Remote sensing based glacial lake inventory in the Hindu Kush-Himalaya region

Glacial lake inventory is the main method to investigate the glacial lakes in remote area and provides required information for glacier risk management and climate change research. A glacial lake inventory based on Landsat TM/ETM+ images has been carried in Hindu-Kush Himalaya regions, and 20204 glacial lakes with total area of 1955.75 km² are documented by this inventory. This paper introduced the method and material and discussed the merits and demerits of the method. Landsat based glacial lake inventory is effective method for large scale area, but more detail inventory with high resolution satellite images is necessary for glacier risk management and glacial lake change detection. The distribution characteristics is also analyzed by this paper, obvious regional difference was found by this inventory, the formation and distribution of glacial lake are controlled by terrain, glaciation and conditions. The selection of assessment method and criteria need to consider the regional feature of glacial lakes and their environment.