Improving Model Projections and Vulnerability Assessments by Adapting Land Surface Feedback within Regional Climate Studies over the Western Himalayas

Snow cover over the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region is of vital importance for northern Indian water resources. Important North Indian river basins, viz. Indus, Ganges, and Brahmaputra have their headway origin there and rely on the ablation period snow melt. Agriculture, animal husbandry, habitat, and regional socio-economic aspects traditionally depend on the snow cover and winter water storages. On the other hand, heavy snowstorms cause rapid river flooding in the hilly regions as well as avalanches. These disasters not only affect human lives and property but also have a significant negative impact on local businesses and tourism. Understanding the evolution, trend, and spatial distribution of accumulation and/or ablation of snow mass over the HKH region thus remains an important issue. Regional assessments are challenging due to the remote and often inaccessible, complex topography which pose difficulties in conducting measurements and maintaining longterm observations that are regionally representative. Also, in addition to assessing the traditional climatological parameters such as temperature and precipitation, for the HKH region, snow depth measurements and the snow to snow water equivalent estimation become critical parameters to gauge the regional hydroclimatic changes across the HKH.