Spatial Distribution and Shrinkage of Glaciers since the 1990s in the Transboundary Kailash Sacred Landscape

Abstract

Glaciers are an inherent component of the landscape, culture, and environment in the high mountain areas of the Himalayas. Glacier distribution and its impacts are diverse in various landforms and landscape scales. Past studies on glaciers have focused on the individual, river basins, or at the country level, but none have been analyzed at the transboundary landscape level. This study investigates the spatial distribution of glaciers in the transboundary Kailash sacred landscape (KSL) at multiple time scales. The study revealed that 3.8% of the total landscape area is covered by glaciers. Altogether, 1941 glaciers were identified, covering 1169.04 ± 27.71 km2 area in 2020, most of which are highly concentrated in the southern part of the landscape in the Kali and West Seti basins. From 1990 to 2020, these glaciers have retreated significantly by 25.5% of their area. Oppositely, due to the shrinkage and fragmentation of individual glaciers, the number of glaciers has increased by 7.8%. The glacier retreat rate is higher at elevations below 5500 masl, and glaciers below 3500 masl have disappeared completely after 2010. Systematic long-term glacier monitoring is required, and the data can be utilized to project water resource availability based on various climatic and glacio-hydrological models.