Today is International Mountain Day. Mountains are of immeasurable value in our daily existence. Not only does 15% of the world’s population live in mountainous areas, mountains also contain some 50% of biodiversity hotspots and provide half of humanity with fresh water. At Utrecht University, we do a lot of research on water management in these important mountain areas. Because we are proud of our projects, we highlight three of them through these short videos. Researchers at the Faculty of Geosciences Philip Kraaijenbrink , Arthur Lutz , Fanny Brun and Leo Martin explain their research.
The Asian Water Towers
The high mountain regions of Asia provide an important source of water for the populated downstream areas. In the Pan-Third Pole Environment project Utrecht University works on understanding the large-scale impacts of climate change on the region’s water supply, and on the impacts of socioeconomic development on water demand. In this video researcher Philip Kraaijenbrink explains how large-scale remote sensing and modelling tools are used to do this.
The Indus river basin
The Indus river basin in Asia is one of the most water-stressed regions on our planet. Utrecht University leads SustaIndus; an interdisciplinary science project to support sustainable water management and achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals for water, food, and energy in this climate change hotspot. In this video researcher Arthur Lutz explains how modeling tools are used to do this.
Tibetan Lakes
The Tibetan Lakes keep on growing. Most of these lakes are not connected to river systems, which makes scientists wonder why they have been growing. At Utrecht University, a team of scientists explain how they use data analysis to explain the growing lakes. In this video researchers Fanny Brun and Leo Martin explain how they try to answer this question.