Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
at the forefront of spreading our knowledge of the
Himalayan region include the Himalayan Club,
the Himalayan Environment Trust etc. through a
dedicated group of people who have interests in
conserving the sacred space of the Himalayas.
Scientific organizations have also been record-
ing the various facets of the Himalayan ecosystems
and in particular the extent of glacial presence
in the region. While documenting glaciers is an
onerous task, nevertheless scientific institutions
have been able to provide key facts about some
of the glaciers in the Himalayas. The task of
studying glaciers is at time consuming process
and involves detailed methodological processes
at different levels depending upon the extent and
type of glaciers being studied.
Various methods are used to study glacial re-
treat patterns in different parts of the world. The
lack of access and inhospitable terrain to most
regions in the Greater Himalayas has hampered
in depth field studies to monitor a key resource
like glaciers. However, recent advances in tech-
nology and satellite based estimation have helped
scientists to obtain field observations and remotely
sensed data. The length and characteristics of
glaciers often determine the methodologies that
are adopted to determine the area extent of the
glacierised region. These methodologies help in
monitoring glacier positions including changes
in snout position, surface area, volume elevation
and ice mass.
Two commonly used information and com-
munication technology tools that have been used
to monitor to glacier and water resources are :
resource managers, tolls of tremendous poten-
tial value - to address their needs and process
their information (Roughgarden et. al. 1991 and
Sample 1994). GIS and Remote Sensing allows
the processing and viewing the recorded infor-
mation on different spatial scales. These tools
have been termed as geostatistical tools by Rossi
et.al. (1992) and have been described as the tools
for modeling and interpreting ecological data in
spatial form. Howard et.al (1996) has highlighted
the importance of the remotely sensed data in
linking ecological information recorded from
ground, air and space. Cornett (1994) and Sample
(1994) emphasize that GIS and Remote Sensing
are catalysts for effective public involvement in
ecosystem management planning, analysis and
policy making.
Satellite remote sensing data has emerged as
a potential tool to study land cover, vegetation
type and human interventions at fine to coarse
scales. The data provides details on habitat with
very high accuracy and in a low cost effective
manner. The information base can be judiciously
combined with the ground-based studies for com-
prehensive analysis and modeling. Information
content available in the multispectral data can
form a common database for integrated resource
inventories, which are necessary for the habitat
characterization, monitoring and management.
Due to the similarity of the temporal data set
and repetitiveness, monitoring of the habitat can
be accomplished with very high reliability. On
the other hand the GIS data set allows storage,
retrieval, and analysis of spatial and non-spatial
data in a computer domain. Updating of GIS
information base for monitoring purposes is an
efficient as well as cost-effective means.
The use of remotely sensed data is of great rel-
evance and importance particularly for studies in
glacier considering their inaccessibility in remote
mountain regions of the world. Remote sensing
as a tool is used for mapping area and length of
glacier particularly for large glacier where mass
1. Remote Sensing
2. Automatic Weather stations
Remote Sensing
Remote Sensing and the processing of remotely
sensed data through Geographical Information
system (GIS) are two most important synergistic
