A scientific expedition team that conducted the second comprehensive research investigation into the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau described the changes, impacts and countermeasures of Asia’s water tower at a conference in Beijing on December 18.

The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has the third largest reserves of ice and snow in the world, following the Antarctic and the Arctic. Dubbed "Asia's water tower", it is home to the headwaters of more than 10 large rivers in Asia.

Its changes affect about two billion people in China and countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative.

Yao Tandong, a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, who serves as the team leader for the expedition project, announced their scientific achievements at the conference.

Yao Tandong, member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, announces their scientific achievements at the conference. [Image: CAS]

The team joined hands with scientists from many countries to evaluate the importance of 78 water towers around the world, including 16 in Asia, the most important globally.

The top five water tower rivers in Asia are the Indus, Tarim, Amu Darya, Xier and the Ganges-Yarlung Zangbo. The Indus is the most important for its abundant water resources and the huge demands made on it for life and irrigation in its downstream areas.

The scientists found that Asia’s water tower is the most vulnerable water tower in the world, and that the Indus is the most vulnerable water tower river in the world.

The Amu Darya, Ganges-Yarlung Zangbo, Xier and Tarim rivers are the top five most vulnerable water tower rivers in Asia.

It is predicted that by 2050, the population of the basin will increase by 50 percent, GDP will grow nearly eight times, temperatures will rise by 1.9 degrees centigrade, and precipitation will increase by 0.2 percent. All of these factors will lead to the increasing vulnerability of the Indus River.

Asia’s water tower is warming at twice the global warming rate, which causes imbalance within it.

The main characteristics of that imbalance are accelerated retreat of glaciers, significant expansion of lakes, increase of glacier runoff, and new disasters such as ice avalanches.

The ice avalanches not only threaten the water tower in Asia, but also seriously affect the social and economic development of downstream areas. The imbalance will also cause changes in Asian monsoons, which will affect the environment of China and other parts of Asia.

Based on these scientific findings, the team adopted a new mode of coping with the impact of unbalancing of water towers in Asia based on three-dimensional observations and combining frontier scientific issues and cutting-edge technologies. They established an ice avalanche disaster monitoring and early warning system and provided a new and effective technical guarantee for regional disaster prevention and mitigation.

For example, the research team quickly completed a scientific assessment report on the ice avalanche in the Yarlung Zangbo River which provides a plan for reducing such disasters in the Tibet autonomous region.

They also established a monitoring and early warning system in the Yarlung Zangbo River, which includes a ten-meter monitoring tower at the ice-blocked section and all-weather monitoring technology to record data that are then transmitted to the platform of the scientific research office through satellite and mobile signals.

Source: Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences