Assessing The Impact of Climate Change on Snow Characteristics and Glacier Area Change in the Subansiri Basin: A Review

Recent studies on snow and glacier area change in the Subansiri Basin, a sub-basin of the Brahmaputra Basin in the Eastern Himalayas, have focused on changes in snow cover and characteristics of glaciers. The Subansiri basin is one of the larger north bank tributaries of the Brahmaputra river system and hence has a significant contribution to the river discharge in the downstream reaches. Researchers have analyzed important changes, such as Accumulation area, debris cover, Glaciered & Snow field, non-glaciated area, including earlier snowmelt, decreased glacier coverage, reduced seasonal snow, and higher snowlines, using remote sensing and GIS techniques. Land use land cover (LULC) change detection of an area is also important, as this is an indicator of climate change. LULC has various categories to recognize vegetation transformation over a time period. The transformation of the vegetation classes and human settlement in upper catchment areas is investigated by the Land Use Land Cover as well. These changes directly affect the accumulation area of the glacier, water security, ecosystem resilience, and vegetation. The changer of glacier area has also impacted landslide, glacier rock flow simulation, and multi-hazard modelling. The results highlight the required of continuous monitoring, improved modeling, and adaptive new management techniques to handle the growing problems resulting from climate change in the Subansiri basin.