Glacier Monitoring in the Southwest Alaska Network: Version 1.0

Giffen, Bruce; Lindsay, Chuck

Glaciers are intricately related to climate and are indicators of regional climate change. The scientific community, the public and park visitors are becoming more aware and concerned about how regional and global climate change will impact the natural resources of parks all across the nation. Glaciers are a key component of the naturally functioning terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems of the Southwest Alaska Inventory and Monitoring Network (SWAN) parks.Together, these interrelated natural resources create the wilderness scenic beauty and quality that is the SWAN. About 50% of Kenai Fjords National Park, 20% of Lake Clark National Park and Preserve and 6% of Katmai National Park and Preserve is covered by glaciers. For these reasons, the Southwest Alaska Inventory and Monitoring Network identified Glacier Extent as a vital sign. This document presents the protocol for mapping and monitoring glacier extent in the SWAN.Boundaries of all glacierized terrain (glacier extent) will be mapped on a park-wide scale for Kenai Fjords National Park, Lake Clark National Park and Preserve and Katmai National Park and Preserve on a repeating decadal basis. Individual glaciers (area of glacier ice within a hydrologic basin) will be extracted from park-wide glacier extent mapping effort and glaciological parameters (width, length, elevation, equilibrium line altitude, etc) will be quantified for each glacier. This glacier mapping effort utilizes Landsat imagery and established satellite imagery classification techniques, followed by careful manual editing to map glacier boundaries.As the glacier extent dataset builds, this glacier mapping effort will allow for park-by-park and network-wide analysis of glacier status and trends – informing park managers, scientists and the public how glaciers are changing. The results of this mapping effort will add to the scientific body of knowledge documenting observations of glacier change for much broader Alaska-wide and global studies.This SWAN glacier boundary mapping effort mirrors the glacier mapping guidelines established by the Global Land Ice Measurements from Space (GLIMS) program. The GLIMS program is a world-wide effort to map glacier extent and to provide a suite of glaciological characteristics describing the glacial geometry (width, length, elevation, equilibrium line altitude, etc).

Glacier Monitoring in the Southwest Alaska Network: Version 1.0

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