GOTHECA-NOCK is a pilot study of the drivers and impacts of freshwater discharge from glacial systems in Norway and the Chinese Karakoram. It aims to gain an in-depth understanding of the interplay between the climate system, glacio-hydrological changes, local communities and infrastructures. This will be done by numerical modeling, field observations and assessments of community resilience in field sites in Norway and China.

The project will analyze relationships between the past, present and future regional climate variability, long-term versus short-term glacial changes and freshwater availability in glacierized regions. Internal and external drivers of ice-dammed glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) will be explored as a part of the analyses to assess and enhance the resilience capacity of downstream rural communities to glacio-hydrological changes and GLOF hazards.

The project results will be synthesized with local knowledge in a comprehensive risk assessment report. The assessment results will be shared with policy makers and relevant stakeholders for the co-creation of climate change adaptation and mitigation plans.

The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) leads the project, while GRID-Arendal focuses on communication and dissemination of the results, as well as producing the risk assessment report with the project partners.

In addition to GRID-Arendal and NTNU, the main partners are the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE), The Department of Environmental Sciences of the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences; Institute of Tibetan Research (Chinese Academy of Sciences) and Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources (Chinese Academy of Sciences). The key stakeholders of this project are authorities and communities in the glacier regions.

Photo: Yongmei Gong