Tracking the Meltwater That Feeds Central Asia

CAIAG was established in Bishkek under an agreement between the Kyrgyz government and Germany's GFZ Research Centre for Geosciences to monitor glacier mass balance, seismic hazards and mountain hydrology across Kyrgyzstan and neighboring Central Asian states. It maintains high-altitude glacier observatories, including the Gottfried Merzbacher Global Change Observatory in the Inylchek Valley, and publishes an updated catalog of Kyrgyzstan's glaciers used to forecast water availability and flood risk for downstream communities. Through the CAWa regional research network, CAIAG helps operate remotely sensed monitoring stations that feed data on glacier-fed water resources to national agencies across the region.