Glacier-level and gridded mass change in river sources in the eastern Tibetan Plateau region (ETPR) from the 1970s to 2000

作者：Yu Zhu, Shiyin Liu, Junfeng Wei, Kunpeng Wu, Tobias Bolch, Junli Xu, Wanqin Guo, Zongli Jiang, Fuming Xie, Ying Yi, Donghui Shangguan, Xiaojun Yao, Zhen Zhang · 发表于：Earth system science data · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.5194/essd-17-1851-2025 · 被引用次数：7 · 研究领域：Cryospheric studies and observations、Climate change and permafrost、Arctic and Antarctic ice dynamics

Abstract. The highly glacierized eastern part of the Tibetan Plateau is the key source region for seven major rivers: the Yangtze, Yellow, Lancang–Mekong, Nu–Salween, Irrawaddy, Ganges, and Brahmaputra rivers. These rivers are vital freshwater resources for more than 1 billion people downstream for their daily life, irrigation, industrial use, and hydropower. However, glaciers have been receding during recent decades and are projected to decline further, which will partly and temporarily impact water availability during drought periods, especially in headwater catchments of these larger river systems. Although few studies have investigated glacier mass changes in these river basins since the 1970s, they are site- and period-specific and limited by data availability. Hence, knowledge of glacier mass changes is especially lacking for the years prior to 2000. We therefore used digital elevation models (DEMs) derived from large-scale topographic maps based on aerial photogrammetry from the 1970s and 1980s and compared them to the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) DEM to provide a complete picture of mass change in glaciers in the region. The mass changes are presented on individual glacier bases with a resolution of 30 m and are also aggregated into gridded format at a resolution of 0.5°. Our database consists of 13 117 glaciers with a total area of ∼ 21 695 km2. The annual mean mass loss of glaciers is −0.30 ± 0.13 mw.e. in the whole region. This is larger than the previou...