High-mountain Asia

Tibet and surrounding areas

High-mountain Asia (HMA) is a high-elevation[1] geographic region in central-south Asia that includes numerous cordillera and highland systems around the Tibetan Plateau, encompassing regions of East, Southeast, South and Central Asia. The region was orogenically formed by the continental collision of the Indian Plate into (and underneath) the Eurasian Plate.

According to NASA, the region is the "world's largest reservoir of perennial glaciers and snow outside of the Earth's polar ice sheets",[2] and has been nicknamed the "Third Pole". Their meltwaters and runoffs form the headwaters of river systems that support the drinking water and food production of nearly 3 billion people, and hydrological and climate changes in the mountains affect "ecosystem services, agriculture, energy and livelihood"[3] for all the surrounding areas.[4][5] NASA has a High Mountain Asia Team (HiMAT) to study the region.[3]

In a 2020 study, the term High Asia or High Mountain Asia was used metaphorically to categorise Kashmir, Hazara, Nuristan, Laghman, Azad Kashmir, Jammu, Himachal Pradesh, Ladakh, Gilgit Baltistan, Chitral, Western Tibet, Western Xinjiang, Badakhshan, Gorno Badakhshan, Fergana, Osh and Turkistan Region. These rich resource areas are surrounded by the five major mountainous systems of Tien Shan, Pamirs, Karakoram, Hindu Kush and Western Himalayas and the three main river systems of Amu Darya, Syr Darya and Indus. The work further highlighted the role of United States, China, Russia, UK, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Iran and other players involved in The New Great Game over who will dominate High Asia in the 21st century.[6]

  1. ^ Qiu, Jane (January 27, 2015). "High-Altitude Forests in the Himalayas Harder Hit by Droughts". Scientific American. Retrieved July 25, 2017.
  2. ^ Arendt, Anthony (December 2, 2016). "NASA Research Announcement: Understanding Changes in High Mountain Asia". NASA Solicitation and Proposal Integrated Review and Evaluation System. Retrieved July 25, 2017.
  3. ^ a b "Dr. Viviana Maggioni Receives Two Awards from NASA to Study Hyper-Resolution in Soil Moisture Land Modeling and Data Assimilation". George Mason University. 2016. Retrieved July 26, 2017.
  4. ^ International Symposium on Glaciology in High-Mountain Asia (PDF), International Glaciological Society, July 2014, retrieved July 25, 2017
  5. ^ Pritchard, Hamish D. (May 22, 2017). "Asia's glaciers are a regionally important buffer against drought". Nature. 545 (7653): 169–174. Bibcode:2017Natur.545..169P. doi:10.1038/nature22062. PMID 28492255. (Retracted, see doi:10.1038/nature25779,  Retraction Watch. If this is an intentional citation to a retracted paper, please replace {{retracted|...}} with {{retracted|...|intentional=yes}}.)
  6. ^ Sharma, Vishal (2020). Civilizational Colonialism and the Ongoing New Great Game in the Sensitive Areas of High Asia: Exploring Pan-High Asianism as the potential way forward for the Western Pahari, Greater Dardic, Trans-Himalayan, Badakhshan and Sogdiana Belts possibly leading to High Asian Approaches to International Law (HAAIL). Academia.edu (Thesis). Cardiff: Cardiff University. Retrieved 2021-09-27.