The UNESCO Water Chair on Knowledge Systems for Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) in collaboration with the Department of Civil Engineering organized a Seminar titled “Impact of Climate Change on Glacier Melting & Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) – Implications for Mountain Agriculture and Water Security" on September 28, 2023 to share latest dynamics of climate change on glacier melt flow, mountain agriculture and water security in the region of Pakistan. The aim of the seminar was to explore the challenges and actively involve the students, academicians, researchers, organizations, and community to examine the rapid changes in climate, causing glacier melting, growing lakes, and outbursts of floods in the region of Pakistan.
The speaker, Tenured Professor, Dr. Adnan Ahmad Tahir from the Department of Environmental Sciences, COMSATS University Islamabad, Abbottabad Campus, specialized in the hydrological and hydrodynamic modeling with a special focus on climate change, land use land cover, snow and glacier dynamics, and hydrological regime using in-situ and remote sensing data. The speaker significantly delivered his research on the climate change impacts on glacier melting, discussing the outburst lakes pattern at Hunza and Karakorum, greenhouse gases causing rapid increase in Hispar, Shispar, and Siachen glacier melting and its implication on mountain agriculture. Rising temperatures disrupt snow melting patterns and the entire water flow cycle damages human lives and briefed measures taken for water security.
On behalf of Prof. Dr. Muhammad Abid, T.I., UNESCO Water Chair on IWRM, the HoD Civil Engineering, Dr. Tahir Mehmood in his remarks raised the importance of climate change factors and their effects on building designs and processes to evaluate the potential risks of flooding, drought, and heat stress. He acknowledged the speaker for sharing his research studies with the students on glaciers melting and their effects. At the end, the certificates were distributed among the participants. The HoD presented the souvenir to the guest speaker with a vote of thanks.
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