ISLAMABAD: Climate experts, Saturday, urged upon the government for ensuring continuous ground-based observations to cope with glacier-related hazards.

They were talking at National Centre of Excellence in Geology, where they arranged a one-day seminar on “Climate change impacts on glaciers in Pakistan: challenges and opportunities”.

It was noted that glacier changes in the upper Indus Basin have been observed through precise GPS measurement and using satellite remote sensing data including Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat),Advanced Space-borne Thermal Emission and Reflection (ASTER), Land Satellite (Landsat),Sentinel, Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiameter (MODIS) and open source and commercial tools.

Among the experts, Khan Faraz from Hayatabad, Peshawar, told media that the concept of “Karakoram anomaly” was slightly changing.

According to Faraz, glaciers there were slightly losing rather than gaining mass.

He emphasised continuous ground-based glacier observations to cope with glacier-related hazards and manage water resources for various applications including agriculture, hydro-power, and households.

They said in view of the above, there is a need for glacier monitoring by high-resolution remote sensing images and digital elevation models.

Also, continuous glacier changes and observations should be coordinated with stakeholders and decision makers for water availability and vulnerability to glacier-related hazards.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021