CGRG Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology
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Author : Comeau, L.; Pietroniro, A.; Demuth, M.; and Dornes, P.
Date : 2007.
Title :
Publication : CMOS, CGU, AMS Congress 2007. "Air, Ocean, Earth and Ice on the Rock". May 28 - June 1, 2007. St. John's Congress Centre, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.
Issue :
Page(s) : H06-4C4.7.
Abstract
Glaciers in western Canada have generally been decreasing in extent over the last century, and with climate models projecting higher temperatures with associated higher melt rates, this has led to concerns over the future water availability in rivers fed by glacial runoff. Much analysis has been done on past snowmelt and glacier fed streamflow trends in relation to climate fluctuations with hydrological models used typically on large continental and small single basin scales. Only a few studies have used hydrological models to project future glacial and snowmelt fed streamflows and there is a need to develop and test hydrological models for studies on a number of watersheds on a regional scale, and to examine the effects of glacial contribution as a separate component to snowmelt runoff. An ongoing study of the glacier-fed North and South Saskatchewan River basins by Pietroniro et al (in press) uses the regional hydrological model WATFLOOD to project streamflow under future climate change. It has been found that glacial contribution to streamflow is related to glacier area which has been decreasing over the last couple of decades, and that mean annual streamflow is estimated to decrease when GCM projected future climate data is applied. However the study uses 1998 glacier extents when assessing future streamflow trends and the accuracy of WATFLOOD in modeling glacier runoff needs to be assessed. A study by Dornes et al (in press) has compared measured streamflow data from gauges in glacierised and non-glacierised basins in this region to assess the glacier runoff contribution as a separate component to snowmelt. The first purpose of this study is to compare this observed data with the modeled glacier runoff data to assess the accuracy of WATFLOOD. The second purpose is to apply a glacier surface evolution model to WATFLOOD which will then be run with GCM climate data for the year 2050. The outputs will be examined to assess the effect of decreasing glacier extents on streamflow under future climate change in the North and South Saskatchewan Rivers.
Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology