Inventory of glacial lakes in the Jhelum basin, Kashmir Himalayas, India

Globally, the dynamic evolution of glacial lakes in the high-mountainous regions triggered due to climate change-induced glacier recession has resulted into the formation, growth and disappearance of various types of glacial lakes. Himalayas have received a serious attention from the earth science researchers to study climate change and glaciers. However, no study has been attempted to prepare an inventory of glacial lakes using remote sensing-based approach in the Jhelum Basin of Kashmir Himalayas. We identified, mapped and analysed glacial lakes spatial distribution in the study region by using Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) high resolution LISS IV multi-spectral data. The lakes in the inventory with size greater than and equal to 1000 m² (0.001 km²) are situated in the elevation range of 2940 - 4411 m a.s.l. We prepared our glacial lake inventory in the shape file format, which includes attributes, such as, ID (code), coordinates (latitude and longitude), District name, Watershed name, Local name, Nearest settlement/place, Lake type, Area (Km² and m²), Perimeter (m), Length (m), Width (m) and elevation (m). We added certain parameters (e.g. depth, volume and potential peak discharge) by using empirical formulas in the excel format. Our study will provide a reference database to quantify impact of climate change on glacial lakes and facilitate in disaster risk evaluation studies of evolving potentially dangerous lakes in the region.