Identification and estimation of glacial lakes and their vulnerability assessment in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand
Student name: Mr Amit
Guide: Dr Shresth Tayal
Year of completion: 2016
Host Organisation: The Energy and Resource Institute (TERI), New Delhi
Abstract: Recent scientific studies have reported that Glaciers of Himalayan region are retreating and Glacial Lakes are increasing. Identification of glacial lakes of Himalayan region and their vulnerability study is very important due to changing climatic patterns and increasing events of GLOF in Himalayan region.
In the present study Glacial Lake and their vulnerability, using remote sensing and GIS has been carried out in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand states of India. The Landsat 8 and Aster data was downloaded of 30 m resolution. Supervised classification and NDWI was done and identified the glacial lakes. By using the formula glacial volume is also calculated.
The area and volume of glacial lakes was calculated successfully. A total of 296 lakes were identified in the given study area. The Total area derived from the present study of glacial lake was found to be 8.640 km2. The area of largest lake is 1.07 km2 which is in Lahul and Spiti. For study of vulnerability seven criteria’s glacial lakes volume, glacial lakes area, glacial lakes buffers, slope, land use and land cover, stream network buffer, population distribution are taken and developed the AHP processes.
According to the results the areas near lakes are more vulnerable and most of the vulnerable areas are in Lahul and Spiti. The glacial lakes of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand are not very large and population is not high that’s why the lakes identified in the current study are not extremely vulnerable.
Keywords: Glacial Lakes, Remote Sensing, AHP, Vulnerability, Himalayas
