Abstract
Glaciers in Asian high mountain regions are fed mostly during summer while ablation takes place simultaneously, which is in contrast with those in the other regions of the world, where accumulation and ablation occur in winter and summer respectively. Great abundance of supraglacial debris is another important nature of glaciers in Asia : total glacial area with surface debris is much larger than the area of debris free ablation zone of glaciers. Ablation processers below a supraglacial debris layer are, hence, of great importance. Very rapid rates of shrinkage identified for glaciers in Asian high mountan regions could be related to these two kinds of nature of those in the area. The recent shrinkage of glaciers contributes significantly to the amount of river discharge. In other words, the amount of water supply from mountains is currently maintained with the additional water through the decrease of glacier masses. A sharp decrease of available water could take place, therefore, in near future in association with disappearances of some glaciers. This would be bery important in arid and semi arid regions in Asia where relative importance of glacier melt water is comparatively great.
