Environmental Disturbance Index

The Environmental Disturbance Index goup is creating an Environmental Disturbance index (EnDI) that accounts for shifting climate, cryosphere, hydrology, aerosols, extreme events, and hazards across High Mountain Asia at high resolution. Most previous studies often focus on a subset of systems (e.g., cryosphere response to climate). Studies that integrate changes across systems tend to either focus on a small target region (e.g., a single subbasin) or more regionally at coarse resolution. Here, we are leveraging the new, high-resolution products within GMELT to look at how changes across the physical environment superimpose at subbasin scales. We assess how the EnDI and its sub-components vary across different climatic and topographic settings and identify regions with significant uncertainties. For a subset of regions where EnDI is particularly high, we will investigate dynamical interactions between components (e.g., aerosol impacts snow impacts permafrost impacts landslides).

Point of Contact: Summer Rupper