Spatio-temporal analysis of snow cover change in Hunza Valley, Karakoram Region
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Abstract
Climate change alters the trend of glacier phenomenon that is urgent to quantify to analyze the loss on glacier and water resources. This study focuses on analyzing snow cover change and its impact on downstream region. Hunza Valley is selected as study region for this study. Changes in snow cover of glaciers were detected using the Normalized Difference Snow Index (NDSI) for the year 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020. Volume of downstream glacial lakes is also calculated using Surface Volume Tool. The results showed the irregularity in data by increasing and decreasing values of snow cover that indicated that Karakoram Glaciers are surging and retreating. As a consequence of glacier surging the amount of water reaching the glacial lake increases providing the basis for increase in lake volume, thus, causing the phenomena of Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOF). Three lakes were studied i.e., Batura Lake, Borit Lake and Passu Lake in this study. Overall, from 2016 – 2020, there is an increase in volume of Passu Lake. The changing volume of these glacial lakes can lead to hazards like GLOFs, leaving devastating impacts on social life in the region.
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