| NATO-RUSSIA Collaborative Linkage Grant (NRCLG) No. 983030:
Space-borne detection and characterisation of natural hazards in glacierized areas
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Research Plan:
Introduction:
Glacier- and permafrost-related hazards such as glacier floods, ice and rock avalanches, mass movements, or ice-clad volcanoes represent a continuous threat to human lives and infrastructure in high mountain regions. Disasters associated to the glacial and periglacial environment can cause thousands of casualties and damages in the order of many millions of Euro in one event. Glacier and permafrost hazards are particularly sensitive to climate changes. The present shift of cryospheric hazard zones due to atmospheric warming, chain reactions, and the potential far reach of glacier disasters make it necessary to apply modern remote sensing techniques for the assessment of such hazards, combined with field investigations and numerical modelling work. High mountain regions are particularly affected by climate change impacts on hazard potentials.
Project Goals:
The goal of this collaborative project is to bring together a highly complementary group of experts in order
- to improve the technology for remote-sensing based detection and monitoring of glacier and permafrost hazards,
- to develop regional-scale models of hazard potentials in the study regions for initiating or supporting prevention and mitigation strategies, and
- to intercompare the results from the Caucasus, mountain ranges in Norway and Canada towards a more general methodology of space-borne assessment of glacier and permafrost hazards.
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Project team:
- Prof. Dr. Andreas Kääb
Department of Geosciences, University of Oslo, Norway
(NATO Principle Investigator)
- Dr. Olga Tutubalina
The University Centre for Engineering Geodynamics and Monitoring, Moscow, Russia
(Russian Federation Principle Investigator)
- Prof. Dr. Stephan Evans
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Waterloo, Canada
Other team members:
- Dr. Regula Frauenfelder
Department of Geosciences, University of Oslo, Norway
- Dr. Sergey Chernomorets
The University Centre for Engineering Geodynamics and Monitoring, Moscow, Russia
- Dr. Dimitry Petrakov
Department of Cryolithology and Glaciology, Faculty of Geography, Moscow State University, Russia
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Results:
Field visit August 2007:
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Elbrus, Central Caucasus
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Ice dam breach from glacier lake outburst in August 2006 (Elbrus)
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Bridge and road destroyed during the August 2006 outburst.
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The town of Tyrnyauz: Casualties and heavy damage during periglacial debris flows in 1999 and 2000. |
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Contact:
Prof. Dr. Andreas Kääb
Department of Geosciences
University of Oslo
P.O. Box 1047 Blindern
N - 0316 Oslo
NORWAY
phone: +47 228 55812
fax: +47 228 54215
kaeaeb geo.uio.no
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