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Abstract
Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) in a deglaciating environment, representing significant threat to downstream people and infrastructure, increasing the necessity of prioritization and assessment of potentially critical glacial lakes (PCGLs). In this current study, a comprehensive updated inventory of glacial lakes for the Indus River basin has been prepared, resulting in 5335 lakes (≥ 0.0025 ± 0.0006 km2), covering a total area of 173.95 ± 10.13 km2. Parameters have been derived using satellite data for two purposes, ‘preliminary screening’ and ‘quantitative assessment’. Using 4 parameters, 367 lakes were preliminary screened-in for further analysis, and 6 quantitative parameters were analysed using Equal Weights (EW) and Unequal Weights methods (UEW). These both methods were applied for two scenarios, scenario-1 which considers 73 lakes (≥ 0.1 km2), and scenario-2 which considers all 367 preliminary screened-in lakes (≥ 0.02 km2). UEW outperformed EW analysis and identified 20 and 48 high potential lakes for scenario-1 and scenario-2 respectively, where all 20 lakes of scenario-1 have been found in common with those of scenario-2, with a difference in their rank. But only 10 of them have storage volume ≥ 10 MCM and has been flagged as high-risk lakes, of which 6 are end-moraine dammed lakes and have been considered as PCGLs, due to their high bursting potential and self-destructive nature. Rest 4 high risk lakes along with remaining 38 lakes with volume < 10 MCM, are considered as critical lakes in case of dynamic mode of failure, caused due to mass movement of avalanche, landslide, heavy precipitation, etc.
152 historic GLOF events has been reported from 28 sites that occurred in Indus River basin
Updated glacial lake inventory of Indus River basin using high resolution IRS satellite data
Total of 5335 GL’s were mapped, and 48 of them are identified as high potential lakes
UEW outperformed EW method to evaluate weighted integrated index for potentiality assessment
6 lakes are found to be as potentially critical glacial lakes (PCGLs) in the Indus River basin
Highlights
Graphical Abstract
Acknowledgements
This study is being supported by and implemented at the National Remote Sensing Centre, ISRO, Dept. of Space, Govt. of India, Hyderabad, under the World Bank funded “National Hydrology Project” (NHP), which is being taken up by the Dept. of Water Resources, RD&GR, Ministry of Jal Shakti, Govt. of India. The authors acknowledge abundant support and encouragement received from the Director, NRSC-ISRO, to the Deputy Director (RSAA) NRSC-ISRO, and the Project Director (NHP), for their profound guidance and direction. The authors thank the Editor-in-Chief and the anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments.
Contributions
A.G., R.M. and B.S.R designed the study. A.G., S., R.M., and N.G., prepared the geodatabase with inputs from B.S.R., and performed the subsequent data analysis in ArcGIS. P.V.R. and V.V.R. provided expert opinion on mapping and identification of glacial lake and PCGLs respectively. B.S.R. performed the error analysis on the lake digitizing, while A.G. performed the uncertainty estimation. A.G. and N.G. provided manual revision for types of glacial lake and assessment using quantitative methods for both scenarios along with risk level estimation, in discussion with R.M. and S. Paper write-up has been done by A.G. and R.M. with meticulous reading and inputs from N.G., S., and B.S.R. All authors have made a significant contribution to this study, especially P.V.R. and V.V.R., contributed substantially to the discussion.
Disclosure statement
The authors declare no competing and potential conflict of interests.
Correction Statement
This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.
