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Updated June 16th, 2021 at 22:10 IST

'Need for serious rural-urban planning': Study reveals flood frequency in Ladakh may rise

There is large uncertainty in flood prediction models as these floods are of various kinds and origin--Glacial/ landslide lake outbursts, cloud bursts.

Reported by: Astha Singh
@PIBShillong-Twitter
@PIBShillong-Twitter | Image:self
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A recent study indicated that in the scenario of global warming when the higher Himalaya regions are expected to respond dramatically, flood frequency in Ladakh may increase, which may call for serious urban and rural planning, amid the global warming scenario. Large floods that naturally occur in major rivers of India fed by melting snow and glaciers and a continental scale precipitation regime of Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM) and Westerlies and East Asian Summer Monsoon (EASM) significantly modify the landscape and impact the lives and economy of all that encroached into its geomorphic domain.

There is large uncertainty in flood prediction models as these floods are of various kinds and origin like-- Glacial/landslide lake outbursts, cloud bursts, excessively strong monsoon. It also has different forcing factors and frequencies. An instrumental record of these floods is of 100 years-- which is not enough to understand the natural ramp of flood occurrences in the Himalayas, and therefore archiving deep into time is required.

A team of students and scientists lead by the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology at Dehradun (WIHG)-- an autonomous institute of the Department of Science & Technology, Government of India, traveled through the tough terrains of Zanskar and Indus drained Himalaya. They observed minutely into geological signatures of past floods in the Ladakh region that date between 15-30 thousand years before the present. Recently, this study was published online in the Geological Society of America Bulletin.

Cold desert once experienced large flood

Flood leaves a stack of fine sand and silts at places along its channel where the flood energy drastically reduces. This analysis showed that the cold desert once experienced a large flood that rose to more than 30 m above the present-day river level. The active flood plains nearer to the river were also utilized by Humans, possibly as camping sites and cooking as indicated by the presence of hearths at several locations and levels of flood deposits.

 The chronology of the flood deposits pointed towards three phases of increased flooding that occurred in Ladakh after the period called Last Glacial Maximum (14–11, 10–8, and 7–4 (1000 years) or ka). These were times when due to warming, the Indian summer monsoon was active in Ladakh as well. The preliminary study of hearths suggested that there was an inbound migration of people along the mountain corridors of Ladakh after the Last Glacial Maximum when temperatures were relatively warmer, and hydrology of the region was supporting. 

(Image Credits: @PIBShillong-Twitter)

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Published June 16th, 2021 at 22:10 IST

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