Lavkush Kumar Patel

• PhD
• Scientist at National Institute of Hydrology

Glacier and snow melt are the primary sources of water for streams, and rivers in upper Indus region of the western Himalaya. However, the magnitude of runoff from this glacierized basin is expected to vary with the available energy in the catchment. Here, we used a physically based energy balance model to estimate the surface energy and surface ma...

This work is related to the preliminary mapping of rock glacier in the Chandra Basin, Western Himalaya. Rock glaciers are a mixture of debris and ice, a significant permafrost landform in high mountain regions. Rock glaciers play an important role in meltwater discharge in high mountain regions, and are considered an important indicator of climate...

Various regional climatic factors influence glacier mass balance and thus control the water budget of the Himalayan rivers. However, the scarcity of observational data hinders a detailed understanding of the processes governing glacier mass balances in the Himalaya. Here we analyze the mass balance of the Sutri Dhaka Glacier, a debris-free glacier...

Glacier change monitoring provides a significant understanding of glacier health and its influence on freshwater availability. Therefore, we have utilised remotely-sensed data to estimate the glacier characteristics, mass balance, and volume change during 2013–2019 over the Sutri Dhaka and Batal glaciers, Chandra basin, western Himalayas. The glaci...

A large number of glaciers in the Hindu-Kush Himalaya are covered with debris in the lower part of the ablation zone, which is continuously expanding due to enhanced glacier mass loss. The supraglacial debris transported over the melting glacier surface acts as an insulating barrier between the ice and atmospheric conditions and has a strong influe...

Understanding the climatic complexity and its consequences on glacier health are of critical importance for the health of the Himalayan glacier and its contribution to the water budget. In this study, satellite datasets are used to estimate the glacier area loss, snow cover variability, and reanalysis data for climatic trends for four glacierised b...

In this study, glacier ice thickness distribution and storage volume has been modelled for two glaciers viz., Vestre Broggerbreen and Feiringbreen situated across the Kongsfjorden around Ny-Ålesund in Svalbard. These two high Arctic glaciers are being monitored through the ongoing efforts of the Indian Arctic Program. Here, the capability of a glac...

Himalayan glaciers are distinct by their surface characteristics such as debris-cover, supra/proglacial lakes, ice-cliff, and tributaries' contributions, thus complicating their surface velocity pattern and their response towards climate warming. While remote sensing and modelled surface velocity estimation are valuable on a larger scale, in-situ h...

Melting of snow and glaciers from the high-altitude Himalayan region is a significant water source to the major Himalayan rivers, especially in the upper Indus Basin (UIB), which contributes up to 70% of river discharge. Considering Indus Basin as a largest irrigation system dependent on snow and glacier melt runoff, it is imperative to study the r...

Glacier systems are important components of the hydrological cycle and a major source of meltwater and sediment flux that controls the river ecology, water quality, and hydropower generation in the Indian Himalayan Region (IHR). Thus, understanding short- and long-term changes in water and Suspended Sediment (SS) dynamics is crucial in highly sensi...

Himalayan glaciers are the major source of fresh water supply to the Himalayan Rivers, which support the livelihoods of more than a billion people living in the downstream region. However, in the face of recent climate change, these glaciers might be vulnerable, and thereby become a serious threat to the future fresh water reserve. Therefore, speci...

Glaciers are widely known as one of the best indicators of climate change impacting the Earth over past few centuries. The glaciers are melting world over and those in Arctic and Himalaya are no exception. Both of these regions are second only to Antarctic and Greenland, in terms of vast coverage of snow and ice. The Svalbard glaciers and ice caps...

In Himalaya, the temperature plays a key role in the process of snow and ice melting and, importantly, the precipitation phase changes (i.e., snow or rain). Consequently, in longer period, the melting and temperature gradient determine the state of the Himalayan glaciers. This necessitates the continuous monitoring of glacier surface melting and a...

Snow water equivalent (SWE) is important for understanding the hydrological significance of glaciers. In this study, the spatial and temporal variability in SWE and its impact over Vestre Broggerbreen and Feiringbreen glaciers around Ny-Ålesund in Svalbard (high Arctic) were investigated in early snow season for the period 2012-2017. The physical p...

Himalayan glaciers show large spatial variation in glacial retreat and mass loss due to their unique climate setting, altitude and topography. Large variability of glacier response to climate in this region may be due to various factors such as climatic (precipitation, temperature, humidity, wind, etc.) and non-climatic (topography and debris cover...

Rising global temperature and variability in the precipitation have significant impact over the Himalayan glaciers. Recent findings have reported the low altitude glaciers are retreating fast compared to high altitude glaciers. Himalayan glaciers have a large spatial variation in glacial retreat and mass loss due to their unique climate setting, al...

The hydrochemistry of meltwater from the Sutri Dhaka Glacier, Western Himalaya, has been studied to understand the influence of the factors controlling the weathering processes of the glaciers during the peak ablation period. The high solar irradiance prompted intense melting, which has raised the stream flow of the glacier. The meltwater has been...

Geospatial studies carried out in two major proglacial lakes of Samudra Tapu and Gepang Gath (Chandra basin, Western Himalaya) showed substantial expansion in their area and volume over the last four decades (1971-2014). The linear and areal expansions for the lakes Samudra Tapu and Gepang Gath were 1889 m, 1509 m and 1 km2, 0.6 km2 respectively. T...

Population growth drives the process of urbanization and associated landscape changes. The conversion of natural landscape to anthropogenic landscape represents the most visible and pervasive form of human impact on the environment. The impact of population growth on Bundelkhand Landscape, Central India was analyzed using Landsat series satellite a...

The response of debris covered glaciers to climate change is complex. Presence of debris cover influence the glaciers in two different ways depends on its composition. Thick debris cover retards the melting of underlying ice whereas the thin layer of debris accelerates the melting. Also, the debris cover alters the surface energy balance, affects t...

Snow cover plays an important role in many applications like runoff estimation, hydro-power generation, irrigation and disaster management. In Indian Himalaya, snow cover monitoring on daily basis is a difficult task due to presence of cloud cover and lack of high spatial resolution datasets. Therefore, for long term monitoring, the maximum snow co...

As part of the on-going annual mass balance measurements on Batal and Sutri Dhaka glaciers, observations were made during peak ablation (August –September) season in 2013 to understand the response of debris covered and clean-ice (debris free) glacier surface to melting processes. Though both the Batal and Sutri Dhaka glaciers have almost similar g...

Complex factors like climate, glacial geometry, topographical features and debris cover have significant influence on the dynamics of the Himalayan glaciers. Presence of debris cover on the surface of glaciers can significantly alter the surface energy balance and influence the climatic response of glaciers. In this study, the influence of debris c...

Himalayan glaciers form an important fresh water reservoir regulating the water supply of all the major North Indian rivers. Since the river water quality depends on the input of trace metals into these reservoirs, it is important to monitor the melt water quality of Himalayan glaciers. Source region of the streams and rivers originating from the H...

Himalayan region consist many glaciers and glacier-fed rivers. About 17% of the Indian Himalayan Region (IHR) is under permanent cover of Ice and snow and have more than 9000 glaciers and high altitude fresh water lakes. Stream runoff originating from the glaciers has direct implication in geomorphology of the region. Present study is an attempt to...

Glaciers in the Indian Himalayan Region (IHR) are the prime lifeline of Indian Subcontinent. There are about nine thousand glaciers of different size in this region. It is located within the latitudes 270N to 360N and longitude 720E to 960E. The second largest glacier, outside the polar and sub polar regions, Siachen glacier of length 74 km, is loc...

Climate change impact – A novel, initiative for Kerala " Climate Change is the greatest ecological, economic and social challenge of our time " Earth's Climate is undergoing noteworthy natural changes for centuries. However the variations in the last couple of centuries cannot be explained by natural climatic variations alone. Intergovernmental Pan...