Climate and water in the upper Indus basin: An urgent new research agenda (policy brief, July 2022)

The Upper Indus Basin (UIB) is an extraordinarily significant social-ecological system that supports hundreds of millions of people.

Water resources in the UIB are extremely vulnerable due to climate change, and as a result of historic lack of demand management. New knowledge, based on interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research is needed to deal with the resulting challenges.

We conducted a systematic exercise to identify 100 research questions which, if answered, would contribute to the effective and equitable management of water resources under conditions of climate change in the UIB. These questions cover research within the natural sciences, social sciences and humanities.

Together, they suggest the need for long-term funding that emphasises interdisciplinary research, transdisciplinary approaches, bilateral and multilateral grant programmes and locally-embedded research programmes.

Learn more about policy recommendations based on the findings of the academic paper