The study is stated to highlight the urgent need for water hazard mitigation and management across the Tibetan Plateau.
Dr Woolway has commented, “Climate change is making the Tibetan Plateau greener and more habitable, attracting more people to higher altitudes due to better access to water.
The study says: “This could lead to increased greenhouse gas emissions and a positive feedback loop, amplifying climate change.
An increase in freshwater, and in flow between lakes could also cause a change in ecology and affect wildlife.
As an example, when the Zonang Lake in Hoh Xil Nature Reserve burst its banks in 2011, the Tibetan Antelope found their migration route blocked.”
(TibetanReview.net, May29’24) — While recent reports have stated that more than half the world’s largest lakes, including those in the Tibetan plateau, are drying up, a paper published May 27 in Nature Geoscience suggests that, by the end of this century, land-locked lakes on the Tibetan Plateau will increase exponentially, resulting in major land loss and related economic, environmental, and climatic impacts, reported scitechdaily.com May 27.
The volume of water caught in these land-locked lakes is estimated to increase fourfold by 2100, research by Dr Iestyn Woolway of Bangor University (UK) and colleagues in China, Saudi Arabia, USA, and France was cited as saying.
The economic and environmental impact could be severe because the increased lake surface area will also mean the loss of critical land area, for agriculture, human habitation, critical road and rail networks, and economic disruption.
“Our results suggest that by 2100, even under a low-emissions scenario, the surface area of endorheic lakes on the Tibetan Plateau will increase by over 50% (~20,000 km2) and water levels will rise by around 10 m relative to 2020. This expansion represents approximately a fourfold increase in water storage compared with the period from the 1970s to 2020,” the researchers have said in their paper published on the nature.com website May 27.
A shift from lake shrinkage to expansion was stated to have been projected in the southern plateau around 2021, fuelled primarily by amplified lake water inputs from increased precipitation and glacier meltwater, profoundly reshaping the hydrological connectivity of the lake basins.
“In the absence of hazard mitigation measures, lake expansion is projected to submerge critical human infrastructure, including more than 1,000 km of roads, approximately 500 settlements and around 10,000 km2 of ecological components such as grasslands, wetlands and croplands,” the researchers have warned.
The study is stated to highlight the urgent need for water hazard mitigation and management across the Tibetan Plateau.
Dr Woolway has commented, “Climate change is making the Tibetan Plateau greener and more habitable, attracting more people to higher altitudes due to better access to water. However, rising lake levels require urgent planning and policies to mitigate impacts on the region’s ecology and population.”
The resultant land loss is seen as likely to also lead to a change in the landscape, as lakes merge and the course of the rivers which feed and interconnect the lakes are altered.
The study says: “This could lead to increased greenhouse gas emissions and a positive feedback loop, amplifying climate change. An increase in freshwater, and in flow between lakes could also cause a change in ecology and affect wildlife. As an example, when the Zonang Lake in Hoh Xil Nature Reserve burst its banks in 2011, the Tibetan Antelope found their migration route blocked.”
