{"id":165,"date":"2025-04-15T09:49:37","date_gmt":"2025-04-15T04:04:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hkh.icimod.org\/ar2024\/?post_type=highlights&#038;p=165"},"modified":"2025-04-16T14:08:57","modified_gmt":"2025-04-16T08:23:57","slug":"upping-the-pace-and-scale-of-permafrost-monitoring-in-the-mountains","status":"publish","type":"highlights","link":"https:\/\/hkh.icimod.org\/ar2024\/highlights\/upping-the-pace-and-scale-of-permafrost-monitoring-in-the-mountains\/","title":{"rendered":"Upping the pace and scale of permafrost monitoring in the mountains"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Permafrost, or \u2018permanently\u2019 frozen ground, is sometimes called Earth\u2019s \u2018hidden glue\u2019 for its role holding together loose sediment, thereby stabilising land masses and mountain slopes.<br>In common with HKH glaciers and snowpack, high-mountain permafrost is thawing due to temperature rise, and the resulting loss of slope stability can be a key factor in the rising numbers and intensity of landslides and other disasters in the region, which pose <a href=\"https:\/\/lib.icimod.org\/records\/7cv30-ec097\">massive risks to lives and livelihoods across South Asia<\/a>.<br>Unlike glaciers, given permafrost is underground, changes are hard to observe, and its monitoring has been hitherto been <a href=\"https:\/\/lib.icimod.org\/records\/zbkwj-10v80\">overlooked<\/a> with its thawing \u2018<a href=\"https:\/\/lib.icimod.org\/records\/zbkwj-10v80\">inferred<\/a>\u2019 from other data. Given its role in risks, and unknown contribution to <a href=\"https:\/\/lib.icimod.org\/records\/nx58h-5sb40\">carbon release<\/a> in the HKH, building greater understanding of the substance and its changes is urgent.<br>To fill this gap, building on a regional workshop <a href=\"https:\/\/lib.icimod.org\/records\/f6hsy-wb723\">led by ICIMOD in 2022<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lib.icimod.org\/records\/dzbzn-jb142\">ICIMOD supported Bhutan\u2019s NCHM to start ground-level permafrost monitoring in 2024<\/a>, and also <a href=\"https:\/\/lib.icimod.org\/records\/ptk9r-1hr57\">strengthened capacity in permafrost monitoring in Nepal.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":175,"template":"","categories":[13,17,12],"class_list":["post-165","highlights","type-highlights","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate-and-environmental-risks","category-cryosphere","category-cryosphere-and-water"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hkh.icimod.org\/ar2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/highlights\/165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hkh.icimod.org\/ar2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/highlights"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hkh.icimod.org\/ar2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/highlights"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hkh.icimod.org\/ar2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hkh.icimod.org\/ar2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hkh.icimod.org\/ar2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}