The Shaksgam Project

Abstract

The demand for freshwater, energy, and food will increase significantly over the next decades due to population growth, international trade, urbanisation, diversifying diets, and climate change. 

Understanding and managing the complex relationships between the water, energy, and food nexus is crucial to balancing the differing goals and interests of resource users while maintaining the integrity of ecosystems. This is particularly true for mountain environments, which provide freshwater to lowland plains, sustain biodiversity, support food systems, and have the potential to generate geothermal and hydroelectric energy on a large scale. However, their role in nexus security is not fully understood and recognized, placing these vulnerable human-environmental systems at risk of inadequate action and further degradation of critical resources and ecosystems. The Shaksgam Valley, in China, is an ideal site to explore nexus security in changing mountain environment due to its unique social-environmental context.  

The Shaksgam project seeks to foster social, economic, and environmental sustainability in mountain environments. The overall mission is to enable communities to increase their individual, collective, and institutional resilience to resource insecurity and environmental change by facilitating the implementation of technological innovations that are environmentally friendly, socially inclusive, and economically feasible. To achieve this, the project will explore the range of social, economic, and environmental factors influencing the adoption, diffusion, and operation of technological innovations such as hydroponic farming, geothermal greenhouses, and early warning flood systems. Our research combines qualitative and quantitative techniques including semi-structured interviewing, focus groups, virtual reality, geomorphic mapping, photography, aerial drone imaging, and art.

Summary

The Shaksgam Project 2017 is one step of a grand vision to foster sustainable food, energy and natural hazard security in mountain environments. The overall mission is to enable mountain communities to increase their individual, collective and institutional resilience to resource insecurity and dangerous environmental change by facilitating the implementation of technological innovations that are environmentally friendly, socially inclusive and economically superior to the practices they are supposed to replace. 

Paramount to this technological upgrade is improved process automation, higher output productivity, regenerative design (i.e. cradle to cradle), circular [1]business models. However, whilst sustainability transitions comprising technological innovation is increasingly highlighted in academic literature as playing a critical role in addressing the societal challenges of our time, the actual adoption and diffusion of technological innovations are slow. This is particularly true for developing and geographically remote regions such as the Karakoram – Himalaya Mountains. The issue is of paramount importance amidst the growing risks that mountain people are facing such as water scarcity, catastrophic glacial lake outburst floods, hidden hunger and unsustainable or locally unspecific national development policies.    

The main aim of the Shaksgam Project is to identify and assess the range of social, economic and environmental factors influencing the [2]adoption, [3]diffusion and [4]operation of climate-smart technological innovation (hereafter CSTI) in mountain environments such as the Chinese Karakoram Range. These CSTI include me) hydroponic farming systems and geothermal greenhouses; ii) photovoltaic panels for energy generation and iii) early warning systems for the prevention of glacial lake outburst floods and other glacial hazards. Within the context of the Shaksgam project, "adoption" refers to the stage in which technology is selected for use by an individual or an organization. "Innovation" is similarly used with the nuance of a new or "innovative" technology being adopted. "Diffusion" refers to the stage in which the technology spreads to general use and application.

The methodology we propose is truly innovative. By using an explorative case study research design and a combination of qualitative and quantitative techniques such as semi-structured interviewing, focus groups, direct and indirect observations, virtual reality solutions, geomorphic mapping, repeat photography and high-resolution aerial drone imaging, the Shaksgam project will attempt to lay the foundation for the development of eco-tech communities in one of the most inhospitable regions on Earth, The Trans-Karakoram of China. 

Central to the project’s analysis is the exploration of participants’ views, knowledge and experience of the situations being studied, as described by Creswell, (2003). This comprises answering questions of community and individual acceptance, beliefs, attitudes, values, motives, perceptions, behaviours, experiences, cultural rigidity and flexibility, institutional processes and social challenges and opportunities, new potentials and dependencies, and willingness to participate in and support the development of CSTI. Furthermore, by quantifying the risk of catastrophic flooding and other glacial hazards the Shalksgam project will provide important information concerning the long-term feasibility of CSTI in the region.

Finally, the project will also involve an exploration of the historic, geographic and cultural aspects of the Shaksgam Valley and its Uighur people through a combination of photographic, film and artistic drawing techniques. Furthermore, by using several Bactrian camels as a means of transportation in the valley, the expedition team will traverse an important section of the ancient silk route connecting Kashgar to Leh in a similar fashion to 19th and 20th century European explores such as Francis Younghusband, Kenneth Mason and Eric Shipton. 

[1] A circular business model can be defined as the rationale of how an organization creates, delivers, and captures value with and within closed material loops (Mentink, 2014). The idea is that a circular business model does not need to close material loops by itself within its internal system boundaries, but can also be part of a system of business models that together close a material loop to be regarded as "circular" (Mentink 2014).

[2] Adoption here is defined as the integration of new technology into an existing practice and proceeded by a period of testing and some degrees of adaptation. 

[3] Diffusion here is defined as a theory that seeks to explain how, why, and at what rate new ideas and technology spread.

[4] Operation is defined here as the performance of practical work or something involving the practical application of principles or processes.

References

Antikainen, M., Valkokari, K., & Mcclelland, J. (2016). A Framework for Sustainable Circular Business Model Innovation, 6(7), 5–12.

FAO. (2014). The Water-Energy-Food Nexus. (n.d.). Understanding Water- Energy- Food Nexus from Mountain Perspective. (1-28).

Hoff, H. (2011). Understanding the Nexus. Background Paper for the Bonn 2011 Conference: The Water, Energy and Food Security Nexus. Stockholm, Sweden: Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI).

ICIMOD. (2012). Contribution of Himalayan ecosystems to water, energy, and food security in South Asia: A nexus approach. Kathmandu, Nepal: International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD).