Observing

glaciers as part

of the global environment

Wilfried Haeberli

Geography Department

University of Zurich

Ste

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Changing views

to changing glaciers

Paul

Mont B

lanc, A

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Mort

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lacie

r,

Alp

s

Glaciers:

• scenic beauty

• touristic magnet

• symbol of intact environment

• part of water cycle

• natural hazard (especially with lakes)

• archive of environmental information

• and first of all:

key indicator

of climate change

Trift

gla

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r,, A

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seventy nations and over fifty international organizations

Glaciers are

unique

demonstration

objects of rapid

if not

accelerating

worldwide

changes in the

climate system

Global Climate Observing System

(GCOS) of ICSU,UNEP, UNESCO, WMO

in support of the

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

(UNFCCC)

relevant

feasible

understandable

useful

future-oriented

coherent

observations must be

corresponding strategies must be

and the resulting products must be

policy-related monitoring means:

integrative

Implementation Plan for the Global Observing System

for Climate in Support of the UNFCCC (2010 Update)

GTOS/GTN-G observing strategy

integrated /tiered observing strategy

process understanding and model calibration

=> extensive energy/mass balance, flow

regional indicators

=> mass change (index stakes+photogrammetry, LIDAR)

regional representativeness

=> cumulative length change, DEM differencing

global coverage

=> inventories (remote sensing/geoinformatics)

main goals of long-term

observations:

process understanding

model validation

change detection

impact assessments

change detection:

rate of change

acceleration trends

pre-industrial variability

change patterns

Glaciers

and the

water cycle:

• local to regional scale

hazard, landscape,

water supply during

hot/dry season,

• regional to continental scale

water supply during

hot/dry season,

transboundary effects

• global scale

sea level

Laguna Parón, Cordillera Blanca

Gardner et al. (2013)

Glacier - sea level

contribution

2003-2009

(GRACE/ICESat/

measurements/models)