The glacier maker

A stream in Nimaling valley, Ladakh.

They call him Ice Man. No, he is not a character of the latest Batman movie, but an Indian engineer whose idea, born in 1987, helps villages in the north of India to guarantee their water supply!

Water for the only harvest of the year

Ladakh is a region of the world located in the Jammu & Kashmir northern state of India. It comprises mainly high altitude desert mountains above 3 000 meters. It is a popular trekking destination for its stunning landscapes.

Almost 80% of the farmers in the region depend on snow and glacier melt water for irrigation and domestic use. The summer-season cultivation is short. It is during April and May that the farmers sow for the only harvest of the year. If it is not sown at this time, the crop cannot be fully maturated, resulting in low yielding crops.

Since winters are getting shorter and warmer, and glaciers are retreating rapidly, less and less water is available, and sometimes at the wrong period. The crops are not as good as in the past, less food is available. Already the entire population of some villages had to leave and migrate because of this change.
 

A successful try

An artificial glacier
(Picture : LNP)

Chewang Norphel was born in Leh, the capital of Ladakh. During 35 years he worked in the region as a civil engineer. In 1987, Chewang decided to help four villages in Shara valley. He says : “At that time the water supply was already a serious problem for four villages since there was only one stream in the valley.”

“I came out with an idea. What if water could be stored during winter so that it is available later during spring? Which practically means building… an artificial glacier! And it worked! We managed to force the creation of a glacier which provided few months after the water that the villages needed.”

A stone structure is built to 

retain the diverted water 

which will accumulate and 

create the artificial glacier.
(Picture : LNP)

Chewang explains how an artificial glacier works : “At the start of winter, water is diverted from a main stream to let it flow onto a sloping hill. Distribution channels are constructed with stones on the hill. Ice retaining walls are built at regular intervals to impede the flow of water and to make shallow pools. This is how a huge quantity of water is kept stored!”

The hill must be located on a shaded area, facing north side, where winter sun is blocked by a ridge or a mountain slope. This will ensure that the accumulated water stock will not melt during the winter. The process of ice formation takes place during the 3 to 4 winter months and as a result a big reserve of ice accumulates on the mountain slope.

(Picture : LNP)

Ice Man concludes : “The artificial glacier starts melting in spring, right in time for first irrigation. After the success of Shara glacier, we have built about 10 more glaciers.”

The brilliant idea of Chewang has changed the life of many. Adaptation to climate change is already a vital necessity in several areas in the world, let’s react all together before adaptation concerns all of us!

Chewang and Carolina at the office of Leh Nutrition Project
where Chewang currently works as Chief Project Officer.

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During these last years, Chewang has received the following awards and honours:

Best Rural Engineer Award from the President of India ;
Rural Engineer Award by Center for Science and Environment, New Delhi ;
Asian Innovative Award of Hong Kong, Far Eastern Economic Review Magazine ;
CNN-IBN ‘Real Hero’ Award, 2008 (a video, here).

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Glaciers at your feet

© RTimages - Fotolia.com

Piscola is one of the national drinks in Chile. It is a mix of the aromatic spirit Pisco and cola! Now let’s have an experiment : fill a glass with ice cubes, add Pisco and cola, up to the top of the glass and wait one hour. Observe : the ice disappeared however the glass has not overflew. Why? Because the volume of ice water is quite the same as liquid water.

So does it mean that sea level is not rising because of melting Arctic, which is a big ice cube floating on the Arctic ocean? Basically yes. The contribution from its melting is minor to sea level rise.

However reducing ice masses which are on land do impact sea level…

The glaciers as indicators

Tongue of the glacier Viedma, one of the
biggest glaciers in Argentinian Patagonia.

Glaciers provide among the most visible indications of the effects of climate change. The volume of a glacier is clearly determined by the climate. As the local temperatures increase, the volume of the glacier decreases.

All around the world, the retreat of the glaciers has accelerated during the last decades. Strongest mass losses are observed in Patagonia, Alaska, northwest USA and southwest Canada. In France, half the glaciers of Pyrénées Mountains disappeared during 20th century. In 1930 Colombia had 14 glaciers ; today 8 of them have disappeared. Actually most inter-tropical glaciers are very likely to disappear by 2025 (Ramírez et al., 2001).

 

 A 30 meters high block of ice 

detaches from the glacier 

Perito Moreno (Argentinian Patagonia).
In few words, a glacier retreats when
more ice is lost at the front of the glacier than created at the top. 

Southern Patagonian icefield, one of the largest fields of ice on the planet

When we met Dr. Juan Carlos Aravena, he was about to take an airplane to Antarctica, the day after. Juan Carlos works at the institute CEQUA (Centro de Estudios del Cuaternario), as researcher in glaciology and paleoecology. The institute is a governmental research office, dedicated to study environment evolution in the southern part of South America and in Antarctica.

We met Juan Carlos Aravena on February the 1st
at CEQUA office, in Punta Arenas, Chilean Patagonia.

Click to enlarge
(Picture : Rivera et al., 2012)

Juan Carlos explains : “the Southern Patagonian icefield is one the biggest ice masses on Earth, after Antarctica and Greenland". As an example he adds : “the glacier Jorge Montt, located in Southern Patagonian icefield, has shown a dramatic retreat during the last century. It is one of the glaciers that is the most studied in the region. During 2011 the Chilean Centro de Estudios Cientificos (CECS) installed a camera there taking 6 pictures a day, and from to time to time a scan of the glacier is performed with laser, from a plane”. The following picture shows the evolution of the front of the glacier, since 1898.

Stored before on land, going down to the sea…

The Southern Patagonian icefield
Enlarge (Google Maps)

There are several consequences to the volume decreasing of the glaciers. One of them is the water storage and supply – we talked about water availability in a previous article. “Another key consequence is the contribution to sea level rise”, says Juan Carlos. Patagonian icefields are considered to be amongst the glaciated areas which have contributed the largest proportion of melt water to sea level rise in the second part of the 20th century (Rignot et al., 2003).

Two main factors contribute to observed sea level rise. The first is thermal expansion : as ocean water warms, it expands. The second is from the contribution of ice based on land, due to increased melting. And the major store of water on land is found in Antarctica, Greenland and glaciers.

Between 1930 and 2010, a sea level rise of 18 cm was observed, and the rate of rise has clearly been higher compared to before 1850. According to the 2007 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the sea level rise could be up to 59cm by the end of 21st century. However less conservative recent studies bring more worrying conclusions : 80cm according to W.T. Pfeffer for instance (Pfeffer et al., 2008).

Sea level in the past and as projected for the future.
Over many centuries, sea level could rise by several meters. (IPCC, 2007)

Maldives buying new land

As the oceans rise, low-lying coastal areas will disappear and flooding of these areas will become more common. Loss of land and flooding will have substantial impact on local wildlife, and on humans of course : migrations of populations, social impacts, effects on health, agriculture, tourism for instance. 

More than half of the world's population currently lives in a coastal region. The delta regions are particularly vulnerable. Only 50 cm sea level rise by 2100 will hit one in ten humans around the world. China, USA, India, Bangladesh and Japan will be ones of the most concerned countries (McGranahan et al.,2007).

Relative vulnerability of coastal deltas as shown by the
indicative population potentially displaced by current sea-level trends to 2050 :

Extreme =>1 million ; High = 1 million to 50 000; Medium = 50 000 to 5 000

(Ericson et al., 2006)

As small Pacific Islands are the subject of much concern in view of their vulnerability to sea level rise, several archipelagos - like Tuvalu - have started to be very active these last years in order to warn the international community. 

In Maldives, the highest point of the country is at 3 meters above sea level. End of 2008, one of the first decisions of recently elected President Mohamed Nasheed was to create a sovereign fund with the purpose of adapting to climate change. The fund is supplied from taxes on tourism benefits. Part of it is used to buy land in Sri Lanka and India as anticipation to possible migration of population…

 

Few meters 

and Manhattan would not look the same!
New York City will adapt probably by building walls and dikes.
(Picture : Heidi Cullen)

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Paramo mi agua (Paramo my water)

“- Do you know what the weather is like in Colombia?
- Humm… Colombia is a tropical country in South America… so you would normally think that the weather is hot and sunny all year long!
- Well, near the coast it is hot indeed, but do not forget that the Andes Mountains are going through the middle of the country…

- Oh that’s right!

- And above 3 000 meters, the weather can be very cold!” 

Additionally Colombia is close to equator line which means there are no seasons, only periods of rain, but just no season like in Europe. That is why the temperatures remain constant the entire year.

Some geography 

If you could fly around the world, over the equator line, you would see that the Andes represent most of the mountains over 3 500 meters. In the area close to equator line, we can find the north part of the Andes, Kilimanjaro (5 892m - Tanzania) and Puncak Jaya (4 884m – highest mountain of Indonesia) for instance.

Mountains over 3 500 meters (brown colour) close to equator line (yellow area).
(Picture : Gheung)

The Paramo ecosystem as water regulator

The Paramo ecosystem can be found only in specific places on Earth : close to equator line, and above 3 500 meters. In these areas, the amount of sunshine is high and stable all year long. Most of the Paramo ecosystems in the world are located in Colombia, Peru and Ecuador.

Paramo ecosystems are composed mainly of giant rosette plants (frailejón in Spanish), shrubs and grasses. On the mountains it is located above the continuous forest line, and below the permanent snowline. In Colombia, the lower limit of the Paramo is 3 800 meters, with average annual temperature of 6°C, and the upper limit is 4 300 meters, with average annual temperature of 3°C. 

The giant rosette plants (frailejón in
Spanish) are typical to the Paramo of Colombia.
(Photo : Minist. of Environm. Colombia)

The Paramo ecosystem is considered a key piece of the local environment since it is a fundamental regulator of the water. It captures, controls and distributes the water around.

During the last 40 years, Paramo ecosystems total area has started to decrease in Colombia. Up to now this reduction was mainly caused due to uncontrolled agriculture as farmers were taking Paramo grounds to harvest. Also the development of mining projects has been damaging. However the reduction resulted also from climate change. As the agriculture issue is almost solved in Colombia today, it is forecasted that climate change will be the main cause of the reduction of the Paramo in the future. 

For example, analyses of satellite images of the Paramo of Guerrero (Laguna Verde, north east of the capital Bogota) show that between 1970 and 1990, the surface covered by Paramo vegetation has been reduced by 30 % (Van der Hammen, 2003). 

Future changes and the fragile Paramo ecosystems

The Paramo is defined as a very fragile ecosystem. The grounds and the vegetation are poorly resistant to changes in climate conditions and they have a low capacity of regeneration. 

It is forecasted that temperatures in Colombia will rise by 1 to 2°C by 2050 and rainfalls will decrease by 10 to 20%. This could mean the disappearance of at least 56% of the total Paramo area in Colombia (IDEAM Colombia). These changes do not necessarily mean disappearance of the ecosystem. Before that, it is expected that the Paramo will move to higher altitudes, up to a limit of 400m higher. However potential conflicts with existing ecosystems may prevent this shifting. Anyway the impact on the local species will be destructive.

In the case ecosystems could move up, the shift would be up to 400m, in a scenario where concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is doubled (which could happen by 2050). The figure shows 5 ecosystems : B=Wood ; B/P=High Wood and ”Low Paramo” ; P=Paramo ; SP=High Paramo ; N=Permanent Snow (Van der Hammen et al., 2002). We can notice that the permanent snows disappear in this scenario.

From the Paramo to the water tabs of Bogota 

Felipe Gomez Villota works for the Ministry of Environment in Colombia, in the Department dedicated to climate change issues. He mentions that : “So far, the Paramo and its interactions with neighboring ecosystems has not been studied much in detail, but we know the ecosystem is essential for biodiversity and hydrology”. “For example, the drinkable water that is used in Bogota depends on neighboring Paramos”, adds Felipe. 

Near Bogota, the Chingaza natural park is mainly composed of Paramo, lagoons and woods. It provides 53% of the high quality drinkable water to the Bogota’s population (Centro de Control EAAB project). A reduction of the Paramo means lower quantities of water, and lower quality as the Paramo flora acts as a very efficient natural filter. Quito, the capital of Ecuador, faces the same situation since Cayambe-Coca national park and its Paramo provide most of the water to the city.

The Chingaza National Park, 76 600 Ha, right over Bogota.

The reduction of the Paramo also has an impact on the flooding and the landslides. It is forecasted that global warming will result in two changes in Colombia : on the one hand, rain precipitations will decrease and on the other hand, when it rains, the rainfall will become stronger. The decrease of precipitations associated with the reduction of the Paramo will mean less drinkable water. But above all, stronger rainfalls associated with the reduction of the ecosystem will mean sudden large quantities of water that will not be naturally stored and controlled by the Paramo. This creates the conditions for more frequent flooding and landslides events in the future.

Another reason to preserve the Paramo is that the ecosystem stores high quantities of carbon dioxide. Just like deforestation, the disappearance of Paramo results in great releases of carbon dioxide that contributes even more on global warming. A study actually showed that the soils of Paramo stock more carbon than the soils of tropical forest.

Comparison between Paramo and Tropical Forest ecosystems regarding carbon dioxide stored in their vegetation and soil (Garcia, 2003 ; Hofstede, 1999)

Recently the city of Bogota estimated that an investment of more than two billion US dollars will be required during the next 20 years in order to adapt to climate change. Not less! The preservation of the Paramo and the adaptation to its disappearance are clearly part of it.

 

We had the chance to meet Felipe Gomez Villota on December the 19th at the Ministry.
Around 20 experts work at the Department dedicated to climate change issues within the Ministry of Environment of Colombia. Originally Felipe is a biologist.



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