Tawde, SA and Kulkarni, AV and Bala, G (2019) An assessment of climate change impacts on glacier mass balance and geometry in the chandra basin, western himalaya for the 21st century. In: Environmental Research Communications, 1 (4).
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Abstract
The Himalayan glaciers are a major source of Perennial River systems in South Asia and the retreat of these glaciers under climate change could directly affect millions of people who depend on them. In this study, we assess the glacier mass balance, area and volume changes at basin scale for the Chandra Basin in the western Himalaya due to projected climate change in the 21st century. The Chandra basin occupies ∼2440 km2 of area and hosts ∼200 glaciers and 23 small villages. The multi-model projections used in this study indicate a temperature increase of 2.2 °C–2.9 °C and 4.3 °C–6 °C for the RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 scenarios by the end of the century with a steady or decreasing trend in snowfall in the basin. In response to the projected climate, the basin is likely to retain only 50%–52% (RCP 4.5) and 40%–45% (RCP 8.5) of the areal extent of glaciers by the end of the century. Corresponding volumes of glacier water retained are much lower at 40%–43% and 29%–34%, but the volume loss could be as high as 97%for low altitude glaciers. Overall, our study highlights the likely severe impacts to water resources in the Himalaya if CO2 emissions follow the high-emission scenario of RCP8.5.
| Item Type: | Editorials/Short Communications |
|---|---|
| Publication: | Environmental Research Communications |
| Publisher: | Institute of Physics |
| Additional Information: | The copyright for this article belongs to the Authors. |
| Keywords: | climate change; future prospect; glacier dynamics; glacier mass balance; glacier retreat; snow; trend analysis, Himalayas |
| Department/Centre: | Division of Mechanical Sciences > Divecha Centre for Climate Change Division of Interdisciplinary Sciences > Interdisciplinary Centre for Energy Research Division of Mechanical Sciences > Centre for Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences |
| Date Deposited: | 25 Oct 2022 10:08 |
| Last Modified: | 25 Oct 2022 10:08 |
| URI: | https://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/77556 |
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