Glacial Lakes and Related Hazards: Mapping, Monitoring, and Risk Assessment

Dear Colleagues,

Glacial lakes, as water resources and also sensitive indicators for climate change, are widely distributed in High-Mountain Asia (HMA). In the case of dam failures, glacial lakes can release massive amounts of water abruptly and cause catastrophic damage to local downstream regions, also called glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs). Remote sensing is the most feasible technique to investigate the regional distributions and changes in glacial lakes, to build GLOF datasets, and reconstruct typical GLOF events, providing fundamental data for water resource and GLOF risk evaluation. Detecting the location of potentially dangerous glacial lakes and predicting their possible socio-economic impact has a critical role in GLOF prevention and mitigation.

This Special Issue will report on recent progress in this area, with studies covering the application of remote sensing technology in glacial lake research, novel mapping approaches, monitoring techniques, and integrated assessment models towards sustainable development.

We encourage submissions of both regular research papers and reviews on topics related to the application of remote sensing in HMA glacial lakes and their related hazards, including, but not limited to, the following: 

• Novel glacial lake mapping approaches and applications at local to regional scales, including optical, SAR, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) observations, or a mixture of these techniques;
• Glacial lake changes, drivers, interactions between glaciers and climate change, and associated hydrological implications;
• Inventory and reconstruction of typical GLOF events to reveal the mechanisms and processes of GLOFs;
• New frameworks and methods for GLOF hazard risk evaluations, as well as their application in key regions/zones/corridors of HMA, e.g., Sichuan–Tibet railway, China–Pakistan economic corridor, China–Nepal economic corridor, the Tien Shan, the Himalayas, and Karakoram;
• Impact of GLOFs on downstream communities and infrastructure;
• Remote sensing-based monitoring and early warnings.

Prof. Dr. Yong Nie
Prof. Dr. Qiao Liu
Prof. Dr. Guoqing Zhang
Prof. Dr. Xin Wang
Guest Editors

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