Glacier retreat is a common phenomenon in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP) with global warming during the past several decades, except for several mountains, such as the glaciers in the Karakoram and the western Kunlun Mountains. The dynamic nature of glaciers significantly influences the hydrologic, geologic, and ecological systems in the mountain regions. The sensitivity and dynamic response to climate change make glaciers excellent indicators of regional and global climate change, such as glacier melting and retreat with the rise of local air temperature. Long-term monitoring of glacier change is important to understand and assess past, current, and possible future climate environments. Some glacier surfaces are safe and accessible by foot, and are monitored using mass balance stakes and snow pits. Meanwhile, some glaciers with inaccessible termini may be surveyed using satellite remote images and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). Those inaccessible glaciers are generally covered by debris in the southeast QTP, which is hardly accessible due to the wide distribution of crevasses and cliffs. In this paper, we used the UAV to monitor the dynamic features of mass balance and velocity of the debris-covered region of Baishui River Glacier No. 1 (BRG1) on the Yulong Snow Mountain (YSM), Southeast QTP. We obtained the Orthomosaic and DEM with a high resolution of 0.10 m on 20 May and 22 September 2018, respectively. The comparison showed that the elevation of the debris-covered region of the BRG1 decreased by 6.58 m ± 3.70 m on average, and the mean mass balance was −5.92 m w.e. ± 3.33 m w.e. during the summer, correspondingly. The mean displacement of debris-covered glacier surface was 18.30 m ± 6.27 m, that is, the mean daily velocity was 0.14 m/d ± 0.05 m/d during the summer. In addition, the UAV images not only revealed the different patterns of glacier melting and displacement but also captured the phenomena of mass loss due to ice avalanches at the glacier front and the development of large crevasses. This study provides a feasible method for understanding the dynamic features of global debris-covered glaciers which are inaccessible and unobservable by other means.

Glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) is one of the major natural disasters in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP). On 25 June 2020, the outburst of the Jiwenco Glacial Lake (JGL) in the upper reaches of Nidu river in Jiari County of the QTP reached the downstream Niwu Township on 26 June, causing damage to many bridges, roads, houses, and other infrastructure, and disrupting telecommunications for several days. Based on radar and optical image data, the evolution of the JGL before and after the outburst was analyzed. The results showed that the area and storage capacity of the JGL were 0.58 square kilometers and 0.071 cubic kilometers, respectively, before the outburst (29 May), and only 0.26 square kilometers and 0.017 cubic kilometers remained after the outburst (27 July). The outburst reservoir capacity was as high as 5.4 million cubic meters. The main cause of the JGL outburst was the heavy precipitation process before outburst and the ice/snow/landslides entering the lake was the direct inducement. The outburst flood/debris flow disaster also led to many sections of the river and buildings in Niwu Township at high risk. Therefore, it is urgent to pay more attention to glacial lake outburst floods and other low-probability disasters, and early real-time engineering measures should be taken to minimize their potential impacts.

Using ground-penetrating radar (GPR), we measured and estimated the ice thickness of the Baishui River Glacier No. 1 of Yulong Snow Mountain. According to the position of the reflected media from the GPR image, combined with the radar waveform amplitude and polarity change information, the ice thickness and the changing medium position at the bottom of this temperate glacier were identified. Water paths were found in the measured ice, including ice caves and crevasses. A debris-rich ice layer was found at the bottom of the glacier, which produces strong abrasion and ploughing action at the bedrock surface. This results in the formation of different detrital layers stagnated at the ice-bedrock interface and numerous crevasses on the bedrock surface. Based on the obtained ice thickness and differential GPS data, combined with Landsat images, the kriging interpolation method was used to obtain grid data. The average ice thickness was 52.48 m and between 4740 and 4890 m above sea level, with a maximum depth of 92.83 m. The bedrock topography map of this area was drawn using digital elevation model from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. The central part of the glacier was characterized by small ice basins with distributed ice steps and ice ridges at the upper and lower parts.

World Heritage is of high historical, artistic, and scientific value and represents wealth created by human beings or nature that cannot be replaced. In this paper, the tempo–spatial characteristics of World Heritage and its traffic accessibility were assessed in China using statistical and spatial analysis methods. The results showed that development of Chinese World Heritage experienced exploratory, evolution, accelerated development, and stable development phases. To date, there are 55 World Heritage Projects in China, including 37 Cultural Heritage, 14 Natural Heritage, and 4 mixed double heritage projects. Based on the spatial analysis, global spatial correlation of these heritage sites was not significant while the local spatial correlation was significant. The majority of the heritage sites were distributed in the east–central regions of China, and the hotspots were also concentrated in these regions. In addition, an assessment of inter-regional accessibility indicated that 63.18% of heritage sites could be reached within one hour from a city center and the average time taken to reach a heritage site was at 1.03 h in the local city. Time cost was low and accessibility was good. Additionally, an analysis of the overall accessibility showed that the average time cost of the World Heritage Sites was 25.51 h. Overall accessibility in the central plain region of China was very high, with a time cost of <15 h. The overall accessibility in the western mountains and northeastern regions was very limited. In general, the development of China’s World Heritage still has great potential and strong traffic accessibility, which can effectively promote the development of heritage tourism. Meanwhile, heritage tourism can also effectively promote the development of local economies under the principle of protection priority.

We evaluated the performance of gridded precipitation and air temperature datasets near the Ayakkum Lake at the southern margin of Xinjiang, arid central Asia. Statistical measures were applied to assess these climate products on a monthly basis from 2013 to 2018. For monthly precipitation amount, the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Reanalysis 5 shows a good performance among the five products based on most statistical measures, and the China Meteorological Forcing Dataset can also be used as an alternative, especially for estimating the long-term annual mean. For monthly air temperature, WorldClim historical weather data are recommended because of the low mean absolute error, root mean square error and distance between indices of simulation and observation. Better spatial and temporal coverages of in-situ observations are still needed to produce an optimal correction scheme for the mountainous regions of arid central Asia.

Glaciers play an important role in understanding the climate, water resources, and surrounding natural change. Baishui River Glacier No. 1, a temperate glacier in the monsoon-influenced Southeastern Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, has experienced significant ablation due to regional warming during the past few decades. However, little is known about the yearly changes in Baishui River Glacier No. 1. To investigate how Baishui River Glacier No. 1 has changed in recent years, digital orthophoto maps and digital elevation models were obtained from an unmanned aerial vehicle on 20 October 2018 and 22 July 2021, covering 84% and 47% of the total area, respectively. The results of the Baishui River Glacier No. 1 changes were obtained by differencing the digital elevation models, manual tracking, and terminus-retreat calculation methods. Our results showed that the surveyed area had a mean elevation change of −4.26 m during 2018 and 2021, and the lower area lost more ice than other areas. The terminus of Baishui River Glacier No. 1 has retreated by 16.35 m/a on average, exhibiting spatial variation with latitude. Moreover, we initially found that there was a high correlation between surface velocity and elevation gradient in this high-speed glacier. The surface velocity of Baishui River Glacier No. 1 was derived with the manual feature tracking method and ranged from 10.48 to 32.00 m/a, which is slightly smaller than the seasonal average. However, the snow coverage and ice melting of the two epochs led to the underestimation of our elevation change and velocity results, which need further investigation.