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High Mountain Asia hydropower systems threatened by climate-driven landscape instability

Nature Geoscience volume 15, pages 520–530 (2022)Cite this article

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Abstract

Global warming-induced melting and thawing of the cryosphere are severely altering the volume and timing of water supplied from High Mountain Asia, adversely affecting downstream food and energy systems that are relied on by billions of people. The construction of more reservoirs designed to regulate streamflow and produce hydropower is a critical part of strategies for adapting to these changes. However, these projects are vulnerable to a complex set of interacting processes that are destabilizing landscapes throughout the region. Ranging in severity and the pace of change, these processes include glacial retreat and detachments, permafrost thaw and associated landslides, rock–ice avalanches, debris flows and outburst floods from glacial lakes and landslide-dammed lakes. The result is large amounts of sediment being mobilized that can fill up reservoirs, cause dam failure and degrade power turbines. Here we recommend forward-looking design and maintenance measures and sustainable sediment management solutions that can help transition towards climate change-resilient dams and reservoirs in High Mountain Asia, in large part based on improved monitoring and prediction of compound and cascading hazards.

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Fig. 1: GLOFs, HPPs, and erosion rates in HMA.
Fig. 2: Field photos, outburst flood discharges and destruction of HPPs caused by three types of hazard chain.
Fig. 3: Melting of glaciers and thawing of permafrost in a warming HMA.
Fig. 4: LLOFs, GLOFs and changing sediment fluxes in a rapidly warming HMA associated with glacier retreat.

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Data availability

The data shown in the figures are available in the publications cited and at https://github.com/geolidf/HMA-hydropower. Air-temperature data are sourced from the China Meteorological Administration. Satellite images are available from the ESA/EC Copernicus Sentinels Scientific Data Hub (Sentinel-2 data) and the United States Geological Survey (Landsat data). Glacier boundary is available at the Randolph Glacier Inventory (RGI 6.0; https://www.glims.org/RGI/rgi60_dl.html). Data on existing and planned HPPs are available at the Global Dam Watch (http://globaldamwatch.org/fhred/; http://globaldamwatch.org/grand/). Data on hydropower potential and developed hydropower are available from the International Hydropower Association (IHA; https://www.hydropower.org/status-report).

Code availability

The code used to produce Figs. 3 and 4 is available from the corresponding author on request.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Singapore MOE (R-109-000-273-112 and R-109-000-227-115; X.L., D.L.), Cuomo Foundation and IPCC Scholarship Award (D.L.), Swiss National Science Foundation (IZLCZ2_169979/1; T.B.), European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme (676819; W.W.I., J.F.S.), Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) under the research programme VIDI (016.161.308; W.W.I., J.F.S.), NSFC (42171086; Y.N.), Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada (04207-2020; D.H.S.) and Water and Air theme of ICIMOD (S.N., J.F.S.). We thank I. Overeem, A. Kettner, J. Syvitski and IAG DENUCHANGE working group for discussions on erosion and sediment fluxes. The views and interpretations in this publication are those of the authors and are not necessarily attributable to their organizations.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, National University of Singapore, Kent Ridge, Singapore

    Dongfeng Li, Xixi Lu, Ting Zhang & Xiaofei Sun

  2. Department of Geography, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK

    Desmond E. Walling

  3. International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, Kathmandu, Nepal

    Jakob F. Steiner & Santosh Nepal

  4. College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University, Cairns, Queensland, Australia

    Robert J. Wasson

  5. Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia

    Robert J. Wasson

  6. College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Penryn, UK

    Stephan Harrison

  7. International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Nepal Office, Kathmandu, Nepal

    Santosh Nepal

  8. Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, China

    Yong Nie

  9. Faculty of Geosciences, Department of Physical Geography, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Walter W. Immerzeel

  10. Water, Sediment, Hazards, and Earth-surface Dynamics (waterSHED) Lab, Department of Geoscience, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

    Dan H. Shugar

  11. Department of Geography, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

    Michèle Koppes

  12. Institute of Earth Surface Dynamics, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Stuart Lane

  13. School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China

    Zhenzhong Zeng

  14. Faculty of Geosciences and Environmental Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, China

    Xiaofei Sun

  15. Institute of Geography and Water Security, Almaty, Kazakhstan

    Alexandr Yegorov

  16. Central Asian Regional Glaciological Center as a category II under the auspieces of UNESCO, Almaty, Kazakhstan

    Alexandr Yegorov

  17. School of Geography and Sustainable Development, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK

    Tobias Bolch

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  1. Dongfeng Li
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  2. Xixi Lu
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  3. Desmond E. Walling
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Contributions

D.L. and X.L. conceived the study. D.L. wrote the original draft. X.L., D.E.W., T.B., T.Z., R.J.W. and S.H. edited the initial version and contributed ideas. D.L. and T.Z. designed the figures and the Box. J.F.S. contributed to Fig. 4a,b. S.N. contributed to the Box. Y.N. and A.Y. contributed data on GLOFs. X.S. contributed to Supplementary Figs. 1–3. All authors contributed to ideas and edits of subsequent revisions.

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Correspondence to Dongfeng Li.

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Nature Geoscience thanks Mette Bendixen, Yongkang Xue and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work. Primary Handling Editor: James Super, in collaboration with the Nature Geoscience team.

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Supplementary Tables 1 and 2 and Figs. 1–3.

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Li, D., Lu, X., Walling, D.E. et al. High Mountain Asia hydropower systems threatened by climate-driven landscape instability. Nat. Geosci. 15, 520–530 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-022-00953-y

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