BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Memento EPFL//
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Glacier melt and runoff: from the local to the continental scale
DTSTART:20121204T161500
DTEND:20121204T171500
DTSTAMP:20260921T093807Z
UID:1a6cd6e4fff560a23d04c00f21a2274a145f5514a12b48ebfad51137
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Dr Matthias Huss\, senior lecturer\, Université de Fribourg\,
  Unité de Géographie\nGlaciers are excellent indicators for climatic cha
 nges and have strongly retreated over the last decades in the European Alp
 s\, as well as worldwide. Glacial melt water importantly contributes to di
 scharge in alpine drainage basins but also at over-regional scales. Change
 s in future melt water yield by glacier-fed streams will have important im
 pacts on water availability and hydropower production in mountainous regio
 ns. In this seminar\, the whole process chain from glacier response to cli
 mate change to both the local and continental scale importance of glaciers
  to runoff will be covered.\nVarious long-term data sets from the Swiss Al
 ps allow investigating the driving forcing factors\, as well as the dynami
 cs of glacier retreat over the last century. Glaciers in the European Alps
  have lost an ice volume of about 100 km3 since 1900 which almost equals t
 heir present volume. This additional melt water released from long-term gl
 acial storage is currently enhancing flow from alpine catchments. Many imp
 ortant feedback mechanisms drive the observed glacier retreat and need to 
 be included in impact models in order to reliably simulate future changes.
  Physical models accounting for glacier surface mass balance\, ice flow an
 d runoff generation have been run over the entire 21st century using clima
 te scenarios. Glaciers in the Alps are expected to be reduced to 4-18% of 
 their current size by 2100. The scenarios indicate a transient increase in
  runoff peaking between 2010 and 2060\, depending on the characteristics o
 f the catchments\, and an important shift in the hydrological regime towar
 ds less runoff in the summer months.\nBy comparing monthly glacier storage
  changes that were calculated using a model constrained with different typ
 es of long-term field data over the period 1900-2100 to observed runoff in
  Europe’s large streams\, the percental contribution of glaciers to runo
 ff is analyzed and discussed. These macroscale drainage basins with a size
  of 100’000 km2 can show a glacier contribution to runoff up to 25% in t
 he month of August as a mean over the last century.
LOCATION:GR A3 32 http://plan.epfl.ch/?room=GR%20A3%2032
STATUS:CONFIRMED
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR