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Maharjan, S. B.; Mool, P. K.; Lizong, W.; Xiao, G.; Shrestha, F.; Shrestha, R. B.; Khanal, N. R.; Bajracharya, S. R.; Joshi, S.; Shai, S.; Baral, P.
This report provides comprehensive information about the glacial lakes of five major river basins of the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) — Amu Darya, Indus, Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Irrawaddy, including Mansarovar Interior Basin — representing the year 2005, which helps to fill the data gap of glacial lakes information in the region
. This is the first comprehensive knowledge upon the distribution of glacial lakes for the HKH providing baseline data for further investigation of glacial lakes, GLOF hazards and risk assessment, and mitigation measures. This inventory of glacial lakes was prepared with consistent, homogeneous, much narrower temporal range and single source data with a semi-automatic method. For the consistency of glacier and glacial lakes data, the same time satellite images were used to delineate both glaciers and glacial lakes. The glacier inventory data and report was published in 2011. The glacial lake boundaries were delineated using an automatic method on Landsat images from the year 2005±2 years. The automatic method to delineate the glacial lake boundaries by defining the threshold condition of band ratio images made the process of mapping and monitoring of glacial lakes faster. It is challenging to apply the method throughout the region as it is difficult to get good quality of images with the least amount of snow cover, cloud cover, and shadow portion due to inconsistent and analogous climatic conditions in the region. So some of the lakes were manually digitized by validating on high resolution images in Google Earth as well as comparing with previous inventory data wherever available. This report also provides the modified classification schemes of glacial lakes from previous reports to make it consistent throughout the region. This inventory includes all the lakes in front of and on or beside a glacier or in the lowland formed by paleo-glaciation
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This book highlights 25 highly commercial and high-value NTFPs, their traditional knowledge and use, trade, cultivation and value addition, and government policy on collection and trade
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The manual aims to provide a detailed and comprehensive methodology for mapping rock glaciers in Google Earth
. The method was developed to support an assessment of permafrost distribution in the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region and the examples are based on this study. The objectives are - to provide a step-by-step manual on how to map rock glaciers in Google Earth,
- to provide examples of the diversity of rock glaciers encountered, of permafrost related features, and of how to classify rock glaciers, and
- to provide a step-by-step guide on how to extract spatial attributes from the mapped rock glaciers.
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The extent and distribution of permafrost in the mountainous parts of the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region are largely unknown
. A long tradition of permafrost research, predominantly on rather gentle relief, exists only on the Tibetan Plateau. Two permafrost maps are available digitally that cover the HKH and provide estimates of permafrost extent, i.e., the areal proportion of permafrost: the manually delineated Circum-Arctic Map of Permafrost and Ground Ice Conditions (Brown et al., 1998) and the Global Permafrost Zonation Index, based on a computer model (Gruber, 2012). This article provides a first-order assessment of these permafrost maps in the HKH region based on the mapping of rock glaciers. Rock glaciers were used as a proxy, because they are visual indicators of permafrost, can occur near the lowermost regional occurrence of permafrost in mountains, and can be delineated based on high-resolution remote sensing imagery freely available on Google Earth. For the mapping, 4000 square samples (~ 30 km2) were randomly distributed over the HKH region. Every sample was investigated and rock glaciers were mapped by two independent researchers following precise mapping instructions. Samples with insufficient image quality were recorded but not mapped. We use the mapping of rock glaciers in Google Earth as first-order evidence for permafrost in mountain areas with severely limited ground truth. The minimum elevation of rock glaciers varies between 3500 and 5500 m a.s.l. within the region. The Circum-Arctic Map of Permafrost and Ground Ice Conditions does not reproduce mapped conditions in the HKH region adequately, whereas the Global Permafrost Zonation Index does so with more success. Based on this study, the Permafrost Zonation Index is inferred to be a reasonable first-order prediction of permafrost in the HKH. In the central part of the region a considerable deviation exists that needs further investigations.
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Baral, P.; Kayastha, R. B.; Immerzeel, W. W.; Pradhananga, N. S.; Bhattarai, B. C.; Shahi, S.; Galos, S.; Springer, C.; Joshi, S. P.; Mool, P. K.
Monitoring the glacier mass balance of summer-accumulation-type Himalayan glaciers is critical to not only assess the impact of climate change on the volume of such glaciers but also predict the downstream water availability and the global sea-level change in future
. To better understand the change in meteorological parameters related to glacier mass balance and runoff in a glacierized basin and to assess the highly heterogeneous glacier responses to climate change in the Nepal Himalaya and nearby ranges, the Cryosphere Monitoring Project (CMP) carries out meteorological observations in Langtang Valley and mass-balance measurements on Yala Glacier, a debris-free glacier in the same valley. A negative annual mass balance of –0.89 m w.e. and the rising equilibrium-line altitude of Yala Glacier indicate a continuation of a secular trend toward more negative mass balances. Lower temperature lapse rate during the monsoon, the effect of convective precipitation associated with mesoscale thermal circulation in the local precipitation and the occurrence of distinct diurnal cycles of temperature and precipitation at different stations in the valley are other conclusions of this comprehensive scientific study initiated by CMP which aims to yield multi-year glaciological, hydrological and meteorological observations in the glacierized Langtang River basin
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