Abstract ID: 3.9107 | Accepted as Talk | Talk | TBA | TBA

In the seasonally dry tropical Andes, glacier retreat has led to widespread downstream impacts increasing mountain water insecurity. A growing number of catchments in the deglaciating Andes of Peru is currently exposed to acid rock drainage which severely affects downstream biota and human health. In combination with poor water governance, this situation of increasing hydrological risk urgently requires effective and long-term solutions to counteract decreasing water availability and poor quality. Yet, this challenging endeavour has barely been addressed in an integrated way in science and public policies. We showcase the deglaciating Negro river catchment (Cordillera Blanca, Peru), to disentangle the complex spatio-temporal interactions between specific catchment characteristics, glacier retreat and changes in water quality in the context of long-term human health. Therefore, in-situ measurements of changing water quality are analysed against specific geologic feature mapping and multi-annual glacier retreat using a supervised machine learning model. To expand our knowledge, a diverse set of participatory methods to determine local perceptions on water quality were applied in one affected community of the Negro river catchment and with decision-makers of the region. This co-produced knowledge framework builds a baseline to evaluate effective long-term strategies for adaptive management and policy in the context of long-term mountain water security.