Beijing, March 21 (Youth.cn) - Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources of Chinese Academy of Sciences published the 3rd dataset of Glacier Inventory of China on the 3rd Conference of National Association of Cryospheric Sciences held on March 21st, the first World Day for Glaciers.
According to the dataset, in 2020, China has 46,000 square kilometers of glacier area while the total number of glaciers is about 69,000. Compared with the 1st dataset of Glacier Inventory of China, glacier area decreased by about 26% in China over the past 6 decades - which means 4.8% glacier area disappears every ten years. About 7,000 small glaciers has totally disappeared over the past 60 years. China’s glacier area decreased by 6% from 2008 to 2020, which means 5.2% glacier area disappears every decade from 2008 to 2020. Over the past decade, China has experienced a rapid disappearance of glacier area.
Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources of Chinese Academy of Sciences is one of the institutes that engaged earliest in glacier scientific research. It published the 1st and 2nd dataset of Glacier Inventory of China in 2002 and 2014 and the scientific result of glacier change in China from 1950s to 2020s, which shows that about 18% of China’s glacier area has disappeared from 1960 to 2008. In 2023, the institute reorganized professional research team to edit the 3rd dataset of Glacier Inventory of China, based on the data reflected China’s glacier situation in 2020. The team accomplished the edition work before March 21st, the first World Day for Glaciers.
The edition work of the International Glacier Inventory started in 1978 and mainly focus on the distribution and reserve of mountain glaciers around the world. Later, countries with glaciers gradually started to edit national glacier inventories. With the guidance of Academician Shi Yafeng, former Lanzhou Institute of Glaciology and Geocryology of Chinese Academy of Sciences started to edit the Glacier Inventory of China. With 24 years of efforts, the edit work completed in 2002. According to the 1st edition of the Glacier Inventory, China had 46,000 glaciers from 1960s to 1980s with total glacier area of about 59,000 square kilometers.
With the rapid global climate warming, glaciers in China has been shrinking in the second half of the 20th century. To solve the problem that the first edition of Glacier Inventory of China could not reflect the distribution status of China’s glaciers after the year of 2000, the former Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Sciences organized the edit work of the 2nd edition of China Glacier Inventory in 2007 in order to know the latest distribution characteristics of China’s glaciers. The institute finished and published the 2nd edition of China Glacier Inventory in 2014. The Inventory shows that China had 48,000 glaciers around the year of 2008 with total glacier area of about 52,000 square kilometers.
The 3rd edition of Glacier Inventory of China adapted optical satellite remote sensing data which has better distinguishability and image quality. Based on the latest experience and technology of the 2nd Glacier Inventory of China edit work, the systematic glacier cataloging method with better efficiency has been adapted, which enable a quicker cataloging of the inventory. The 3rd Glacier Inventory of China has cataloged about 30,000 very small remnant glaciers with area less than 10,000 square meter to more clearly reflect the distribution and the situation of China’s glaciers. The publish of the 3rd China Glacier Inventory made China the only country with glacier that completed 3 times of cataloging of nationwide glaciers.
