Abstract
The upper reach of the Heihe River Basin was selected as the study area. The distribution data of glaciers in the study area has been automatically derived from topographic maps made in 1960 and from Landsat TM images in 1990, 2000 and 2010 by object-oriented image interpretation method combined with expert knowledge rules. Spatial-temporal variations of glaciers were analyzed with GIS technology. Results show that glaciers have shrunk significantly by 138.90 km2 during the period from 1960 to 2010. Compared with the data of 1960, 35.6% of glaciers have been retreating and the calculated average rate of glaciers retreating is 2.78 km2 every year since 1960. The glacial retreating has been most significant if the glaciers have lower-elevation ablation areas and low-elevation accumulation areas. The temperature rising is the key factor of glacier retreating.
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