Targeted Semantic Segmentation of Himalayan Glacial Lakes Using Time-Series SAR: Towards Automated GLOF Early Warning

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Adhikari, Pawan, Regmi, Satish Raj, Shrestha, Hari Ram
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Adhikari, Pawan
Regmi, Satish Raj
Shrestha, Hari Ram
author_facet Adhikari, Pawan
Regmi, Satish Raj
Shrestha, Hari Ram
contents Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) are one of the most devastating climate change induced hazards. Existing remote monitoring approaches often prioritise maximising spatial coverage to train generalistic models or rely on optical imagery hampered by persistent cloud coverage. This paper presents an end-to-end, automated deep learning pipeline for the targeted monitoring of high-risk Himalayan glacial lakes using time-series Sentinel-1 SAR. We introduce a "temporal-first" training strategy, utilising a U-Net with an EfficientNet-B3 backbone trained on a curated dataset of a cohort of 4 lakes (Tsho Rolpa, Chamlang Tsho, Tilicho and Gokyo Lake). The model achieves an IoU of 0.9130 validating the success and efficacy of the "temporal-first" strategy required for transitioning to Early Warning Systems. Beyond the model, we propose an operational engineering architecture: a Dockerised pipeline that automates data ingestion via the ASF Search API and exposes inference results via a RESTful endpoint. This system shifts the paradigm from static mapping to dynamic and automated early warning, providing a scalable architectural foundation for future development in Early Warning Systems.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_24117
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Targeted Semantic Segmentation of Himalayan Glacial Lakes Using Time-Series SAR: Towards Automated GLOF Early Warning
Adhikari, Pawan
Regmi, Satish Raj
Shrestha, Hari Ram
Image and Video Processing
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) are one of the most devastating climate change induced hazards. Existing remote monitoring approaches often prioritise maximising spatial coverage to train generalistic models or rely on optical imagery hampered by persistent cloud coverage. This paper presents an end-to-end, automated deep learning pipeline for the targeted monitoring of high-risk Himalayan glacial lakes using time-series Sentinel-1 SAR. We introduce a "temporal-first" training strategy, utilising a U-Net with an EfficientNet-B3 backbone trained on a curated dataset of a cohort of 4 lakes (Tsho Rolpa, Chamlang Tsho, Tilicho and Gokyo Lake). The model achieves an IoU of 0.9130 validating the success and efficacy of the "temporal-first" strategy required for transitioning to Early Warning Systems. Beyond the model, we propose an operational engineering architecture: a Dockerised pipeline that automates data ingestion via the ASF Search API and exposes inference results via a RESTful endpoint. This system shifts the paradigm from static mapping to dynamic and automated early warning, providing a scalable architectural foundation for future development in Early Warning Systems.
title Targeted Semantic Segmentation of Himalayan Glacial Lakes Using Time-Series SAR: Towards Automated GLOF Early Warning
topic Image and Video Processing
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.24117