Assessment Of The Effect Of Climate Change On Vegetation And Snow Cover Area In Western Himalayas

The Himalayas and surrounding high mountain regions are the source of the major river systems in Asia that supply fresh water to the region's 1.4 billion people.Snow cover is sensitive to climate change and especially to changes in temperature.Climate also has an inevitable influence on growing environment and on the condition of vegetation.In this study,we examine the spatial and temporal variability of normalized difference vegetation index(NDVI),snow cover,and land surface temperature(LST)in Gilgit Baltistan from 2001 to 2018 using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer(MODIS)datasets and metrological station data.Mann-Kendall Trend results show significantly increasing NDVI trends during July,August,and September.An increasing trend in snow cover is observed during winter while it significantly decreases during June and July,and overall an increasing annual LST trend was observed in Gilgit Baltistan.Pearson's correlation coefficient(PCC)shows a strong positive correlation between NDVI and LST(PCC = 0.73)and a strong negative correlation between LST and snow cover(PCC =-0.74)and NDVI and snow cover(PCC =-0.78).The coefficient of determination between MODIS LST and station recorded air temperature data was greater than 0.59.Our study serves to understand the spatial and temporal changes between snow cover,NDVI and LST at different elevation zone and also to reflect the interaction between these parameters at different altitudes over wide areas in the Himalayan region.