Jayanta Bandyopadhyay

1. Knowledge Gaps for an Interdisciplinary Water Science and Policy for Monsoon-fed Himalayan Rivers Jayanta Bandyopadhyay

4. The Summer and Winter monsoons largely create the precipitation patterns in the Himalaya and large parts of Asia, including China

6. Normalized Melt Index (NMI) at present for some Himalayan rivers

8. Rivers like Yangtse, Huang He, Lanchang, Tarim, Tsangpo, etc are important Himalayan rivers for China

9. Monsoon fed Huang He/Yellow River and Yangtse are crucial for water supply to densely populated areas of N China

11. The rivers of Nepal and India

12. Travel line of Brahmaputra River

14. River Basins Draining South Asia

16. The Hoover dam encouraged building of many large dams in India like the Bhakra

17. Total Irrigation Potential in India

18. Provisioning and cultural services of the Ganges is an example of co-existence of traditional engineering and religion

20. Heavy sediment transport from the Himalaya to the GBM delta is a crucial ecosystem service

22. Gaps in knowledge on Himalayan rivers In spite of the Himalaya producing the largest volume of freshwater in the world and seen as Asia’s Water Tower (Bandyopadhyay, 1995) and a number of competent independent professionals identifying important gaps, progress in the generation of such knowledge has been marginal.

23. Himalayan water science - paucity of data and perceptions Himalaya is the poorest in hydro-meteorological information. Added by the limitations of open access data, the science of Himalayan rivers has remained underdeveloped and reductionist. Generation of interdisc-iplinary knowledge is essential .

24. Spatial distribution of annual temperature trends in the greater Himalayan region for the period 1970–2000 Source: New et al. (2002)

25. The projected impacts of global change have been useful…but There are no effective regional climate models that address the orography and climate processes in the Himalaya. Present assessments are made by using regional climate models mainly developed in USA or Europe with limited applicability in the Himalaya

26. Himalayan rivers as stock or flows of water? The water availability from the Himalayan rivers have been calculated on the basis of the volume of water that can be stocked in the undulating parts of the uplands and mountains which has led to non-optimal use of the flows at the level of the whole basin & ecosystem services

27. The mangrove forests and creeks in the Sundarbans delta are degraded and highly saline – reduced fish landing

28. Summer monsoon flows: are they floods or expected natural flows? A Himalaya specific water science has to address the monsoonal flows in Himalayan rivers as an expected hydrological process generating diverse ecosystem services with the possibility of extreme flows making substantial hydrological and geo-morphological impacts

29. Regular annual monsoonal flows are described as natural events or disasters

30. Farakka Barrage on the Ganges Caused upstream-downstream disputes over sharing of lean-flows

31. Rainfall Pattern in Delhi (Yamuna Basin) and Oxford (Thames Basin)

32. The Suryakund Fall on River Bhagirathi at Gangotri 15 kms downstream of the glacial origin

33. Understanding of the Sediment Flows in the Himalayan Rivers Himalayan rivers carry sediments in large amounts. River science requires a wider understanding of the sediment dynamics. Structures like dams may not store sediments behind them but be used to generate environmental floes to flush out sediments to the downstream

34. An Ecologically Informed Hydro-diplomacy Can Change Things Concurrent with the advances in interdisciplinary water science, a new model of hydro-diplomacy, informed of the new Himalayan river science Initially applied in the river basins, they are needed in the Himalaya as a whole, to ensure the water tower role

35. THANK YOU!