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Glacier volume changes in the Tropical Andes: A multi-scale assessment in the Cordillera Blanca, Peruvian Andes

Huh, Kyung In
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1417654870

Abstract Details

2014, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Geography.
Ongoing and future climate change forces dramatic alteration to physical, biological and social systems worldwide. Climate change has an especially significant impact on the extent and distribution of ice mass in mountainous regions near populated areas, where decreased ice mass transforms runoff characteristics of alpine watersheds, increases water scarcity, and human vulnerability, and changes both ecosystems and tourism. This dissertation research project focuses on calculating changes in volume and surface areas of glaciers in the Cordillera Blanca, Peruvian Andes. I incorporate three discrete but interrelated studies: (1) A comparative assessment of 2008 Light Detection and Range (LiDAR) Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) and 1962 aerial photo DEMs based on non-glacierized terrain. I present the first LiDAR data acquired over tropical glaciers, and compute volume change of six glaciers by DEM differencing, along with a quantitative characterization of the uncertainty from processing different DEM data. Sources of limitations are found in the historical aerial photos, different viewing geometries through highly rugged terrain relief and uncertainties in the processing stage. The DEM surface offsets for all slopes and aspects differ for each study such that the mean difference became larger when the slope angle gets steeper and for aspects of west (W) to north (N). The calculation of the mean surface elevation change over the 46 years indicates a glacier thinning ranging from a minimum of 9.5 m and up to 64 m after performing a simple adjustment by adding mean elevation offsets of each site as a method for removing the offsets between DEMs. (2) The change in volume and surface area of six glaciers in the study area between 1962 and 2008. The loss of glacier surface areas ranges from 30.79% to 72.62%, which corresponds to the changes in glacier volume of 0.019 km3 to 0.150 km3 depending on the specific glacier under investigation. Based on the 13 different epochs of calculated changes in volume and surface area from DEMs, I assess the first version of an refined volume and surface area (V-S) scaling and show that there is about 36% more volume loss from these individual tropical glaciers than from other glaciers at mid and high latitudes. The uncertainty of the scaling analysis from the error propagation suggests that the magnitude of the error is approximately 25% of the computed volume from the V-S scaling of Cordillera Blanca. (3) The LIA maximum palaeoglaciers (mid 19th century) are reconstructed using a cellular automata model with glacier parameters and remote sensing DEMs and the outcome of the simulation is applied for the V-S scaling. The model simulation shows a good agreement with observed geomorphic data and V-S scaling of the cellular automata output is always within the 25% error range in the reconstruction simulation. The result suggests that the volume estimation should work for glaciers smaller than 8km2. Also, I employ a hydrologic balance model to reconstruct long-term glacier significance to stream flow from the reconstructed LIA glaciers. The hydrographs from the water balance model show that multiple peaks of both mean yearly and dry season discharge that have never been documented previous research of the same mountain range.
Bryan Mark (Advisor)
203 p.
Geography
Glaciers, Peruvian Andes, volume change

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Huh, K. I. (2014). Glacier volume changes in the Tropical Andes: A multi-scale assessment in the Cordillera Blanca, Peruvian Andes [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1417654870

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Huh, Kyung In. Glacier volume changes in the Tropical Andes: A multi-scale assessment in the Cordillera Blanca, Peruvian Andes . 2014. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1417654870.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Huh, Kyung In. "Glacier volume changes in the Tropical Andes: A multi-scale assessment in the Cordillera Blanca, Peruvian Andes ." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1417654870

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1417654870
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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.