Publications

Sheikh, HA; Bhat, MS; Alam, A; Ahsan, S; Shah, BL (2023). Evaluating the drivers of groundwater spring discharge in Sindh basin of Kashmir Himalaya. ENVIRONMENT DEVELOPMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY.

Abstract
Mountain springs are the only water source for most of the communities in the Kashmir Himalayas. However, over the past two decades, the discharge of these springs has decreased, and some springs have dried up. The current study mapped springs from the Sindh basin of the Kashmir Himalaya via a GPS-based Field survey. The dynamics of spring discharge were evaluated vis-a-vis climatic variability, land use changes, snow cover area, and any major developmental projects in the catchment. The observed temperature and precipitation data were subjected to trend analysis using the Mann Kendall's tau test and Sen's slope estimator. MODIS data were used to understand the dynamics of the Snow Cover Area (SCA) from 2010 to 2021. Landsat satellite imagery was processed to quantify the changes in Land use/cover (LULC). The study found that 13% of the springs below 1600 masl, 22% from 1600 to 2500 masl, and 28.9% above 2500 masl have witnessed a high decrease in discharge. The seasonality of the spring discharge implies snowmelt is the predominant source. The time series analysis shows a weak decreasing trend in the precipitation during the growing season (Spring and Summer). However, both minimum and maximum temperatures show a statistically significant upward trend and result in the early melting of the snow, also confirmed by the analysis of SCA. The study reveals that climate change and LULC change are responsible for the drying of the springs.

DOI:
10.1007/s10668-023-03700-4

ISSN:
1573-2975