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Differential Loss of Glacier Stored Water in the Indus River Basin


Affiliations
1 Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, Goa Campus, Goa 403 726, India
2 DST Centre for Excellence in Climate Change, Divecha Centre for Climate Change, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru 560 012, India
3 Space Applications Centre, Indian Space Research Organisation, Ahmedabad 380 015, India
 

In this study, we assessed the glacier stored water (1,620 ± 340 Gt) using a combination of ice dynamics modelling and volume–area scaling method and estimated glacier mass loss (6.4%) from 2001 to 2013 for the Indus River basin. Results indicate that the impact of climate change is not uniform across the basin, especially the stark difference between the Western Himalayan region where the glaciers are losing mass at the rate of –0.56 ± 0.27 m.w.e. per annum and the Upper Indus where the loss is at –0.18 ± 0.11 m.w.e. per annum.

Keywords

Climate Change, Glacier Stored Water, Improved Accumulation Area Ratio, Mass Balance, River Basin.
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  • Differential Loss of Glacier Stored Water in the Indus River Basin

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Authors

Ashutosh Kulkarni
Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, Goa Campus, Goa 403 726, India
Veena Prasad
DST Centre for Excellence in Climate Change, Divecha Centre for Climate Change, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru 560 012, India
A. R. Arya
DST Centre for Excellence in Climate Change, Divecha Centre for Climate Change, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru 560 012, India
Rajiv K. Chaturvedi
Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, Goa Campus, Goa 403 726, India
Sushil K. Singh
Space Applications Centre, Indian Space Research Organisation, Ahmedabad 380 015, India
Sandip Oza
Space Applications Centre, Indian Space Research Organisation, Ahmedabad 380 015, India

Abstract


In this study, we assessed the glacier stored water (1,620 ± 340 Gt) using a combination of ice dynamics modelling and volume–area scaling method and estimated glacier mass loss (6.4%) from 2001 to 2013 for the Indus River basin. Results indicate that the impact of climate change is not uniform across the basin, especially the stark difference between the Western Himalayan region where the glaciers are losing mass at the rate of –0.56 ± 0.27 m.w.e. per annum and the Upper Indus where the loss is at –0.18 ± 0.11 m.w.e. per annum.

Keywords


Climate Change, Glacier Stored Water, Improved Accumulation Area Ratio, Mass Balance, River Basin.

References





DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv124%2Fi4%2F478-484