Reet Kamal Tiwari

• Ph.D.(Remote Sensing Glaciology);Master of Technology (Remote Sensing & GIS) ;M.Sc. (Geology)
• Professor (Associate) at Indian Institute of Technology Ropar

Understanding the intricate interplay between topography and glacier changes is vital for predicting future water resources and addressing the impacts of climate change. This study examines changes in glacier area in the Uttarakhand Himalayan region, where the River Ganga originates, between 2000 and 2023 using high‐resolution satellite imagery. A...

Glacial lakes are prone to outburst due to breaching or overtopping of natural dams, leading to Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs). These floods represent a substantial danger to communities downstream and essential infrastructure. To address this issue, it is crucial to investigate certain key factors, including gaining insight into the dynamics...

The rivers of the Himalayas heavily rely on the abundance of snow, which serves as a vital source of water to South Asian countries. However, its impact on the hydrological system of the region is mainly felt during the spring season. The melting of snow and consequent base flow significantly contribute to the incoming streamflow. This article exam...

Landslides seriously threaten life and properties in different parts of the Himalayas. The study focuses on deriving the future landslide susceptibility (LS) maps under different climate scenarios for the Himachal Pradesh, India. To accomplish this, first, 15 years landslide database of 267 events was prepared and clustered in three temporal groups...

The current study presents a comprehensive assessment of hydrological models, including the Snowmelt Runoff Model (SRM), MIKE HYDRO RIVER NAM model, and Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), for simulating runoff dynamics in the Beas River Basin (BRB). Utilizing data spanning seven years from 2014 to 2020, the models underwent rigorous calibration...

Soil moisture is a vital parameter in the study of hydrology, agriculture and meteorology. The estimation of soil moisture is important for crop yield estimation, crop growth analysis and water resource management. Remote sensing is a significant way of mapping and monitoring crop fields’ soil moisture content globally, using optical and microwave...

Permafrost is one of the key components of the mountain cryosphere. An increase in global air temperature is leading to the melting of permafrost. Degradation and thawing of permafrost may induce multiple effects on the landscape, such as ground subsidence, increased frequency of landslides and rock falls due to destabilization of permafrost-covere...

Assessing glaciers’ response to climate change is vital for water resource management. This study investigates changes in glacier areas, retreats and mass balance in the Garhwal Himalayan region. Initially, multitemporal Landsat imagery was used to delineate sample glacier boundaries for different study years manually. Subsequently, the Friedman te...

Changes in glacier area, glacial lakes, debris cover, and geomorphological features such as debris fans have a significant impact on glacial dynamics. Therefore, precise and timely observation and tracking of glacier surface changes is a necessity. The availability of high spatial resolution remote sensing images has made it viable to analyse the g...

The present study aims to identify potential locations for small‐scale hydroelectric power (HEP) stations in hilly regions for the purpose of generating renewable energy. A rainfall‐runoff (R‐R) model of the Beas River catchment was established using the MIKE 11 NAM to estimate the available discharge. The model was calibrated and validated over th...

Himalayan glaciers are retreating under the climate warming scenario, leading to the temporal variation in the expansion and formation of glacial lakes, which have been identified as highly susceptible to Glacial Lake outburst floods (GLOFs). Therefore, the present study intends to estimate the glacial lake area changes (RGLAC) rate for the entire...

Assessing temporal variation in glaciers due to climate change is essential from a water resource point of view. This study examines the temporal variation of glacier areas and retreats in the Garhwal Himalayan region. At first, multitemporal Landsat imagery were used to manually delineate the sample glacier boundary for various studied years. Afte...

With the continuous developments in space-borne scatterometers, the applicability of scatterometer satellite datasets is continuously increasing in oceanography, agriculture, cryosphere, hydrology and related Earth-science fields. The scope of this book explores applications of scatterometers in Earth observation as well as algorithms and technique...

The surface subsidence in the Krishna Godavari (KG) basin in India has increased with the discovery of crude oil and natural gas reserves since 1983. With private players coming up to bag the exploration and refining contracts, there must be timely monitoring of the surface subsidence of the region so that remedial measures for the resettlement of...

Glacier response patterns at the catchment scale are highly heterogeneous and defined by a complex interplay of various dynamics and surface factors. Previous studies have explained heterogeneous responses in qualitative ways but quantitative assessment is lacking yet where an intrazone homogeneous climate assumption can be valid. Hence, in the cur...

Landslides are the most commonly occurring natural hazard in the hilly regions of the world. Tehri Garhwal in the Uttara-khand State of India is one such region where several landslide events have been reported. Several researchers have performed landslide susceptibility mapping (LSM) studies for the Tehri region. However, these studies lack consis...

Changes in glacier area, glacial lakes, debris cover, and geomorphological features such as debris fans have a significant impact on glacial dynamics. Therefore, precise and timely observation and tracking of glacier surface changes is a necessity. The availability of high spatial resolution remote sensing images has made it viable to analyse the g...

Worldwide, landslides are the most frequently occurring disaster that is very destructive and unpredictable in nature. A total of 850 landslide events were detected during 2005–2020 in the Tehri region of the Indian Himalayas. Many researchers have conducted landslide susceptibility mapping (LSM) studies for this region using different static lands...

Studying geo-morphometric parameters using Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographic Information System (GIS) tools is crucial to routing runoff and remaining hydrological processes. A geo-spatial model and principal component analysis (PCA) approach are used in this study to prioritize sub-watersheds of the upper Beas river up to Pandoh dam. Dendritic dr...

Crop yield prediction is one of the crucial components of agriculture that plays an important role in the decision-making process for sustainable agriculture. Remote sensing provides the most efficient and cost-effective solution for the measurement of important agricultural parameters such as soil moisture level, but retrieval of the soil moisture...

The 7th of February 2021, Joshimath flood scenario was one such event that caused widespread damage and led to complete washout of the many hydroelectric power projects located on the course of Dhauliganga River. The physical monitoring and mapping of such events is a difficult task that often involves deployment of labour force in inhospitable ter...

In the remote and challenging terrain of the Himalayan region, accurate measurement of cyclic snow accumulation and depletion is a significant challenge. To overcome this, an attempt has been made in the present study by applying a statistical analysis of MODIS snow time series data with the Seasonal Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (SARIMA...

The Indian Himalayan region is experiencing frequent hazards and disasters related to permafrost. However, research on permafrost in this region has received very little or no attention. Therefore, it is important to have knowledge about the spatial distribution and state of permafrost in the Indian Himalayas. Modern remote sensing techniques, with...

In the present work, the scatterometer satellite (SCATSAT-1) has been implemented and validated to provide the near-real-time estimation of snow cover area (SCA) in the Western Himalayas, India. The SCA derived from standalone SCATSAT-1 L4 (Level-4 India) products i.e., sigma-nought ( σ°), and gamma-nought ( γ°) has been validated with different MO...

Glacier, snow, and ice are the essential components of the Himalayan cryosphere and provide a sustainable water source for different applications. Continuous and accurate monitoring of glaciers allows the forecasting analysis of natural hazards and water resource management. In past literature, different methodologies such as spectral unmixing, obj...

A scatterometer is an active microwave sensor that acquires the earth’s surface information in one of the microwave bands, i.e., C-band at 4-8 GHz and Ku-band at 12-18 GHz. Recently (26th September 2016), the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched a scatterometer satellite (SCATSAT-1) which operates through the Ku-band (frequency = 13.5...

The Sentinel-1 is an active SAR satellite with a C-band SAR sensor operating at a center frequency of 5.405 GHz and 5.55 cm wavelength. With the availability of freely available Synthetic Aperture RADAR datasets from Sentinel-1, the Persistent Scatterer SAR Interferometry (PSInSAR) based urban surface subsidence mapping has become easy. However, ap...

Amid the COVID-19 crisis, governments all over the world, and not excluding India, took to lockdown measures to deaccelerate the spread of the COVID-19 virus. This led to reduction of atmospheric pollution by declining the harmful Nitrogen and Sulphur Oxide (NOX and SOX) concentrations. However, one hand while the stratospheric Ozone (O3) showed re...

The landslide susceptibility (LS) of any mountainous region is significantly affected by the land-use land-cover (LULC) change. Recently, LULC change effects on landslides have been investigated by many researchers. However, the future prediction of the LS using these LULC changes has not been quantified. The main objective of this study is to pred...

As an active microwave sensor, the Indian Space Research Organization’s scatterometer satellite (SCATSAT-1) a satellite sensor for ocean studies as well as for land surface applications. SCATSAT-1 provides crucial information about the earth's surface at two different polarization modes: vertical-transmit and vertical-receive as well as and horizon...

Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) and seasonal ARIMA (SARIMA) models are statistical techniques generally used in analyzing and forecasting seasonal, periodic cyclic, and non-stationary time series data. This paper presents the use of the Seasonal Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (SARIMA) method for developing a forecasting m...

In recent years, Deep Learning Multi-Layer Perceptron (DLMLP) neural networks have shown remarkable success in addressing crop yield forecast related problems. The methodologies used so far for crop yield forecast with remotely sensed data were focused upon vegetation indices generated from optical data. The prediction of crop yield in an accurate...

The assessment of temporal changes in glacier response due to climatic change is critical from the hydrological perspective. The present study aims to identify temporal changes in glacier response using area changes, retreat, and surface elevation changes. The Friedman test and Wilcoxon signed-rank test were introduced to identify the temporal chan...

Accelerated glacier mass loss is primarily attributed to greenhouse-induced global warming. Land–climate interactions have increasingly been recognized as an important forcing at the regional-local scale, but the related effects on the Himalayan glaciers are less explored and thought to be an important factor regulating spatial heterogeneity. The a...

Accelerated glacier mass loss is primarily attributed to greenhouse-induced global warming. Land–climate interactions have increasingly been recognized as an important forcing at the regional-local scale, but the related effects on the Himalayan glaciers are less explored and thought to be an important factor regulating spatial heterogeneity. The a...

Large-scale debris cover glacier mapping can be efficiently conducted from high spatial resolution (HSR) remote sensing imagery using object-based image analysis (OBIA), which works on a group of pixels. This paper presents the spectral and spatial capabilities of OBIA to classify multiple glacier cover classes using a multisource approach by integ...

Himalayas play a significant role in terms of climate influence, the origin of rivers, hydropower generation, tourism, and forest wealth. The monitoring of the rugged terrain Himalayas via remote sensing is one of the efficient solutions to meet future requirements. In remote sensing, the sensors can be categorized as optical and microwave. The opt...

Over the last few decades, several landslide susceptibility and hazard mapping (LSHM) techniques have been developed. Maps for the same region have also been generated by different individuals following dissimilar approaches, which can be grouped into qualitative, semi-quantitative and quantitative approaches. As all these techniques have their pro...

A scatterometer, as an active microwave radar sensor, measures the return of radar waves in the form of a backscatter coefficient after reflection or scattering from Earth’s surface. The primary objective of the scatterometer is to record the surface-wind vector observations over the ocean for the study of the climate, monitoring, the forecasting o...

Glaciers are retreating due to global warming, promoting the development and growth of the numerous glacial lakes in high mountain regions. These precarious glacial lakes impose severe threats as they increase the magnitude and frequency of glacial lake outburst floods, which can cause potential downstream risk, and a lack of water availability in...

Image-based fusion is a state-of-art process to extract vital information by combining the two or more images acquired from different satellite sensors. Recently launched (26 th September 2016) ISRO's (Indian Space Research Organization) Ku-band (13.5 GHz) based Scatterometer Satellite (SCATSAT-1) as an active microwave sensor can offer the day-nig...

The antarctic region is an essential component of Earth's climate system and heat balance. Therefore, continuous monitoring of various cryospheric parameters (Sea-Ice Extent - SIE, and Snow Water Equivalent - SWE, among others) over Antarctica is essential to understand the state of global climate processes. This study presents a framework to detec...

In our study, we have selected two glaciers from different zones. • The first one is the Samudra Tapu (ST) glacier from the western Himalaya region, and • The second one is the Drang Drung (DD) glacier from the Zanskar range. ST is a debris-covered glacier. On the other hand, DD is a clean glacier. Along with that, these two glaciers are easily acc...

Earth observation via optical-based remote sensing is one of the effective solutions to cover the large swath and to deliver the very high-resolution dataset at the different wavelengths. But the applicability of optical imaging is limited by daytime only and adversely affected by the presence of clouds. In such scenarios, microwave data is more pr...

The novelty resides in the shape and configuration of the “SOIL HEALTH TESTING DEVICE” as illustrated. No claim is made by virtue of this registration in respect of any mechanical or other action of any mechanism whatever or in respect of any mode or principle of construction of the Article. No claim is made by virtue of this registration to any ri...

The rapid increase in urban population has on one handled to a remarkable increase in demand for dwelling spaces, and on the other hand has led to unprecedented resource competition. With better medical, educational and employment opportunities in urban areas, there is a population exodus from nearby towns and villages towards larger urban centres....

Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) is a measure of the total carbon content of the soil and is a vital soil health indicator. Over the decades, SOC has been estimated using sampling followed by rigorous laboratory-based testing methods. Spaceborne Microwave/Synthetic Aperture RADAR (SAR) remote sensing has proven to be a versatile tool for various soil stud...

Warming-induced expansion in vegetation coverage and activity can accelerate the montane hydrological regimes. However, the climate impacts on ecohydrology of forested valleys of the Himalaya are uncertain. In this study, utilizing results of about three centuries of cellulose isotope chronologies (δ13C and δ18O) of dominant tree species, geo-chron...

Supplementary information to 'Climate-driven acceleration in forest evapotranspiration fuelling extreme rainfall events in the Himalaya'.

Supplementary information to 'Climate-driven acceleration in forest evapotranspiration fuelling extreme rainfall events in the Himalaya'.

The present disclosure pertains to a device for determining and analyzing quality of soil with location. The device including a first section, a second section, a first sensor unit, a second sensor unit, a first set of sensors, a second set of sensors, a controller, a soil sample collector, a location determining unit and a user interface unit. The...

Supplementary data to CPD

Accelerated glacier mass loss is primarily attributed to greenhouse-induced warming, but land-climate interaction has increasingly been recognized as an important forcing at the regional-local scale. However, the related effects on the Himalayan glaciers are less explored but believed to be an important factor regulating spatial heterogeneity. This...

Soil salinity has today become a highly disastrous phenomenon responsible for crop failure worldwide, especially in countries with low farmer incomes and food insecurity. Soil salinity is often caused due to water accumulation in fields due to improper flood irrigation wherein plants intake the water leaving salts behind. It is, however, the sub-su...

The Ku-band (13.5 GHz)-based Scatterometer Satellite (SCATSAT-1) launched on September 26, 2016, by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) offers the enhanced spatial resolution (~2.2 km) data products in form of Sigma-naught (σ0) and Gamma-naught (γ0). Both forms are available in two polarizations modes: Horizontal transmission and horizont...

Study of snow dynamics is an essential parameter for scientific studies such as climate changeClimate change, cryospheric hazard mapping, energy budget assessment, management of water assets, etc. In this paper, an analysis of snow dynamics in the Beas river basin, Western HimalayaHimalayas, India has been carried out using Moderate Resolution Imag...

Floods are one of the most disastrous and dangerous catastrophes faced by humanity for ages. Though mostly deemed a natural phenomenon, floods can be anthropogenic and can be equally devastating in modern times. Remote sensing with its non-evasive data availability and high temporal resolution stands unparalleled for flood mapping and modelling. Si...

This is a preprint of an article accepted in journal Environmental Monitoring and Assessment. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-021-08902-9

Detection and validation of spatiotemporal snow cover variability in the Himalayas using Ku-band (13.5 GHz) SCATSAT-1 data The present study evaluates the potential of Ku-band Scatterometer Satellite-1 1 (SCATSAT-1) for quantification of spatiotemporal variability in snow cover area 2 (SCA) over Himalayas (Himachal Pradesh) India. The SCA has been...

The brightness temperature (Tb) is considered a fundamental climate data record that governs the radiance traveling towards the satellite from the top of the atmosphere. It is used to derive the wind speed, cloud liquid water and sea surface temperature. The optical sensors play a vital role in the retrieval of Tb but also affected by the clouds an...

: The scatterometer satellites are originally designed to measure the wind speed and direction with the help of sigma-naught (𝜎 0). With the advantage of near real-time tracking facilities during day and night even in extreme climate conditions, SCATSAT-1 has made tremendous progress in emerging scientific domains such as cryosphere, land hydrolog...

This paper reviews articles published in the English language and using geospatial data in analysing the state of urban sprawl in India. India is not far behind in the unparalleled global phenomenon of urbanization, with it adding the highest number of urban dwellers by 2050. We review a total of 153 articles involving the use of remote sensing dat...

Due to improper agricultural and soil management, there has been a drop in crop yield over the last few years and food security has become a major issue. For a country like India, with a huge population to cater, the problem becomes more serious. Since the inception of remote sensing in scientific agriculture management, optical remote sensing alon...

The Ku-band (13.5 GHz) based scatterometer is the main sensor onboard Scatterometer Satellite (SCATSAT-1) launched on 26th September 2016 by Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). The SCATSAT-1 satellite sensor provides daily updates on the conditions of atmospheric, oceanographic, agriculture and cryospheric parameters. Moreover, it delivers d...

A device to determine position of a spot in an area of interest (AOI) is disclosed. The device includes one or more sensors to sense one or more parameters associated with position of at least one or more spot in the AOI, and correspondingly generate a first set of signals, and a global positioning system (GPS) module to determine geo-location of t...

With the advent of remote sensing and its widescale implementation in the field of agriculture and soil studies, today remote sensing has become an integral non-evasive analysis and research tool. After decades of research with conventional optical remote sensing, both airborne and spaceborne, a need was felt to have an all-weather remote sensing d...

Land subsidence is usually defined as the loss in elevation of surface as compared to the surroundings. This is mainly a downward movement of Land surface features, where little or no horizontal movement comes into picture. Of the various techniques used world over, DInSAR (Differential Interferometric Synthetic Aperture RADAR) technique has proved...

North India, since time immemorial remained the cradle of agricultural development. Every year during the monsoons, there is a high upsurge in the river Rapti. This leads to heavy flooding in the area and takes a toll on life and property besides submerging acres of precious agricultural land. Till now, such floods have been mapped using satellite...

Urban growth is a global phenomenon, which is happening at unprecedented rates. According to the United Nations, the current world population of 7.6 billion is expected to reach 8.6 billion in 2030 out of which 5 billion will be urban population. Much of this urbanization will unfold in Africa and Asia, bringing huge social, economic and environmen...

SAR or Microwave remote sensing today has proved itself to be a paradigm shift in the field of remote sensing. With its all-weather availability, it has found variety of applications in several fields today. Till now, and mainly, floods have been mapped using optical remote sensing data since a long time. Floods have been a common and yearly catast...

The concerns about global warming and climate change have produced widespread scientific interest in the response of glaciers. One of the important indicators of climate change is glacier change. The glaciers in Indian Himalaya have been retreating which can have several effects. Therefore, there is a need of precise and timely mapping and monitor...

This paper outlines the results of subsidence estimation over an urban area using Sentinel-1 data and Permanent Scatterer Candidate (PSC) Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (PS-InSAR) technique. The study area selected is Chandigarh City (UT, India) and its near vicinities, which is located at the junction of three Indian states namely Punjab...

The world is undergoing the largest wave of urban growth in history. At present, more than half of the world’s population is living in urban areas such as towns and cities. United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) predicted that by 2030 much of the urbanization will take place in Africa and Asia, bringing huge social, economic and environmental trans...

One of the significant environmental consequences of urbanization is reduction in vegetation cover and formation of urban heat island effect. The present research utilized Landsat data from 1998 to 2017 to study the spatio-temporal pattern of NDVI and land surface temperature (LST) in Dehradun - capital of the newly formed state of Uttarakhand, whi...