Spatial-diurnal variability of snow/glacier melt runoff in glacier regime river valley: Central Himalaya, India
Introduction
Most of the rivers in the world originate from the places in the high mountainous region, where a huge amount of freshwater is stored in the form of snow and glacier (Barnett et al., 2005; Kaser et al., 2010; Ahluwalia et al., 2013; Rai et al., 2019). Three major river system namely Ganga, Brahmaputra and Indus emanate from such high altitude snow/glacier covered region in Himalaya and fed by snow/glacier melt runoff (Rai et al., 2009; Maurya et al., 2011; Kulkarni and Karyakarte, 2014; Gaddam et al., 2018). Rising demand for freshwater, industrial and societal development always depend on these Himalayan rivers (Jain et al., 2007). Snow/glacier mass loss may impact freshwater supply on the socio-economic structure of the people living in downstream (Jain et al., 2010; Ahluwalia et al., 2015). Therefore, accurate quantification of snow/glacier melt runoff contribution on microscale basin in extreme high altitude valley becomes necessary to investigate the origin of water to understand the stream flow generation in a glacierized catchment under the scope of changing climate. Among them, the Ganga River system originate from central Himalaya and travel around Gangasagar by traversing a distance of 2525 km from five states. Food and water for nearly half of the population in the country come from the Ganga River system and contribute ∼ 25% of the country's gross water (Singh et al., 2005; Arora et al., 2010). Therefore, an attempt was made to assess the spatial diurnal variability of snow/glacier melt runoff and inferences of dynamics of groundwater in the Bhagirathi River.
In the recent past, many studies have been carried out covering the different aspects of Geology, Glaciology and Geomorphology in the Ganga River system. The water chemistry of headwater of the Ganga River has been investigated by Pandey et al., (1999), Ahmad and Hasnain (2001), Chakrapani (2005), Singh et al. (2012), Kumar et al. (2009), Trivedi et al. (2010). Tangri (2000) made an attempt to study the basic drainage network and associated geomorphological aspects of the Bhagirathi River basin. The water balance/modeling aspects of the stream-flow in the Bhagirathi River at Devprayag has been attempted by Singh et al. (1994). Singh et al. (2005) have made an attempt to study the diurnal variation in discharge and suspended sediment concentration near Gaumukh. Maurya et al. (2011) and Khan et al. (2017) have estimated the average snow/glacier melt contribution in the Ganga River downstream at Devprayag and Rishikesh by adopting isotope approach. However, spatial-diurnal variability in isotope signature of the source water and their contribution to the river could not receive much attention.
The stable isotope characteristics of the Himalayan rivers have been studied by Ramesh and Sarin. (1992), Dalai et al. (2002), Rai et al. (2009), Rai et al. (2016), Khan et al., 2017, Ala-Aho et al. (2018). Carbon isotope composition have been studied to understand the source of dissolved inorganic carbon (Chakrapani and Veizer., 2005). The correlation of electrical conductivity and stable isotope δ18O in the Bhagirathi River was also studied by (Lamb, 2000).
In order to carry out the study, isotope signature (δ18O and δD) of snow/glacier melt runoff, groundwater and river water were analyzed on the spatial-diurnal basis. Further, an attempt was also made to assess the relationship of d-excess and electrical conductivity of river discharge to different source water.
Section snippets
Study area
The study was conducted in the head water region of the Bhagirathi River basin, a sub-basin of the Ganga River system, for the spatial diurnal variability of snow/glacier melt runoff at Gaumukh, Bhojbasa, and Gangotri. Upper reaches of the river basin remain under snow cover throughout the year. Cluster of many glaciers and the main Gangotri Glacier (length: 30 km) forms the trunk part of the system. This is known as Gangotri Glacier system. The major glacier tributaries of the Gangotri Glacier
Samples collection and analysis
A total of 121 samples of river water, snow/glacier meltwater along with groundwater were collected for isotope analysis in the study area (Fig. 2). Samples were collected at three sites on an hourly basis at Gaumukh (Site I-4020 a.m.s.l), Bhojbasa (Site II-3800 a.m.s.l) and Gangotri (Site III-3400 a.m.s.l) in the ablation period (September) 2014. Groundwater samples were collected from the springs along the hill slope close to the river. Snow/glacier samples were collected to the upstream of
Isotope composition of δ18O and δD of groundwater, snow/glacier and river water
In this study, spatial diurnal variability of δ18O and δD in high altitude Bhagirathi River basin is presented and discussed. Spatially distributed isotope signature of δ18O and δD in groundwater and river water is presented in Table 1 δ18O of fifteen groundwater/spring samples range from −9.23‰ to −7.57‰, while δD range from −63.43‰ to −49.82‰ VSMOW. The average value of δ18O and δD signatures are −8.53‰ and −57.45‰ respectively. The best fit regression line of groundwater is δD = 8.30 *δ18O +
Conclusion
Isotope approach for the estimation of the spatial diurnal contribution of snow/glacier melt runoff in high altitude river valley shows good outcome despite the little available data. On the basis of δ18O and δDsignature of river water samples and GMWL, it was observed that river water did not suffer much evaporation. The river water in the Bhagirathi River basin is separated into snow/glacier meltwater and groundwater during the non-rainy season using a two-component mixing model. Stable
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest for the submitted manuscript titled “Spatial-diurnal variability of snow/glacier melt runoff in glacier regime river valley: Central Himalaya, India".
Acknowledgment
The authors are thankful to the Director, Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology (WIHG) for providing all the necessary help, support, and encouragement to carry out this work. Mr. Akhilesh Gairola, STA for helping during the field work is also acknowledged.
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