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Assessment of glacier status and its controlling parameters from 1990 to 2018 of Hunza Basin, Western Karakorum

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Abstract

Ice masses and snow of Hunza River Basin (HRB) are an important primary source of fresh water and lifeline for downstream inhabitants. Changing climatic conditions seriously put an impact on these available ice and snow masses. These glaciers may affect downstream population by glacial lake outburst floods (GLOF) and surge events due to climatic variation. So, monitoring of these glaciers and available ice masses is important. This research delivers an approach for dynamics of major glaciers of the Hunza River Basin. We delineated 27 major glaciers of HRB and examined their status by using Landsat (OLI, ETM+, ETM, TM), digital elevation model (DEM) over the period of 1990–2018. In 1990, the total area covered by these glaciers is about 2589.75 ± 86 km2 and about 2565.12 ± 68km2 in 2018. Our results revealed that from 2009 to 2015, glacier coverage of HRB advanced with a mean annual advance rate of 2.22 ± 0.1 km2 a-1. Conversely, from 1994 to 1999, the strongest reduction in glacier area with a mean rate of − 3.126 ± 0.3 km2 a-1 is recorded. The glaciers of HRB are relatively stable compared to Hindukush, Himalayan, and Tibetan Plateau region of the world. The steep slope glacier’s retreat rate is more than that of gentle slope glaciers, and the glaciers below an elevation of 5000 m above sea level change significantly. Based on climate data from 1995 to 2018, HRB shows a decreasing trend in temperature and increasing precipitation. The glacier area’s overall retreat is due to an increase in summer temperature while the glacier advancement is induced possibly by winter and autumn precipitation.

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Data availability

The datasets used or analyzed during current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request, and all data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article.

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Acknowledgements

We are thankful to our three anonymous reviewers and the scientific editor for providing insightful comments on the research, which improved the quality of our research. We express our sincere gratitude to Department of Earth Sciences faculty and supporting staff for their continuous technical support and lab facility during the study period. We are thankful to the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) Pakistan for collecting and providing the meteorological data. We acknowledge Mr. Nasir Abbas for his help during field work and United States Geological Survey (USGS) and Alaska Satellite Facility (ASF) for providing the satellite imagery and digital elevation model.

Funding

This research has been supported by the recurring research grant of Karakoram International University (KIU), Gilgit, 15100 Pakistan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth Sciences, Karakoram International University, Gilgit, 15100, Pakistan

    Sajid Ali, Garee Khan, Wajid Hassan, Javed Akhter Qureshi & Iram Bano

  2. Environmental Change and Multi-Sphere Interaction (ECMI) TeamState Key Laboratory of Tibetan Environment Changes and Land Surface Processes, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research CAS, Beijing, 100101, China

    Sajid Ali

  3. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Sajid Ali & Wajid Hassan

  4. Key Laboratory of Mountain Hazards and Earth Surface Process, Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment CAS, Chengdu, China

    Wajid Hassan

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Contributions

All authors equally contributed from introduction to conclusion under the supervision of our principal investigator (PI) and this task was completed with the collaboration of all the authors. Garee Khan developed the main concept of research and supervised the study. Sajid Ali and Wajid Hassan involved in writing the manuscript and conducted the study. Javed Akhter Qureshi assisted in establishing graphs and maps and manuscript writing, collected field data, and helped in modification and editing. Iram Bano did the provision of relevant literature and did review before submission and proofreading of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Garee Khan.

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Ali, S., Khan, G., Hassan, W. et al. Assessment of glacier status and its controlling parameters from 1990 to 2018 of Hunza Basin, Western Karakorum. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 63178–63190 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-15154-0

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