Download Climate Change and Water in Mountains

Climate Change and Water in Mountains:
A Global Concern
Impacts of climate change on glacial
hazards
Glacier, lake and GLOF changes
Christian Huggel, Department of Geography, University of Zurich
University of Geneva
Glacier shrinkage and lake formation
Trift glacier,
Switzerland:
from the mid-20th to the
early 21st century
University of Geneva
Grosser Aletsch
glacier, Switzerland:
Future scenarios of
glacier shrinkage and
lake formation
University of Geneva
Animation: Andreas Linsbauer – Aletsch glacier, Switzerland.
Global glacier retreat
Glacier length changes in different
world region. Glaciers are continuously
and uniformly retreating.
University of Geneva
IPCC, 2013
Disasters from glacier lake outburst floods
Glacier lake Palcacocha (Peru), shortly
before ist outburst flood in 1941
University of Geneva
Kinzl 1932
Disasters from glacier lake outburst floods
Impacts of the outburst flood of glacier
lake Palcacocha (GLOF) on the
downstream city of Huaraz in 1941,
destroying large parts of the city and
killing several thousand people.
University of Geneva
Arnold Heim / Wegner, 2014
Fundamental questions to consider:
• Where, when and with which probability of
occurrence can a mass movement/flow occur?
• How far will the mass movement /flow reach and
with which level of magnitude?
University of Geneva
Climate change can influence the related hazard
parameters in several ways:
• Changing the probability (frequency) of
occurrence of events
• Changing the magnitude and reach of mass
flows
University of Geneva
Changing frequency of periglacial rock
fall events in the Alps
Increasing frequency of alpine rock fall
events coincident with warming over
the past decades.
University of Geneva
Huggel et al., 2012
Changing frequency of
global GLOF record
The GLOF record strongly increases in
many regions in the late 19th / early
20th century.
Documentation issues and bias over
time need to be considered.
University of Geneva
Carrivick and Tweed, 2016
Damage of GLOF’s
worldwide
Europe, high Asia and the Andes are
hotspots of GLOF damage
University of Geneva
Carrivick and Tweed, 2016