Mountains of the world: vulnerable water towers for the 21st century
Mountains as "Water Towers" play an important role for the surrounding lowlands. This is particularly true of the world's semiarid and arid zones, where the contributions of mountains to total discharge are 50-90%. Taking into account the increasing water scarcity in these regions, es...
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ftunivzuerich:oai:www.zora.uzh.ch:110516 2023-05-15T14:58:34+02:00 Mountains of the world: vulnerable water towers for the 21st century Messerli, Bruno Viviroli, Daniel Weingartner, Rolf 2004 application/pdf https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/110516/ https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/110516/1/2004_Viviroli_25094585.pdf http://www.jstor.org/stable/25094585 https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-110516 eng eng Springer https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/110516/1/2004_Viviroli_25094585.pdf doi:10.5167/uzh-110516 urn:issn:0044-7447 info:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccess Messerli, Bruno; Viviroli, Daniel; Weingartner, Rolf (2004). Mountains of the world: vulnerable water towers for the 21st century. Ambio, 13:29-34. Institute of Geography 910 Geography & travel Journal Article PeerReviewed info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion 2004 ftunivzuerich https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-110516 2022-11-29T21:25:13Z Mountains as "Water Towers" play an important role for the surrounding lowlands. This is particularly true of the world's semiarid and arid zones, where the contributions of mountains to total discharge are 50-90%. Taking into account the increasing water scarcity in these regions, especially for irrigation and food production, then today's state of knowledge in mountain hydrology makes sustainable water management and an assessment of vulnerability quite difficult. Following the IPCC report, the zone of maximum temperature increase ina 2 x C02 state extends from low elevation in the arctic and sub-arctic to high elevation in the tropics and subtropics. The planned GCOS climate stations do not reach this elevation of high temperature change, although there are many high mountain peaks with the necessary sensitive and vulnerable ecosystems. Worldwide, more than 700 million people live in mountain areas, of these, 625 million are in developing countries. Probably more than half of these 625 million people are vulnerable to food insecurity. Consequences of this insecurity can be emigration or overuse of mountain ecosystems. Overuse of the ecosystems will, ultimately, have negative effects on the environment and especially on water resources. New research initiatives and new high mountain observatories are needed in order to understand the ongoing natural and human processes and their impacts on the adjacent lowlands. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic University of Zurich (UZH): ZORA (Zurich Open Repository and Archive Arctic |
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Open Polar |
collection |
University of Zurich (UZH): ZORA (Zurich Open Repository and Archive |
op_collection_id |
ftunivzuerich |
language |
English |
topic |
Institute of Geography 910 Geography & travel |
spellingShingle |
Institute of Geography 910 Geography & travel Messerli, Bruno Viviroli, Daniel Weingartner, Rolf Mountains of the world: vulnerable water towers for the 21st century |
topic_facet |
Institute of Geography 910 Geography & travel |
description |
Mountains as "Water Towers" play an important role for the surrounding lowlands. This is particularly true of the world's semiarid and arid zones, where the contributions of mountains to total discharge are 50-90%. Taking into account the increasing water scarcity in these regions, especially for irrigation and food production, then today's state of knowledge in mountain hydrology makes sustainable water management and an assessment of vulnerability quite difficult. Following the IPCC report, the zone of maximum temperature increase ina 2 x C02 state extends from low elevation in the arctic and sub-arctic to high elevation in the tropics and subtropics. The planned GCOS climate stations do not reach this elevation of high temperature change, although there are many high mountain peaks with the necessary sensitive and vulnerable ecosystems. Worldwide, more than 700 million people live in mountain areas, of these, 625 million are in developing countries. Probably more than half of these 625 million people are vulnerable to food insecurity. Consequences of this insecurity can be emigration or overuse of mountain ecosystems. Overuse of the ecosystems will, ultimately, have negative effects on the environment and especially on water resources. New research initiatives and new high mountain observatories are needed in order to understand the ongoing natural and human processes and their impacts on the adjacent lowlands. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Messerli, Bruno Viviroli, Daniel Weingartner, Rolf |
author_facet |
Messerli, Bruno Viviroli, Daniel Weingartner, Rolf |
author_sort |
Messerli, Bruno |
title |
Mountains of the world: vulnerable water towers for the 21st century |
title_short |
Mountains of the world: vulnerable water towers for the 21st century |
title_full |
Mountains of the world: vulnerable water towers for the 21st century |
title_fullStr |
Mountains of the world: vulnerable water towers for the 21st century |
title_full_unstemmed |
Mountains of the world: vulnerable water towers for the 21st century |
title_sort |
mountains of the world: vulnerable water towers for the 21st century |
publisher |
Springer |
publishDate |
2004 |
url |
https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/110516/ https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/110516/1/2004_Viviroli_25094585.pdf http://www.jstor.org/stable/25094585 https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-110516 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_source |
Messerli, Bruno; Viviroli, Daniel; Weingartner, Rolf (2004). Mountains of the world: vulnerable water towers for the 21st century. Ambio, 13:29-34. |
op_relation |
https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/110516/1/2004_Viviroli_25094585.pdf doi:10.5167/uzh-110516 urn:issn:0044-7447 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-110516 |
_version_ |
1766330701137838080 |