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Proceedings of the International Academy of Ecology and Environmental Sciences, 2015, 5(1): 1-6
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Article

The dynamic response of Kolohai Glacier to climate change

Asifa Rashid1, M. R. G. Sayyed2, Fayaz. A. Bhat3
1Department of Geology, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune 411007, India
2Department of Geology, Poona College (Savitribai Phule Pune University), Camp, Pune 411001, India
3Department of Environmental Sciences, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune 411007, India

Received 19 2014;Accepted 28 October 2014;Published online 1 March 2015
IAEES

Abstract
Glaciers are one of the important components of local, regional and continental water resource and are also key indicators of climate change. Glaciers provide a wealth of information about how climatic components of the earth have changed in the past. Changes in weather condition year after year cause variations in the amount of snow deposited on the glacier and in the amount of ice lost by melting of glacier. Interest in worldwide monitoring of glaciers has grown as rapid glacier recessions in many regions of the world have been evidenced. This further recognized need for a comprehensive assessment of the world's glaciers in driving efforts to devise and refine methods of extracting glacier information from satellite data. Due to adverse weather conditions, limited time is available in summer for detailed glacier studies. Remote sensing is of immense value as a mapping tool for measuring the spatial extent, mass balance and variations in the terminus of the glacier. Present study was carried out for Kolohai glacier of Lidder valley concentrated near Kolohai Mountain. This study is an attempt to reconstruct glacier fluctuations in response to climate changes through time series. A series of multidate imageries since 1992 to 2006 was used for mapping the changes in geometry and dynamics of glacier. Topographic maps, Landsat ETM, LISS-III imageries and high resolution DEM were used to conduct this study. The core of the methodology is to calculate the changes in areal extent and ELA variations of the glacier over the referenced time period and to determine the AAR of glacier. This was done by manual delineation, segment ratio of images to delineate changes. The study revealed that the Kolohai Glacier shows recession in terms of spatial extent, and variations in the terminus of the glacier in response to climate change.

Keywords glacier;ELA;AAR;sblation;retreat.


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