Fluvial

Geotechnical engineering

Ecology

Population

Geomorphology

Demography

Climatology

Geography

Sediment

Hydrology (agriculture)

Geology

Climate change

Hydropower

Biology

Structural basin

Sociology

Environmental science

Surface runoff

Oceanography

Permafrost

Physical geography

Glacier

Science

Rivers originating in High Mountain Asia are crucial lifelines for one-third of the world’s population. These fragile headwaters are now experiencing amplified climate change, glacier melt, and permafrost thaw. Observational data from 28 headwater basins demonstrate substantial increases in both annual runoff and annual sediment fluxes across the past six decades. The increases are accelerating from the mid-1990s in response to a warmer and wetter climate. The total sediment flux from High Mountain Asia is projected to more than double by 2050 under an extreme climate change scenario. These findings have far-reaching implications for the region’s hydropower, food, and environmental security.

Exceptional increases in fluvial sediment fluxes in a warmer and wetter High Mountain Asia