A Spatiotemporal Study on Glacial Lake Dynamics and Its Response to Changing Climate in the Eastern District of Himachal Pradesh

The high altitudes, varied climates, and intricate geography of the Himalayan glaciers make them exceptional. These features create a delicate balance that is readily upset by variations in precipitation and temperature. In the Himalayas, new glacial lakes are emerging and existing ones are expanding in response to climate change and the ensuing glacial retreat. These lakes could potentially threaten downstream towns and infrastructure with glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs). In Himachal Pradesh's Kinnaur area, the swift expansion of glacial lakes has raised the threat and possibility of damage due to GLOFs. Landsat satellite imagery is used to prepare a temporal database of glacial lakes in the district for the years 2000, 2011, and 2020 using 30 m and 15 m resolution in order to conduct a decadal analysis and better understand the spatiotemporal dynamics. The normalized difference water index and vectorization of lakes using Google Earth data were two of the geospatial approaches used in the study's semi-automated glacial lake mapping method. In 2020, there were 124 glacial lakes with an extent greater than 0.25 hectares, compared to 107 in 2011 and 84 in 2000, indicating a 47.61% rise in their number. The total area of glacial lakes (>= 1 ha) increased significantly, from 68.54 +/- 2.26 ha in 2000 to 143.85 +/- 3.16 ha in 2020, representing a significant rise of 109.88%. In order to establish a foundation for persistent monitoring and assessment of outburst hazards, which are mostly generated by glacial lakes in the research area, this study provides a significant regional inventory of glacial lakes along with its spatiotemporal dynamics.