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Analysis of Climate and Melt-runoff in Dunagiri Glacier of Garhwal Himalaya (India)

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Abstract

The hydrology of high altitude glacierized basin in Himalaya is complex to understand due to high variability in climate and lack of hydro-meteorological data. In this study, analysis of hydrological, glacier ablation and meteorological records have been made for Dunagiri Glacier (~4,200 m) during the melt season (July - September), for the years 1985 and 1987–1989. In the daily cycle of mean diurnal discharge in summer months during 1985–1989, maximum discharge occurred at midnight, and minimum discharge occurred in the morning. Mean daytime and nighttime discharge volume was contributing approximately equal amounts. Such type of analysis will be the basis for designing/developing Run-off-the river type hydroelectric power projects which are heavily dependent on snow and glacier melt in Himalaya. Time series analysis of available hydro-meteorological records have been used to understand governing hydrological processes within the basin and to develop regression model for future development in runoff forecasting using climate data.

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Acknowledgments

The authors express their sincere thanks to Geological Survey of India for use of published material and records available on their portal. Authors are very thankful to associates for their critical review and constructive suggestions to improve the quality of manuscript. Thanks are also due to Director, WIHG, Dehra Dun for providing necessary facilities. Authors also extend their gratitude to Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India, for granting Fast Track Young Scientist Project (Amit Kumar, SR/FTP/ES - 138/2012) for further investigations at Dunagiri Glacier.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Glaciology, Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, 33, GMS Road, Dehra Dun, 248001, Uttarakhand, India

    Deepak Srivastava, Amit Kumar & Akshaya Verma

  2. Geological Survey of India, Lucknow, A-Block, 9th Floor, Vasundhra, Sector-E, Aliganj, Lucknow, 226024, U.P, India

    Siddharth Swaroop

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  1. Deepak Srivastava
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  4. Siddharth Swaroop
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Correspondence to Amit Kumar.

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Srivastava, D., Kumar, A., Verma, A. et al. Analysis of Climate and Melt-runoff in Dunagiri Glacier of Garhwal Himalaya (India). Water Resour Manage 28, 3035–3055 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-014-0653-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-014-0653-8

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