Abstract
In Western Himalaya, an average 49 person die every year due to snow avalanche activities and this death rate is very high as compared to other Asian countries. A snow avalanche accident was observed on 5 January 2018 on Chowkibal–Tangdhar (CT) road axis at avalanche site number CT-8 located near Chowkibal village in Kupwara district, union territory Jammu and Kashmir, India. In the present paper, we discuss snow avalanche simulation, the climatic condition, avalanche debris height and length, and suggested solutions to handle avalanche situations. Rapid Mass MovementS numerical model in combination with digital elevation model and potential release area has been used to simulate avalanche accident occurred on 5 January 2018 at CT-8. The analysis demonstrates maximum snow avalanche velocity, impact of pressure and height of flow to be ~ 25 ms−1, ~ 9.39 × 104 kgm−1 s−2, and ~ 3.0 m respectively on 5 January 2018 at CT-8. Further simulated avalanche debris height and length form road has been validated with ground observed data. Ground reconnaissance of the location was conducted by a team of Snow and Avalanche Study Establishment, Chandigarh and it has been observed that lack of ‘avalanche awareness and Standard Operating Procedures during movement in avalanche prone areas’ among the travellers on the road cause accident . The present paper seems to be first to investigate snow avalanche accident in Western Himalaya and recommend that proper campaigning of avalanche awareness among the people residing in avalanche prone areas of Himalaya could reduce such accidents significantly.
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Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to Director of Snow & Avalanche Study Establishment (SASE), Chandigarh for providing facilities to carry out this work and constant during the investigation. The authors would like to acknowledge SASE staff for collecting ground data. We are also thankful to Shri, Manoj Kumar for providing technical supports during preparation of the manuscript. Authors are thankful to https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/ and https://www.asf.alaska.edu/sar.dat/palsar/ websites for providing Landsat-8 data and ALOS PALSAR DEM.
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Singh, D.K., Mishra, V.D. & Gusain, H.S. Simulation and Analysis of a Snow Avalanche Accident in Lower Western Himalaya, India. J Indian Soc Remote Sens 48, 1555–1565 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12524-020-01178-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12524-020-01178-5