Xinhua News Agency, Lanzhou, March 21 (Reporters Zhang Wenjing, Hu Weijie) March 21 this year is the first World Glacier Day. The Northwest Institute of Ecology, Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences released the third Chinese glacier catalog on the same day.
Glaciers are the most sensitive and direct information carrier for climate change. Glacier cataloging is to conduct a census of glacier resources. As the earliest scientific research unit in my country to engage in glacier research, the Northwest Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences completed the first and second Chinese glacier cataloging in 2002 and 2014 respectively. In 2023, the institute once again organized a professional team to implement the third China glacier cataloging work with 2020 as the current status.
Project leader Researcher Kang Shichang said that the third China glacier catalogue shows that China's latest glacier area is about 46,000 square kilometers around 2020, and the total number of glaciers is about 69,000. Compared with the first Chinese glacier cataloging, the overall glacier area in my country decreased by about 26% from the 1960s to 2020, and about 7,000 small glaciers disappeared completely. Compared with the second China glacier catalogue, the overall glacier area in my country decreased by about 6% between 2008 and 2020.
Guo Wanqin, an associate researcher at the institute, said that the third China glacier cataloging work adopted optical satellite remote sensing data with higher spatial and temporal resolution and better quality. At the same time, combined with the experience and latest technology of China glacier cataloging, a more efficient and fast systematic glacier cataloging method was built, so that glacier cataloging can be completed quickly in a short period of time. The third China glacier catalog also compiled residual ice bodies with an area of less than 10,000 square meters and in an extinction state, with a total number of about 30,000, which more clearly reflects the distribution and status of China's glaciers.
The United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution in December 2022, declaring 2025 the International Year of Glacier Protection, and designated March 21 each year as World Glacier Day, aiming to raise awareness of the important role of glaciers in the climate system and hydrological cycles and the impact of rapid melting of glaciers.
