INTEGRATED APPROACH FOR MAPPING DEBRIS-COVERED GLACIERS USING OPTICAL, THERMAL AND TOPOGRAPHIC INFORMATION-A CASE STUDY ON BARA SHIGRI GLACIER, WESTERN HIMALAYA, INDIA

摘要

Supraglacial debris strongly influences the rate of ablation of a glacier and thereby effecting the health and the contribution of the glaciers towards surface runoff. Moreover, debris cover over the ablation zone of the glaciers hampers automated and semi-automated mapping of glacier boundaries in different parts of the Himalayan region. Therefore, the present study proposes an integrated approach for delineation of glacier boundaries and supraglacial cover mapping of debris-covered glaciers using Landsat-8 OLI (Operational Land Imager) and TIRS (Thermal Infrared Sensor) image and Digital elevation model (DEM). The proposed approach has been tested for delineation of the boundary of Bara Shigri Glacier, an extensively debris-covered glacier of Himachal Pradesh. Results obtained using the proposed approach correspond well with manually demarcated glacier boundary using a high resolution Linear Imaging Self Scanner (LISS)-IV image. Moreover, the proposed integrated knowledge based classification (KNC) technique is observed to be faster than the manual delineation in delineating the debris covered glacier boundary.