Abstract
The temporal and permanent snow cover along with glaciers form an important part of Himalayan ecosystem and hydrological cycle. The Ganga River with its origin from glaciers of Gangotri and Alakhnanda valley has significant water contributions from melt waters of these glaciers and snowmelt runoff. The percent contribution of snowmelt and glacier melt water is highest in headwater reaches of Ganga basin. The present chapter has focused on mapping of these snow bound areas using remote sensing and integrating the Snow Cover Area (SCA) with hydrometeorological data in temperature index based snowmelt runoff models. The Bhagirathi river basin upto Uttarkashi and Alakhnanda river basin upto Joshimath are taken for this study. Landsat, Resourcesat-1 and MODIS satellites were used for SCA estimation. WINSRM has been used for snowmelt runoff simulation. The discharge data from central water commission was used to calibrate and validate the simulated snowmelt runoff. The Coefficient of determination, R2 for Bhagirathi river basin comes in range of 0.76–0.84 for 2002–2007 time periods, similarly for Alakhnanda river it comes about 0.87 and 0.90 for year 2000 and 2008. Overall this study shows that snowmelt runoff can be estimated using temperature index approach in this area and well distributed network of hydrometeorological stations will give better accuracy for snowmelt runoff models.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Singh P, Singh VP (2001) Snow and glacier hydrology. Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht
Jain SK (2008) Impact of retreat of Gangotri glacier on the flow of Ganga River. Curr Sci 95(8):1012–1014
Engman ET, Gurney RJ (1991) Remote sensing in hydrology. Remote Sensing Applications Series, pp xiv + 225. Chapman & Hall, London
Baral DJ, Gupta RP (1997) Integration of satellite sensor data with DEM for the study of snow cover distribution and depletion pattern. Int J Remote Sens 18(18):3889–3894. doi:10.1080/014311697216711
Warren SG (1982) Optical properties of snow. Rev Geophys Space Phys 20(1):67–89
Roshani MJ, Zouj V, Rezaei Y, Nikfar M (2008) Snow mapping of Alamchal glacier using remote sensing data. In: The international Archives of the Photogrammmetry, Remote Sensing and Information Sciences, vol XXXVII, Part B8, Beijing
Andersen T (1982) Operational snow mapping by satellites. In: Proceedings to the Exeter symposium, July 1982, IAHS Publications, 138, pp 149–154
Kulkarni A, Rathore BP, Singh SK, Ajai A (2010) Distribution of seasonal snow cover in central and western Himalaya. Ann Glaciol 51(54):121–128
Georgievsky MV (2009) Application of the Snowmelt Runoff model in the Kuban River basin using MODIS satellite images. Environ Res Lett 4:1–5
Jain SK, Goswami A, Saraf AK (2010) Snowmelt runoff modelling in a Himalayan basin with the aid of satellite data. Int J Remote Sens 31(24):6603–6618
McGuire M, Wood AW, Hamlet AF, Lettenmaier DP (2006) Use of satellite data to streamflow and reservoir storage forecasts in the Snake River basin. J Water Resour Plann Manage 132:97–110
Mirab SM (1997) Study of snowmelt runoff and water balance in mountainous catchments. Enschede, ITC: 98
Rango A, Salomomson VV, Foster JL (1977) Seasonal stream flow estimation in the Himalayan region employing meteorological satellite snow cover observations. Water Resour Res 13:109–112
Swamy AN, Brivio AN (1996) Hydrological Modeling of Snowmelt in Italian Alps using visible and infrared remote sensing. Int J Remote Sens 17(16):3169–3188
Martinec J, Rango A (1986) Parameter values for snowmelt runoff modeling. J Hydrol 84:197–219
Martinec J, Rango A, Major E (1983) The snowmelt-runoff (SRM) user’s manual, NASA Reference Publ. 1100. NASA, Washington, DC
Najafzadeh R (2004) Application of RS/GIS techniques and SRM model for estimation of Zayand-e-Rood river flow. M.S. thesis, Sharif University of technology, Iran
Radchenko U (2009) Snow-melt runoff modeling in Manali sub-basin. Post Graduate Diploma (PGD) report, CSSTEAP, WRD, IIRS Dehradun
Sarybekov ER (2004) Snowmelt runoff modeling of Beas basin upto Pandoh dam. Post Graduate Diploma (PGD) report, CSSTEAP, WRD, IIRS Dehradun
World Meteorological Organization (WMO, 1986) Intercomparison of models of snowmelt runoff, WMO, No 646; Operational hydrology report (OHR), 23, 440 p. ISBN: 978-92-631-0646-9
Singh AK, Hasnain SI (1998) Major ion chemistry and weathering control in a high altitude basin: Alaknanda River, Garhwal Himalaya, India. Hydrol Sci J Sci Hydrol 43(6):825–843
Sati VP (2008) Natural resource management and food security in the Alakhnanda basin of Garhwal Himalaya. ENVIS Bull 16(2):4–15
Chander G, Markham BL, Helder DL (2009) Summary of current radiometric calibration for Landsat MSS, TM, ETM + and EO-1 ALI sensors. Remote Sens Environ 113:893–903
Dozier J (1984) Snow reflectance from Landsat-4 Thematic Mapper. IEEE Trans Geosci Remote Sens 22(3):323–328
Dozier J (1989) Spectral signature of alpine snow covers from the Landsat thematic mapper. Remote Sens Environ 28:9–22
Dozier J, Marks D (1987) Snow mapping and classification from Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) data. Ann Glaciol 9:97–103
Richard C, Gratton DJ, et al (2001) The importance of the air temperature variable for the snowmelt runoff modelling using the SRM. Hydrological Processes, 18 (Eastern Snow Conference-Canadian Geophysical Union-Hydrological Section), pp 3357–3370
List of Websites
http://landsat.usgs.gov. Accessed in January 2010
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhagirathi_River. Accessed in January 2010
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow. Accessed in December 2012
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_hydrology. Accessed in December 2012
Acknowledgements
Author acknowledges the valuable support from Dr Y.V.N. Krishnamurthy, Director IIRS, Dr. P.S. Roy, Former Director IIRS, Dr. V.K. Dadhwal, Director NRSC and Dr. S.P. Aggarwal, Head, Water Resources Department, IIRS, for completion of this research. Author also thanks all the post graduate diploma students of IIRS and CSSTEAP for their contributions in this work. Thanks are also due to IMD, NIH and CWC for providing hydro-meteorological data for this project. Funding for this work was provided by National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCCC) project “Impact of Climate & LULC change on Hydrological Regime of Ganga River Basin” as part of National Water Mission.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Thakur, P.K. (2014). Snow Melt Runoff Status in Part of Ganga Basin. In: Sanghi, R. (eds) Our National River Ganga. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00530-0_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00530-0_10
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-00529-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-00530-0
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)