Despite the fact that climate and hydrology are the principal causes of, as well as contributing factors to, natural hazards, research and data sharing in these fields have been limited. The paper concludes that management of environmental hazards essentially depends on management of water and calls for regional cooperation towards this end. The combination of inherently weak geology and intense precipitation that characterise these mountains make them extremely vulnerable to hazards even in normal climatic conditions. The HKH, as the youngest mountains on earth, are also tectonically very active and hence inherently vulnerable to hazards. This acts as a trigger for various types of natural hazards in different elevation zones.
Floods are the principal hazards in the lower valleys and plains.
During extreme weather events, the consequences are disastrous. Hundreds of lives and billions of dollars worth of property and investments in high-cost infrastructure are lost in the region every year due to landslides, debris flows, and floods, along with the destruction of scarce agricultural lands. Despite the fact that climate and hydrology are the principal causes of, as well as contributing factors to, natural hazards in the HKH, scientific research in these has not received enough attention. This is primarily because the establishment of reliable monitoring systems to collect data on climate and hydrology is not easy and involves very high costs in these high mountains where accessibility is difficult. In addition to these physical difficulties and the huge costs, which are not easily affordable by the countries of the region, hydrometeorological services and research in the HKH mountains have a short history in many countries of the region.