• Energy Research

AbstractThe high‐mountain system, a storehouse of major waterways that support important ecosystem services to about 1.5 billion people in the Himalaya, is facing unprecedented challenges due to climate change during the 21st century. Intensified floods, accelerating glacial retreat, rapid permafrost degradation, and prolonged droughts are altering the natural hydrological balances and generating unpredictable spatial and temporal distributions of water availability. Anthropogenic activities are adding further pressure onto Himalayan waterways. The fundamental question of waterway management in this region is therefore how this hydro‐meteorological transformation, caused by climate change and anthropogenic perturbations, can be tackled to find avenues for sustainability. This requires a framework that can diagnose threats at a range of spatial and temporal scales and provide recommendations for strong adaptive measures for sustainable future waterways. This focus paper assesses the current literature base to bring together our understanding of how recent climatic changes have threatened waterways in the Asian Himalayas, how society has been responding to rapidly changing waterway conditions, and what adaptive options are available for the region. The study finds that Himalayan waterways are crucial in protecting nature and society. The implementation of integrated waterways management measures, the rapid advancement of waterway infrastructure technologies, and the improved governance of waterways are more critical than ever.This article is categorized under: Engineering Water > Sustainable Engineering of Water

Infrastructure systems underpin societies and economies all over the world. Infrastructures are the very systems that enable societies to function: providing potable water supply, electricity, telecommunications, and transport mobility, amongst others. Consequently, appropriate planning of infrastructure systems plays a fundamental role in driving a sustainable and resilient economy in the face of future uncertainty. The course is delivered in three main modules: **Infrastructure for sustainable development**: Contextualises infrastructure systems within key global agendas, such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement, and describes approaches for setting national visions and targets and how those may be achieved with particular strategies. **Infrastructure for climate resilience**: Examines the nature of current and future climate risks to infrastructure systems and services and how these can be modelled and assessed, and concludes with providing different approaches of how to make decisions for infrastructure resilience in the face of climate and socio-economic uncertainty. **Nature-based solutions for sustainable, climate-compatible development**: Assesses the opportunities for nature-based solutions to protect, complement or substitute grey infrastructure service delivery in order to underpin global development agendas. The course closes with a lecture on the role of the enabling environment in planning and implementing sustainable infrastructure systems, before the final lecture where the whole course is summarised, and key recommendations of actions are made.