7/28/2019 Foro Glaciares Wilfried Haeberli

1/9

Observing

g lac iers as part

o f the global env i ronment

Wilfried Haeberli

Geography Department

University of Zurich

Steinglacier;Alps

7/28/2019 Foro Glaciares Wilfried Haeberli

2/9

g

Chang ing views

to changing g laciers

Paul

MontBlanc,

Alps

Morteratschglacie

r,

Alps

7/28/2019 Foro Glaciares Wilfried Haeberli

3/9

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 cl imate change

Triftglacier,,

Alps

7/28/2019 Foro Glaciares Wilfried Haeberli

4/9

seventy nations and over fifty international organizations

Glaciers are

un ique

demonstrat ion

ob jects o f rapidi f not

accelerating

wor ldw ide

changes in thecl imate sys tem

Global Climate Observing System(GCOS) of ICSU,UNEP, UNESCO, WMO

in support of the

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

(UNFCCC)

7/28/2019 Foro Glaciares Wilfried Haeberli

5/9

relevant

feasible

understandable

useful

future-oriented

coherent

observations must be

corresponding strategies must be

and the resulting products must be

po l icy-related mon itor ing means :

integrative

7/28/2019 Foro Glaciares Wilfried Haeberli

6/9

Implementat ion Plan for the Global Observing Sys tem

fo r Climate in Suppo rt o f the UNFCCC (2010 Update)

7/28/2019 Foro Glaciares Wilfried Haeberli

7/9

GTOS/GTN-G observing strategy

integrated /t iered o bservin g strategy

process understanding and model calibration

=> extensive energy/mass balance, flowregional 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

7/28/2019 Foro Glaciares Wilfried Haeberli

8/9

Glaciersand the

water cyc le:

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 Parn, Cordillera Blanca

7/28/2019 Foro Glaciares Wilfried Haeberli

9/9

Gard ner et al . (2013)

Glacier - sea level

contr ibut ion

2003-2009

(GRACE/ICESat/

measurements/models)