A multidisciplinary and multi-institutional fieldwork in the Indian Himalaya for glacio-hydro-climatological studies

Himalaya is the longest mountain range in high-mountain Asia. The Himalaya is a home of thousands of glaciers that provide freshwater to a large population living in these countries. Glaciers are also a key indicator of regional and global climate change. Therefore, they are studied by a diverse set of researchers including glaciologists, climate scientists and hydrologists. Although satellite remote sensing and modelling communities have grown to address past, present and future changes in glaciers, field based studies are still vital. As the Himalayan range is shared by many bordering countries including India, China, Pakistan and Nepal, the strategies of conducting fieldwork vary depending on financial resources and trained manpower. As the fieldwork is time-consuming and expensive, new approaches are required.   

In this work, we show how we formed a  glaciological community of early-career permanent faculty or scientists in India to plan and conduct extensive fieldwork in a cost-effective manner. In the last three years, this group has conducted more than 5 joint field expeditions in the Indian Himalaya. Here, we highlight the challenges of multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional fieldwork. India is a huge country with diverse cultures, habits and languages. Different institutions have different policies of sharing field equipment. Proper planning and time management are critical, but not everyone, especially first-timers, do not understand their role in practice, which makes it very difficult for the field managers. Consistent measurements at the benchmark locations are very important, but this is often challenging as the institute/principal investigator-wise funding is limited and time-varying. Overcoming this scenario, this group developed a multi-institutional funding with efficient and resource sharing plan to set up a benchmark site in the Himalaya, which can be used for consistent monitoring for more than 10 years and address key science questions related to glaciology, hydrology and micro-climate. Such a project can be joined by any institute across the world and the partnering institute may add value by adding measurement plans and science objectives as well as benefit from existing capacities at the benchmark location. This group has previously hosted research partners from Germany and Australia. Some group members worked with several research groups and acted as a bridging partner between Indian and non-Indian researchers. A bridging partner played an important role to handle aspects related to expectations, working culture and training. 

In short, this study highlights the successes and challenges of such an efficient consortium that promote international collaboration, consistent monitoring and training of students in the field as well as knowledge and manpower exchange.