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Glacier changes and related glacial lake expansion in the Bhutan Himalaya, 1990–2010

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Abstract

This paper discusses the recent retreat of glaciers and the changes in supraglacial lakes in the Bhutan Himalaya during the last two decades. We calculated the changes in clean and debris-covered glaciers and the formation, disappearance, and expansion of glacial lakes during the beginning of 1990s, 2000s, and 2010 using Landsat TM and ETM+ images. For this purpose, eight river sub-basins namely Wang Chu, Chamkar Chu, Dangme Chu, Kuri Chu, Mangde Chu, Mo Chu, Pho Chu and Northern Basin were considered. A retreating trend was found in the case of clean glaciers. Debris-covered glaciers in this region were found to have undergone an increase of about 29 %, and this increase was partially contributed by those expanded upstream. This increase in the debris-covered area is higher on the southern side of the Bhutan Himalaya. It is found that a number of moraine-dammed glacial lakes were formed during this period and can be potentially dangerous depending on the size, distance from the glacier and altitude. Most of the glacial lake formation and expansion occurred on the southern side of the Bhutan Himalaya.

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Acknowledgments

First author acknowledges Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul (FAPERGS), Brazil for the PhD research scholarship. We are indebted to National Institute of Science and Technology (INCT—Cryosphere), Brazil, for providing funding for the presentation of this work. We are grateful to the United States Geological Survey (USGS) for providing orthorectified Landsat images and ASTER GDEM data for free of cost. We are also indebted to an anonymous reviewer for the very constructive comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro Polar e Climático, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Campus do Vale, Av. Bento Gonçalves 9500, Porto Alegre, CEP: 91501-970, Brazil

    Bijeesh Kozhikkodan Veettil, André Medeiros de Andrade, Ulisses Franz Bremer, Jefferson Cardia Simões & Enoil de Souza Junior

  2. Centro Estadual de Pesquisas em Sensoriamento Remoto e Meteorologia (CEPSRM), Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Campus do Vale, Av. Bento Gonçalves 9500, Porto Alegre, CEP: 91501-970, Brazil

    Bijeesh Kozhikkodan Veettil, André Medeiros de Andrade & Ulisses Franz Bremer

  3. Housing and Urban Development Company (CDHU), Rua Boa Vista 170, São Paulo, CEP: 01014-930, Brazil

    Nilceia Bianchini

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  1. Bijeesh Kozhikkodan Veettil
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  2. Nilceia Bianchini
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  3. André Medeiros de Andrade
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  4. Ulisses Franz Bremer
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Correspondence to Bijeesh Kozhikkodan Veettil.

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Editor: Juan Ignacio Lopez Moreno.

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Veettil, B.K., Bianchini, N., de Andrade, A.M. et al. Glacier changes and related glacial lake expansion in the Bhutan Himalaya, 1990–2010. Reg Environ Change 16, 1267–1278 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-015-0853-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-015-0853-7

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