TPRoGI: a comprehensive rock glacier inventory for the Tibetan Plateau using deep learning

• Main Authors: Sun, Zhangyu, Hu, Yan, Racoviteanu, Adina, Liu, Lin, Harrison, Stephan, Wang, Xiaowen, Cai, Jiaxin, Guo, Xin, He, Yujun, Yuan, Hailun
• Other Authors: The Chinese University of Hong Kong Hong Kong (CUHK), Institut des Géosciences de l’Environnement (IGE), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE)-Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers de Grenoble (Fédération OSUG)-Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP), Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD Occitanie ), University of Exeter, Southwest Jiaotong University (SWJTU), Campus France
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: CCSD 2024
• Subjects: [SDE]Environmental Sciences; permafrost
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-04950570; https://hal.science/hal-04950570v1/document; https://hal.science/hal-04950570v1/file/essd-16-5703-2024.pdf; https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-5703-2024

International audience Rock glaciers -periglacial landforms commonly found in high-mountain systems -are of significant scientific value for inferring the presence of permafrost, understanding mountain hydrology, and assessing climate impacts on high-mountain environments. However, inventories remain patchy in many alpine regions, and as a result they are poorly understood for some areas of High Mountain Asia such as the Tibetan Plateau. To address this gap, we compiled a comprehensive inventory of rock glaciers for the Tibetan Plateau, i.e., TPRoGI (v1.0), developed using an innovative deep learning method. This inventory consists of a total of 44 273 rock glaciers, covering approximately 6000 km 2 , with a mean area of 0.14 km 2 . They are predominantly situated at elevations ranging from 4000 to 5500 m a.s.l., with a mean of 4729 m a.s.l. They tend to occur on slopes with gradients between 10 and 25°, with a mean of 17.7°. Across the plateau, rock glaciers are widespread in the northwestern and southeastern areas, with dense concentrations in the Western Pamir and Nyainqêntanglha, while they are sparsely distributed in the inner part. Our inventory serves as a benchmark dataset, which will be further maintained and updated in the future. This dataset constitutes a significant contribution towards understanding, future monitoring, and assessment of permafrost on the Tibetan Plateau in the context of climate change. The dataset is available at https://zenodo.org/records/10732042.