|
|
This handbook takes on the earlier attempts of RM&DD, and modifies it to suit the generic requirement of all ICIMOD RMCs
. ICIMOD and ACWADAM, following a consultative process with major partners came up with detailed steps, which were then vetted at a workshop held in Gangtok, Sikkim, India in November 2015. This protocol is useful and practical, because: - It incorporates both ‘hydrogeology’ and ‘socio-economic and governance’ issues to come up with a comprehensive understanding of springs and springsheds
- It combines aspects of research and knowledge generation (Steps 1 to 4) and implementation (steps 5 and 6). For those, who are interested only in knowledge generation can adopt the first four steps, but for implementation, all six steps are needed.
- It is a relatively easy to do, step by step approach that can be adopted by a diverse range of stakeholders – field implementers, grass root workers and NGOs and researchers.
This manual provides a step by step approach, which taken together with a 2 week long practical classroom and field based training, will equip field level officials to implement spring revival programmes in their respective areas. This manual provide conceptual clarity around issues of spring management and revival.
Read More
|
|
|
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
Read More
|
|
|
Changes in glacial lakes and the consequences of these changes, particularly on the development of water resources and management of glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) risk, has become one of the challenges in the sustainable development of high mountain areas in the context of global warming
. This paper presents the findings of a study on the distribution of, and area changes in, glacial lakes in the Koshi basin in the central Himalayas. Data on the number of glacial lakes and their area was generated for the years 1977, 1990, 2000, and 2010 using Landsat satellite images. According to the glacial lake inventory in 2010, there were a total of 2168 glacial lakes with a total area of 127.61 km2 and average size of 0.06 km2 in the Koshi basin. Of these, 47% were moraine dammed lakes, 34.8% bedrock dammed lakes and 17.7% ice dammed lakes. The number of glacial lakes increased consistently over the study period from 1160 in 1977 to 2168 in 2010, an overall growth rate of 86.9%. The area of glacial lakes also increased from 94.44 km2 in 1977 to 127.61 km2 in 2010, a growth rate of 35.1%. A large number of glacial lakes in the inventory are small in size (≤ 0.1 km2). End moraine dammed lakes with area greater than 0.1 km2 were selected to analyze the change characteristics of glacial lakes in the basin. The results show that, in 2010, there were 129 lakes greater than 0.1 km2 in area; these lakes had a total area of 42.92 km2 in 1997, increasing to 63.28 km2 in 2010. The distribution of lakes on the north side of the Himalayas (in China) was three times higher than on the south side of the Himalayas (in Nepal). Comparing the mean growth rate in area for the 33 year study period (1977-2010), the growth rate on the north side was found to be a little slower than that on the south side. A total of 42 glacial lakes with an area greater than 0.2 km2 are rapidly growing between 1977 and 2010 in the Koshi basin, which need to be paid more attention to monitoring in the future and to identify how critical they are in terms of GLOF
Read More
|
|
|
Like other mountainous areas, Nepal is highly vulnerable to glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs), and this vulnerability has increased due to climate change
. Risk reduction strategies must be based on a comprehensive risk assessment. A comprehensive methodological approach for GLOF risk assessment is described and illustrated in case studies of the potential GLOF risk posed in Nepal by four glacial lakes, one located in China. People, property and public infrastructure (including hydropower plants, roads and bridges) are vulnerable, and there is a need to integrate GLOF risk reduction strategies into national policies and programmes
Read More
|
|
|
|
email alert
or subscribe to the 
RSS feed.
