Glacier Monitoring Group at Research and Development Division, PMD is regularly monitoring Shishper glacier surge and resultantly developed lake at Hassanabad, Hunza, Gilgit –Baltistan. The Karakoram mountain range is dominated by surging glacier. At times, surging glaciers intercept its water or of surrounding glacier and facilitates formation of glacier dammed lake that may suddenly outburst and result in Glacial Lake Outburst Flooding (GLOF). GLOF may release millions of cubic meters of water stored in the lake that may affect downstream infrastructure up to hundreds of kilometers. Shishper glacier situated at Hassanabad, Hunza is a surging glacier that intercepted glacier-meltwater from its neighboring glacier named Muchuhur and facilitated the formation of a glacial lake that is at risk to GLOF in coming months. Previously two GLOF events were occurred on June 23, 2019 and May 29, 2020, when Shishper glacier dammed lake was outburst with peak discharges of 5000 and 2900-3500 cusecs respectively that damaged Karakoram Highway (KKH) near Hassanabad by eroding road, and road traffic was hauled for few days. This brief report details the background of Shishper glacier surge and its dynamics as analyzed by hydro-meteorological data and satellite imagery, moreover, the mitigation strategy is detailed and a future way forward is provided for policy makers.

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