Spatiotemporal Analysis of the Karakoram Dynamics: A Case Study of the Ghulkin Glacier, Gilgit Baltistan, Pakistan

The high frequency of floods and the foundation of glacial lakes in recent years have correlated to incidences of glacier melting, and it is seen because of recent climatic changes and global warming. However, Karakoram glaciers have not been adequately surveyed because such a survey is cost-intensive for developing countries. This chapter attempts to assess the spatiotemporal effects of global warming on the mass balance of the Ghulkin glacier, Gilgit Baltistan, Pakistan. To do so, field measurements of glacier mass balance from 36 ground points have been used by employing aerial photography, digital elevation model (DEM), and images from Landsat data for the years from 1990 to 2015. The images have been used to calculate (i) changes in the glacial limits at the ablation zone, (ii) the Normalized Differentiate Water Index (NDWI) to delineate glacial lakes, and (iii) temperature extraction from thermal bands. The results show that the lake’s area in the ablation zone was 4892 sq. m in 1990 which increased to 18,099 sq. m by 2015. Furthermore, the glacier ablation zone lost 163,853 cubic meters of ice mass from the side moraine of the glacier. The findings of this study can help researchers who are predicting the impact of changing glacier dynamics as the climate of the region changes.