Tirthankar Ghosh
McCormack, Felicity; Ramsankaran, RAAJ; Mackintosh, Andrew
Abstract/Description
The landscapes of glaciated regions across the Himalayas and other alpine settings are undergoing rapid transformation due to accelerated global warming. These glaciers are vital components of the global water cycle and serve as critical buffers against water scarcity for millions of people. Glaciers have been monitored and studied for centuries, yet much of the photographic evidence of glacier changes remains poorly preserved or undocumented, especially in the Himalayas. By leveraging crowdsourced data and citizen science, combined with advancements in smartphone and camera technology, we can build extensive datasets capturing the evolution of multiple glaciers. This approach not only provides a cost-effective means of long-term monitoring but also engages communities in documenting the evolving glacial landscapes. Such datasets can support diverse scientific analyses, complementing satellite datasets with their unique vantage of the glacier fronts, including glacier area changes, glacial lake expansion, identifying calving events/or some other events such as glacier collapse, while serving as an invaluable record of the transformations occurring in these fragile ecosystems. Harnessing the collective effort of citizens, along with advances in photogrammetry and geospatial analysis, offers an opportunity to preserve the memory and science of these disappearing giants for future generations. We present a method to utilize the potential of crowdsourced data to build a library of glacier images and employ them to monitor various aspects of glacier change. This approach can provide an easy and cost-effective method of data gathering, which could be important for understanding the long-term impacts of climate change on critical water resources and mountain hazards and developing effective adaptation strategies for the affected communities.
