[1]WANG Kai,YANG Taibao,SHAO Wanwan,et al.Remote Sensing Monitoring on Glacier Change in the Middle of the Alps in Switzerland from 1984 to 2013[J].Research of Soil and Water Conservation,2015,22(05):300-305.
Copy
Research of Soil and Water Conservation[ISSN 1005-3409/CN 61-1272/P] Volume:
22
Number of periods:
2015 05
Page number:
300-305
Column:
Public date:
2015-10-28
- Title:
-
Remote Sensing Monitoring on Glacier Change in the Middle of the Alps in Switzerland from 1984 to 2013
- Author(s):
-
WANG Kai, YANG Taibao, SHAO Wanwan, HE Yi
-
College of Earth and Environmental Science, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
-
- Keywords:
-
glacier change; climate response; remote sensing monitoring; Alps; Swiss region.
- CLC:
-
P343.6;TP79
- DOI:
-
-
- Abstract:
-
Using TM, ETM+ and OLI/TIRS remote sensing images of 1984, 1990, 2003 and 2013, respectively, we analyzed the glacier change in nearly 30 years in the middle of the Alps in Switzerland through visual interpretation and GIS technology. We also carried out trend analysis of temperature and precipitation in the study area and surrounding area to examine the response relationship between glacier change and meteorological data. The results indicated that: (1) during the period from 1984 to 2013, glacier area decreased by 364.33 km2, shrinking ratio reached to 30.69% with the shrinking rate of 12.56 km2/a. From 1990 to 2003, shrinking rate was the biggest, however, in recent 10 years, shrinking rate was becoming low; (2) the glacier scale and glacier area reduction proportion presented the inverse correlation, which meant that the smaller the glacier scale was, the bigger the shrinking rate was; (3) glacial ablation mainly occurred at an altitude of less than 4 000 m, what’s more, the shrinking rate was reducing with the increase of altitude; (4) glaciers mainly distributed at slopes with steepness ranging from 5° to 40°, and the gentler the slope was, the bigger the glacier area reduction was. From 1984 to 2013, glacier area was decreasing on slopes with different steepness; (5) glacier areas were shrinking on all aspects. From 1984 to 2013, glacier area reduction was bigger on southeast, northeast and west aspects, while the glacier area reduction was relatively small on southwest, northwest and east aspects; (6) temperature rose significantly in the study area, while precipitation change was not obvious. Temperature increase is the dominant factor of glacial retreat. We predicted that the shrinking rate of glaciers in study area will decrease in the next decade.