Application of remote sensing and GIS in environmental monitoring in the Hindu Kush Himalayan region

The Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region encompasses the largest mountain system in the world extending from Myanmar in the East to Afghanistan in the West and covering the whole or part of Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Nepal, and Pakistan. The region plays a vital role in providing ecosystem services and is the basis of the livelihoods of over 200 million people. The water and other ecosystem services provided by the HKH forms lifeline for one third of humanity. In the past few decades, human activities and global warming have contributed to environmental degradation in significant portion of the region. Decreasing glacier area, growth in glacial lake size, unprecedented rainfall, changes in land use and land cover, forest degradation, floods and glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs), landslides, and shortfalls in agricultural crop production are among the many problems brought on by such change. These issues need timely monitoring and supervision if they are to lead to a better understanding of the state of the environment, and the scale of the damages that has already been done. Effective monitoring of the environment, and an improved understanding of the same requires valuable information and data that can be extracted through the application of geospatial technologies such as remote sensing (RS) and geographic information system (GIS). This paper provides an overview of such research conducted in the HKH region. It shows how change assessment has been undertaken in thematic areas such as glacier, glacial lake, land use, land cover, and disaster events like floods, landslides and droughts and how sets of data collected over specific intervals of time are being used to identify and monitor the condition of the environment from the past to the present, and in the long run. Complete database sets and analyses pertaining to these areas are made available online to facilitate access to information. Data formulation and further research are necessary to reduce scientific uncertainty and understand the impacts induced by climate change in the HKH. Scientific analyse made during each individual study can be used by decision makers and planners in environmental protection planning and development

The glaciers of the Hindu Kush Himalayas : current status and observed changes from the 1980s to 2010

The fate of the Hindu Kush Himalayan glaciers has been a topic of heated debate due to their rapid melting and retreat. The underlying reason for the debate is the lack of systematic large-scale observations of the extent of glaciers in the region owing to the high altitude, remoteness of the terrain, and extreme climatic conditions. Here we present a remote sensing–based comprehensive assessment of the current status and observed changes in the glacier extent of the Hindu Kush Himalayas. It reveals highly heterogeneous, yet undeniable impacts of climate change

Estimating the volume of glaciers in the Himalayan-Karakoram region using different methods

Ice volume estimates are crucial for assessing water reserves stored in glaciers. Due to its large glacier coverage, such estimates are of particular interest for the Himalayan–Karakoram (HK) region. In this study, different existing methodologies are used to estimate the ice reserves: three area–volume relations, one slope-dependent volume estimation method, and two ice-thickness distribution models are applied to a recent, detailed, and complete glacier inventory of the HK region, spanning over the period 2000–2010 and revealing an ice coverage of 40 775 km². An uncertainty and sensitivity assessment is performed to investigate the influence of the observed glacier area and important model parameters on the resulting total ice volume. Results of the two ice-thickness distribution models are validated with local ice-thickness measurements at six glaciers. The resulting ice volumes for the entire HK region range from 2955 to 4737 km³, depending on the approach. This range is lower than most previous estimates. Results from the ice thickness distribution models and the slope-dependent thickness estimations agree well with measured local ice thicknesses. However, total volume estimates from area-related relations are larger than those from other approaches. The study provides evidence on the significant effect of the selected method on results and underlines the importance of a careful and critical evaluation