A Dataset of Glacier and Glacial Lake Distribution in Key Areas of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor During 2013 – 2017
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A dataset of glacier and glacial lake distribution in key areas of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor during 2013 – 2017 Ren Yanrun1,2, Zhang Yaonan1*, Kang Jianfang1 ABSTRACT The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is characterized by complex landform and geology, unique hydrological and climate condi- ARTICLE DOI: tions, and rich mountain snow and glacier distributions, which altogether 10.11922/csdata.2019.0022.zh DATA DOI: provide sufficient material conditions for glacier disaster development. 10.11922/sciencedb.786 However, due to geographical factors, field investigation and on-site data SUBJECT CATEGORY: collection are difficult. Remote sensing technology thus provides an impor- Earth sciences tant means to obtain data on the change and development of glacier and RECEIVED: June 12, 2019 glacial lake in this region. We determine a definition and classification cri- RELEASED: June 20, 2019 terion applicable for the glacier and glacial lake in the study region based ACCEPTED: August 26, 2019 PUBLISHED: August 30, 2019 on the concept of glacial lake and the scope of construction for China-Pa- kistan Economic Corridor, and make the relevant researches in glacial lake catalogue and study on glacier disasters as appeal. The dataset of glacier and glacial lake distribution in key areas of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is built with an object-oriented classification approach based on the Landsat 8 OLI images for 2013–2017. The data have a spatial scope between 34° to 42°N latitude and 73° to 82°E longitude approximately, covering Shaksgam River Basin, Nubra Basin, Gaizi River Basin, and Hunza River Basin as typical watersheds in northern Pakistan. The object-oriented classification method can be used to improve the interpretation accuracy while ensuring the timeliness of interpretation as compared with tradi- tional methods. Long-term and regular monitoring of glaciers and glacial lakes in the areas can provide data support for further construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, and is significant as a support for sci- entific decision-making regarding regional water resource change and the risk assessment of glacial lake outburst. KEYWORDS China-Pakistan Economic Corridor; glacier; glacial lake; object-oriented 1. Scientific Big Data Center, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, P.R. China 2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100004, P.R. China * Email:[email protected] 14 www.csdata.org A dataset of glacier and glacial lake distribution in key areas of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor during 2013 – 2017 Dataset Profile A dataset of glacier and glacial lake distribution in key areas of the China-Pakistan Title Economic Corridor during 2013 – 2017 Data corresponding author Zhang Yaonan ([email protected]) Data authors Ren Yanrun, Zhang Yaonan , Kang Jianfang Time range From January 1, 2013 to December 31, 2017 Geographical scope 34°–42°N, 73°–82°E Spatial resolution 30 m Data volume 337 MB Data format SHP Data service system <http://www.sciencedb.cn/dataSet/handle/786> Special environment and function of observation and research stations shared service platform of the National Science and Technology Infrastructure Sources of funding (Y719H71006); Informatization Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences: Construction and application of technology cloud on studies of environmental evolution in the cold region (XXH13506). The dataset consists of 2 subsets in total. It comprises datasets of glacier and glacial Dataset composition lake distribution in glacial regions of the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor during 2013–2017. 1. Introduction In the context of global warming, the area of glaciers in China has generally accelerated retreat in recent decades. Comparing the data of twice glaciers cataloguing, we can see that the area of glaciers in China has decreased by about 17% in the past 30 years[1]. The regional hydrological processes and changes in glacial lakes are greatly affected by the glacial environment. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is steep in terrain, complex in geological structure, variable in hydrological characteristics, abundant in solid precipitation, with full development of modern glaciers, active in glaciers change, where the glacially obstructed lakes are widely distributed. The flood disaster caused by the glacial lake collapse is one of the typical types of disasters in the study region. The glacial lake is a lake formed by glaciers or a lake with glacial melt water as the main source of makeup[2]. The development and change process of glacial lakes are closely related with the changes in climatic environment, glacier mass balance, glacier temperature and hydraulic characteristics. Modern glaciers are the main source of water for melting snow and ice in the mountains and the floodwater due to glacial lakes collapse in this region. The increase of water from the upper reaches of the glacial lake caused by climate change, the ablation deformation of ice dams and ice landslides, ice falls, landslides and mudslides that enter the lakes could possibly cause the dam to break down (collapse) and form a glacial lake collapse flood. Floods caused by glacial lake outbursts and their secondary disasters are one of the most common disasters in alpine glaciers. Glacier obstructed lakes and hail obstructed lakes are the two types of icy lakes that are the most often broken (collapsed). Most of the roads of China-Pakistan Expressway are located in the valleys. The glaciers in the mountains and valleys on both sides of the roads are covered with snow for many years. Glacier activity is one of the main stimulating factors for the geological disasters in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. In view of the glacial lake disaster caused by glacial activity and its possible damage to the China-Pakistan Economic China Scientific Data Vol. 4, No. 3, 2019 15 China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Corridor, this paper uses the Landsat 8 OLI remote sensing image from the US Geological Survey data center and employs the object-oriented classification method based on the support of the GIS platform. And conducts the classification and extraction of glaciers and glacial lakes distribution in multiple typical basins in the scope of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor including the Hunza River Basin, the Nubra Basin, the Gaizi River Basin, and the Shaksgam River Basin. In view of the symbiotic relationship between glaciers and glacial lakes, sometimes the spatial positions of the two overlap, and the icy lake and the mountain shadows have similar spectral features. It is difficult to accurately extract the boundaries between glaciers and glacial lakes. Due to the complexity of its physical and chemical characteristics and the influence of its surrounding background, the extraction of alpine glacial lakes is mostly carried out by traditional field monitoring combined with manual interpretation, which requires a large amount of analysis and processing. Based on the object-oriented classification method, the multi-scale segmentation algorithm is used to segment high-resolution images. The snow cover index method and the normalized water body index method are used to classify and extract typical features, and the interference factors are eliminated to realize automatic extraction of information on glaciers and glacial lakes in the remote sensing images. Long-term and time-based monitoring of the spatial distribution and variation of glaciers and glacial lakes in the study region can provide data support for the further construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which is also significant for the scientific decisions on regional water resources change and glacial lake collapse risk assessment. The Cold and Arid Regions Engineering and Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences organized and participated in many scientific surveys of glaciers and glacial lakes, and participated in the compilation of a large number of glacier cataloging data, such as the second glacier cataloging work in China since 2006, the Chinese Himalayan in 2015. Remote sensing survey and cataloging of mountain ice lakes, and shared them in the cold area scientific data center. In the economic corridor of China and Pakistan, a large number of investigations and research work have been carried out on the glacial disasters in the Karakorum Mountains based on construction projects such as transportation and water conservancy. Most of China’s glacial lake research and cataloguing work is concentrated in the Himalayas in Tibet. Tibet is the region with the largest distribution of glacial lakes in China. In 1987, Chinese scientists teamed up with Nepal to investigate the glacial lake outburst floods in the region and catalogue the glacial lakes. Based on this, the scale and scope of the glacial lake outburst were predicted and the achievements were remarkable. The type of glacial lakes in this region is mainly hail obstructed lakes. The catastrophic flood caused by the glacial obstructed lake collapse is mainly in the northern slope of the Karakorum Mountains. The floods in this region have a significant impact on the water resources change and research of the Yarkant River, but the complete glacial lake data for this region has yet to be seen. The preparation of this glacial and glacial lake dataset has partly compensated for the vacancies in the glacial lake cataloguing. 2. Data collection and processing 2.1 Data Sources and Pre-processing Landsat 8 is the