Emerging Cryospheric Hazards in the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) under a Changing Climate

The Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) is one of the most climate-sensitive mountain regions in the world. It contains large glaciers, seasonal snow cover, permafrost, and many high-altitude lakes. Together, these cryospheric components supply water resources to nearly two billion people living downstream. However, rapid atmospheric warming, changing rainfall and snowfall patterns, and the increasing frequency of extreme weather events are strongly affecting the region’s cryosphere. Glaciers are losing their structural support and retreating faster, seasonal snow cover is thinning, permafrost is degrading, and glacial lakes are expanding. These changes are intensifying cryosphere-related hazards such as glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs), snow, ice, and rock avalanches, mass movements (including landslides, rockfalls, and debris flows), and cascading multi-hazard events. Such hazards pose serious threats to mountain communities, roads and transportation corridors, hydropower projects, pilgrimage routes, and fragile alpine ecosystems. The steep terrain, strong monsoon influence, and increasing human activities further raise both exposure and vulnerability, presenting growing challenges to hazard assessment and risk reduction.The HKH region stretches across eight countries in South and Central Asia: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China (Tibet), India, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan. These countries share interconnected mountain ranges, extensive cryospheric resources, and major transboundary river basins, making the HKH region critically important for water security, ecosystem services, and disaster risk management, and highlighting the need for coordinated, cross-border efforts to address climate change impacts and emerging cryospheric hazards.In recent years, HKH countries have strengthened their efforts to monitor and manage cryospheric hazards through national programs and regional cooperation. Many have developed glacier and glacial lake inventories, harnessed satellite-based data to monitor glacier retreat and potentially hazardous lakes, and installed field instruments such as automatic weather stations and river discharge gauges. Regional collaboration, primarily led by ICIMOD, promotes joint research, data sharing, capacity building, and regional assessments of cryospheric change and related risks. Hazard mapping, early warning systems, and risk assessments are increasingly integrated into disaster management and climate adaptation strategies. Despite these advances, significant knowledge gaps remain regarding the drivers and dynamics of cryospheric hazards, their spatial–temporal variability, and their linkages with climate change and human activities. A better understanding of the interactions between cryosphere, climate, hydrology, terrain stability, and extreme events is essential for developing effective early warning systems, disaster risk reduction, water and energy security, and supporting sustainable, climate-resilient development in the HKH region.This Research Topic aims to integrate recent advances in cryospheric science, geomorphology, hydrology, remote sensing, and disaster risk science to enhance understanding of emerging cryospheric hazards in the Hindu Kush Himalaya. By examining interactions among glacier and snow dynamics, permafrost degradation, slope instability, and extreme hydro-meteorological events, this Topic seeks to assess hazard drivers, exposure, vulnerability, risks, and adaptive capacity across the region. Emphasis is placed on process-based understanding, innovative monitoring techniques, and science-driven strategies for risk reduction and adaptation.To gather further insights in these areas, we welcome contributions addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:• Glacier retreat and mass balance change as drivers of emerging cryospheric hazards• Glacial lake evolution and GLOF processes, including risk and impact assessment• Snow, ice, and rock avalanches, and slope instabilities in high mountain environments• Permafrost degradation and its role in triggering terrain instability and mass movements• Cryosphere–hydrology interactions, runoff regime shifts, and hydro-meteorological extremes• Multi-hazard linkages, including compound and cascading events in high-mountain regions• Monitoring and detection of cryospheric hazards using remote sensing, UAVs, and in situ observations• Hazard mapping, forecasting, early warning systems, and risk reduction strategies• Socio-economic vulnerability, infrastructure exposure, and community resilience• Climate change adaptation, policy frameworks, and transboundary/regional collaboration for sustainable mountain developmentWe welcome Original Research articles, Review papers, Case Studies, Conceptual Analyses, and Data Reports that provide novel insights, methodologies, or theoretical frameworks related to cryospheric hazards in the Hindu Kush Himalaya. Interdisciplinary studies combining physical processes, technological innovations, and socio-economic dimensions are particularly encouraged.This Research Topic aims to support evidence-based disaster risk reduction, inform policy and planning, and contribute to regional and global efforts toward climate change adaptation and sustainable development in high mountain environments. Topic editors: Riyaz Ahmad Mir, Rayees Ahmed, Vít Vilímek, Mohd Farooq Azam, Harsh Beria Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/77084/emerging-cryospheric-hazards-in-the-hindu-kush-himalaya-hkh-under-a-changing-climate