Glaciation and climate change in the andean cordillera PDF Download

Author: Jacob M. Bendle
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
ISBN: 2832515525
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Author: Mark Carey
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019974257X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 286

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Book Description
Climate change is producing profound changes globally. Yet we still know little about how it affects real people in real places on a daily basis because most of our knowledge comes from scientific studies that try to estimate impacts and project future climate scenarios. This book is different, illustrating in vivid detail how people in the Andes have grappled with the effects of climate change and ensuing natural disasters for more than half a century. In Peru's Cordillera Blanca mountain range, global climate change has generated the world's most deadly glacial lake outburst floods and glacier avalanches, killing 25,000 people since 1941. As survivors grieved, they formed community organizations to learn about precarious glacial lakes while they sent priests to the mountains, hoping that God could calm the increasingly hostile landscape. Meanwhile, Peruvian engineers working with miniscule budgets invented innovative strategies to drain dozens of the most unstable lakes that continue forming in the twenty first century. But adaptation to global climate change was never simply about engineering the Andes to eliminate environmental hazards. Local urban and rural populations, engineers, hydroelectric developers, irrigators, mountaineers, and policymakers all perceived and responded to glacier melting differently-based on their own view of an ideal Andean world. Disaster prevention projects involved debates about economic development, state authority, race relations, class divisions, cultural values, the evolution of science and technology, and shifting views of nature. Over time, the influx of new groups to manage the Andes helped transform glaciated mountains into commodities to consume. Locals lost power in the process and today comprise just one among many stakeholders in the high Andes-and perhaps the least powerful. Climate change transformed a region, triggering catastrophes while simultaneously jumpstarting modernization processes. This book's historical perspective illuminates these trends that would be ignored in any scientific projections about future climate scenarios.

Author: Georg Kaser
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521633338
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Glaciers in the tropics and their environmental consequences.

Author: Johansen, Kari Synnove
Publisher: UNESCO Publishing
ISBN: 9231002864
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 80

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Book Description
This Atlas illustrates the significant reduction in glacier mass happening throughout the Andean region. It quantifies the contribution of glaciers to drinking water supplies in cities and to agriculture, hydropower and industries. A reduction in glacier mass results in a long-term reduction in seasonal melt water - which is the mainstay of livelihoods for millions of people.

Author: Geoffrey Seltzer
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Climatic changes
Languages : en
Pages : 222

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Author: Mark Palmer Carey
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Climatic changes
Languages : en
Pages : 636

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Author: Henry F. Diaz
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401512523
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 294

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Book Description
Glaciers in the Andes are particularly important natural archives of present and past climatic and environmental changes, in significant part because of the N-S trend of this topographic barrier and its influence on the atmospheric circulation of the southern hemisphere. Strong gradients in the seasonality and amount of precipitation exist between the equator and 30° S. Large differences in amount east and west of the Andean divide also occur, as well as a change from tropical summer precipitation (additionally modified by the seasonal shift of the circulation belts) to winter precipitation in the west wind belt (e. g. , Yuille, 1999; Garraud and Aceituno, 2001). The so-called 'dry axis' lies between the tropical and extra tropical precipitation regimes (Figure 1). The high mountain desert within this axis responds most sensitively to the smallest changes in effective moisture. An important hydro-meteorological feature on a seasonal to inter-annual time-scale is the occurrence of EN SO events, which strongly control the mass balance of glaciers in this area (e. g. , Wagnon et ai. , 2001; Francou et ai. , in press). The precipitation pattern is an important factor for the interpretation of climatic and environmental records extracted from ice cores, because much of this information is related to conditions at the actual time of precipitation, and this is especially so for stable isotope records. Several ice cores have recently been drilled to bedrock in this area. From Huascanin (Thompson et ai. , 1995), Sajama (Thompson et ai.

Author: Esteban A. Sagredo
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 119

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Book Description
Accompanying the drastic increase of global temperatures observed since the end of the nineteenth century, and particularly during the last decades, glaciers worldwide have experienced rapid retreating trend. Considering the magnitude of the climate change projected for the next decades, and the potential impacts of glacier retreat on human livelihood, a thorough comprehension of climate-glacier interaction is critical in order to i) predict the response of glaciers to the different scenarios of climate change and ii) reconstruct the climatic conditions associated with former glacial fluctuations, which in turn could provide important background information for the study of both natural cycles and human impacts on climate change. This study explores the magnitude of response of the equilibrium line altitude (ELA) to different scenarios of climate change, along the climatically diverse Andes range, and its applicability to reconstruct paleoclimates. A statistical analysis of the climatic conditions at 234 glacier sites permits to classify the climate that host present-day Andean glaciers into seven groups. These groups have a distinctive geographical distribution. It has been suggested that glaciers located in different climates could respond with different magnitude to similar climatic perturbations. Here, a full-surface energy and mass balance (SEMB) model was applied to quantify the ELA sensitivity to climate across glaciated Andean regions. The results suggest that there is spatial variability in the magnitude of response of the ELA to uniform changes in temperature and precipitation, and that the spatial pattern of this variability has a general correspondence with the climatic groups identified along the Andes. The most sensitive areas to changes in temperature are the inner tropics, whereas precipitation sensitivities are relatively greater in the subtropics and northernmost mid-latitudes. It is suggested that the variability in the ELA sensitivity has implications for the reconstruction of paleoclimates across large areas. Based on an approach that combine the geomorphic reconstruction of ELA of Andean glaciers and the application of the SEMB model, different scenarios of climatic conditions for the maximum glacial advance occurred during the Little Ice Age (LIA, sensu lato AD 1300-1850) are suggested. To conduct this experiment, three glacial sites (located in different climatic regimes) were selected: Cordillera Vilcanota (13°S), Cipreses glacier (34°S) and Tranquilo glacier (47°S). The results consist of a set of combination of temperature and precipitation anomalies that can account for ELA changes from the maximum glacial advance that occurred during the LIA to the present for each site. Assuming no changes in precipitation, the ELA fluctuation since the LIA could be explained by a cooling of at least: -0.7°C at Vilcanota, -0.5°C at Cipreses and -1.3°C at Tranquilo glacier. Assuming no changes in temperature, on the other hand, the ELA changes could be explained by an increase in the precipitation greater than 63% at Vilcanota, 21% at Cipreses and 62% at Tranquilo glacier. Finally, it is expected that the integration of these analysis provides a framework to understand former episodes of glacial fluctuation, as well as to predict the response of glacier to different scenarios of climate change.

Author: Walter Vergara
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 0821386638
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 184

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Book Description
"Climate change is beginning to have effects on climate, weather and resource availability in ways that need to be anticipated when planning for the future. In particular, changes in rainfall patterns and temperature may impact the intensity or schedule of water availability. Also the retreat of tropical glaciers, the drying of unique Andean wetland ecosystems, as well as increased weather variability and weather extremes will affect water regulation. These changes have the potential to impact the energy and other sectors, such as agriculture, and could have broader economic effects.Anticipating the impacts of climate change is a new frontier. There are few examples of predictions of the impact of climate change on resource availability and even fewer examples of the applications of such predictions to planning for sustainable economic development. However, having access to an effective methodology would allow planners and policy makers to better plan for adaptation measures to address the consequences of climate change on the power and water sectors.This report presents a summary of the efforts to develop methodological tools for the assessment of climate impacts on surface hydrology in the Peruvian Andes. It is targeted to decision makers in Peru and in other countries to give them guidance on how to choose available and suitable tools and make an assessment of climate impacts on water regulation."

Author: Christian Huggel
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107065844
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 377

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Book Description
This book provides a definitive overview of the global drivers of high-mountain cryosphere change and their implications for people across high-mountain regions.