Eleventh International Conference on Climate Change: Impacts & Responses

Abstract

This paper present spatiotemporal analysis of precipitation and temperature trends and GIS & RS base investigation of the related glacier dynamic in yarkhun valley of district chitral. Temporal glaciers coverage were delineated using object base classification couple with manual digitisation of accurate glacier outline in debris cover area on high resolution imagery finally validated with field data acquired from field assessment and ICIMOD inventory data. Yarkhun valley is located in upper chitral border with Badakhshan valley in northwest and district Ghizer in east about 180 km from district headquarter Chitral. It covers an area of about 1878.1 sq.km having 63 sub watersheds, 190 glaciers and 15 glacial lakes and 24 natural lakes. Trend and correlation analysis for period from 1990 to 2010 at 2 climate stations and 10 weather monitoring posts (WMPs) shows that there is rise of 1.2 degree of annual temperature and increase 20 mm precipitation. Temporal dynamic of glacier of yarkhun valley shows that there is decrease of snow and glacier cover area 679.61 to 632.54 sq.km and increase of debris cover area 60.52 to 84.51 sq.km from 2000 to 2015. Overall the glaciers of yarkhun valley are retreating face and the need for vigilance in assessing glacier behaviours toward climate change is apparent.