Detection of Potentially Dangerous Glacial Lakes in Mangde Chhu Sub-Basin

Abstract

The identification of glacial lakes in the Mangde Chhu Sub-Basin based on the potential of lake outburst has been presented in this contribution. The assessment of glaciers in the region is hampered by debris cover over glacier surfaces and cloud shadow. Supraglacial debris exhibits the same spectral properties as that of ice, and thus lakes cannot be clearly detected by means of multispectral classification alone. Lakes are extracted through digitizing hypsometric contours in GIS. Potential of the lake to outburst mainly depends on the lake area beyond the given threshold. A Multispectral and hyperspectral satellite image along with DEM has been used for effective detection of lakes.