Abstract
Abstract. Delineation of the glacier is an important task for understanding response of glaciers to climate. In Himalayan region, most of the glaciers are covered with debris. Supraglacial debris works as an obstacle for automatic mapping of glacier using remote sensing data. Different methods have been used to reduce this difficulty based on pixel-based and object-based approaches using optical data, thermal data and DEM. Pixel-based glacier mapping is a traditional method for delineation of the glacier but the object-based method has emerged as a new approach in cryosphere application leading to its successful application in different applications. All pixel-based methods require some degree of manual correction because these can’t be delineated automatically, especially in shadow area and debris covered part of the glacier. In the majority of studies, the object-based method has provided higher accuracy to delineate the debris-covered glacier. Spatially high spatial resolution satellite data is best suited for object-based image classification. In future, a combination of pixel-based method and object-based method can be attempted for delineation of the debris-covered glacier along with its critical analysis for suitability. The present paper critically reviews pixel-based and object-based methods as well as provides a framework for combined pixel and object-based method for delineation of debris-covered glacier.
Highlights
Mountain glaciers are an integral part of the cryosphere and constitute one of the most important feature of the Earth's natural systems (Scherler et al, 2011), specially Himalayan glacier which covers largest body of ice after the pole ice (Immerzeel, 2010)
Delineation of clean ice using optical, thermal and DEM Applying multispectral and DEM derived data for delineation of clean ice using image ratio Using morphological parameter derived from DEM along with thermal data to delineate the glacier Delineated the debris-covered glacier using ASTER data coupled with DEM Using DEM derived Slope and curvature information using thermal band thresholding coupled with a clustering algorithm Decision tree based classification using ASTER data and topographic information, texture analysis based on co-occurrence measures, geostatistics, and filtering in spatial/frequency domain
Delineation of the debris-covered glacier can be done by two approaches i.e. pixel-based and Object Based image analysis (OBIA) based
Summary
Mountain glaciers are an integral part of the cryosphere and constitute one of the most important feature of the Earth's natural systems (Scherler et al, 2011), specially Himalayan glacier which covers largest body of ice after the pole ice (Immerzeel, 2010). Debris-covered glaciers contain different types of material, i.e., snow, ice, water, and rock/debris, all these material flow slowly toward the terminus of glacier. These valley glaciers have varying amount of debris layer which constitutes dust, silt, sand, gravel, cobble and boulders in different parts of the world including the Himalayas (Bolch et al, 2008; Hambrey et al, 2008; Hewitt, 2005; Pratap et al, 2015; Shroder et al, 2000), the Andes (Racoviteanu et al, 2015) and the Alps (Paul et al, 2004). A new approach based on combined pixel and object-based methods has been suggested which will have the advantage of both pixel-based and object-based methods
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