In the last five years, we have made rapid advances in our knowledge about the atmosphere, cryosphere, and water resources in the HKH.

The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report, released in 2007, announced that anthropogenic drivers were the main cause of climate change and its resultant negative effects on the environment and society. In MTAP-III, ICIMOD responded to the report by increasing its focus on climate change in the HKH. Since then, we have undertaken the following work:

• Initiated glacier mass balance monitoring networks in some RMCs. We aim to coordinate these projects with ongoing work in other RMCs and international sites;
• Commenced new work to measure seasonal snow cover through remote sensing-based monitoring combined with in-situ observations;
• Improved our understanding of high altitude weather using automatic weather stations; and
  Expanded our research on permafrost through mapping permafrost proxies.

These interventions are yielding long-term time series data, which is being used to make predictions about future cryospheric change at catchment levels. We also endeavoured in the following areas:

• Investigated the effects of short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs) such as black carbon on glacier and snow melt;
• Studied cryosphere-related hazards such as glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs);
• Developed methodological frameworks for measuring permafrost, snow and ice, and glacier mass balance; and
• Built capacity of instructors and students enrolled in our Kathmandu University’s glaciology programme.