A Comprehensive Morphometric and Environmental Dataset of 5,828 Cirques Across High Mountain Asia (HMA)
Description
The final dataset is a comprehensive compilation that integrates (1) the raw data of detailed morphometric parameters for all cirques in the West Kunlun region, newly extracted using the ACME2 tool, with (2) publicly available cirque morphometric data from previously published studies across the broader High Mountain Asia region.
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Steps to reproduce
Dataset Acquisition and Integration Workflow The final dataset used in this study is a comprehensive compilation of 5,828 cirques across High Mountain Asia (HMA), integrating two primary sources: (1) newly delineated cirques from the data-scarce West Kunlun region, and (2) cirques compiled from authoritative, publicly available datasets from ten other HMA sub-regions. For the new data component, cirque boundaries in the West Kunlun region were first manually delineated via visual interpretation of high-resolution Google Earth imagery and the Copernicus GLO-30 Digital Elevation Model (DEM). Subsequently, core morphometric parameters for these cirques, including length (L), width (W), height (H), and cirque floor altitude (CFA), were systematically and automatically extracted using the ACME2 (Automated Cirque Metric Extraction 2) toolbox. All datasets were then harmonized in a GIS environment. This involved a quality control process, where all cirque outlines were cross-validated against the Copernicus DEM, and a spatial unification step, where all data were reprojected to a common coordinate system (WGS 84 / UTM Zone 47N). Following this, a consistent set of 13 environmental variables was extracted for every cirque centroid. These variables included topographic metrics (e.g., slope, aspect) derived from the DEM; climatic variables (e.g., MAT, MTWQ) sourced from the WorldClim V2.1 database; geological classifications from the Global Lithological Map (GLiM) database; and tectonic parameters calculated from the USGS earthquake catalog and the Global Active Faults Database. This integrated workflow resulted in a final, clean master dataset, where each of the 5,828 cirques is characterized by a uniform set of morphological and environmental variables, providing a robust foundation for the subsequent machine learning analysis.
Institutions
- Qinghai Normal UniversityQinghai, Xining