The high mountain ranges in Asia are also called the Asian Water Towers, providing water resources for the densely populated downstream areas, where millions of people depend on the water coming from upstream. The water generated in the high Asian mountains feeds into the world’s largest irrigation schemes and reservoirs. Downstream water demands are high, primarily because of water consumption by irrigated agriculture, and hydropower generation. Future hydrological changes may have large environmental and societal impacts. Despite the large importance of these water resources, the impacts of climate change for the future of the Asian Water Towers are still poorly understood.

In this webinar Arthur Lutz (Hydrologist) shows how climate change is expected to impact the future of the Asian Water Towers at spatial scales ranging from single catchments to large river basins. A combination of hydrological models, remote sensing data, field measurements and climate change scenarios is used to make the projections.