ICIMOD is the implementing agency for the Himalayan Climate Change Adaptation Programme (HICAP) that runs from January 2011 to December 2015. HICAP addresses climate change adaptation challenges across different related disciplines such as water resources, ecosystem services, food security, vulnerability and gender. Part of the project is related to the generation of water availability scenarios from upstream river basins that are primarily characterized by snow and glacial melt. ICIMOD has contracted FutureWater to generate these scenarios based on a high resolution hydrological model that FutureWater has developed. The project runs from January 2012 until June 2013. FutureWater will generate climate change and water availability scenarios for the upstream parts of the Indus, Ganges and Brahmaputra river basins.

With the overall goal to improve our knowledgebase on climate change impact on water availability and demand in the upper parts of the Indus, Ganges and Brahmaputra basins, the specific objectives of the proposed study are to:

• Assess climate change scenarios and develop water availability scenarios corresponding to base and future climate scenarios at sub-basin and catchment scales in the three basins
• Improve our understanding of the partitioning of runoff contribution from different natural sources (snow, glacier, rainfall and base flow)
• Detailed analysis of uncertainty of water availability scenarios and assessment of hydropower potential for five pilot catchments

Related publications

• 2013 - FutureWater Report 127Lutz, A.F., W.W. Immerzeel. 2013. Water Availability Analysis for the Upper Indus, Ganges, Brahmaputra, Salween and Mekong River Basins. FutureWater Report 127X

  Water Availability Analysis for the Upper Indus, Ganges, Brahmaputra, Salween and Mekong River Basins

  Lutz, A.F., W.W. Immerzeel