Ice Stupas
Table of Contents
Introduction
Ice stupas are an ancient technology, originally using stone pillars or monuments, often topped with a metal rod, as you can see beneath.
As seen on this page, these ancient stupas allow snow and ice to cling to them, though not as well as the modern variety appear to.
The modern version uses locally grown branches and a hose which conveys water from a nearby source such as a mountain stream. The water pressure from the height difference pushes the water to the cite of the ice stupa, and sprays upward. Once it touches the ice stupa the water freezes. Over the warmer seasons the ice melts, naturally providing water long after the majority of ice and snow on the mountains has melted.
This is helping isolated villages maintain a source of drinking and irrigation water, despite climate change's impacts on the snow melt their ancestor's used to rely on.
Ice Stupa Basics
Life Expectancy
Unknown (possibly thousands of years depending on materials and climate conditional).
There are damaged remains of ancient stupas dating back to the 5th century BCE, meaning they may be between 2420-2520 years old. Ice stupas that only date back to 125 BCE are in much better shape with their decorations still remaining. These would be around 2125 years old at the time of this writing.
Modern ice stupas are being build with willow branches in Switzerland and thorny bushes in India, as well as plastic netting and plastic piping, so they may not last as long, particularly is climate change continues to reduce ice production.
Benefits of Ice Stupas
This solutions mimics glaciers to store water at high altitudes, allowing farmers and villages to use water that would otherwise just contribute to spring flooding.
"Each will supply 10 million litres of water a year and irrigate 25 acres of land." - National Geographic
Room Inside
The hollow inside of one ice stupa has been converted into a cafe with profits use to take local elders on pilgrimage.
Potential Problems
May not continue to work as climate change increases temperatures even on high mountains. Diverting stream water to create stupas may impact other communities and farms along the watershed.
Possible Solutions
Scientists need to help calculate the amount of water moving through the watershed, and how much is needed by different communities. Using these calculations, communities can create agreements and limits on water diversion, ensuring that those upstream do not negatively impact those who are lower in the valley/water shed area.
"Fuel" Types
Gravity
Precipitation/water cycle/snow melt
Water piped from a higher water source such as a mountain stream can also work using gravity only.
Cold mountain air
"A fifty-foot ice stupa, which can be created in less than a month, stores more than a quarter of a million gallons of water." and "The seventy-foot-tall ice stupa at Takmachik yields more than half a million gallons of water in a season."
Technical Details
Traditional Stone Stupas were built from stone sometimes with a metal piece on top.
Recently a new version was developed: "The ice stupa is created using no power or pumps, only physics: "the ingredients are a downstream, an upstream and a gradient," says Wangchuk.
First, a pipe is laid [around 4ft/1.22meters] underground [beneath the freeze line], connecting a stream of water and the location where the ice stupa is required, usually next to a village. The water must come from a higher altitude, usually around 60 meters or more.
Because a fluid in a system always wants to maintain its level, water from 60 meters upstream will spray 60 meters into the air out of the downstream pipe, creating a fountain.
The freezing air temperature does the rest, immediately crystallizing the water droplets into ice that falls right below, forming a cone.
"A cone is very easy to make with ice, because any dripping naturally forms a cone underneath -- icicles are inverted cones," says Wangchuk.
But a cone has more desirable properties: "It has minimal exposed surface area for the volume of water it contains."
That means it melts very slowly: the prototype, 20 feet tall and containing 150,000 liters of water, lasted from winter until mid-May, just when water is needed for irrigation, while all the surrounding ice on the ground had gone by the end of March." - CNN: Ice Stupa Sonam Wangchuk
Videos About Ice Stupas
In English
The video "Inside the making of Ice Stupas with Sonam Wangchuk in Ladakh" (8:11 minutes) shows the system including a stupa which is still standing past the date when it was expected to finish melting, as well as the cistern that the stupa slowly fills as it melts.
To increase the amount of water able to be frozen, villagers bring branches of a thorn bush and pile them up all the way to the top of the stupa. By increasing surface area, they are able to capture more water.
This 6 minute video in Hindi explains the system with photos of the initial igloo-like structure that allows access inside the stupa, as well as animated bisections of how the water in channeled through the land to the stupa, and how it grows into an artificial glacier
Projects
Asia
India
Ladakh
Sikkim
Tibet
Europe
Switzerland
MortAlive Project
Resources
Some of these are listed under specific regions in which the studies were done, and for the cultures or political issues of that specific area, however they may be worth looking over for clues in how to approach or deal with studies, construction, and diplomacy in projects elsewhere in the world.
Asia
India
Ladakh
Organizations
International
The GlaciersAlive Association "is a group of committed people from science, research, communication and administration who work for sustainable solutions to water issues.
We are both an international organization and a group of local actors. Together we can achieve positive developments in our own environment and worldwide.
In order for the mountain regions to fulfill their role as water castles for large parts of the world's population,
the interactions between water - agriculture and tourism can be optimally cultivated through effective projects.
Learn more about the specific projects in which our association GlaciersAlive is involved in the overview of our projects."Ice Stupa International Association "This year, we are starting with an Ice Stupa Village close to the Morteratsch railway station. This is a project where everybody – private individuals, institutions -can build their own stupa. The aim is to raise public awareness to the problems." - MortAlive Project Bringing Ice Stupas from the Himalayas into the Alps
Asia
India
Ladakh
Ice Stupa Artificial Glacier (facebook page)
Europe
Switzerland
MortAlive "Glacier shrinkage is a major topic in Switzerland, but also worldwide. In Central Asia (Himalayas) and South America (Andes) in particular, dwindling glacier masses are creating threatening conditions for water supplies. According to a study recently published by glaciologist Hamish D. Pritchard in the scientific journal "Nature", up to 221 million people in the Himalayan region will be directly affected by a shortage of drinking water within a few decades. Covering the glaciers there with snow could greatly delay melting.
A delay of up to 50 years could be possible thanks to MortAlive - or to the #gkb2020 commitment of Graubündner Kantonalbank." (Instagram)
South America
Chile
The Nilus Project "During 2021 we held our first Ice Stupa in Parque Arenas in San José de Maipo."
Stand Alone or Complimentary
The following can capture and redirect water on their own, but could also be used in conjunction with ice stupas to passively transport water to necessary locations, instead of wasting energy or other resources on pumps.
Berms & Swales
Key Lines
Tools & Resources
How-To Guides for Building Ice Stupas
The Ice Stupa Artificial Glaciers - A Dessert-Greening Technique (PDF) includes photos of the process, and links to related resources.
Ice stupas: The Artificial Glaciers Helping Combat the Effects of Climate Change This page includes a step-by-step image guide.
Landscaping Apps
While this doesn't related directly to ice stupas, the techniques may be beneficial lower down, slowing the collected water to help benefit the landscape with the collected water from the stupas as well as yearly precipitation.
Greener LAND "This tool helps you decide which landscape interventions are best suited towards landscape restoration for the landscape you operate in. Start by selecting the characteristics of your landscape on your left."
Organizations
International
NGO Supplying Company
Africa
Asia
Europe
UK
Yorkshire Wildlife Trust works (among many other activities) to restore dewponds and educate others in how to do the same.
North America
WASH "curriculum has been developed and integrated in schools (Shikshaniketan, Residential Bridge Schools & Solar Bridge Schools) run by Barefoot College International. Every year, new activities and methods are included which makes learning interactive. Area covered include Water, Sanitation, Health, Hygiene and Environment."
USA
Watershed Management Group. (Tucson and Phoenix, Arizona). Offers classes, a “water harvesting coop” and more.
Oceana
South America
Maps
Grants & Funding
Companies
International
Bächler Top Track AG "is a worldwide provider of custom-built solutions in the field of snow processing and snowmaking. The high-quality products and in-house expertise have made Bächler well-known in the world. To achieve and enlarge this image, it is aspired an always higher customer satisfaction and it sets a high value on the performance, quality and energy-efficiency of the products. "