LocationsUNDP's Glaciers & Students Project has connected international expertise with local knowledge, empowering communities with the tools, skills, and collaborative networks needed to monitor and protect Pakistan’s glaciers.
Protecting the Third Pole
January 7, 2025
Sabrina Khan was only a child when she experienced the panic and fear triggered by a glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) in 2004.
“There was chaos in my village when the news reached us. One of the lakes in the Batura Glacier had overflowed, and we were told to evacuate immediately,” she recalls. “There was no time to carry our belongings with us – so many of us left behind our lives, praying that when we came back, they would still be there.”
A resident of Passu, a picturesque village nestled in the majestic Gojal Valley of Hunza, Sabrina would later turn this early encounter with environmental disaster into a driving force for her career. Almost two decades later, with a bachelor’s degree in Space Science from the University of Punjab, she became one of the interns working with UNDP’s Glaciers and Students project in Pakistan.
Empowering Local Expertise
Pakistan is home to five of the world’s 14 tallest peaks, forming part of the “third pole” – a region covering over 4.2 million square kilometers across nine countries, storing more frozen water than anywhere else on Earth outside the Arctic and Antarctic. As one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change, Pakistan urgently needs to understand and mitigate the effects of glacial retreat, which has a direct impact on the availability of water for local communities.
The Glaciers and Students project, funded by the Italian government and supported by the Gilgit-Baltistan Environmental Protection Agency (GB-EPA), was designed to build local capacity for glacier monitoring. By training students, faculty, and government agencies with advanced tools and expertise, it aimed to build their capacities to detect potential GLOFs early and minimize impact on vulnerable communities while enabling informed water resource management, where needed.
Project team member at Goro-II Glacier in Gilgit-Balstistan.
Photo: EvK2CNR
Analyzing glaciers in the rugged and high-altitude terrain of the Karakoram requires sophisticated tools and techniques. Italian universities – the University of Milan, with 70 years of experience studying the Karakoram, and the University of Cagliari – played a pivotal role in providing training and technology.
Local students and faculty from Gilgit’s Karakoram International University and the University of Baltistan, along with personnel from government institutions such as the GB-EPA and the GB Disaster Management Authority, collaborated with Italian experts to collect and analyze data using advanced methods.
Through this initiative, 394 individuals were trained in areas such as installing Automated Weather Stations (AWS) on glaciers, avalanche prevention, geomatics, and the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS) software.
Project researchers and students at Central Karakoram National Park, Askoli.
Photo: EvK2CNR
Defining the boundaries of the mighty glaciers in the Karakoram was a transformative experience for Sabrina, inspiring her to pursue postgraduate studies in Geospatial Science. “It was my first time using the QGIS software,” she says, crediting the project for providing access to tools enabling advanced glacier analysis.
Listening to Glaciers
A key component of the project was the installation of AWSs on eight glaciers, for which teams comprising local students, faculty and government personnel were engaged. Along with international experts from the University of Milan, these teams travelled to locations including Shisper, Ghulkin, Passu, Minapin, Askole, Biafo, Urdukas, and Concordia, where they not only installed these weather systems but also received training on storing and recording data on key parameters, such as temperature, pressure, direction, and humidity.
This data, stored in the AWSs as a repository and periodically extracted by the GB-EPA, serves as a crucial resource for understanding Pakistan’s glacial environments. It offers real-time insights into the health of glaciers and, over time, provides details on changes in glacial dynamics, enabling authorities to take timely decisions to protect local communities and ecosystems. Even more importantly, by involving local students, academia, and the GB-EPA, the project ensures ownership and long-term use of this data, supporting informed decision-making well beyond its lifespan.
The Glaciers and Students Project has connected international expertise with local knowledge, empowering communities with the tools, skills, and collaborative networks needed to monitor and protect Pakistan’s glaciers, laying the foundation for a sustainable, locally rooted approach to climate action.
“Working on this project changed my perspective. I want to bring new knowledge and solutions to help protect these vital ecosystems for future generations,” says Sabrina.
Story by:
Muhammad Omer Hayat, Communications Officer
Ramsha Nadeem, Communications Officer
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