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Land
Special Issues
GIS and Glaciers Landscape: Past and Present
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GIS and Glaciers Landscape: Past and Present

A special issue of Land (ISSN 2073-445X). This special issue belongs to the section "Landscape Ecology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2023) | Viewed by 13174

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Augusto Pérez-Alberti

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, Faculty of Biology, Campus Vida, University of Santiago de Compostela, 15782 Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Interests: coastal landscape; spatial analysis; environment; GIS; Physical geography
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Alejandro Gomez Pazo

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Geography, University of Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Interests: geography; geoinformatics (GIS); geomorphology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Glaciers are very relevant to understand the planet’s climatic evolution. The signs of their development in the past allow researchers to reconstruct the paleoclimatic evolution in many mountains worldwide. Analyzing glacier current, glacier extension, and especially their evolution in the last decades transforms these landforms regarding key elements to measure the global change importance in our planet at present.

Studies in glacier zones include multiple temporal scales. Since thousands of years are a short period, the combination of the past and present have a main role in understanding their possible evolution in the future years or centuries. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are very useful tools for mapping in detail landforms and sedimentary deposits, as well as not only current elements but also the marks of glacier extensions or their impact in the landscape. Using GIS software allows researchers to obtain greater knowledge about the current changes in these areas and to predict their possible evolution.

Additionally, glacier deposits are the base material for many soils. The soils developed after glacial periods, from the deglaciation period, allowed for an impressive development of agricultural and livestock activities in many places around the world. It is necessary to improve the analysis on this topic to increase the possibilities of these areas and to generate new tools for landuse managers.

Aim of the Special Issue and how the subject relates to the journal scope.

  • Improve the knowledge about glacier areas. Create new datasets and provide detailed information about the past and present in glacial zones.
  • Demonstrate the importance of new technologies and GIS tools in glacial studies.
  • Improve studies related to glacier evolution regarding soils evolution and their characteristics.

Suggested themes and article types for submissions.

  • Cartographic analysis through GIS tools about glacier extension in the past;
  • Modelling the glacier evolution in the past;
  • Cartography and modelling the current state of glaciers and their past evolution;
  • Study the current glacier evolution and their possible implications in the future;
  • Superficial glacier landforms and edaphic dynamics; and
  • New technologies applied to glacier mapping.

Prof. Dr. Augusto Pérez-Alberti
Dr. Alejandro Gomez Pazo
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Land is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • GIS
  • glacial landforms
  • glacial sediments
  • soils
  • glacier evolution
  • glacier modelling

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

21 pages, 4964 KiB  
Article
Pleistocene Glaciations of the Northwest of Iberia: Glacial Maximum Extent, Ice Thickness, and ELA of the Soajo Mountain
by Edgar Figueira, Alberto Gomes and Augusto Pérez-Alberti
Land 2023, 12(6), 1226; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/land12061226 - 13 Jun 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2102
Abstract
Soajo Mountain is located in the northwestern Iberian Peninsula near the border between Portugal and Spain. Its highest elevation is 1416 m at the Pedrada summit. During the Pleistocene, the cascade cirques on the east flank and the icefield that covered the flattened [...] Read more.
Soajo Mountain is located in the northwestern Iberian Peninsula near the border between Portugal and Spain. Its highest elevation is 1416 m at the Pedrada summit. During the Pleistocene, the cascade cirques on the east flank and the icefield that covered the flattened surface of the high plateau generated several glacier valleys. This study presents a paleoglacial reconstruction of the relict glacial landscape in Soajo Mountain for the Glacial Maximum Extent (GME) through the following methods: (1) a detailed geomorphological map supported by high-resolution orthophotography, digital elevation models with a spatial resolution of 70 cm, and field surveys; (2) the delineation of the glacial surface, and the calculation of the glacial flowlines to obtain the numerical model of the ice thickness; and (3) an estimation of the paleoELA altitudes. The paleoglacial reconstruction, using GlaRe methodology, reveals a glacial surface of 16 km2, including an icefield on the Lamas de Vez plateau (mean elevation of 1150 m) and a radial glacial flow to the east and north. The arrangement of the glaciated area attests to the topographic, lithological, and structural conditioning on the development of small glacial tongues, with an emphasis on the ice tongue flowing northwards, with a thickness of 173 m and a length of 2.92 km. The Soajo GME paleoglacier comprises three main glacial sectors: Lamas de Vez Icefield, Vez and Aveleira Valleys, and the Eastern Glacial Sector. These paleoglaciers have achieved maximum ice volumes of 214.4 hm3, 269.2 hm3, and 115.8 hm3, respectively, with maximum ice thicknesses of 127 m, 173 m, and 118 m, respectively. On the west flank, a smaller paleoglacier named Branda da Gémea recorded an ice volume of 24.3 hm3 and a maximum ice thickness of 110 m. According to the ELA-AABR method, Soajo Mountain has one of the lowest ELA values in the Iberian NW, ranging from 1085 to 1057 m. This is due to its oceanic location, an orographic barrier effect, and the influence of the polar front. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue GIS and Glaciers Landscape: Past and Present)
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13 pages, 4135 KiB  
Article
Glacier Change and Its Response to Climate Change in Western China
by Jiahui Li and Xinliang Xu
Land 2023, 12(3), 623; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/land12030623 - 6 Mar 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2330
Abstract
Given that glaciers are good indicators of climate change, it is of great scientific significance to study glacier change for regional environmental protection and water resource development and utilization. Using the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform, we obtained the distribution of glaciers in [...] Read more.
Given that glaciers are good indicators of climate change, it is of great scientific significance to study glacier change for regional environmental protection and water resource development and utilization. Using the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform, we obtained the distribution of glaciers in western China in 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, and 2020. Then, we analyzed the temporal and spatial evolutions of the glacier areas and their responses to climate change. The results showed that there were 52,384 glaciers in western China in 2020, with an area of 42,903.57 km2, among which those belonging to the headwater of the Tarim River are the largest, accounting for 35.25% of the total area. From 2000 to 2020, the glaciers indicated an overall trend of retreat, with the total area decreasing by 15,575.94 km2 at a change rate of 1.46%/a. From 2000 to 2010, glaciers in the southeast Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) and Qilian Mountains saw the fastest area loss (>4%/a), followed by the Tianshan Mountains (3.31%/a), while those in the Pamir-Karakoram-West Kunlun regions and the Qiangtang Plateau had the slowest loss. From 2010 to 2020, the glacier retreat rate exhibited an accelerating trend in southeast QTP and the western Himalayas, while it slowed down in the Tianshan Mountains. The change in glaciers was greatly attributed to the combination of snowfall and summer temperature trends. The glaciers in southeast QTP showed an accelerated retreat tendency, probably due to the accelerating snowfall decrease and continuous temperature rise. The decreasing temperature mitigated the loss of glacier area in the Pamir-Karakoram-West Kunlun regions with continuously decreasing snowfall. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue GIS and Glaciers Landscape: Past and Present)
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21 pages, 20049 KiB  
Article
Glaciers Landscapes during the Pleistocene in Trevinca Massif (Northwest Iberian Peninsula)
by Augusto Pérez-Alberti and Alejandro Gómez-Pazo
Land 2023, 12(3), 530; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/land12030530 - 22 Feb 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1464
Abstract
The Trevinca Massif is in the northwestern Iberian Peninsula, on the border between Galicia and Castilla-León. Its highest elevation is 2124 m at the Trevinca peak. During the Pleistocene, an extensive icefield developed in this area, occupying the flattened surfaces in the high [...] Read more.
The Trevinca Massif is in the northwestern Iberian Peninsula, on the border between Galicia and Castilla-León. Its highest elevation is 2124 m at the Trevinca peak. During the Pleistocene, an extensive icefield developed in this area, occupying the flattened surfaces in the high massif zones, and generating several glacier valleys. In the occidental sector, the identified paleoglaciers reached 187 km2, and glacier tongues up to 30 km in the Bibei valley, where the ice thickness came to 527 m. The glacial forms and deposits were mapped and analyzed in the entire Trevinca massif, whereas the paleoglacial reconstruction was carried out in the occidental sector (previous works analyzed the oriental sector). The reconstruction was performed by using high-resolution orthophotography, digital elevation models with a spatial resolution of 2 m, and fieldwork surveys to identify the primary forms and estimate the ice cover in the past through the GlaRe methodology. Moreover, the paleo-ELA was estimated for this sector, and the values of the ice thickness, the ELA position, and the moraines were related to other nearest sectors to analyze their similarities and differences. Three main paleoglaciers were identified in the occidental Trevinca massif (Xares, Canda, and Bibei-Barxacova). Bibei showed the highest ice thickness and ice extension, occupying more than 140 km2 and with a thickness above 500 m some areas. Concerning the ELA, the values varied between the minimum at Xares with 1427 m and the maximum at Bibei-Barxacova with 1839 m. Four groups were identifying based on moraine ridges and were related to the different climatic phases in that sector. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue GIS and Glaciers Landscape: Past and Present)
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13 pages, 2894 KiB  
Article
Palaeoclimate Reconstruction of the Central Gangdise Mountains, Southern Tibetan Plateau, Based on Glacier Modelling
by Zihan Jiang, Qian Zhang, Hanyue Xu, Ninglian Wang, Li Zhang and Domenico Capolongo
Land 2022, 11(8), 1314; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/land11081314 - 15 Aug 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1455
Abstract
Palaeoglacier modelling is an important approach for reconstructing the palaeoclimate. The timing of glaciations in the central part of the Gangdise Mountains has been constrained previously, but the palaeoclimate remains unclear. In this paper, the palaeo-temperature and precipitation of the early marine isotope [...] Read more.
Palaeoglacier modelling is an important approach for reconstructing the palaeoclimate. The timing of glaciations in the central part of the Gangdise Mountains has been constrained previously, but the palaeoclimate remains unclear. In this paper, the palaeo-temperature and precipitation of the early marine isotope stage (MIS) 2, the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), and the early Holocene were reconstructed using coupled mass balance and ice flow models. The results show that a series of temperature changes (ΔT) and precipitation factors (Fp) resulted in optimum palaeoglacial extents. The modelled palaeoglaciers during the early MIS 2, the LGM, and the early Holocene cover areas of ~18.1 km2, ~17.4 km2, and ~16.3 km2, respectively, with ice volumes of ~2.18 km3, ~1.99 km3, and ~1.95 km3, respectively. Previous studies on ice cores, pollen samples, and lake sediments were referenced to narrow the range of palaeo-temperatures and precipitations. The reconstructed temperatures during the early MIS 2, LGM, and early Holocene were constrained to 2.4–2.9 °C, 2.15–3.05 °C, and 0.95–1.5 °C lower than today, respectively. Their precipitation levels were 60–80%, 50–80%, and 100–150% of the present-day level, respectively. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue GIS and Glaciers Landscape: Past and Present)
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20 pages, 4628 KiB  
Article
Geomatic Techniques Applied to the Dynamic Study (2001–2019) of the Rock Glacier in the Veleta Cirque (Sierra Nevada, Spain)
by José Juan de Sanjosé Blasco, Alan D. Atkinson, Manuel Sánchez-Fernández, Antonio Gómez-Ortiz, Montserrat Salvà-Catarineu and Ferran Salvador-Franch
Land 2022, 11(5), 613; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/land11050613 - 21 Apr 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 4702
Abstract
During the Little Ice Age (LIA), Corral del Veleta (Sierra Nevada) housed a small glacier of which relict glacial ice and permafrost still remain under packets of ice blocks. Currently, it is considered the southernmost rock glacier in Europe. The analysis and results [...] Read more.
During the Little Ice Age (LIA), Corral del Veleta (Sierra Nevada) housed a small glacier of which relict glacial ice and permafrost still remain under packets of ice blocks. Currently, it is considered the southernmost rock glacier in Europe. The analysis and results of monitoring carried out on this rock glacier reveal it to be in an accelerated process of immobilization and that the relict glacial ice blocks and permafrost on which it lies are in a continual process of degradation. The rock glacier was monitored from 2001 to 2019 using diverse geomatic techniques, to which geophysical and thermal techniques were added. The results obtained during the observation period shed light on the dynamic of the rock glacier (morpho-topographic movements and deformations) as well as the physical state of the underlying frozen bodies (volumetric reduction and spatial distribution). The changes observed are related to variations in the dominant high-mountain climate of Sierra Nevada, particularly since the end of the 20th century, the general tendencies of which are increasing temperatures, decreasing annual snowfall, and a shorter duration of snow on the ground. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue GIS and Glaciers Landscape: Past and Present)
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