The Hindu Kush Himalayan region is characterized by widespread presence of glacial lakes dammed by loose, unconsolidated moraine. These lakes are potential sources of flood, with numerous instances of glacial lake outburst flood events reported from across the region every year. However, the risk these glacial lakes present has not been comprehensively assessed in Afghanistan. In this regard, ICIMOD’s SWaRMA and SERVIR-HKH Initiatives are collaborating with the Ministry of Energy and Water (MEW), Afghanistan, on developing a glacial lake database and building capacity for glacier change analysis in the country.

As part of this collaboration, SWaRMA is organizing a five-day training from 15 to 19 July 2019 on identifying potentially dangerous glacial lakes (PDGLs) in the Kabul basin using remote sensing and geospatial techniques. The primarily aim is to enhance the capacity of four key professionals from MEW, Afghanistan. The participants will learn how to define the parameters used for dam breach modeling for assessing GLOF scenarios.

Objectives

1. Introduction to glaciers, glacial lakes, and the formation of glacial lakes
2.  Morphological classification of glacial lakes and analyzing physical properties of lakes’ dams
3.  Analysis of physical properties related to source glacier and glacial lakes and their surrounding landforms
4.  Categorization of PDGLs on the basis of the physical properties of the lake’s dam, source glaciers, and surrounding landforms
5. Discussion on overall processes and detailed work plan

List of participants Training schedule Evaluation results training evaluation sheet