Abstract: In this paper, the change of glaciers in the Beidahe River Basin in the Qilian Mountains in recent 47 years was studied using the topographic map in 1956 and the ASTER image data in 2003 so as to ascertain the glacial boundaries in these two years under the support of RS and GIS means. The results show that area of the 372 glaciers in the basin was reduced by 33.56 km² in recent 47 years, 0.09 km² per glacier in average, the change rate was -15.42%, and the total shrinkage of the glacier terminals was 51 015 m. The analyzed results revealed that the melting of small glaciers was faster than that of large ones. After comparing and analyzing the data of average annual temperature and summer temperature as well as annual precipitation, it was considered that the significant temperature increase was the main cause resulting in the rapid shrinkage of glaciers in the Beidahe River Basin. After carrying out a comparative study on glacier shrinkage in west China, it was found that the glacial melting rate in the Beidahe River Basin was higher than that in north Xinjiang but lower than that in the Heihe River Basin and other distributary basins. It was conferred preliminarily that the shrinkage of glaciers might be jointly caused by climate change and the factors of glaciers themselves. 

Key words: glacier, glacier melting rate, climate change, RS image, Beidahe River Basin, Qilian Mountains