Artificial Glaciers as Nature-Based Adaptation in a Changing High-Altitude Mountain Social-Ecological System: Case of Ladakh, India

The Himalayan Mountain regions are undergoing rapid cryosphere change, with significant implications for seasonal water availability and rural livelihoods. In the high-altitude cold desert region of Ladakh, India, settlements depend almost exclusively on gravity-fed meltwater from glaciers and seasonal winter snow that accumulates within the local watershed. In recent years, irregularity in weather patterns has led to shifts in snow accumulation, glacier mass balance, and melt timing. This has worsened water availability in a region that was already struggling with scarce water resources. Coinciding with recent socio-economic transformations, including out-migration from rural villages to urban and tourism-oriented centers such as Leh, has created a significant challenge for the region.

This study investigates the emergence and evolution of artificial glaciers, a locally constructed ice reservoir system, as a nature-based solution responding to hydrological change within a transforming mountain social-ecological system. Using an integrated methodological approach, the analysis combines GIS mapping, landscape observations across elevational gradients, semi-structured interviews, and household surveys conducted across multiple villages in Ladakh.

Results indicate that artificial glaciers primarily address a temporal mismatch between meltwater supply and early-season agricultural demand. At the same time, ongoing out-migration has altered local labor availability and weakened everyday social cooperation arrangements essential for the traditional irrigation systems. However, the results of the survey show that migration in Ladakh is often circulatory rather than permanent. Many migrant household members retain strong ties to their villages and periodically return to participate in agricultural activities, irrigation management, and collective labor, particularly during critical periods.

These findings highlight how demographic change reshapes, but does not eliminate, the social foundations of local adaptation. Artificial glaciers function not only as a hydrological innovation, but as adaptive institutions embedded within evolving patterns of social-ecological systems in the region. By linking cryosphere change, water availability, and migration dynamics, this study contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of global environmental change in data-scarce mountain regions.

Keywords: Artificial glaciers, Cryosphere change, Nature-based solutions, Social-ecological systems, Traditional water management