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Development of a Glacio-hydrological Model for Discharge and Mass Balance Reconstruction

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Abstract

The reconstruction of glacio-hydrological records for the data deficient Himalayan catchments is needed in order to study the past and future water availability. The study provides outcomes of a glacio-hydrological model based on the degree-day approach. The model simulates the discharge and mass balance for glacierised Shaune Garang catchment. The degree-day factors for different land covers, used in the model, were estimated using daily stake measurements on Shaune Garang glacier and they were found to be varying between 2.6 ± 0.4 and 9.3 ± 0.3 mm °C−1day−1. The model is validated using observed discharge during ablation season of 2014 with coefficient of determination (R2) 0.90 and root mean square error (RMSE) 1.05 m3 sec−1. The model is used to simulate discharge from 1985 to 2008 and mass balance from 2001 to 2008. The model results show significant contribution of seasonal snow and ice melt in total discharge of the catchment, especially during summer. We observe the maximum discharge in July having maximum contribution from snow and ice melt. The annual melt season discharge shows following a decreasing trend in the simulation period. The reconstructed mass balance shows mass loss of 0.89 m we per year between 2001 and 2008 with slight mass gain during 2000/01 and 2004/05 hydrological years.

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Acknowledgments

The study is a part of internationally coordinated project entitled “Contribution to High Asia Runoff from Ice and Snow (CHARIS) https://nsidc.org/charis/” funded by United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The authors are grateful to Bhakhra Beas Management Board (BBMB) and Dr. Hendrik Wulf, University of Zurich, Switzerland for providing meteorological data of Rakchham and Chhitkul. The support provided by Mr. Vinod Negi, Rakchham, H.P. in carrying out field work is deeply acknowledged. We would also like to thank Dr. George P. Tsakiris, Chief Editor, Water Resources Management and two anonymous reviewers for the comments which significantly improved the quality of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Science, School of Basic Sciences & Research, Sharda University, Greater Noida, India

    Rajesh Kumar, Shaktiman Singh, Ramesh Kumar, Atar Singh, Anshuman Bhardwaj & Lydia Sam

  2. Department of Computer Science, Electrical and Space Engineering, Atmospheric Science Group, Luleå University of Technology, Kiruna, Sweden

    Anshuman Bhardwaj

  3. Defence Terrain Research Laboratory, New Delhi, India

    Lydia Sam

  4. State Council for Science, Technology. & Environment, Shimla, India

    Surjeet Singh Randhawa

  5. Department of Science & Technology, New Delhi, India

    Akhilesh Gupta

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  1. Rajesh Kumar
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Correspondence to Shaktiman Singh.

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Kumar, R., Singh, S., Kumar, R. et al. Development of a Glacio-hydrological Model for Discharge and Mass Balance Reconstruction. Water Resour Manage 30, 3475–3492 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-016-1364-0

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