Integrated Approaches to Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction in Dynamic Socio-cryospheric Systems

Abstract Cryospheric hazards in mountain ranges, at high latitudes, and around ice-covered volcanoes can adversely affect people by generating disasters such as glacial lake outburst floods, rock-ice landslides, lahars, and iceberg instability, as well as risks related to glacier runoff variability. These dangers are not simply biophysical; rather they are environmental events embedded within dynamic socioecological systems. To recognize the specific social and biophysical elements of cryospheric risks and hazards, in particular, this chapter introduces the concept of the socio-cryospheric system. To improve adaptive capacity and effectively grapple with diverse risks and hazards in socio-cryospheric systems, integrated approaches that span the natural sciences, engineering and planning, and the social sciences are needed. The approach outlined here involves three elements: (1) understanding cryospheric risks and hazards through scientific investigation and the accumulation of environmental knowledge regarding the biophysical basis of the hazardous stimuli; (2) preventing the natural events from occurring through risk management and engineering strategies; and (3) reducing susceptibility to harm by addressing the socioeconomic, political, and cultural factors that influence vulnerability to risks, hazards, and disasters. This chapter analyzes several case studies of particular hazards (in particular places), including glacier and glacial lake hazards in Peru (Cordillera Blanca and Santa Teresa) and Nepal; volcano-ice hazards in Colombia and Iceland; glacier runoff and melt water-related hazards in Nepal and Peru; and coastal hazards in Greenland. These case studies help illustrate achievements and limitations of the three-pronged approach to adaptation, while revealing opportunities for greater symbiosis among scientific/knowledge-based, risk management/engineering-based, and vulnerability-based approaches to adaptation and disaster risk reduction in socio-cryospheric systems.