The mountain ranges of Asia are the world’s most important water towers, often referred to as the planet’s Third Pole. Precipitation in these mountains feeds glaciers, snow fields and rivers. Extreme precipitation also triggers floods, landslides and avalanches, which cause enormous human and economic losses. However, we do not know what controls the distribution of precipitation and how it changes over time. In the new ERC Advanced project DRivers and Origins of high-altitude Precipitation on the Third Pole (DROP) that was granted to Walter, he and his team will investigate how extreme topogr ..read more

The mountain hydrology team will have full presence at EGU2024. Below you’ll find a list of the primary presentations by our team. Full programme can be found here. The post EGU2024 appeared first on Mountain Hydrology ..read more

The Department of Physical Geography is looking for a new colleague. In this unique glaciology project you will work on investigating the impact of climate change on lake-terminating glaciers in South Greenland. The aim of the project is to gain a better understanding of the effects of proglacial lakes on glacier mass loss and to assess how this process may accelerate mass loss in the future. You will use a combination of field observations, remote sensing, and a new model. The PhD candidate will be part of a team of experienced and enthusiastic scientists specializing in glaciology, sea-level ..read more

From April 23-28, 2023, the European Geophysical Union (EGU) General Assembly took place in Vienna, Austria. This conference brought together over 15,000 scientists, either physically or virtually, to present their latest research. Among them were four members of the mountain hydrology group, who shared their ongoing research on various topics related to hydrological modeling, hydropower development, and hazards in High Mountain Asia. On Wednesday morning, Pranisha presented her early findings from her Ph.D. project on hydrological modeling in the Karnali basin in Central Nepal. Later in the s ..read more

Varya Bazilova and Caroline Aubry-Wake share their experience of remote mountain fieldwork in the Himalayas, where they collected data for their research projects and continued monitoring efforts in collaboration with other team members, in a blog post on the European Geosciences Union website. Their post provides an insight into the logistics and challenges of high-mountain fieldwork, as well as the appreciation for the effort that goes into obtaining high-quality data. The post Quantifying the experience: Himalayan fieldwork in numbers appeared first on Mountain Hydrology ..read more

On his quest to map the consequences of climate change, mountain hydrologist Walter Immerzeel and his team venture to heights where other scientists do not go. From his tent base in the Himalayas, he monitors over 200 instruments measuring variables like snowfall, temperature, air pressure, solar irradiance, windspeed and more. These data must be extremely accurate in order to reliably predict changes in the region’s water cycle – which is of crucial importance for the millions of people who live in the climate-sensitive areas downstream. In Moving Mountains, filmmaker and mountaineer Renko Do ..read more

A music performance by mountain hydrology team member Arthur Lutz and DJ and producer Mitch de Klein titled “Mountains are the world’s water towers” was recently held on 24 March 2022 at the UUnited music festival at TivoliVredenburg, Utrecht. The performance united water science with electronic music in a techno set incorporating sounds of the water cycle. Stunning visuals and video backdrop created by de Klein, showing giant glaciers, vast snowfields, breathtaking views, and swirling rivers added an extra layer of depth to the music. In brief scientific intermezzo’s Lutz spoke about the impo ..read more

When we hiked back from our research glacier in November 2019 I, Walter, never imagined I would not visit the Himalaya for the next two years. Patient 0 developed symptoms in Wuhan on 1 December 2019 according to the official statistics and that was the start of it all. Lockdowns, boosters, vaccines, R-numbers, variants of concerns, quarantines, 2G and 3G policies were abracadabra to most of us back then. And look at us now. Nepal was also hit hard, in particular during early 2021, with a code black in the hospitals with many casualties as result. COVID-19 also had a major impact on our scienc ..read more

On 14 September, Professor of Mountain Hydrology Walter Immerzeel received the Ammodo Science Award 2021. The Ammodo Science Award for fundamental research was presented for the fourth time. During the festive ceremony in the Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ in Amsterdam, eight laureates received their awards. Walter received a sum of 300,000 euros. In the coming years, he will use this money to explore new pathways in fundamental research that will contribute to better anticipation of future natural disasters. “It is a great honour to win the Ammodo science award.” Walter studies the effects of cl ..read more

In a new study led by Philip and published in Nature Climate Change, we have assessed the distribution, importance, and past and future changes of seasonal snowpacks across all major river basins in High Mountain Asia. We found that the amount of snowmelt surpasses that of glacier melt for all river basins, and is mostly three to five times as large. Changes to the region’s snowpacks due to climate change therefore have potentially stronger impacts on the water balance than retreat of its glaciers. Over the past 40 years there have been significant reductions in snowpacks in several of HMA’s r ..read more