Mapping the ecological worth of glaciers of the Indian Himalayan region

Glacial ecosystem services for the Indian Himalayan Region (IHR) provide critical climatic and environmental information to plan appropriate Natural Climatic Solutions (NCS). We assessed the research, knowledge and interventional gaps in the context of glacier conservation, specific to IHR through a systematic review of literature. Beginning with a cognitive database of 3813 studies, we analysed 122 specific studies published in the last two decades on glacier ecosystem mapping, ecosystem service assessment (ESA), particularly for Western Himalayas. We found that the methodological gaps in ESA diminish the focus towards natural glacier conservation efforts. Based on our analyses, we hypothesise that a holistic approach to glacier ES research should ideally consider interventional models of provisioning, regulatory, cultural and supportive ES proportionate to the 3 proximate causes: sensitivity of seasonal water mass balance, resources availability, and end-usages scenarios existing in the IHR and more specifically, the Indus basins. Our research also illustrated the need to value the system interconnectedness in ESA as a critical parameter to devise NCS facilitating glacier regeneration to advance SDG13 goals.