched a research project to assess the impact of retreat of glaciers in the Himalayas and possible changes of summer monsoon on the distribution of water resources in northern India.
The EU earmarked 3.0 million euros (approximately Rs 19.5 crores) for the project, which is aimed at recommending appropriate and efficient adaptation strategies to hydrological extreme events through participatory process.
The scientists of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and the Indian Institutes of Technology in Delhi and Kharagpur will team up with their counterparts in the leading research institutions in the Netherlands, the UK and Switzerland as well as Japan for three-year-long project titled “High Noon.”
“The EU and India enjoy strategic cooperation in the field of science and technology, with co-investment of resources from both players. This current project in the field of climate change, research and glaciology takes this well established partnership to new heights,” said H E Daniele Smadja, European Commission’s Ambassador to India.
The “High Noon” project will integrate available climate and hydrological data and state-of-the-art regional models. The basic approach of the project is to link the results of improved climate modeling to estimation of practical and applicable adaptation measures.
The main aspects of this project would include developing scenarios for snowmelt and monsoon patterns, based on improved regional climate simulations, realistic regional socio-economic scenarios. It would asses the changing water resources using regional models, providing new methods for prioritisation of adaptation measures to be used as a design tool in the selection of adaptation options, a press-release issued by the Delegation of the European Commission to India stated.
The project would also develop specific multi-sector adaptation measures in consultation with stakeholders. It is aimed at identifying and quantifying issues related to changing water resources availability in Northern India at present and in the future and providing policy makers, water managers and water users in the Ganga river basin with applicable strategies to cope with current and potential future water-related problems.
