Lake inventory and potentially dangerous glacial lakes in the Nyang Qu Basin of China between 1970 and 2016

Abstract

There are a large number of glaciers and lakes developed in the Nyang Qu Basin of China. Recent climate change has significant impacted on the high-mountain glacial environment. Rapid melting of glaciers contributes to the formation and expansion of moraine-dammed lakes which increase the probability of glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs). We calculated a multi-temporal lake inventory based on (1) topographic maps in the 1970s, (2) satellite imageries from 1990 to 2016, (3) First Chinese Glacier Inventory (FCGI), (4) Glacier Inventory of Southeastern Tibet (GIST) and (5) meteorological data. A total of 880 lakes (>0.01 km2) have been mapped in 2016, with 318 being glacial lakes (GLs) and 462 non-glacier lakes (NGLs). Most of the lakes were mainly located at 4500 m a.s.l. and the lakes dominated by small lakes (<0.1 km2) where the change of their actual sizes are more significant compared to the larger ones. Meanwhile, we found