An inventory of glacial lakes in the Third Pole region and their changes in response to global warming

Zhang, Guoqing; Yao, Tandong; Xie, Hongjie; Wang, Weicai; Yang, Wei

doi:10.1016/j.gloplacha.2015.05.013

Cited by 300 publications

(287 citation statements)

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“…However, these lakes are not larger than 0.1 km 2 nor debris-covered. This is strong evidence for the importance of debris-covered mother glaciers for rapid expansion of large glacial lakes, which is consistent with previous studies [1][2][3]28].…”

Section: Interaction and Integration Of Glof Scale Multiple Indicessupporting

confidence: 92%

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Evaluating the Scale and Potential of GLOF in the Bhutan Himalayas Using a Satellite-Based Integral Glacier–Glacial Lake Inventory

et al. 2017

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Abstract:A comprehensive glacier-glacial lake inventory was developed for the Bhutan Himalayas based on satellite observations between 1987-1990 and 2006-2011. In total, 733 lakes (covering 82.6 km 2 ) were delineated between 4000 and 6000 m a.s.l. and their relationships to associated glaciers were documented. Using this new inventory, the scale and potential for glacial lake outburst flooding (GLOF) based on multiple criteria was examined. This included a history of connectivity characteristics of glacial lakes to mother glaciers, potential flood volumes, and debris-cover of mother glaciers in addition to the conventional criteria of expansion rate and lake size. The majority of the lakes with high expansion rates (more than double in size) and large areas (>0.1 km 2 ) met the conditions of being continuously in contact with a mother debris-covered glacier for nearly 20 years. Based on these multiple criteria, two lakes were identified as having potential for large-scale GLOF. Potentially dangerous glacial lakes listed in the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) study were re-visited, and some overlaps with the glacier-glacial lake inventory were found.

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Section: Interaction and Integration Of Glof Scale Multiple Indicessupporting

confidence: 92%

“…Nearly 10,000 glacial lakes are located in the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region and on the Tibetan Plateau [1,2]. Previous studies have reported changes in the surface areas of these lakes in recent decades.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating the Scale and Potential of GLOF in the Bhutan Himalayas Using a Satellite-Based Integral Glacier–Glacial Lake Inventory

et al. 2017

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“…It has been named The Third Pole. It has an average altitude of 4000 m a.s.l and is covered by mountains, glaciers, high altitude plateaus, permafrost, and hundreds of lakes (Liu and Chen 2000;Liu et al 2009a;Huang et al 2011;Wan et al 2014;Zhang et al 2015).…”

Section: Case Study: the Tibetan Plateaumentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In general, the magnitude of precipitation changes is too low to explain water level increasing a few decimeters per year as noted by Zhang et al (2011a). The impact of climate change on water resources over the TP is therefore very complex: a mix not only of direct precipitation changes and evaporation increase under a warming climate, but also of glaciers, snow, and thickening of the active layer of the permafrost, which increase surface and underground inflow to the lakes (Ma et al 2010;Liu et al 2009a;Kang et al 2010;Huang et al 2011;Zhang et al 2011a;Li et al 2014;Song et al 2014c;Zhang et al 2015). The decrease in the frozen duration due to warming, which is very pronounced in winter time, also increases the potential contribution of permafrost to lake storage changes (Huang et al 2011;Li et al 2008;Liao et al 2013).…”

Section: Case Study: the Tibetan Plateaumentioning

confidence: 99%

Lake Volume Monitoring from Space

Crétaux¹,

et al. 2016

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Lakes are integrators of environmental change occurring at both the regional and global scale. They present a wide range of behavior on a variety of timescales (cyclic and secular) depending on their morphology and climate conditions. Lakes play a crucial role in retaining and stocking water, and because of the significant global environmental changes occurring at several anthropocentric levels, the necessity to monitor all morphodynamic characteristics [e.g., water level, surface (water contour) and volume] has increased substantially. Satellite altimetry and imagery are now widely used together to calculate lake and reservoir water storage changes worldwide. However, strategies and algorithms to calculate these characteristics are not straightforward, and specific approaches need to be developed. We present a review of some of these methodologies by using lakes over the Tibetan Plateau to illustrate some critical aspects and issues (technical and scientific) linked to the observation of climate change impact on surface waters from remote sensing data. Many authors have measured water variation using the limited remote sensing measurements available over short time periods, even though the time series are probably too short to directly link these results with climate change. Indeed, there are many processes and factors, like the influence of lake morphology, that are beyond observation and are still uncertain. The time response for lakes to reach a new state of equilibrium is a key aspect that is often neglected in current literature. Observations over a long period of time, including maintaining a constellation of comprehensive and complementary satellite missions with service continuity over decades, are therefore necessary especially when the ground gauge network is too limited. In addition, the design of future satellite missions with new instrumental concepts (e.g., SAR, SARin, Ka band altimetry, Ka interferometry) will also be suitable for complete monitoring of continental waters.

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“…Recent findings indicate that Himalaya is one of the worse affected regions by the climate warming (Fujita et al, 2001;Dyurgerov and Meier, 2005;Bolch et al, 2012), which has given rise to development of many glacial and highaltitude lakes (Kargel et al, 2005;Gardelle et al, 2011;Zhang et al, 2015). Recent expansion of glacial lakes in the Himalaya has mainly been studied in north Bhutan Komori, 2008) and in the Everest region (Yamada and Sharma, 1993;Sakai et al, 2000;Benn et al, 2001;Wessels et al, 2002).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution of Glacial and High-Altitude Lakes in the Sikkim, Eastern Himalaya Over the Past Four Decades (1975–2017)

Shukla

Garg

Srivastava

2018

Front. Environ. Sci.

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Global climate change is significantly triggering the dynamic evolution of high-mountain lakes which may pose a serious threat to downstream areas, warranting their systematic and regular monitoring. This study presents the first temporal inventory of glacial and high-altitude lakes in the Sikkim, Eastern Himalaya for four points in time i.e., 1975, 1991, 2000, and 2017 using Hexagon, TM, ETM+, and OLI images, respectively. First, a baseline data was generated for the year 2000 and then the multi-temporal lake changes were assessed. The annual mapping of SGLs was also performed for four consecutive years (2014)(2015)(2016)(2017) to analyze their nature and occurrence pattern. The results show an existence of 463 glacial and high-altitude lakes ( > 0.003 km 2 ) in 2000 which were grouped into four classes: supraglacial (SGL; 50) pro/peri glacial lake in contact with glacier (PGLC; 35), pro/peri glacial lake away from glacier (PGLA; 112) and other lakes (OL; 266). The mean size of lakes is 0.06 km 2 and about 87% lakes have area < 0.1 km 2 . The number of lakes increased (by 9%) from 425 in 1975 to 466 in 2017, accompanied by a rapid areal expansion from 25.17 ± 1.90 to 31.24 ± 2.36 km 2 (24%). The maximum expansion in number (106%) and area (138%) was observed in SGLs, followed by PGLCs (number: 34%; area: 90%). Contrarily no significant change was found in other lakes. The annual SGL mapping reveals that their number (area) increased from 81 (543,153 m 2 ) to 96 (840,973 m 2 ) between 2014 and 2017. Occurrence pattern of SGLs shows that maximum number of lakes ( > 80%) are persistent in nature, followed by drain-out (15-20%) and recurring type lakes (7-8%). The new-formed lakes (9-17%) were consistently noticed in all the years (2014)(2015)(2016)(2017). The results of this study underline that regional climate is accelerating the cryosphere thawing and if the current trend continues, further glacier melting will likely occur. Therefore, formation of new lakes and expansion of existing lakes is expected in the study area leading to increase in potential of glacial lake outburst floods. Thereby, persistent attention should be paid to the influences of climatic change in the region.

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An inventory of glacial lakes in the Third Pole region and their changes in response to global warming

Cited by 300 publications

References 58 publications

Evaluating the Scale and Potential of GLOF in the Bhutan Himalayas Using a Satellite-Based Integral Glacier–Glacial Lake Inventory

Evaluating the Scale and Potential of GLOF in the Bhutan Himalayas Using a Satellite-Based Integral Glacier–Glacial Lake Inventory

Lake Volume Monitoring from Space

Evolution of Glacial and High-Altitude Lakes in the Sikkim, Eastern Himalaya Over the Past Four Decades (1975–2017)

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