Scholarly record

GIS-BASED TEMPORAL ANALYSIS OF GLACIER CHANGES ON AGRI MOUNTAIN USING LANDSAT DATA

Dr. Mustafa Yalcin, Mehmet Ali Ugur, Nizar Polat, Dr. Mehmet Ali Dereli

Abstract

The exchange of glaciers and climate change has gained considerable importance; therefore, many researches have conducted studies related to the subject in the world. The reduction of glacial mass changes is vital issue since it causes a significant climate change and carries certain risks. Therefore, the causes of the reduction should be investigated and the necessary precautions should be taken for this situation. As in the rest of the world, there are glacier variations in Turkey. There are mountains with permanent glaciers in Turkey, one of which is the Agri (Ararat) Mountain as the biggest glacier with the area of 10-kilometer square. The aim of the study is to determine Glacier borders with the NDSI (Normalized Difference Snow Index) and examine Glacier changes the Mount Agri using GIS and Remote sensing techniques. Moreover, the results obtained from the NDSI are compared with band ratio techniques in the remote sensing literature. Landsat TM4-5 and Landsat 8 Oli images of the month of August in the years of 1987, 1989, 1998, 2013, and 2015 were used in the study. The NDSI images derived from the images and classified with the threshold value. Based on the NDSI images, glacier changes were examined by using the GIS based temporal analysis. Based on the analysis of the NDSI images, the study reveals that approximately 39 percent of the glacier has melted during the last three decades. The band ratio of near infrared and short wave infrared bands used to validate the NDSI results. Based on the comparisons, the NDSI and band ratio techniques provide the statistically same results in terms of the area of glacier.

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