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Glacier Mass Balance and Its Significance on the Water Resource Management in the Western Himalayas

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Abstract

The global climate system is a consequence of and a link between the atmosphere, oceans, ice sheets (cryosphere), living organisms (biosphere), and soils, sediments and rocks (geosphere). The role of glaciers as sensitive climatic indicators and natural buffers of hydrological cycle is well established. In this era of much talked about climate change and global warming, glaciers have been correctly recognized as a thermometer and a crucial freshwater resource. Glaciers release meltwater during summers and early autumn, and, therefore, act as a water resource downstream by recharging river fed aquifer and influencing runoff (Bolch et al., 2012).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Glacier Research Group, School of Environmental Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, 110067, India

    Shruti Dutta, AL. Ramanathan, Anurag Linda, Jose George Pottakkal, Virendra Bahadur Singh & Thupstan Angchuk

  2. Department of Environmental Sciences, Amity School of Applied Sciences, Amity University, Haryana, India

    Shruti Dutta

  3. School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Central University of Himachal Pradesh, Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh, India

    Anurag Linda

Authors
  1. Shruti Dutta
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  2. AL. Ramanathan
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  3. Anurag Linda
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  4. Jose George Pottakkal
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  5. Virendra Bahadur Singh
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  6. Thupstan Angchuk
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to AL. Ramanathan .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environmental Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India

    N. Janardhana Raju

  2. Hydrogeology & Environmental Geology, Martin Luther University, Halle, Germany

    Wolfgang Gossel

  3. School of Environmental Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India

    AL. Ramanathan

  4. Ministry of Earth Sciences, New Delhi, India

    M. Sudhakar

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© 2015 Capital Publishing Company

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Dutta, S., Ramanathan, A., Linda, A., Pottakkal, J.G., Singh, V.B., Angchuk, T. (2015). Glacier Mass Balance and Its Significance on the Water Resource Management in the Western Himalayas. In: Raju, N., Gossel, W., Ramanathan, A., Sudhakar, M. (eds) Management of Water, Energy and Bio-resources in the Era of Climate Change: Emerging Issues and Challenges. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05969-3_7

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