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CONTROL ID: 1491523 TITLE: Land surface hydrological investigation in Upper Indus River Basin (UIB), North Pakistan under the Framework of TPE Program AUTHORS (FIRST NAME, LAST NAME): Yinsheng Zhang1 INSTITUTIONS (ALL): 1. TEL, ITP,CAS, Beijing, China. ABSTRACT BODY: The Upper Indus Basin (UIB) is home to three of the world’s mightiest mountain ranges. The Karakoram in north and the Himalaya in northeast while the Hindukush in the northwest of Pakistan. The Indus River emerges from the Tibetan Plateau and flows toward northern areas of Pakistan where it changes its direction toward the south and flows into the Arabian Sea. The catchment area of Indus River is located in Pakistan, China and India, but most part covered in Pakistan. The Upper Indus Basin lies within the variable influence of three major weather systems: the sub-Mediterranean regime of mainly winter, westerly storms; the summer monsoon; and the Tibetan anticyclone. The Upper Indus River Basin has a total catchment area of approx. 206,000 km2. The UIB includes the Hunza, Gilgit, Astore, Shigar and Shyok sub-basins. Nearly 11.5% (22,000 km2) of the total area of the UIB is covered by perennial glacial ice (including most of the largest valley glaciers) making it the largest area outside the polar and Greenland regions (Hewitt, 2007). UIB has a mean elevation of 4750 m with almost 60% of its total area above an elevation of 4500 m and 12% of its area (almost the same area is glacier covered) above 5500 m. Glacial melt is one of the major sources of inflow in the Upper Indus Basin, 44.8% of its river flow depends upon glacial melting. Its mean discharge at Tarbela dam is 5533 m3/s (IUCN, IWMI). Most of the annual precipitation in the UIB falls in the winter and spring and originates from the west (Young and Hewitt, 1990). Several researchers reported that 80% of the flow of the Upper Indus River is contributed by less than 20% of its area, essentially from the zones of heavy snowfall and glaciated basins above 3500m in elevation. Under the Framework of TPE Program, observational researches have been lunched since last year. The project aim to the objective of hydrological consequence of snow cover in UIB; impact of glacier dynamic to basin drainage and response of discharge to climatic changes during past 50 years. The presentation will highlight the research including field expedition in 2011, objective and strategies, and request to cooperation as well. KEYWORDS: [0774] CRYOSPHERE / Dynamics, [1863] HYDROLOGY / Snow and ice, [1833] HYDROLOGY / Hydroclimatology, [0744] CRYOSPHERE / Rivers. Contact Details CONTACT (NAME ONLY): Yinsheng Zhang CONTACT (E-MAIL ONLY): [email protected]