University of Montana ScholarWorks at University of Montana Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers Graduate School 2009 Glacier Monitoring in Ladakh and Zanskar, northwestern India Martin Edward Byrne The University of Montana Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Byrne, Martin Edward, "Glacier Monitoring in Ladakh and Zanskar, northwestern India" (2009). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 493. https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/493 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at ScholarWorks at University of Montana. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at University of Montana. For more information, please contact [email protected]. GLACIER MONITORING IN LADAKH AND ZANSKAR, NORTHWESTERN INDIA By MARTIN EDWARD BYRNE Bachelor of Arts, Eastern Washington University, Cheney, Washington, 2006 Thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Geography, GIS and Cartography The University of Montana Missoula, MT June 2009 Approved by: Perry Brown, Associate Provost for Graduate Education Graduate School Ulrich Kamp, Chair Department of Geography Anna Klene Department of Geography Joel Harper Department of Geosciences Tobias Bolch Institute of Cartography, Dresden University of Technology, Germany Byrne, Martin, M.A, May 2009 Geography GLACIER MONITORING IN LADAKH AND ZANSKAR, NORTHWESTERN INDIA Chairman: Ulrich Kamp Abstract Glaciers in the Himalaya are often heavily covered with supraglacial debris, making them difficult to study with remotely-sensed imagery alone. Various methods such as band ratios can be used effectively to map clean-ice glaciers; however, a thicker layer of debris often makes it impossible to distinguish between supraglacial debris and the surrounding terrain. Previously, a morphometric approach employing an ASTER-derived digital elevation model (DEM) has been used to map glaciers in the Khumbu Himal and the Tien Shan. This project aims first to test the ability of the morphometric procedure to map small glaciers; second, to use the morphometric approach to map glaciers in Ladakh; and third, to use Landsat and ASTER data and GPS and field measurements to monitor glacier change in Ladakh over the past four decades. Field work was carried out in the summers of 2007 and 2008. For clean ice, a ratio of shortwave infrared (SWIR, 1.6-1.7 µm) and near infrared (NIR, 0.76-0.86 µm) bands from the ASTER dataset was used to distinguish snow and ice. For debris-covered glaciers, morphometric features such as slope, derived from a DEM, were combined with thermal imagery and supervised classifiers to map glacial margins. The method is promising for large glaciers, although problems occurred in the distal and lateral parts and in the forefield of the glaciers. The morphometric approach was inadequate for mapping small glaciers, due to a paucity of unique topographic features on the glaciers which can be used to distinguish them from the surrounding terrain. A multi-temporal analysis of three glaciers in Ladakh found that two of them have receded—one since at least the mid-1970s, the other since at least 2000—while a third glacier, Parkachik Glacier, seemed to have retreated in the 1980s, only to advance in the 1990s and early 2000s. However, from 2004-2008 it showed only negligible change making its current status difficult to determine without further monitoring. The glacier outlines derived during this project will be added to the Global Land Ice Measurements from Space (GLIMS) database. In testing the limits of the morphometric approach, the thesis has provided a valuable contribution to the present literature and knowledge-base regarding the mapping of debris-covered glaciers. ii Acknowledgements First and foremost, I wish to thank my advisor, Dr. Ulrich Kamp, who was the catalyst for this project. Indeed, without his guidance and assistance, the idea of glacier monitoring in India would have never come to my mind, and I certainly would not have finished this thesis without him. Thus, I owe him the greatest debt of gratitude, for he pushed me and accorded me an opportunity very few others have experienced. For that I will be forever grateful. A special recognition is owed to Dr. Tobias Bolch. Through innumerable back- and-forth emails, he patiently explained to me the process of glacier mapping. Without Tobias’ generous assistance, assuredly this thesis would have been impossible. There is not a doubt in my mind that his brilliance will one day see him to the upper echelons of the scientific community. It has been an honor to work with him. My committee members, Dr. Anna Klene and Dr. Joel Harper, have been exceedingly helpful. Not once in the course of this project did I ever feel these two professors would not drop whatever they were doing to help me. Even at the busiest of times, I felt welcomed in their respective offices, and confident they would have the answer to my question. These two are unparalleled as professors and as scholars alike, and it is my great fortune to have had them on my committee. Skarma Ishey, though he will never read this, was an integral part of field work in Ladakh. He selflessly gave us his time in Ladakh, hiking to the glaciers with us, camping in the rain, and teaching us to make a fire without wood when my stove broke. I have no doubt he had more important things to do—I saw the crops in the field—and a more comfortable place to sleep than in my tent in the mountains, but he unflinchingly joined us. His constant smile, kindness, and curiosity helped us make it through the rain, ice, dzo attacks, and everything else that came our way, expectedly or unexpectedly, in the field. He will not be forgotten. I also wish to extend my gratitude to Jeffrey Olsenholler of University of Nebraska-Omaha, for his help with data processing and DEM creation; and to the GLIMS project, for providing ASTER imagery free of charge for this project. Finally, field work for this project was made possible through the generosity of the College of Arts and Sciences and the Office of International Programs of the University of Montana. Without the funding provided by these two offices, my trip to India would have remained a pipe dream, and I would have been confined to studying Ladakh’s glaciers solely through books and the virtual world. Instead, I was offered an opportunity unlike any I am likely to ever have again. Thank you. iii Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................ iii Table of Contents ........................................................................................................... iv Table of Figures and Tables ........................................................................................... vi Figures ....................................................................................................................... vi Tables ....................................................................................................................... viii 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1 2. Background ................................................................................................................... 6 2.2 Glacier Studies in Ladakh ....................................................................................... 11 2.3 Glacier Mapping ..................................................................................................... 16 2.4 The GLIMS Project................................................................................................. 26 3. Study Area ................................................................................................................... 28 3.1 Ladakh..................................................................................................................... 28 3.2 Himalaya ................................................................................................................. 29 3.3 Tectonic Evolution of the Himalaya ....................................................................... 31 3.4 Geology ................................................................................................................... 34 3.5 Geomorphology ...................................................................................................... 40 3.6 Rivers ...................................................................................................................... 40 3.7 Climate .................................................................................................................... 43 3.8 Glaciers and glaciation ............................................................................................ 45 3.9 Vegetation ............................................................................................................... 49 3.11 Ladakhi People...................................................................................................... 50 4. Methods .......................................................................................................................