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Climate Change and Himalayan Glaciers: A Socio-Environmental Concern in Anthropocene Epoch

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Climate Crisis: Adaptive Approaches and Sustainability

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Abstract

Glaciers are playing a prime role in the regulation of the global climate system and cover around 10% of the total land area of the planet. For almost a century, glaciers have been explored as sensitive climatic indicators. Some of the world’s largest and most gorgeous glaciers can be found in the Himalayan range, spanning across eight countries in Asia. The adverse effects due to climate change may cause serious socio-economic and environmental concerns for the community of Himalayas. Hence, this chapter discusses the climate change impacts on Himalayan glaciers in socio-environmental aspect with an extreme significance in regard to the Anthropocene epoch. It delivers various methods for assessment, climate change impacts, influence of livelihoods, and mitigation and adaptation strategies. The in-depth synthesis of previous studies will aid in getting a better understanding of existing knowledge and gaps areas in Himalayan glaciology. It will also help decision-makers to devise critical measures for mitigating the consequences of probable threats.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Science, School of Earth Sciences, Central University of Rajasthan, Rajasthan, India

    Aju David Raj

  2. Agriculture and Soils Department, Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India

    Anu David Raj

  3. Forest Research Institute, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India

    Anu David Raj

  4. Indian Institute of Soil & Water Conservation (ICAR-IISWC), Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India

    K. R. Sooryamol

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, Bhatter College, Dantan (Affiliated to Vidyasagar University), Paschim Medinipore, West Bengal, India

    Uday Chatterjee

  2. Graduate School of Media and Governance, Keio University, Tokyo, Japan

    Rajib Shaw

  3. Agriculture, Forestry and Ecology Group, Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), Department of Space, Government of India, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India

    Suresh Kumar

  4. Agriculture and Soils Department, Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), Department of Space, Government of India, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India

    Anu David Raj

  5. Symbiosis Institute of Geoinformatics, Symbiosis International (Deemed University), Pune, Maharashtra, India

    Sandipan Das

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David Raj, A., David Raj, A., Sooryamol, K.R. (2023). Climate Change and Himalayan Glaciers: A Socio-Environmental Concern in Anthropocene Epoch. In: Chatterjee, U., Shaw, R., Kumar, S., Raj, A.D., Das, S. (eds) Climate Crisis: Adaptive Approaches and Sustainability. Sustainable Development Goals Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-44397-8_4

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