Spatio-Temporal Heterogeneity in Glaciers Response Across Western Himalaya

Abstract

The Himalayan cryosphere hosts the largest concentration of glaciers, outside the polar regions, thereby provides extensive resource and opportunity for irrigation, hydro-power generation, and eco-tourism to the people of Central and Southeast Asia. Like any other mountain region, Himalayan glaciers are responding to climate change in terms of length, area, volume, equilibrium line altitude, flow velocity and elevation change. However, the rate of change of these glaciers remains controversial which causes gaps in our understanding of current state of Himalayan glaciers. Through this chapter, we provide a comprehensive picture of glaciers in the Western Himalaya (WH) on the basis of published scientific data and to bridge in some of these gaps. Here, a multi-parametric approach is adopted in order to provide a coherent picture of glacier health in WH. Further, a detailed analysis is carried out at basin scale in order to demonstrate the spatial heterogeneity among glaciers across WH. The chapter also highlights factors responsible for spatial heterogeneneity of glaciers across WH. Additionally, increasing risk of Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) to the downstream region is discussed in brief. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.