This book describes the challenges for the natural environments and local communities in the future. Among the high mountains of Africa, only Kilimanjaro, Mount Kenya, and the Rwenzori Mountains are still capped with glaciers. The retreating rate of these glaciers has accelerated, and they are expected to disappear in the near future. In the area around Mount Kenya, the precipitation is generally low, such that rainfall cannot stably supply water for farmlands and daily life. It has been revealed that the glacial meltwater has produced springs at the foot of the mountain. It is therefore important to characterize the condition of water sources near Mount Kenya for use by local people. This book discusses the relationships between the actual state of the climate and glacier shrinkage around Mount Kenya, the surrounding vegetation, soil, and water environments, and the lives of the foothill region inhabitants confronting the glacier shrinkage. This book is valuable in the contemporary age, when the assurance of a sustainable relationship between nature and mankind is critical.

Kazuharu Mizuno is a physical geographer and a professor in the Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University, Japan, following nearly 20 years as an associate professor of the Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, Kyoto University. He graduated from the Department of Geography at Nagoya University and earned his masters degree in the Graduate School of Environmental Science at Hokkaido University. He obtained his doctoral degree in the Department of Geography, the Graduate School of Science at Tokyo Metropolitan University.
He has researched the vegetation and environments of the Japan Alps and the Daisetsuzan Mountains of Japan; glacial fluctuation and vegetational successions in tropical high mountains (Mount Kenya, Kilimanjaro, and the Andean Cordillera); natural environments and human activities in the Namib Desert of Namibia; and nature, culture, and society of the Arunachal Pradesh of India. He is a co-author of Himalayan Nature and Tibetan Buddhist Culture in Arunachal Pradesh, India (Springer, 2015).
Yuya Otani is a researcher at the Institute for Water Science, Suntory Global Innovation Center Ltd. His research interests include watershed hydrogeology, stable isotope hydrology, and regional studies. At the Tokyo University of Agriculture, he investigated the effects of chemical fertilizer substances on the sea area using stable isotopes in coral skeletal annual rings at Yoron Island, Kagoshima, Japan.
As his doctoral research at the Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University, he worked on the effects of glacier shrinkage on the water environment surrounding Mount Kenya and Kilimanjaro using oxygen and hydrogen stable isotopes and regional surveys. He is a member of the Association of Japanese Geographers and Japan Association for African Studies

Chapter 1: Glaciology Mass Balance of Very Small Glaciers on Mount Kenya during 20162018.- Chapter 2: Climatology Seasonal Changes of Rainfall around Mount Kenya and its Relation to Atmospheric Circulation.- Chapter 3: Hydrology Impact of Glacier Shrinkage on the Water Cycle of Mount Kenya.- Chapter 4: Hydrology Hydrology and Society of Regions Surrounding Mount Kenya.- Chapter 5: Geomorphology Glacial Topography and Soil Development Processes in the Foreland of Tyndall Glacier on Mount Kenya.- Chapter 6: Geoecology Retreating Glaciers and Plant Succession on Mount Kenya due to Climate Change.- Chapter 7: Geoecology Growth Dynamics and Distribution of Giant Rosette Plants on Recently Deglaciated Terrain below the Tyndall Glacier on Mount Kenya.- Chapter 8: Ecological Anthropology Local Perceptions and their Responses to Changes in Water Environment and Land Use in the Mount Kenya Region.- Chapter 9: Development Studies Sustainability and Local Participation in Community-based Water Resources Utilization: A Case Study of the Matengo Highlands, Tanzania.- Chapter 10: Summary and Challenges Toward a Multidisciplinary Understanding of Tropical High Mountains in Africa.