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Figure 10.13.
Average annual damages (US$ Billion) caused by reported natural disaster
be—Université Catholique de Louvain, Brussels—Belgium (http://www.emdat.be/about).
Color image of this figure appears in the color plate section at the end of the topic.
Case study 1: Glacier lake outburst fl ood
(Fig. 10.15)
Several glacial lakes that have developed in the HKH are dammed by
unstable moraines (ICIMOD 2011). These lakes burst releasing enormous
amount of lake water causing serious fl oods downstream, generally known
as Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF). It occurs when water dammed by
a glacier or a moraine is rapidly released by failure of the dam (Bajracharya
et al. 2007). In the recent past, there have been several occurrences of GLOF
event in different parts of the HKH region. Growing number and size of
glacial lakes have resulted from thinning and retreat of glaciers in the HKH
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