Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
BOX 6.1.
Details of Two River Basins.
The Brahmaputra originating from the great glacier mass of Chema-Yung-Dung in the
Kailash range of southern Tibet (elevation of 5,300 m), it traverses China (1,625 km) and
India (918 km) before passing 337 km through Bangladesh and emptying into the Bay of
Bengal. The Koshi River originates in the Himalayan range at an altitude of about 7,000
m in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China and 8,848 m (Mount Everest) in Nepal.
The Koshi is a complex river system causing huge fl ooding, acute bank erosion, and
migration of the channel every year. The sediment load carried by the river is extremely
high; hence, its tendency to braid and shift course frequently. It shifted course by about
160 km between 1723 and 1948 (Mishra 2008).
BOX 6.2.
Local knowledge of indigenous communities.
Examples: First—Some people living near the bank of river Jiadhal can predict fl ow of
the river and then accordingly keep away from vulnerable places. Second—In Auniati
and Na-Kalita villages on the Jiadhal River, families have moved near parts of the
embankments that they see as strong or that have been recently renovated. Some of
them live on the riverside of embankments to be able to cultivate fertile lands along the
riverbanks. Although such a decision exposes them more to fl oods, they get a good harvest
when a major fl ood does not happen. This is an example of risk trade-off where the risk
of damage to households and property can be mitigated to some extent by the benefi t of
productive farming and by using the embankment as shelter if needed (source: ICIMOD).
fi eld of adaption has clearly emerged in this case. The fi ndings of this study
validates the need of adaptation framework as it indicates that structural
measures needs to be balance with other measures such as fl ood forecasting,
disaster preparedness, watershed management and fl ood plain regulation.
The given classifi cation between ICFs and ACFs is a preliminary
categorization system. Such a categorization does not provide details
about the applicability of these models. Therefore, the models can be
further differentiated by subcategories. The most important among them
are Integrated Assessment models (IAMs) which link social and economic
aspects very beautifully with the scientifi c issues. IAMs haves specifi c use
to assess policies for interventions and controls towards climate change and
mitigation (Weyant et al. 1996). This leads to creation of interdisciplinary
frameworks addressingissues and problems related climate change. These
also determine infl uential forces that make different sectors sensitive to such
challenges and to quantify the resultant environmental, non-environmental,
social and economic problems by ranking climate change control benefi ts
and detriments in developed and developing countries (IPCC 2001). One
of the recent framework of UNEP is based on this ICM approach has wide
application in Himalayan region. The Ecosystem-Based Adaptation Decision
support Framework (EBA-DSF) of is described as:
This frame work is based on the principles to practice approach. This
has four iterative steps which have feedback links from each other. The
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