Abstract
Karakoram mountains range in north-western part of Himalayas is about 500 km in length and hosts some of the world’s highest peaks and longest glaciers. It is characterized by steep slopes and polar climate. Snowfall and avalanches are observed almost throughout the year. Many lives have been lost in the past in these mountains due to avalanches. This study focuses on avalanche hazard mitigation work undertaken in eastern part of Karakoram mountains, a complex of glaciers including Siachen and other connected glaciers on the eastern side of Saltoro Ridge. From the forecasting point of view, the snowpack on the slopes of Karakoram mountains almost always has unstable layers and hence continual avalanche threat exists. The structural mitigation measures are infeasible due to steep, unstable and glaciated terrain. The method of slope stabilization by preventive triggering of small avalanches holds promise but necessary infrastructure is difficult to install and maintain. Consequently, the effective avalanche hazard mitigation in the area is a challenging task. The paper describes the general terrain, climatological and avalanche characteristics of the area. Further, it elaborates the infrastructure set up, various tools and products developed to assist the avalanche practitioners in organizing safe camping and movements in the area particularly the snow-meteorological observatory network, weather modelling products, avalanche forecasting models, terrain visualization tools, hazard mapping and risk analysis, and experiences of preventive triggering of avalanches.
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Notes
IST: Indian Standard Time (UTC + 05:30).
The Cartosat satellites are a series of optical earth observation satellites built and operated by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) under the Indian Remote Sensing Program.
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Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to Internal Paper Review Committee and Director SASE for review and approval to publish this paper. The contribution of various SASE personnel in ground surveys, setting up observatories/AWS and data observation over the years is sincerely acknowledged. Indian Army logistically supported the field activities. Maj Gen SS Sharma (Retd), former Director SASE, extensively promoted preventive avalanche triggering in Indian Himalaya. We thank SASE data management team for providing necessary data used in the study. Jagmohan Bhardwaj substantially assisted in literature survey. SNOWPACK and RAMMS models were implemented with the support of WSL/SLF, Davos (Switzerland). We gratefully acknowledge the critical comments and suggestions offered by two anonymous reviewers in shaping this manuscript. We specially thank Editor-in-chief James Goff and editorial staff for their support during the publication process through the pandemic times.
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Singh, A., Juyal, V., Kumar, B. et al. Avalanche hazard mitigation in east Karakoram mountains. Nat Hazards 105, 643–665 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-020-04329-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-020-04329-6