Satellite-observed glacier recession in the Kashmir Himalaya, India, from 1980 to 2018
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Satellite-observed glacier recession in the Kashmir Himalaya, India, from 1980 to 2018 Shakil Ahmad Romshoo & Midhat Fayaz & Gowhar Meraj & I. M. Bahuguna
Received: 15 May 2020 / Accepted: 13 August 2020 # Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract The study, first of its kind in the Kashmir Valley, uses a time series of satellite data (1980–2018) to determine the glacier health, which is critical for sustaining the perenniality of the rivers originating from the area. The role of topography, morphology and climate on the observed glacier recession was investigated. In total, 147 glaciers were mapped from 1980 image; ~ 72% of the glaciers have area ≤ 3 km2 and a majority of them (123) are having size < 1 km2. The glaciers have reduced from 101.73 ± 16.79 km2 in 1980 to 72.41 ± 4.7 km2 in 2018 showing a recession of 29.32 ± 12.09 km2 during the period (28.82%). The observed glacier loss is higher (0.77 ± 0.31 km2 a−1) compared with the other Himalayan regions. The results indicated that there is strong influence of altitude, aspect, slope and climate on glacier recession. The glaciers with area ≤ 1 km2 have receded significantly more (41.20 ± 6.20%) than the larger glaciers > 3 km2 in area (15.97 ± 5.13%). The glaciers situated between 4200 and 4400 m altitudes have receded more (~ 55 ± 5.01%) than those situated at altitudes > 4800 m (~ 19 ± 6.9%). Furthermore, the glaciers with steep slope (> 25) have witnessed lower recession (0.25 ± 0.15 km2 a−1) compared to the glaciers with gentle slope (0.51 ± 0.22 km2 a−1). The southfacing glaciers showed higher recession (~ 38%) compared with the north-facing glaciers (~ 27%). The S. A. Romshoo (*) : M. Fayaz : G. Meraj Geoinformatics Program, University of Kashmir, Srinagar, India e-mail: [email protected] I. M. Bahuguna Space Application Centre, ISRO, Ahmadabad, India
findings suggest that the increase in temperature and decline in winter solid precipitation have resulted in the glacier recession with the consequent depletion of the streamflows, which, if continued in the future, would adversely affect the economy in the region. Keywords Glacier recession . Remote sensing . Topographic parameters . Western Himalaya
Introduction Observed fluctuations of the mountain glaciers are regarded as the most reliable indicator of climate change (IPCC 2013), growing and wasting in response to the observed changes in temperature and precipitation (Oerlemans and Reichert 2000). Investigating the glacier fluctuations can reveal several aspects of climate change particularly in the Himalayas where there is a paucity of hydro-meteorological observatories (Mir et al. 2014; Karimi et al. 2014; Murtaza and Romshoo 2017). Glaciers in the high mountain Himalayas act as the natural reservoir of waters for the downstream regions (Gardner et al. 2013) and have tremendous socioeconomic and scientific importance (Romshoo 2012). The Kashmir Himalayan glaciers are vital source to the headwaters of the Indus basin and support irrigation, tourism, hydropower generation and other
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