Estimating the area and volume change of glacier in Yamuna basin using optical remote sensing
Student name: Mr Himanshu Chinwan
Guide: Dr Shresth Tayal
Year of completion: 2016
Host Organisation: The Energy and Resource Institute (TERI), New Delhi
Abstract: Estimation of glacier of Himalayan region is important as due to changing climatic patterns the Glaciers of Himalayan region are showing a retreating trend. Glaciers are source of fresh water for agriculture, industries and domestic use. Therefore the mapping of glacier changes with time is very important. Thereby the study area was taken for Yamuna basin. In this study area, volume and slope and aspect relation on glacier area for the years 1989, 2000, 2010 and 2014 is calculated to see whether the glaciers of Yamuna basin are retreating or not. Remote sensing and GIS technique were used in the study. The Landsat and Aster data was downloaded of 30 m resolution. NDSI was calculated and glacier were digitized visually. For estimation of volume of the glacier of the Yamuna Basin Nye’s (1952) theory of flow mechanics of an infinitely wide glacier has been used. Volumes was calculated at two basal shear stress i.e. 100 kpa and 150 kpa. Average of both basal shear stress result was taken for better results. Relationship between Glacier cover area versus Aspect and Slope was calculate for the given study. Aster Dem was used to calculate slope and aspect.
The area and volume of glacier was calculated successfully and was found to be depicting a decreasing trend from 1989 to 2014. Over all glacier for the years 1989, 2000, 2010 and 2014 was found to be 183.28 km2, 174.38 km2, 137.11km2 and 107.74 km2. There has been a constant decline in volume of the glaciers of Yamuna basin since 1989, 2000, 2010 and 2014 i.e. 8.70 km3, 6.73 km3, 6.63 km3 and 5.006 km3.
Relationship between Glacier cover area versus Aspect and Slope it was found that maximum glacier are lie in the slope of 10-20º of slope. Relation between aspect area and glacier area show that glacier change in the present study is observed mostly in the North East. This depicts that glacier are shrinking in the North East direction. The overall conclusion was drawn that the glaciers of Yamuna basin is retreating.
Keywords: NDSI, Aster DEM, Glacier Volume, Glacier Cover Area
