Outburst hazard of little-studied lakes assessment at the Mongun-Taiga massif

Abstract

There is a reduction in the area of glaciation of mountain massifs as a result of climate warming, which leads to the formation of lake-glacial complexes in areas of glaciation degradation. These complexes are dynamic systems that are rapidly changing over time, therefore, unstable and potentially outburst. Moraine and periglacial lakes outbursts are dangerous hydrological phenomena. As a result of outbursts catastrophic floods and mudflows can form, causing serious damage to the infrastructure of settlements located downstream and often leading to human toll. Therefore, the study of outburst-hazardous lakes is necessary and is an important applied problem associated with forecasting natural hazards. In this paper an the outburst hazard of little-studied moraine and periglacial lakes at the Mongun-Taiga mountain massif (Tyva Republic, Russian Federation) assessment was carried out using the scoring method, supplemented taking into account regional characteristics, using data from remote sensing of the Earth. The performed assessment according to satellite images showed that most of the massif's lakes have a high outburst hazard. Based on the assessment results a group of lakes was selected located in the right branch upstream of the river “Tolaity” for the purpose of a more detailed field survey (hydrological and geophysical studies were carried out). Field work carried out on the selected group of lakes allowed us to correct the performed assessment. In paper the applicability of the method based on comparing field data and data obtained from satellite images was estimated.