A controversy has been brewing over glaciers and climate change, especially the glaciers of the Himalayas and the Tibetan plateau, a vast region that spans India, Pakistan, Bhutan, Nepal, the Tibetan region of China, and other parts of China too. The conflict began last November after the Indian government produced a report on their part of the Himalayas, focusing on how the leading edges of their glaciers (called the snout) have been trending over the past century or so. Were the snouts advancing? Retreating? Using many lines of evidence, the report stated that the snouts of their glaciers were mostly retreating, but some were advancing. The most important conclusion of the report was that the movement of the snouts did not seem to be related to climate change.
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Tags: india, glaciers, pachauri, ipcc, unfccc, teri, water management

By Nikolai Sindorf, WWF-US, based in Laos

In 1997 I went to the western part of Java in Indonesia to research on agricultural water management. Java is one of the most densely populated regions and high-yielding rice paddy lands in the world. The focus of my research was how rice farmers dealt technologically and organizationally with ongoing reforms in large, engineered irrigation systems. During this research I met a farmer who had meticulously typed out his traditional cropping calendar. This cropping calendar — a titimangsa — read like a beautiful poem, describing the smell of the dew, the color of the sunset, the touch of the soil, and the observation of insect life cycles.
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Tags: nikolai sindorf, water management, Java, indonesia, Development, efficiency

Quick update: a video on the UNFCCC COP15 site of me speaking last week on water and climate from an event sponsored by the Global Water Partnership, Stakeholders Forum, and the Stockholm International Water Institute. 3 mins, UNFCCC official footage. In case the link doesn’t work, you can find the entire event here. Read More...

Tags: video, unfccc, cop15, water management, policy

Paul Fleming works on freshwater climate adaptation issues for the US City of Seattle, Washington. Seattle obtains much of its water from large rivers, and much of that water during the summer and fall is derived from the melting of annual snowpack — a process that is shifting rapidly as a result of climate change. Among his other responsibilities, Paul helps the city’s water supply utility think about how to manage their water resources in fiscally prudent, flexible ways, given that Seattle’s “normal” climate is altering rapidly. In early May, Paul spoke before the U.S. Congress in regard to the Waxman/Markey bill (discussed in several previous blogs here, most recently here) about the need for a National Climate Service — modeled in part on the existing National Weather Service. Such a group would likely focus on delivering analytical services for how climate is changing in critical parameters in particular regions — an excellent idea, which would be a great boon for facilitating and groundtruthing climate adaptation efforts. Below is his statement, as well as the statement of marine biologist Jane Lubchenco, who is now the head of NOAA, which is the agency that would host both the Weather Service and the Climate Service. Many thanks to Paul for supplying his remarks! — JM
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Tags: united states, waxman bill, climate adaptation, impacts, policy, water management

Most of the people I work with today don’t know that I began my career as a biologist studying dragonflies. For at least a year or two, I was probably the world’s expert on a single species of North American dragonfly. Seem obscure? My dissertation didn’t start off as a study of climate change impacts on this species (the common green darner or Anax junius), but four years of fieldwork in rural Ontario revealed that 40 years of shifting precipitation patterns correlated closely with an altered the rate of development of the species’ larvae.

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Tags: dragonflies, water management, monitoring

There are three major global water-related meetings: the World Bank’s Water Week every February, World Water Week in Stockholm every August, and the World Water Forum, which occurs every three years (and is discussed in another recent entry). Last February, I was invited to speak about some work I was leading for a team at the Bank’s Water Week. Water Week occurs in Washington, DC, where the World Bank’s global headquarters is located. The World Bank was founded after World War II at the Bretton Woods Conference along with the United Nations and the International Monetary Fund to promote equitable economic development. Water is a critical element in the Bank’s strategy: reliable and sustainable water use and infrastructure development are critical to development in most (all?) parts of the world, so the Bank advises on and funds projects such as dams, irrigation programs, and even habitat restoration. But the World Bank is not a normal place to be for a conservation biologist. Either from the Bank’s perspective or from the biologist’s. We don’t really go to the same kinds of parties. Read More...

Tags: funding, conservation, Development, water management, travel

One of my key hunches is that climate change alters the framework of economic development and conservation. My proprietary and parochial interest is in freshwater ecosystems, but the insight (if insight it be) extends more broadly. Here, I propose a list of some of the climate-related elements I think we should be debating in regard to freshwater management. It is not complete, but these cover many of the big points we should probably be resolving now and over the next few years. Read More...

Tags: policy, conservation, water management, climate adaptation, philosophy

In London in late July, I met a several people who represent government and private bodies that “manage”’ the river Thames. The UK government owns the water, at least in theory, and this ownership devolves onto private businesses that manage portions of the watershed, including treating river water and sewage and moving water to houses. It’s an old an complex process, and there are a lot legacy (i.e., inherited and old fashioned) components to the systems. For instance, not many homes or businesses in the UK have water meters, so usage rates are often estimated. Many much less developed countries have much better metering systems simply because they have newer water distribution systems. Also, many of the facilities and pipes themselve are well over a century old, designed for quite different times and usage levels. Read More...

Tags: united kingdom, thames, climate mitigation, policy, water management, climate adaptation