GLOF management stressed

Islamabad:At a side-line event of the International Year of Glaciers Preservation (IYGP), organised by the Devcom-Pakistan (Development Communications Network) on Tuesday the panel of experts underscored the urgent need for decisive and collaborative actions to address the challenges posed by glacial melt and glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) in Pakistan.

Highlighting the critical state of the country's glaciers and the cascading risks to downstream communities, they proposed a series of strategies to chart the way forward for glacier preservation and improved glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) management, and by reducing the human interventions such as tourism, deforestation and housing and recreation structures.

The panel emphasized the importance of expanding glacier monitoring networks through the deployment of advanced techn­ologies, such as drones, satellite imagery, and automatic weather stations. These tools, they noted, are essential to track glacial changes in real-time and inform evidence-based decision-making.

To safeguard ecosystems in glacier-fed regions, the experts advocated for large-scale afforestation projects aimed at stabilizing fragile landscapes and regulating water flows. Such initiatives, they suggested, would not only mitigate environmental degradation but also contribute to climate resilience.