Abstract
A glacier inventory of the Ravi basin, north-western Himalaya has been generated for the year 2002 using Landsat ETM+ and ASTER Global DEM (GDEM V2) as the baseline data for the change analysis. The Ravi basin consists of 285 glaciers (>0.02km2) covering an area of 164.5±7.5km2, including 71 debris-covered glaciers with an area of 36.1±2.1km2 (22% of total glacierized area) in 2002. Change analysis based on Corona KH-4B (1971), Worldview (2010) and Landsat 8 OLI/TRIS (2013) images was restricted to a subset of 157 glaciers (covering an area of 121.4±5.4km2 in 2002) due to cloud cover. Glacier area decreased from 125.8±1.9km2 (1971) to 119.9±4.8km2 (2010/13), a loss of 4.7±4.1% or 0.1±0.1%a−1. The glacier recession rate has decreased, to a minimum for the recent decades (2002–2010/13). The debris-covered glacier area increased by 19.2±2.2% (0.5±0.05%a−1) in the Ravi basin. However, there were significant variation in its sub-basins i.e. in Budhil and Upper Ravi sub-basin, where the debris-covered area increased by 28.6±3.1% (0.7±0.1%a−1) and 14±1.6% (0.3±0.04%a−1), respectively, between 1971 and 2010/13. Field investigation of selected glaciers (2010–2014) supports glacier recession trend from remote sensing data. Glacier retreat rates in the Ravi basin were lower than previously reported for selected glaciers in the similar basin and other basins (e.g. Chenab, Beas, Parbati, Baspa and Tirungkhad) of the Himachal Himalaya.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.