Potential threats of glacial lake changes to the Sichuan-Tibet Railway
The Sichuan-Tibet Railway, China's second inland railway to Tibet, is currently being constructed and will run between Chengdu and Lhasa. It will cross the southeastern Tibetan Plateau and be surrounded by glacial lakes, some of which may pose a threat of glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) even...
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Cambridge University Press
2024-01-01
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| Series: | Journal of Glaciology |
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| author | Menger Peng Guoqing Zhang Jinyuan Yu Weicai Wang Fenglin Xu Sonam Rinzin |
| author_facet | Menger Peng Guoqing Zhang Jinyuan Yu Weicai Wang Fenglin Xu Sonam Rinzin |
| author_sort | Menger Peng |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The Sichuan-Tibet Railway, China's second inland railway to Tibet, is currently being constructed and will run between Chengdu and Lhasa. It will cross the southeastern Tibetan Plateau and be surrounded by glacial lakes, some of which may pose a threat of glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) events. Both the specific location and the outburst susceptibility of these glacial lakes are largely unknown. In this study, we mapped the glacial lakes using declassified Corona KH-4 and Hexagon KH-9 from the 1960s and Sentinel-2 imagery from 2020 and assessed their spatio-temporal changes. GLOF-susceptibility criteria were established based on historical GLOF events. The results show that the total area (number) of glacial lakes has increased by 22% (20%) from 126.1 ± 2.4 km2 (1662 lakes) in the 1960s to 153.6 ± 11.1 km2 (1994 lakes) in 2020. Of these lakes, this study identified 38 very high and 85 high GLOF-susceptibility lakes; mainly distributed along the Bomi-Nyingchi railway section in the Parlung Zangbo River basin. Four of the very high GLOF-susceptibility glacial lakes may pose a threat to the railway and will require monitoring. The insights from this study can be used to mitigate the risk of GLOFs during the construction and maintenance of the Sichuan-Tibet Railway. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-88360bbda96545448722897ba7bdcf8e |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 0022-1430 1727-5652 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-01-01 |
| publisher | Cambridge University Press |
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| series | Journal of Glaciology |
| spelling | doaj-art-88360bbda96545448722897ba7bdcf8e2025-01-16T21:47:59ZengCambridge University PressJournal of Glaciology0022-14301727-56522024-01-017010.1017/jog.2024.40Potential threats of glacial lake changes to the Sichuan-Tibet RailwayMenger Peng0Guoqing Zhang1Jinyuan Yu2Weicai Wang3Fenglin Xu4Sonam Rinzin5State Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Earth System, Environment and Resources (TPESER), Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Earth System, Environment and Resources (TPESER), Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, ChinaSchool of Ecology and Environment, Tibet University, Lhasa, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Earth System, Environment and Resources (TPESER), Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Earth System, Environment and Resources (TPESER), Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Earth System, Environment and Resources (TPESER), Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China School of Geography, Politics, and Sociology, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UKThe Sichuan-Tibet Railway, China's second inland railway to Tibet, is currently being constructed and will run between Chengdu and Lhasa. It will cross the southeastern Tibetan Plateau and be surrounded by glacial lakes, some of which may pose a threat of glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) events. Both the specific location and the outburst susceptibility of these glacial lakes are largely unknown. In this study, we mapped the glacial lakes using declassified Corona KH-4 and Hexagon KH-9 from the 1960s and Sentinel-2 imagery from 2020 and assessed their spatio-temporal changes. GLOF-susceptibility criteria were established based on historical GLOF events. The results show that the total area (number) of glacial lakes has increased by 22% (20%) from 126.1 ± 2.4 km2 (1662 lakes) in the 1960s to 153.6 ± 11.1 km2 (1994 lakes) in 2020. Of these lakes, this study identified 38 very high and 85 high GLOF-susceptibility lakes; mainly distributed along the Bomi-Nyingchi railway section in the Parlung Zangbo River basin. Four of the very high GLOF-susceptibility glacial lakes may pose a threat to the railway and will require monitoring. The insights from this study can be used to mitigate the risk of GLOFs during the construction and maintenance of the Sichuan-Tibet Railway.https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0022143024000406/type/journal_articleglacial lakeGLOFglacial hazard assessmentTibetan Plateauremote sensing |
| spellingShingle | Menger Peng Guoqing Zhang Jinyuan Yu Weicai Wang Fenglin Xu Sonam Rinzin Potential threats of glacial lake changes to the Sichuan-Tibet Railway Journal of Glaciology glacial lake GLOF glacial hazard assessment Tibetan Plateau remote sensing |
| title | Potential threats of glacial lake changes to the Sichuan-Tibet Railway |
| title_full | Potential threats of glacial lake changes to the Sichuan-Tibet Railway |
| title_fullStr | Potential threats of glacial lake changes to the Sichuan-Tibet Railway |
| title_full_unstemmed | Potential threats of glacial lake changes to the Sichuan-Tibet Railway |
| title_short | Potential threats of glacial lake changes to the Sichuan-Tibet Railway |
| title_sort | potential threats of glacial lake changes to the sichuan tibet railway |
| topic | glacial lake GLOF glacial hazard assessment Tibetan Plateau remote sensing |
| url | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0022143024000406/type/journal_article |
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