ARCH IV 50635 Name: Ghazanfar Ali Title of Thesis Some Hydrologic Aspects of Snowmelt Runoff Under Summer I Cond1t1ops. in the Barpu Glacier Basin, Central Karakoram, Himalaya, Northern Pakistan Degree Year Granted 1989 Partial Copyright License IN THE INTERESTS OF FACILITATING RESEARCH by others at this institution and else­ where, and in consideration of my being accepted for enrolment as a graduate student at this institution, I hereby grant a license to WILFRID LAURIER UNIVERSITY to make copies of any original thesis or dissertation or substantial parts thereof, the copyright in which may vest in me, which I may submit to this institution in the future, provided that this license is subJect to the following conditions 1. Only single copies shall be made or authorized to be made at any one time, and only in response to a written request from a library user at this institution or from another library on behalf of one of its users. 2. This license shall continue for the full term of the copyright, or for so long as may be legally permitted. 3. The Universal Copyright Notice shall appear on all copies made under the authority of this license. 4 It shall also be permissible for this institution to submit the aforemen­ tioned thesis or dissertation to the National Library of Canada for micro­ filming, and to make available microfilm copies as may be requested from time to time by a library user at this institution or by another library on behalf of one of its users, provided that copies of such microfilms may be made only by the National Library bf Canada. 5. This license does not permit the sale of authorized copies at a profit, but does permit the collection by the institution or institutions con­ cerned of charges covering actual costs. 6. All copies made under the authority of this license shall bear a state­ ment to the effect that the copy in question "is being made available in this form by authority of the copyright owner solely for the purpose of private study and research and may not be copied or reproduced except as permitted by the copyright laws without written authority from the copyright owner 11 J -- (date) Some Hydrologic Aspects of Snowmelt Runoff Under Summer Conditions, in the Barpu Glacier Basin, Central Karakoram, Himalaya, Northern Pakistan By Ghazanfar Ah BSc. LLB., Umversity of the Pun.)Clb Lahore, Pakistan, 1980 THESIS Submitted to the Department of Geography m partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Master of Arts degree Wilfnd Launer Umversity 1989 © Ghazanfar Ah 1989 A-lllt'f\V <;;~1. c.t-iCs'-<ci -2.>) I Abstract I I Snow and ice in lngh mountains represent an important water resource in many l parts of the world, especially ,the dry continental intenor of Central Asta. In the Northern Areas of Paktstan, mountain ranges are the pnmary sources of annually renewed water supphes They/ give nse to nvers wlnch are the only s1gruf1cant, sustainable source of fresh water The Indus basin IS drained by the nver Indus and its ma.JOr tnbutanes, the Kabul, Jhelum, Chanab, Ravi and SutleJ Snowmelt contnbutes about 70 percent to Ithe annual flow of these nvers, but ts not timed to meet the requirements for crop production, hydroelectnc power generat10n, and other multi-purpose objectives Tuts s1tuat1on has led to the development of an 1rngat1on economy that requues effective 1management of the water resources in these drainage basins A basic understanding of snow d1Stnbut1on and its contnbut1on to streamflow ts needed for effective pred1ct1on of flow events Snowfields between elevation of 2,500 m and 5,500 m constitute a small percentage of the area contnbuting to runoff in the Central Karakoram, Northern Pak.tstan However, they are considered to have a higher water content, and to produce runoff for longer penods than snowpacks at lower elevations The melt regime of a basin may be better understood by exaDlllllllg the snowpack recession and runoff hydrograph Identifying the time of dally peak flow, snow cover/runoff relation and its vanauon through the season may prove helpful to flow modellmg "Tuts study involved taking hydrological and meteorological observations in two small snow-fed basins having different aspects in the basin of Barpu Glacier in the Central Karakoram range of the lhmalaya in Paktstan The observational network was designed to cover a range of elevations w1tlun the expenmental basins. Tuts type of network ts essential to account for the effects of topography and microclrmate on snow hydrology Patterns of snowmelt runoff examined in two contrasting envtronments w1tlun the Barpu Glacier Basin suggest that topography influences the rate of spnng snowmelt in several ways Aspect and degree of slope modify the winter and spnng snowpack by causing unequal rates of ablation Rehef creates an unequal dtstnbut1on of snow wlnch in tum causes areal vanat1on in the volume of spnng melt Normal hnear and curvllmear multiple regression analysts ts an appropnate method for studying of hydrologic relat10nslups Snow cover area and subsequent snowmelt runoff can be correlated to estimate streamflow For a particular catchment, the relat1onslnp between area of snow-cover and snowmelt runoff appears to depend on morphometncal factors such as elevation, aspect, slope, and drainage density However, for each basin a different empmcal relation eXISts between snow cover and snow-melt runoff The loganthmtc relationslnps between 11 snow-cover and snowmelt runoff indicates a substantial increase in snowdepth with increasing elevation The results also suggest that mean temperature 1S the best smgle indicator of runoff vanation Meteorological observations over a range of elevations provide valuable information concerning the altitudmal gradient The concluding chapter reviews some of the practical and techmcal implications of the work for hydrological investigations in the Upper Indus Basin It suggests what can (and cannot) be learned from thlS type of study in relation to macroscale water resource assessment and forecasting Ill Dedication To my Mother who prays every moment without knowing exactly what I am doing but believes that it 15 best for my present and for my future lV Acknowledgements Dunng a pro,JeCt such as th.J.s Master's ThesIS, where one has to work m remote areas, it can not be possible for one person to accomphsh the work without the help of others Throughout the field work and wntmg many others have devoted thell' trme and given assIStance With th.J.s m mmd, I must acknowledge the contnbution of these people to th.J.s thesIS research. Imtial.ly, I would hk.e to thank my theslS committee, Dr Ken Hewitt, Dr Gordon Young, Dr Mike Enghsh, as well the out side reader Dr S Bulman-Flem.mg, and chairman of my defence comrmttee Dr J Peters Thanks also to Dr Jrm Gardner for valuable dISCUSSlons and advice Special thanks to my adv1S0r Dr Ken Hewitt, and Dr Gorden Young whose patience and guidance have been a constant source of encouragement throughout the evolution of the thesIS I would also hk.e to express my appreciation to several mdividuals from the Department of Geography at Wtlfnd Launer Uruversity who helped throughout, specifically Dr Alfred Hecht, Dr Barry Boots Dr Pavlas Kanaroglou, Dr Jerry Hall, Pam Schauss, Susan Henry, Jo-Anne Horton, Connie Storrer, Helen Bmgeman, and Mike Stone Thell' assIStance and forebearance IS highly appreciated and will be a good memory for years Special thanks m th.J.s regard to Pam Schauss, not only for her ma.JOr contnbutions to the cartographic work but also for her unforgettable patience and generous support Withm the Uruversity, but ,_outside the Geography Department, I am very much mdebted to the entire staff of Computmg Services - m particular to Stefame Mackmnon, Ellie Muir, Mark Ritclue, David Brown and Russel Robmson for their help and smtles which made the typmg of th.J.s theslS bearable Thanks also to Bev Freeborn from Graduate Studies Office for her help m admimstrative matters. Many thanks to expedition members which mcluded Mohammad Anwar (WAPDA), Pemberton Marty (WLU), Abbas, Mohammad Ah and Shafi Ahmad (from Nagar village Northern PaklStan) Special thanks to Marty m th.J.s regard for h.J.s moral support and compamonship both at WLU and m the field Th1S research IS a part of the Snow and Ice Hydrology Pro,JeCt which IS funded .JOmtly by the Water and Power Development Authonty of PaklStan (WAPDA), the International Development Research Center (IDRC) Ottawa, and Wtlfnd Launer Uruversity, Waterloo, Canada Thanks to these agencies for thell' fmancial support I offer my expression of gratitude to those whose names do not come readily to mmd as I wnte th.J.s If through carelessness I have forgotten any of those who have helped me, it IS my loss, and so I offer thanks to you now Fmally, contmumg a v tradition es&1ntial m wntmg acknowledgements, I clarm full responsibility for any errors of presentation or mterpretation will.ch clearer heads may fmd here, tins effort was largely my own, and its faults are exclusively so Gh8.7.allfar Ah Waterloo Apnl 1989 VI Table of Contents Acknowledgements Abstract i i List of Tables Vll i List of Figures xi 1 INTRODUCTION 1 1 BACKGROUND 1 1 2 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES 8 1 3 LITRERATURE REVIEW 10 1 3 1 Variation in Precipitation 10 1 3 2 Ablation in Karakoram 13 1 3 3 Snow cover Area in Relation to Streamflow 17 2. CLIMATE AND GEOGRAPHY 2 1 OVERVIEW 20 2 2 GEOGRAPHY OF THE KARAKORAM 24 2 2 1 Regional Setting 24 2 2 2 Glacier of the Karakoram 26 2 3 BROAD CLIMATIC CONTROLS 26 2 4 ROLE OF MONSOONS IN THE WESTERN HIMALAYAS 29 2 5 LOCAL CLIMATE The effect of altitude and topography 30 2 5 1 Radiation 34 2 5 2 Temperature 34 2 5 3 Precipitation 37 2 5 4 Wind 38 2 6 HYDROLOGY 39 2 7 CONCLUSION 41 3.