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From the Third Pole to the Sea: impacts of melting glaciers and snowpacks on downstream water and food security

Project description

Understanding Third Pole meltwater impact on food security

The high mountains of South Asia, also known as the 'Third Pole,’ contain vast amounts of frozen water. They feed meltwater into 12 river basins, which are home to almost 2 billion people, and produce 34 % of the global rice and 23 % of the global wheat supply. However, accelerated melting glaciers and snowpacks might cause both water shortages and floods, and their impact on food and water security remains unknown. The ERC-funded 3POLE2SEA project aims to evaluate the relationship between water reserves in the Asian high mountains and downstream water and food security. It will develop new models and techniques to quantify these relationships and associated risks related to climate and socio-economic changes, providing insights into enhancing agriculture’s resilience in the Third Pole.

Objective

The high mountains of South Asia, often called ‘the Third Pole’, store large volumes of water in their glaciers and snowpacks. Twelve large river basins, fed with meltwater from these mountains, are home to almost 2 billion people. In their floodplains, a significant fraction of the global food is produced (34% and 23% of the global rice and wheat production respectively). This makes the ‘Third Pole’ by far the most important region globally in terms of water reserves on which both water- and food security for a huge population heavily depend.

The water supply from the Third Pole mountains faces many threats. Glaciers and snowpacks are melting at unprecedented rates, and large parts of these reservoirs are likely to disappear by the end of the 21st century. The dependence of downstream populations on mountain water resources is however increasing, mainly due to increasing water needs, continuing groundwater depletion and changes in (monsoon) precipitation.

There is still limited scientific understanding of the impacts of melting glaciers and snowpacks on food and water security of people living downstream. 3POLE2SEA aims to quantify the links between the water stored in the High Mountains of Asia and the water- and food security of the people living downstream, evaluate how those links will change in the future, and use this understanding to support adaptation design. I hypothesize that the 12 river basins have very different upstream-downstream dependencies, resulting in different, cascading risks for water and food security, and therefore need different responses for effective adaptation.

I will develop new models and methods to quantify upstream-downstream links and associated risks for all river basins that are fed by glacier- and snowmelt from the Third Pole. The results will advance science and inform policy makers and water managers on how to make agriculture in one of the largest food producing areas in the world more resilient to changes in the mountains.

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) ERC-2023-COG

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Host institution

WAGENINGEN UNIVERSITY
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 1 999 689,00
Address
DROEVENDAALSESTEEG 4
6708 PB Wageningen
Netherlands

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Region
Oost-Nederland Gelderland Veluwe
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 1 999 689,00

Beneficiaries (1)

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