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Italian MP member EV-K2 to monitor 7200 glaciers in Pakistan

22.02.2023

About 7 200 glaciers in Pakistan will be monitored thanks to a project being led by the EV-K2 Association, an Italian member of the Mountain Partnership.

The Italian-Pakistani project "Glaciers and Students" will make an inventory of the 7 200 glaciers of the Karakoram – the mountain range representing the largest freshwater reserve in Asia. The goal of the project is to provide Pakistan with new remote sensing technologies to collect information about the glaciers as vital water resources, essential for human consumption, agriculture and energy production. Monitoring will also make it possible to activate early warning systems to prevent the risks of hydrogeological instability, including glacial lake outbursts and floods, which devastated parts of Pakistan in 2022.

The EV-K2 Association will be responsible for the project's monitoring activities. Partners of the project include the United Nations Development Program, the Italian Development Cooperation, the Italian Space Agency, the Italian universities of Cagliari and Milan, and several Pakistani universities and institutions.

In Gilgit, at the foot of the Karakoram Mountains, a mission by the Ev-K2 Association is currently underway to optimize the scientific and operational relations between partners.

"The project is part of the commitment of the Italian government, reaffirmed in the recent three-year resolution on the sustainable development of mountains, presented by Italy and Kyrgyzstan and adopted by the United Nations with the approval of 110 countries," said Agostino Da Polenza, the president of EV-K2. "Continuing Italy's scientific commitment in Pakistan is more important now than ever as this country, as certified by the Global Climate Risk Index, is one of the ten most affected by the climate crisis in the world."

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Photo by Umar Farooq/Unsplash

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