Glacier changes in the Ravi basin, North-Western Himalaya (India) during the last four decades (1971–2010/13)

• Published in: Global and planetary change 2015-12, Vol.135, p.133-147
• Main Authors: Chand, Pritam, Sharma, Milap Chand
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: ASTER GDEM; Basins; Covering; Debris-covered glaciers; Glacier changes; Glaciers; Himachal; Himalayas; Inventories; Recession; Remote sensing; Stockpiling
• ISSN: 0921-8181; 1872-6364
• DOI: 10.1016/j.gloplacha.2015.10.013

A glacier inventory of the Ravi basin, north-western Himalaya has been generated for the year 2002 using Landsat ETM+ and ASTER Global DEM (GDEM V2) as the baseline data for the change analysis. The Ravi basin consists of 285 glaciers (>0.02km2) covering an area of 164.5±7.5km2, including 71 debris-covered glaciers with an area of 36.1±2.1km2 (22% of total glacierized area) in 2002. Change analysis based on Corona KH-4B (1971), Worldview (2010) and Landsat 8 OLI/TRIS (2013) images was restricted to a subset of 157 glaciers (covering an area of 121.4±5.4km2 in 2002) due to cloud cover. Glacier area decreased from 125.8±1.9km2 (1971) to 119.9±4.8km2 (2010/13), a loss of 4.7±4.1% or 0.1±0.1%a−1. The glacier recession rate has decreased, to a minimum for the recent decades (2002–2010/13). The debris-covered glacier area increased by 19.2±2.2% (0.5±0.05%a−1) in the Ravi basin. However, there were significant variation in its sub-basins i.e. in Budhil and Upper Ravi sub-basin, where the debris-covered area increased by 28.6±3.1% (0.7±0.1%a−1) and 14±1.6% (0.3±0.04%a−1), respectively, between 1971 and 2010/13. Field investigation of selected glaciers (2010–2014) supports glacier recession trend from remote sensing data. Glacier retreat rates in the Ravi basin were lower than previously reported for selected glaciers in the similar basin and other basins (e.g. Chenab, Beas, Parbati, Baspa and Tirungkhad) of the Himachal Himalaya. •Analyze glacier change for Ravi basin, Himachal Himalaya (HH) from 1971 to 2010/13•Glacier loss 4.7 % of their area, comparatively lesser than other basins in HH.•Discuss the glacier inventory issues and provide updated inventory for Ravi basin•Discussed the potential reason for increase of debris-cover area•Discuss the issues of mapping historic extent of glacier from the SoI topomap.