Environmental Laws, Policies and Society

1. Adaptation Strategies For Changing Water Availability In Upper Indus Basin: A Field Study Of The Traditional Irrigation System Of Baltistan

This project examines how communities in Baltistan, located in the Upper Indus Basin of northern Pakistan, are responding to rapidly changing water availability driven by glacial retreat, erratic snowmelt, and shifting precipitation patterns. Baltistan's farming communities have for centuries sustained their livelihoods through sophisticated traditional irrigation systems that channel glacial and snowmelt water across steep mountain terrain. Today, these systems and the indigenous knowledge embedded within them are under serious stress.
Through field-based, participatory research, the project documents changes in water availability over time, captures the adaptation strategies communities are adopting in response, and critically assesses the agricultural, social, and institutional impacts of those strategies. By bridging hydrological data with lived community experience, the project aims to generate evidence that is both academically rigorous and directly relevant to local and national climate adaptation policy.

Project Funding
 Funding Body Funds
1 International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI), Japan no logo 9500 $


Project Members
  • Awais  Arefeen