Efficiency of classification techniques for sachen and rupal glaciers variation during 1972–2010

Remote Sensing and GIS has been used effectively to analyze glaciers dynamics. In this paper a comparative analysis of supervised, knowledge based and object based classification techniques have been carried out to map debris and clean ice of sachen and rupal glaciers. Assessment of glaciers temporal variation plays an important role to identify the rate of retreat and advance over a certain period of time. Sachen and Rupal glaciers lying in astore valley have been used as an input for analysis. The area of debris cover and clean ice derived from the classification used have been visualized and compared with the reference classification. Reference classification, derived from standard classification technique further refined by manual editing to obtain highly accurate results. The results from this classification show that Sachen and Rupal glaciers have lost around 2% and 13% of their glaciated area respectively over the last thirty years.