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Changes in the mountain cryosphere impact the water security of downstream societies and the resilience of water-dependent ecosystems and their services. However, assessing mountain water security requires better understanding of the complex interaction between glacial meltwater and coupled human–natural systems. In this context, we call for a refocusing from glacio-hydrological monitoring and modelling to a more integrated social-ecological perspective of the wider catchment hydrology. This shift requires locally relevant knowledge-production strategies and the integration of such knowledge into a collaborative science–policy–community framework. This approach, combined with hydrological risk assessment, can support the development of robust, locally tailored and transformational adaptation strategies.

Tropical glaciers are important indicators of climate change, provide freshwater resources for downstream communities, and form an important component of the hydrological cycle. Understanding the dynamics and patterns of behaviour of tropical palaeoglaciers is important for interpreting their sensitivities and vulnerabilities. Glacier advances in the high tropical Peruvian Andes occurred multiple times during the last glacial cycle and Holocene, leaving complex geomorphological evidence on the landscape. The substantial topographic, geological and climatic variability in this region leads to high geomorphic diversity. However, few detailed geomorphological studies have been conducted to date, leading to considerable uncertainty in the behaviours and drivers of tropical palaeoglaciers. Here, we provide a detailed geomorphological analysis of the Cordillera Vilcanota, Cusco region, southern Peru (71°W, 13.7°S), and use morphostratigraphic principles to reconstruct the former maximum icefield extent and palaeoglacier advances. Across this domain, we mapped ~23,000 features encompassing five key environments: glacier, subglacial, ice‐marginal, fluvial and lacustrine. The mapped features show evidence of both modern‐day polythermal and temperate ice margins, with low meltwater volumes leading to small‐scale glaciofluvial landform formation. However, larger moraines, beyond those well‐dated to the Younger Dryas and Antarctic Cold Reversal, assumed to represent Last Glacial Maximum and earlier advances, suggest that conditions were temperate and drained by more substantial rivers, with coupled flow of ice and till, and evidence of subglacial scouring, drumlin formation and the deposition of substantial moraines and large palaeosandar. Our reconstructed maximum icefield covers 2,660 km 2 and was drained by multiple topographically constrained ice lobes across the region. In the north, these ice lobes reached an elevation of 3,500 m asl, but were limited to above 4,500 m asl in the south, likely reflecting the dominant moisture sources. Our geomorphological mapping reveals seven clear ice margins, morphostratigraphically correlated across the study region, reflecting at least seven palaeoglacier advances during the last glacial cycle, including the Late Glacial period and the Holocene.

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