Abstract:
In recent decades, the areas of the occurrence of dangerous lakes have enlarged as a result of increasing man-made impact on nature. Lakes with a glacial origin are potential sources of catastrophic flash floods. Together with the collapse of dams of moraine-made lakes we very often observe floods which are linked with temporal occurrence of groundwater at lateral slopes of valleys, when glaciers pulsate with heavy avalanches and landslips. An important part of the monitoring is the unique system of observation, forecasting, and warning of dangerous phenomena, particularly, the forecasting and warning of mud floods. Today about one third of all observing points are not functioning. In case of adverse situations, the lakes are observed from helicopters. The hydrometeorological services of the Central Asian countries, in the conditions of transforming economy, suffer from heavy financial difficulties. Under these conditions it is important to improve the monitoring and the early warning system by means of high resolution satellite imagery. It is also necessary to develop a strategy to adapt the water management to possible variations in the conditions of mountain lakes caused by atmospheric warming.