Increased glacier melt enhances future extreme floods in the southern Tibetan Plateau

Abstract

Mountainous areas are of special hydrological concern because topography and atmospheric conditions can result in large and sudden floods, posing serious risks to water-related safety in neighbouring countries. The Yarlung Zangbo (YZ) River basin is the largest river basin on the Tibetan Plateau (TP), but how floods will discharge in this basin and how the role of glacier melt in floods will change throughout the 21st-century under shared socioeconomic pathways scenarios (SSP2-4.5 and SSP5-8.5) remain unclear. Here, we comprehensively address this scientific question based on a well-validated large-scale glacier-hydrology model. The results indicate that extreme floods was projected to increase in the YZ basin, and was mainly reflected in increased duration (4–10 d per decade) and intensity (153–985 m³ s⁻¹ per decade). Glacier runoff was projected to increase (2–30 mm per decade) throughout the 21st-century, but there was also a noticeable decrease or deceleration in glacier runoff growth in the late first half of the century under the SSP2-4.5, and in the latter half of the century under the SSP5-8.5. Glacier melt was projected to enhance the duration (12%–23%) and intensity (15%–21%) of extreme floods under both SSPs, which would aggravate the impact of future floods on the socioeconomics of the YZ basin. This effect was gradually overwhelmed by precipitation-induced floods from glacier areas to YZ outlet. This study takes the YZ basin as a projection framework example to help enrich the understanding of future flood hazards in basins affected by rainfall- or meltwater across the TP, and to help policy-makers and water managers develop future plans.