One of the projects within the 2009 edition of the "Planetary Environmental Changes" programme financed by the French national research agency (ANR).
Climate change : what are the consequences in Nepal on a village
scale ? What variations have been identified by the populations and what measures have consequently been taken ?
Project coordinator : Yves Arnaud (IRD, LTHE)
Members of CEH taking part in the project : Olivia AUBRIOT and Joëlle SMADJA
Students : T. Duplan (Agro ParisTech, 2nd year of Masters) ; P. Buchheit (Agro ParisTech, 1st year of Masters) ; O. Puschiasis (doctorante, Paris-X Nanterre) ; J. Grimaldi (Agro ParisTech, 1st year of Master) ; M. Hugonnet (Agro ParisTech, 1st year of Master).
Nepalese partners : N. Khanal (University of Tribhuvan) and his students ; A.Dixit (NWCF : Nepal Water Conservation Foundation)
This is one of the 6 axes of the ANR PAPRIKA programme (CryosPheric responses to Anthropogenic PRessures in the HIndu Kush-Himalaya regions : impact on water resources and society’s adaptation in Nepal). Over the period 2010-2013 this pluridisciplinary programme gathered together glaciologists, hydrologists, atmospheric chemists, climate specialists, geographers and set out to analyse the repercussions of climate change on glaciers and snow cover, on the availability of water and on the populations’ use of water resources.
The sector studied is to be found in the east of Nepal downhill from Everest. It was chosen so that we might benefit from measurements that have been taken since 1990 by the research station EvK2 (at 5,050 metres in altitude) situated at the foot of the mountain range.
For this research axis, four fieldwork sites were selected along the Dudh Khosi, an affluent of the Khosi, one in each of the main geographic units of Nepal : high mountains, middle mountains, low mountains and Tarai plain. In each of these units, the climatic features, the sources of water (glacier, snow, rain, etc.) and its availability for the populations are different. In each of the units studied we have tried to highlight according to the seasons the sources of water and its output modes as well as the activities and practices that depend on this resource and which would be likely to be affected by climatic variations : cropping calendars and driving cattle to pastureland, planted varieties, water for tourists in the upper part, water supply for domestic use, drinking water supply, hydric (water mills) and hydro-electric power, etc. We have analysed how different categories of the population conceive of the water resource, are dependent on it for their economic activity and have noticed possible changes in it, as well as the measures they have taken as a consequence (from the introduction of new rituals to the creation of new social organizations, the introduction of new cultivated varieties, new techniques, etc.).
For further information :
Journal of alpine research 103-2, 2015 and French version Revue de géographie alpine 103-2, 2015
Special issue Hydro Nepal, 2012
Video (in French) : Olivia Aubriot et Joelle Smadja - Recherche interdisciplinaire sur le changement climatique et la ressource en eau dans la région de l’Everest (Olivia Aubriot and Joelle Smadja - Interdisciplinary research on climate change and water resources in the Everest region)
Trailer of the film by Agnès Moreau : Un nuage sur le toit du monde (Cloud over the roof of the world), 2012, length 52 min., ARTE France - Le Miroir - CNRS Images - IRD - ICIMOD. Film selected at the Parisciences (obtained the CNRS’s Pierre-Gilles de Gennes prize), Diablerets, Bourges and Autrans festivals, as well as at the Jiayuguan festival in China. The members of the project ANR PAPRIKA are interviewed in this film.
Un nuage sur le toit du monde - Bande-annonce from Association Science Télévision on Vimeo.