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Glacier changes in Sind basin (1990–2018) of North-western Himalayas using earth observation data

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Abstract

This study aims to assess the short-temporal dynamics of glaciers in Sind watershed of Jhelum basin in North-western Himalayas. The spatio-temporal fluctuations in morphological parameters of glaciers were estimated for a period of 28 years from 1990 to 2018. This has been achieved by analyzing multi-temporal imageries from Landsat-5, Sentinel-2 and IRS LISS IV earth observation data using geospatial tools and supplemented with field observations. The total glaciated area of Sind basin has decreased from 56.73 Km2 (1990) to 43.94 Km2 (2018) with the loss of 22.5% during the period of 28 years. The number of glaciers has increased from 92 (1990) to 116 (2018) generally due to defragmentation of glaciers. Glaciers (> 1 Km2) have shown a maximum loss of −34.8% during the study period. Although contributing less to the total glacier area, glaciers found in low elevation zones (3800–4200 masl) have lost maximum area of around − 55.5%. Mean elevation of glaciers has increased from 4330 masl (1990) to 4390 masl (2018). Mean Equilibrium Line Altitude (ELA) of glaciers (> 0.5 Km2) has shifted from 4336 to 4432 masl with an annual upward shift of 3.4 m a−1. The trend analysis of meteorological parameters (Temperature and Precipitation) using Mann–Kendall test reveals that the seasonal and annual temperature (both Tmax and Tmin) has shown a significant positive trend. While as precipitation (both annual and seasonal) has shown a negative trend. The continued glacier recession in the region is largely due to decreasing precipitation in the winter months (November–March) and increasing mean annual temperatures. The persistence of warming trend will result in continuous shrinkage and thinning of glaciers with drastic impacts on the hydrological regime of the region.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to the European Space Agency (ESA) for freely providing the satellite data used in this study. The first author acknowledges the financial support of MOES & NCPOR under HiCom Initiative.

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  1. Department of Geography and Disaster Management, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Kashmir, Srinagar, 190 006, India

    Syed Towseef Ahmad, Rayees Ahmed, Gowhar Farooq Wani & Pervez Ahmed

  2. National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research, Goa, India

    Parmanand Sharma

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Ahmad, S.T., Ahmed, R., Wani, G.F. et al. Glacier changes in Sind basin (1990–2018) of North-western Himalayas using earth observation data. Model. Earth Syst. Environ. 8, 2567–2579 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40808-021-01246-w

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