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Special report: how climate change is melting france’s largest glacier.

As the UN prepares its report on the fate of the world’s ice, Adam Vaughan visits the dramatically changing landscape of Mer de Glace near Mont Blanc

By Adam Vaughan

18 September 2019

The Mer de Glace glacier

Katie Moore for New Scientist

“IT’S very fast. We are confronted with the reality of the retreat,” says glaciologist Luc Moreau about the rapidly vanishing ice at France’s biggest glacier. We are looking at the unmistakeable fingerprint of climate change as told by the historical photos hanging in a hotel overlooking the Mer de Glace, the “sea of ice” near the Alps’ highest summit, Mont Blanc.

About a century ago, women with boaters and parasols sat near the Montenvers train station above the glacier, which then was almost level with a tongue of jagged ice snaking into the distance. Today, visitors are greeted by a slightly sad and largely grey glacier that is about 100 metres lower.

From the station, a short trip by cable car takes me to the height where, in 1988, a visitor could descend down three steps to reach the glacier. There are 580 steps down to the glacier now. Of these, 80 were added this year – a stark illustration of the accelerating effects of global warming.

The fate of the world’s glaciers will be laid bare by the UN climate science panel on 25 September, just days after research is expected to confirm that the extent of Arctic sea ice this summer reached the second lowest level ever recorded.

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There are some 170,000 glaciers worldwide covering an area of about 730,000 square kilometres. Monitoring of 500 glaciers globally shows they are retreating across the board and, since 1960, the rate at which they are losing ice has increased. A leaked draft of a report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on our planet’s oceans and ice warns that, this century, melting glaciers will “first give too much water and then too little”.

“France’s two largest glaciers have both lost 800m of their lengths over the past 30 years”

Many places mentioned in the IPCC report will seem remote to some people, but the Mer de Glace and nearby Argentière glacier are in the heart of Europe, next to Chamonix, a holiday destination visited by millions every year.

Tourists can see the effects clearly. The steps down to the Mer de Glace are punctuated by “level of the glacier” signs from 1985 through to 2015, the year the world agreed the Paris accord to avert dangerous global warming.

Steps lead down to the Mer de Glace glacier

At the ice cave carved in the glacier, white sheets have been laid atop the ice to slow the melting. Sébastien Payot tells me he is running out of ways to adapt. Since 1946, his family’s business has carved a cave here for tourists every year. But this year, the diggers encountered a spit of rock, indicating that they are nearing the bottom of the glacier. He fears that the ice’s retreat means next year’s cave will be the last. “It’s a barometer of global warming,” he says.

An ice cave is dug in the glacier every year

Recent measurements by Christian Vincent of the University of Grenoble show that the Mer de Glace and Argentière glacier, France’s second greatest glacier, have both lost around 800 metres in length in the past three decades. Researchers have gone further back in time by working out the glacier’s depths using photos taken from a balloon in the early twentieth century, and comparing them with photos taken from a helicopter more recently (see pictures below).

Aerial shots of the Mer de Glace glacier from 1919 and 2019 reveal how much ice has been lost

Left: Walter Mittelholzer, ETH-Bibliothek Zürich; Right: Kieran Baxter, University of Dundee

The lift and the steps down to the shrinking glacier will soon be dismantled if plans by ski-lift firm Compagnie du Mont Blanc go ahead. It hopes to move access to the glacier 500 metres up the valley, and build an educational centre focused on climate change. “It should allow us to dig a new cave in a place where scientists think there should still be some ice in the next 20 years, even with the most pessimistic scenarios,” says Mathieu Dechavanne at Compagnie du Mont Blanc.

In this area, mountaineers are seeing the changes up close. “Eighteen years ago, people used to ask ‘have you seen evidence of climate change?’ They don’t ask that anymore, because it’s clear there is,” says Andy Perkins, a British mountain guide who has guided climbers here since 2001.

Warming is leading to more rockfall and thawing permafrost, causing havoc with infrastructure, he says. “You have to take greater care because there is no normal anymore,” says Perkins.

In August, Perkins took a client on the Cosmiques Arête, a route above Chamonix that is considered stable. A day later, a large piece of rock fell from it. A recent study of 95 Mont Blanc massif climbing itineraries from a famous 1973 book found that all but two of the routes have been affected by climate change.

Becky Coles, part of an all-female team midway through climbing all the 4000-metre peaks in the Alps, found the heatwave in June closed several route options. It is hard to show rockfall is getting worse because of a lack of data, she says, but it feels worse than in the past. “I think there’s more rockfall, without a doubt.” The heatwave was made more probable by climate change .

The retreat of the glaciers is affecting flora and fauna too, says Hillary Gerardi of the Research Centre for Alpine Ecosystems in Chamonix. “We are seeing the productivity of vegetation going way up, plants are moving up the slope and the growing season is getting longer,” she says, citing the example of a large tree that was found growing above Chamonix where a glacier had been situated just a decade ago.

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Another example comes from the keeper of the Vignettes hut, a stop on a popular walking route in the area. A local plant known as génépi, used to make an alcoholic drink, is usually picked at about 2400 metres above sea level. This year, the keeper picked it at 3100 metres, the highest so far. Meanwhile, some species will lose out, like the rock ptarmigan, a bird whose Alps habitat is shrinking.

The world is currently on the path to dangerous warming, but on 23 September, some 60 heads of state are expected to present new climate change plans at a UN summit in New York. The UN special climate envoy, Luis Alfonso de Alba, says the European Union’s contribution will be fundamental to the meeting’s success.

Unless global action is taken to curb carbon emissions, France’s two greatest glaciers are doomed. A recent study by Vincent shows that on the current emissions trajectory, Argentière will be gone by 2080 and Mer de Glace by the end of the century. “Almost nothing” can be done locally to stop their decline, he says. Their future rests on the course the world takes.

Article amended on 18 September 2019

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Mathematics, health & fitness, business & finance, technology & engineering, food & beverage, random knowledge, see full index, chamonix the french alps glacier tourism case study flashcards preview, geography🌍 > chamonix the french alps glacier tourism case study > flashcards.

Where is it located?

In the north west alps

15 km from Switzerland and Italy

How long has it been a centre for tourism?

What is its population?

How many visitors does it get per day In summer / winter?

What are the summer tourist attractions?

What are the winter tourists attractions?

6 ski areas 2 cross county skiing courses Lots of glaciers including the Mer De Glace which is the longest glacier in France

What are the social impacts of tourism?

Tourism stops out migration of the young

Local people have to live in other places as houses are too expensive

What are the environmental impacts of tourism?

Chamonix is maintained as an attractive town Large number of tourists cause a lot of traffic which increases pollution Tourist developments have increased risks of avalanche

What are the economic impacts of tourism?

Jobs available in Chamonix have changed from farming to jobs in restaurants

The tourism industry creates a lot of jobs (2500 people work as season workers each year)

A huge amount of energy is used to run facilites for tourists e.g. Hotels / ski lifts which increases co2 levels adding to global warming

Give three ways in which Chamonix are trying to manage tourism?

Free public transport is provided for tourists Low emission buses used À system of avalanche barriers are maintained around the resort

What do the management strategies have to do?

Balance the need to conserve the environment with the right of people to see and experience it

What three other management strategies are in place in Chamonix?

Hotels are installing solar pannels

An initiative called Tomorrows valley brings together locals and tourists

Avalanche awareness courses

An initiative called ESpace Mont Blanc involves cooperation between France Switzerland and Italy on nature conservation , forests and water resources

What are the reasons for alpine development in Chamonix?

Amazing scenery and views Steep slopes ideal for winter sports Plenty of snow

What conflict was there between summer and winter tourists?

Heavy snow fall creates perfect climate for skiers Slopes are heavily used in winter damaging the grass underneath When ice melts the grass is dead and the surface uneven making it hard for summer hikers

What conflicts may arise between tourists and locals?

Tourists create noise disturbing natural peace Tourists drop litter making area ugly Many tourists travel by car increasing traffic congestion and pollution House prices may become too high for locals as rich tourists want to buy second home in Chamonix Tourists skiing off piste increases avalanche risk putting locals lives homes and businesses in danger

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• Open access
• Published: 26 June 2020

The impact of climate change and glacier mass loss on the hydrology in the Mont-Blanc massif

• Léa Laurent 1 ,
• Jean-François Buoncristiani 1 ,
• Benjamin Pohl   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-9339-797X 1 ,
• Harry Zekollari 2 , 3 ,
• Daniel Farinotti   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-3417-4570 4 , 5 ,
• Matthias Huss 4 , 5 , 6 ,
• Jean-Louis Mugnier 7 &
• Julien Pergaud 1  

Scientific Reports volume  10 , Article number:  10420 ( 2020 ) Cite this article

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• Cryospheric science
• Environmental health
• Projection and prediction

The Mont-Blanc massif, being iconic with its large glaciers and peaks of over 4,000 m, will experience a sharp increase in summer temperatures during the twenty-first century. By 2100, the impact of climate change on the cryosphere and hydrosphere in the Alps is expected to lead to a decrease in annual river discharge. In this work, we modelled the twenty-first century evolution of runoff in the Arve river, downstream of Mont-Blanc’s French side. For the first time for this region, we have forced a hydrological model with output from an ice-dynamical glacier model and 16 downscaled climate projections, under RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 scenarios. By 2100, under RCP8.5 (high-emission scenario), the winter discharge of the Arve river remains low but is expected to increase by 80% when compared to the beginning of the century. By contrast, the summer season, currently the most important discharge period, will be marked by a runoff decrease of approximately 40%. These changes are almost similar according to a scenario with a lower warming (RCP4.5) and are mostly driven by glacier retreat. These shifts will have significant downstream impacts on water quantity and quality, affecting hydroelectric generation, agriculture, forestry, tourism and aquatic ecosystems.

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Global change and temperature increase are projected to lead to major environmental changes in mountainous regions 1 , including major changes in glacier extent 2 , 3 , permafrost 4 , ice and snow cover 5 , 6 , 7 , and vegetation 8 , 9 . In the Alps, the cryosphere is crucial for water storage and for contributing to the total discharge of the main major European rivers 10 . In this context, major changes are likely to occur in water discharge 11 in and near these vulnerable regions, mostly decreasing runoff in summer and modifying water resources 12 . These changes could either be driven by (i) changes in precipitation 13 , 14 , especially in the proportion of liquid and solid water 15 , 16 , depending on the altitude of the 0 °C isotherm 17 ; (ii) a general warming trend, increasing snow and ice melt, hereby contributing to glacier mass loss 18 , but also increasing evapotranspiration from the surface; (iii) glacier retreat in response to such warming, ultimately leading to changes in water discharge as the available ice reserves gradually decrease 11 . Of particular importance are the relative weight of each of these forcings over the coming years and decades, and their dependency on the greenhouse gas emission scenarios. These changes will have major effects on river discharges and water quality 19 , impacting hydropower generation, agriculture, forestry, tourism and aquatic ecosystems 8 , 20 .

Many studies have explored the impact of global warming and glacier retreat on glacier runoff, at global 21 and regional scales (e.g., High Mountain Asia 22 , 23 , the Andes 24 , 25 and the USA 26 ). In the European Alps, glacier runoff evolution under climate change has already been investigated in Switzerland 27 , 28 and Austria 29 for example. In the French Alps, assessments of future changes are scarce, mostly focusing on a regional- to global scale (i.e. the entire European Alps) 30 . Hence, a spacial and temporal high resolution analysis of the impact of climate change and glacier retreat on discharge evolution is still lacking on the Mont-Blanc massif. In addition, studies projecting the long-term evolution runoff from glaciers in which ice dynamics are explicitly included do not exist for this region.

Projecting the hydrology in partially glaciated watershed requires modelled climate change projections corrected by downscaling techniques. These techniques are based on observational data, used as reference to correct some of the biases produced by numerical climate models and to adapt their coarse networks and partly biased results to the local and regional mountain context 31 , 32 . We focus here on the Mont-Blanc massif (Fig.  1 b), an emblematic mountain range for mountaineers and tourists, and make use of the long and continuous periods of observational data that exist. The Massif is located on the border between France, Italy and Switzerland and shows several peaks above 4,000 m.a.s.l., of which Mont-Blanc is the highest peak in the Alps (4,810 m altitude). There, rapid environmental changes have already been recorded.

Study area. ( a ) Location of the Sallanches catchment in the French Alps and map of the studied catchment basin (QGis 2.18., https://www.qgis.org/fr/site/index.html ). ( b ) The Mont-Blanc massif as seen from La Flégère cable car (black dot with view angle on the map).

In this study, we work on the Arve river watershed, where there are about 20 glaciers, eight of which now exceed two square kilometres (Fig.  1 a). The studied catchment area is 570 km 2 , 16.0% is currently covered with ice against 16.6% in 1967 33 . In most years, catchment area is entirely snow covered in winter, whereas in summer only the upper parts of the ice-covered areas (i.e. mostly corresponding to the glacier’s accumulation zones) remains snow covered. Here, we produce and analyse the first high-resolution long-term simulations of water discharge for the Arve river at the Sallanches outlet, located downstream of the major glaciers on the French side of the Massif. We use a hydrological model 34 forced by 16 downscaled and bias-corrected climate models 35 . These hydrological simulations explicitly consider the evolution of the glacier geometry throughout the century, as computed by a glaciological model (Supplementary Methods Sect.  1 ).

A changing runoff in a changing climate

The climate variables (temperature and precipitation) influencing water discharge in and around the Mont-Blanc Massif are firstly downscaled and post-corrected using the reference Chamonix weather station (1042 m.a.s.l., Fig.  2 ). These climate variables come from 16 general circulation models (GCMs) under representative concentration pathway (RCP) 4.5 and RCP8.5 36 . Catchment area, ice-covered proportion, slope and hypsometric curves are also computed to use as inputs to the hydrological model (Supplementary Methods Sect.  4 ). By construction, simulations from the historical runs fit observations at the Chamonix weather station in terms of statistical distribution. More specifically, they both depict a warming trend, at a comparable rate of roughly + 0.3 to + 0.4 °C per decade (i.e. + 1.5 °C between 1970 and 2010) in both winter (December–January–February) and summer (June–July–August). Future temperature evolution in winter is expected to lead to a warming of + 3.5 °C by 2100 against the pre-industrial era under RCP4.5 (i.e. + 2 °C during 1965–2018, which is our study period and constrained by observational data availability, and another + 1.5 °C between 2019 and 2100), and + 5.5 °C under RCP8.5 (Fig.  2 a). These values are quite similar for the summer warming expected by the end of the century under RCP4.5, but a sensibly larger warming is anticipated for RCP8.5 (+ 8.5 °C against pre-industrial simulations, Fig.  2 b). While RCP4.5 shows a slower increase in temperature for the last decades of the century, RCP8.5 produces an ever-accelerating warming trend. Although model uncertainties tend to be smaller in summer than in winter under historical radiative forcing, they increase over the current century, denoting differentiated climate sensitivity (that is, different warming under a similar radiative forcing). This is less true in winter, when uncertainties remain almost constant throughout the study period (Supplementary Fig. S9 ).

( a , b ) Seasonal mean temperature in Chamonix in winter (DJF) and in summer (JJA) (°C). ( c , d ) Seasonal precipitation amounts in Chamonix in winter (DJF) and in summer (JJA) (mm). ( e ) Annual ice-covered area of the study area (km 2 ). ( f ) Annual lowest glacier frontal elevation (m). Yellow curves: observations, period 1965–2018. Blue colours: historical (Hist) simulations, period 1965–2005. The solid curve shows the ensemble mean, the colour shading extends to ± 1 standard deviation to show model uncertainties. Green colours: the same for RCP4.5 simulations, period 2006–2100. Red colours: the same for RCP8.5 simulations, period 2006–2100.

Temporal variations in seasonal precipitation are weaker compared to temperature, even though such apparent quasi-stability can conceal a significant decrease (or increase) in snow (or rain). In the Chamonix valley, this is especially true in winter, and in high-mountain environments in summer 17 . Over the next century, winter precipitation amounts show a weak positive trend (Fig.  2 c), while the opposite occurs in summer (Fig.  2 d). The magnitude of these changes remains nonetheless smaller than the inter-model spread, indicating that these results are less robust than the simulated changes in temperature.

As a result of these projected evolutions in temperature and precipitation, glaciers are expected to retreat dramatically by 2100 18 . Glacierized areas in the Arve basin are simulated to drop from roughly 90 km 2 in the year 2004 33 to 40 km 2 and 20 km 2 by the end of the century under RCP4.5 and RCP8.5, respectively (Fig.  2 e and Supplementary Fig. S1 ). In the Mont-Blanc massif, this corresponds to a spectacular rise in glacier front elevations: from 1,500 m.a.s.l. under current conditions to 2,500 and 3,000 m.a.s.l. under RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 (average for the eight glaciers considered in this study, Fig.  2 f).

Water discharge from the Arve river directly responds to this forcing (Fig.  3 ). As an input for hydrological model GSM-Socont, we only consider glaciers larger than 2 km 2 , as smaller glaciers represent only 15% of the total glacierized area and have therefore a small influence on the river runoff. Glaciated surfaces below 2 km 2 are then considered as non-glaciated areas. GSM-Socont is a conceptual reservoir-based model producing hydrological discharge simulations at daily resolution (Supplementary Methods Sect.  4 ) 34 . Both seasonal means and day-to-day standard deviation are displayed, to characterize not only the overall evolution of the average discharge, but also the magnitude of its variability within each season. In spite of a very good skill (Supplementary Results Sect.  1 ), the hydrological model underestimates runoff variability from one season to another when forced by climate observations (Fig.  3 d,f).

( a , b ) Annual runoff and daily standard deviation of the runoff in Sallanches (m 3 ). ( c , d ) Winter (DJF) runoff and daily standard deviation of the runoff in Sallanches (m 3 ). ( e , f ) Summer (JJA) runoff and daily standard deviation of the runoff in Sallanches (m 3 ). Yellow curves: observations, period 1965–2018. Black dotted curves: simulations using climate observations, period 1967–2018. Blue colours: historical (Hist) simulations, period 1967–2005. The solid curve shows the ensemble mean, the colour shading extends to ± 1 standard deviation to show model uncertainties. Green colours: the same for RCP4.5 simulations, period 2008–2100. Red colours: the same for RCP8.5 simulations, period 2008–2100.

Runoff changes derived from climate simulations show contrasted seasonal changes between summer and winter (Fig.  3 c,e). In winter, discharge is projected to increase substantially, hereby pursuing and enhancing the weak positive trend found in historical records (Fig.  3 c). Under a high-emission scenario, winter discharge is expected to double from 1967 to 2100. This evolution is mostly driven by an increasing (decreasing) proportion of rainfall (snow), causing rapid runoff from the non-glacierized parts of the watershed, especially in its lowest parts. Day-to-day variability in winter is simulated to increase significantly (Fig.  3 d), from 2.5 × 10 6  m 3  s −1 in 2005 to nearly 5 × 10 6  m 3  s −1 in 2100 under RCP4.5 and 7.5 × 10 6  m 3  s −1 under RCP8.5. The physical causes of these evolutions, which could be due to the zero-bounded distribution of the discharges, are discussed in the Supplementary Results (Sects.  3 and 4 ).

In summer, the seasonal mean runoff has significantly increased in the past decades (Fig.  3 e), as a direct consequence of a general warming (Fig.  2 b) that enhanced snow and ice melt, favouring glacier mass loss and retreat. Our simulations indicate that the maximum annual water release from glaciers (“peak water”) has been reached recently or should be reached in the coming 5–10 years (Fig.  3 e). This is in line with the results of large-scale studies 21 . The coming decades are anticipated to be characterized by a marked summer runoff decrease of about a third under RCP8.5, denoting an increasing role of glacier retreat counteracting the effects of ongoing warming. Daily runoff variability in summer is likely to remain constant or become slightly lower throughout the century (Fig.  3 f, Supplementary Results Sects.  3 and 4 ).

The annual runoff also peaks between 2010 and 2030 (i.e. “peak water”). After reaching a high of about 9 × 10 8  m 3  s −1 in 2008, runoff is expected to decrease to about 7 × 10 8  m 3  s −1 by 2100. This is mostly driven by changes in the summer runoff.

The relative influence of climate change and glacier retreat are analysed through a series of additional simulations (Fig.  4 ). They are designed to quantify the time component of the direct response of runoff to climate change (warming increases melting), and that of the indirect response (glaciers retreat, which decreases runoff). To that end, runoff is re-computed by relying on (i) evolving glaciers and a climate constant and (ii) constant glacier and a changing climate (Supplementary Methods Sect.  5 ). These analyses assess the relative importance of climate change, glacier retreat and also evapotranspiration increase for runoff changes (Fig.  4 ), and the time changes in the relative contribution of each of these parameters on overall discharge evolutions.

Monthly total runoff in Sallanches (m 3 ) under RCP4.5 and RCP8.5. Every month’s section is a 1967–2100-time series of discharges. Black colours: transient simulations with climate changing and glacier retreat. Each point represents the runoff for each year, the curve shows the smoothed values. Blue colours: the same for idealized simulations with climate changing and glacier constant. Red colours: the same for idealized simulations with climate constant and glacier retreat. Graphical representation as in Guichard et al. 51 .

In summer (July, August and September) and under RCP4.5, transient runoff is mostly driven by climate change (direct warming effect) until 2020, and then glacier retreat has more influence until the end of the century. This confirms our first results concluding that, so far, glacier retreat has a relatively limited effect on water discharge. Same findings are highlighted under RCP8.5 in August and September. However, in June for example, runoff computed under constant climate is higher than the transient runoff for the late century, which happens also in June and July under the RCP8.5 scenario (Fig.  4 ). This is mostly due to sensibly modified evapotranspiration: under a constant climate, evapotranspiration remains stationary, which leads to a higher amount of water, by direct runoff coming from the non-glaciated parts of the catchment (the area of which increases in the future).

The significant influence of climate change in the beginning of the period and evapotranspiration thereafter is clearly highlighted by the analysis of relative weight, of the direct vs. indirect response of water discharge to climate change (Supplementary Results Sect.  6 and Supplementary Fig. S13 ). This estimation is obtained as the ratio between, on the one hand, the difference between runoff with glaciers constant and transient runoff, and in the other hand, the difference between runoff computed with climate constant and transient runoff. The role of the evapotranspiration is also clearly discernible when considering the monthly runoff for the not-glaciated parts of the catchment, for which runoff computed under a constant climate is higher than the transient runoff (Supplementary Fig. S12 ).

Contribution of snow and ice melt to water discharge

Taken together, the results of Figs.  2 and 3 suggest (i) major changes in the hydrological regime of the Arve river, with discharge increase in winter and decrease in summer; and (ii) strong modifications in the relative contributions of snow and ice melt to total runoff.

Figure  5 represents projected changes in the hydrological regime, that is, changes in the annual cycle of runoff at the Sallanches station. Under current climate conditions, the Arve river in Sallanches has a clear nivo-glacial hydrological regime, characterized by a sharp increase in total runoff in spring due to snow melt, an annual peak in summer driven by ice melt, and very low runoff in winter (Fig.  5 a). Throughout the century, the differences between winter and summer are simulated to continuously decrease. Wintertime runoff is expected to increase by 57 and 100% (for RCP4.5 and RCP8.5, respectively) between 2006 and 2100, with most runoff originating from the ice-free portion of the watershed (Fig.  5 c). There are two main reasons explaining such an increase: a larger fraction of rainfall, and an increase in snowpack melting, even in the core of the winter season. In contrast, the summer season shows a dramatic drop in runoff by 30–45%, from the “peak water” reached nowadays to 2100 (Fig.  5 a). This evolution is largely driven by the glacierized fraction of the watershed. A minor runoff decrease of 3–7% on the ice-free part (Fig.  5 c) is associated with increased evapotranspiration from the non-glacierized surfaces (15–35%), and negative changes in summer precipitation (− 3 to − 23%). The major drop in water discharge from the glacierized part of the basin (− 50 to − 70%, Fig.  4 b) is explained by the glacier retreat as modelled for the respective changes in climate forcing (Fig.  2 e,f).

( a ) Monthly total runoff in Sallanches (m 3 ). ( b ) Monthly runoff of the ice-covered part of the catchment (m 3 ). ( c ) Monthly runoff of the ice-free part of the catchment (m 3 ). Every month’s section is a 1967–2100-time series of discharges. Blue colours: historical (Hist) simulations, period 1967–2018. Each point represents the runoff for each year, the curve shows the evolution trend with a quadratic model. Green colours: the same for the RCP4.5 simulations, period 2008–2100. Red colours: the same for the RCP8.5 simulations, period 2008–2100. Graphical representation as in Guichard et al. 51 .

The marked decrease in glacierized areas, associated with the strong increase in frontal glacier elevation (Fig.  2 e,f, Supplementary Fig. S1 ), as well as the dramatic decrease in summertime water discharge throughout the century (Fig.  3 e), raise the question of the evolution of the glacier contribution to the total water discharge for the Arve river. Ice melt contribution to the total runoff was already addressed in other regions such as High Asia, Chilean Andes and Italian Alps 37 , 38 , 39 . Forcing GSM-Socont with modelled historical climate indicates that the glacier contribution to the summer water discharge slightly increased in the last decades (Fig.  6 ), in coherence with the melt intensification favoured by ongoing warming (Figs. 2 , 3 ). This increasing trend is sensibly stronger when the hydrological model is forced by climate observations, rather than historical simulations. This is more driven by precipitation than temperature. Summer precipitation amounts are larger in the observations than in the simulations and slightly increasing (Fig.  2 d), causing snowfall at mid- and high elevations. This snow rapidly melts and enhances the contribution from the glacierized fraction of the watershed.

Relative contribution of the glacierized area to the total runoff (%) in summer (JJA). Black dotted curves: simulations using climate observations, period 1967–2018. Blue colours: historical (Hist) simulations, period 1967–2005. The solid curve shows the ensemble mean, the colour shading extend to ± 1 standard deviation to show model uncertainties. Green colours: the same for RCP4.5 simulations, period 2008–2100. Red colours: the same for RCP8.5 simulations, period 2008–2100.

In the simulations forced by observed climate variables, the ice melt contribution was still increasing in recent years (Fig.  6 ). In those forced by climate models, in contrast, the contribution of glacierized areas reached an overall maximum in summer between the late twentieth and the early twenty-first centuries. The contribution peaked at 50–60% of the total summer discharge, and slightly decreased since then. This negative trend is expected to become more pronounced with time, with a decrease still accelerating during the second half of the century. By 2100, the annual contribution of the glacierized parts of the watershed could drop to 35–45%, these values being remarkably similar for both RCP4.5 and RCP8.5. In the meantime, the glacierized area is projected to drop from 85 km 2 to 20–40 km 2 , with a marked difference between the two scenarios during the last decades of the century (Fig.  2 e). Under RCP4.5 (RCP8.5) the total runoff decreases by 35% (40%) between 2006–2035 and 2071–2100, while runoff from the ice-covered part decreases by 45% (50%) (Fig.  5 a, b). Thus, the ratio between the runoff from the entire catchment and the runoff from the ice-covered part is roughly the same for both RCPs. Similar evolutions of runoff under RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 are also linked more generally to the glacier evolutions. The latter are very similar under both RCPs in the first decades of the century, and are largely driven by the recent and present-day glacier geometry, because of the large inertia of glaciers, inducing a lag between temperature changes and their response 40 . A last explanation is that temperature and precipitation evolutions are quite similar under RCP4.5 and RCP8.5, with differences only appearing in the second part of the twenty-first century 17 .

Climate projections and associated impacts on the environment result from various processes that respond at different time scales, and that can combine or cancel out their specific effects. Better understanding these processes and their characteristic time steps is increasingly considered as a way to better analyze climatic projections 41 , 42 . In this study, this paradigm is applied to hydrological simulations in a partly glacierized catchment by distinguishing runoff evolution depending on climate change and glacier retreat. The effect of temperature increase and accelerated melting is of primary importance from 1965 to about 2020, while glacier retreat become predominant thereafter until about 2070. At the end of the century, enhanced evapotranspiration directly caused by warmer conditions, plays a major role on runoff evolution in summer, further accelerating runoff decrease in June under RCP4.5 and in June and July under RCP8.5. Direct impacts of climate change could be considered as a short term process responsible for the current or near-term “peak water” recorded in many alpine rivers and catchments. Indirect impacts of climate, through changes in the glacier extensions, become predominant for most future decades. Given the inertia of glaciers, including their area and frontal elevations, such indirect effect is expected to perturb peri-alpine hydrology for a long time, well beyond the end of the current century.

The evolution of the hydrological cycle detected with the simulations are in line with previous studies 25 , 26 . Changes in the runoff seasonality are depicted in other regions of the world 20 , 21 , 43 , such as in the South American Andes where, for example, runoff from the Juncal catchment, Chile, is expected to strongly decrease in summer under climate change and glacier retreat 44 . In addition to the assessments of the evolution of the hydrological cycle, the present study specifies the effects of glacier retreat and accelerated melting, and the balance between those two opposite effects. These processes, specific to partially-glacierized watersheds 45 , combine with the most general increase of evapotranspiration, that will increasingly act to decrease general runoff in many (but not all) regions of the world in future decades 46 , 47 .

This rapid change in the mountain cryosphere will lead to important shifts in the hydrological cycle. The accelerated melting of snow and ice under climate change leads to a temporal modification of the maximum discharge, with a gradual decrease of the summer flow. Our model results thus indicate a transition to a discharge regime that is more controlled by rainwater, rather than meltwater. This will have important repercussions on the seasonal availability of water, and consequently on the storage in and management of freshwater reservoirs. These changes may have impacts on hydropower production 48 , increase flood risk in winter and drought risk in summer 49 . Water temperature may also rise in summer, which could notably have impacts on ecosystems and for the cooling of nuclear power stations. All these effects could cause additional challenges managing hydropower and rivers.

The choice of the conceptual reservoir-based model GSM-Socont is motivated by the low diversity of long meteorological 50 series available in the studied watershed. The catchment is represented as a set of spatial units assumed to have a homogeneous hydrological behaviour. A first level of discretization is a separation between ice-covered and not ice-covered part in the catchment, and a second level of discretization consists in dividing those two parts into elevation bands. For each elevation band, precipitation and temperature time series are interpolated using vertical gradients. For the ice-covered part of the catchment, runoff is then computed two linear reservoir approaches for snow and for ice. For the ice-free part of the catchment, runoff is computed using a linear reservoir for the slow contribution of soil and underground water, and a non-linear reservoir for direct runoff. All those computation steps depend on seven equation parameters (Supplementary Table S2 ) that require calibration for each studied catchment. The calibration of the reservoir-based model GSM-Socont for the Arve catchment has been performed using observed precipitation, temperature and runoff, and detailed catchment characterization (Supplementary Methods Sects.  1 and 4 ). It produces hydrological discharge simulations at a daily timescale. The two first years of the simulation are discarded because they are affected by the model initialization. Simulations consisted in computing 1965–2018 runoff using observed climate, and then computing runoff from 1965 to 2100 using CMIP5 simulated climate. CMIP5 historical time series of precipitation and temperature were downscaled and bias-corrected using the CDFt method 35 . RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 were considered. Sixteen global climate models have been used to quantify model-dependency and related uncertainties (Supplementary Methods Sects.  2 and 3 ). During the historical period, the ice-covered area remains constant. Assuming an ice-cover decrease between 1965 and 2018 does not significantly influence water discharge (this hypothesis is tested in Supplementary Methods Sect.  4.3 ). For future simulations, glacier extension obtained from the GloGEMflow glaciological model 18 are used to update the ice-covered area in 5-year steps until 2100. GloGEMflow consists of a surface mass balance component and an ice flow component which are combined to calculate the temporal evolution of every individual glacier. This glaciological model is extensively validated over the European Alps as (i) the modelled past glacier evolution coincides with observations on glacier geometry changes and surface velocities and (ii) the simulated future evolution is conform with results based on more complex 3D models 12 .

Projections of future runoff in a glacierized catchment have significant uncertainties due to the modelling process and uncertain evolution of climate and glacier retreat. Effects of erroneous calibration that can cause significant uncertainties in the modelling are unlikely, as calibration results show a good overall performance for the daily discharge simulation (Supplementary Results Sect.  1 ). Uncertainties in climate and glacier evolution refer to the input data (i.e. CMIP5 and GloGEMflow results) and are taken into account through the ensembles of model results presented here. Results on future runoff should thus be interpreted bearing in mind these uncertainties.

The experiment disentangling the effects of climate change and glacier retreat consists in modelling runoff either using climate changing and glacier constant or using constant climate and glacier retreat. GSM-Socont is thus run using either 2006-glacier extent or detrended climate as inputs (Supplementary Methods Sect.  5 ). Hydrological modelling and GSM-Socont calibration required powerful computer resources (Supplementary Methods Sect.  4 ).

Data availability

The datasets generated during the current study are available from the corresponding author on a reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the World Climate Research Programme’s Working Group on Coupled Modelling, which is responsible for CMIP, and we thank the climate modelling groups (listed in Supplementary Methods of this paper) for producing and making available their model output. The GSM-Socont model was made available by Schaefli et al. 34 . Modelling and calculations were performed using High Performance Computer Resources from DNUM CCUB (Centre de Calcul de l’Université de Bourgogne). This work is part of the ANR project VIP Mont-Blanc (Grant ANR-14-CE03-0006-04). HZ acknowledges the funding received from the European Commission Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action (Grant 799904).

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Léa Laurent, Jean-François Buoncristiani, Benjamin Pohl & Julien Pergaud

Department of Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

Harry Zekollari

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Laboratory of Hydraulics, Hydrology and Glaciology (VAW), ETH Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland

Daniel Farinotti & Matthias Huss

Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL), Birmensdorf, Switzerland

Department of Geosciences, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland

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L.L., J.-F.B. and B.P. conceived the study and defined the analysis and methodology; L.L. designed and carried out the data analysis; L.L., J.P. and B.P. plotted the figures; H.Z., D.F. and M.H. supplied ice-covered areas and frontal elevations evolutions by 2100; J.L.-M. leads the ANR project VIP Mont-Blanc; all authors contributed to the interpretation of the results, to write and review the paper.

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Laurent, L., Buoncristiani, JF., Pohl, B. et al. The impact of climate change and glacier mass loss on the hydrology in the Mont-Blanc massif. Sci Rep 10 , 10420 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-67379-7

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Published : 26 June 2020

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-67379-7

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GCSE Geography | Ice On The Land: Chamonix Case Study

• Created on: 26-05-13 15:01

CASE STUDY: Chamonix , France

Where is Chamonix ?

Chamonix is situated in the north-westerly part of the Alps , just 15km from the Swiss border and 15km from Italy via the Mont Blanc tunnel. At 1035 metres above sea level, it's the largest town in a deep and narrow valley that runs from Servoz (780m) at the south-west entrance of the valley to the Col du Balme (2200m). Chamonix is at the foot of the highest mountain in the Alps, called Mont Blanc, which stands at 4,808m tall.

15km from Swiss border

15km from Italy via Mont Blanc tunnel

Map of Chamonix – showing Chamonix and distance from borders

Local Map of Chamonix – showing main roads and attractions

What attracts visitors to the area?

Visitors of the Mer de Glace

Montenvers Railway

Heated swimming pool

Chamonix Town

Chamonix provides a huge variety of options for both adrenaline-junkies and those looking for a peaceful holiday. The slopes provide the ideal environment for skiing and snowboarding. Pistes are made easily accessible via cable cars and cog railways. Cross country skiing is an activity available in winter, and there are two local courses for this nearby. Ice climbing, free riding and paragliding are popular tourist activities. Walking is also an option, with snowshoe trails available for hikers. Chamonix has hotels, restaurants and heated swimming pools for winter visitors, as well as spas. There are activities available away from the mountain slopes too, with museums, shops and historical buildings. In the summer, mountain landscapes offer tremendous potential for outdoor activities. Montenvers railway takes tourists to the Mer de Glace. Here, people can see stunning scenery such as the glacier and the valley it has carved. The area has 350km of hiking trails, 40km of mountain bike tracks, rock climbing, mountaineering, canyoning, pony trekking and summer luging. The town has many attractions in the summer too, with live music, outdoor cafés and colourful flowers.

What are the impacts of tourism?

• Easy access to town via motorways & approach roads
• Lots of job opportunities – young people stay in area
• Locals benefit from better public transport & health care
• Conflicts can arise between groups – e.g. farmers and extreme sport enthusiasts, or walkers and party people and skiers
• Jobs changed from farming to tourism
• Companies such as Comagnie du Mont Blanc make a lot of money
• Shops develop – also benefiting locals
• Employment available for locals in 1) hotels 2) guides 3) …

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Case Study: UTMB Group Improves Content Discovery and Collaboration With Moments Lab AI-Powered Cloud Media Hub

By SVG Staff Monday, May 13, 2024 - 10:20 am Print This Story | Subscribe

Story Highlights

Based in Chamonix-Mont-Blanc, France, UTMB Group is the organization behind the UTMB World Series, a premier global trail running circuit with 40+ events taking place across Asia, Oceania, Europe, Africa, and the Americas. It is also the only place where runners can begin their quest to the HOKA UTMB Mont-Blanc, where the prestigious UTMB World Series Finals are held in the OCC, CCC, and UTMB races. Inaugurated in 2003, the UTMB race stands as a beacon of trail running excellence with an awe-inspiring course around the iconic Mont-Blanc — traversing Italy, Switzerland, and France — covering a distance of 171 kilometers with a staggering 10,000 meters of positive elevation gain.

“The HOKA UTMB Mont-Blanc is the most incredible and competitive trail running event,” explains Coralie Batté, head of brand and communication at UTMB Group . “Each year, the best athletes meet in Chamonix, and more than 10,000 runners participate in one of our eight races, including the UTMB World Series Finals.”

Through the UTMB Live streaming service, and content shared on social media channels, people can follow their favorite athletes and share in the breathtaking beauty of the landscapes as runners cross the finish line in Chamonix.

The UTMB charts a stunning course around the iconic Mont-Blanc, traversing Italy, Switzerland, and France.

Simplifying the Allocation of Media Content

UTMB Group accumulates a large collection of media as it documents each race — as many as 2,000 photos from a single event. Many of the images and videos did not have adequate metadata, and the UTMB Group team spent significant time properly tagging new media files to ensure that content could be found by partners and stakeholders. Finding the correct image or video clip for a sponsor or partner was often a time-consuming process. Moreover, UTMB Group had to manually review the footage to ensure the presence of sponsor logos. This workflow was not sustainable nor scalable given the large volume of media across all 40+ events and its small content team.

UTMB Group needed an easy and efficient way to access, store, manage, and share its media content with sponsors and athletes.

“Our goal was to modernize our media management and create a media marketplace where partners, athletes and our content team could easily — and independently —  find the content they were searching for,” says Batté.

Aside from being user-friendly, the solution needed to be deployed quickly. With several upcoming races, UTMB Group wanted to move forward and bring its new media asset management solution online as soon as possible to enable simpler sharing of content for improved brand awareness and athlete and partner relations.

Swiftly Deploying a Media Asset Management Solution

Moments Lab’s Cloud Media Hub with Multimodal AI indexing, and Media Marketplace met UTMB Group’s requirements for an efficient and centralized space to store and work with their media assets.

The deployment was quick. During the implementation process, Moments Lab’s team set up five sponsor media collections per event.

“We had a lot to do in a short amount of time,” says Philippe Petitpont, co-founder and CEO of Moments Lab . “Within three days, we established about 15 events and 85 media collections with visuals for UTMB Group, which is an unprecedented speed, especially considering that none of the media content was properly tagged.”

Each media collection was created with specific AI detection parameters, including the year, event, race, and logo to ensure content is easy to find.

The Cloud Media Hub and Media Marketplace contain all original files and proxies. UTMB Group can use Moments Lab’s live photo media upload capability to provide partners and athletes with faster access to content.

Winning the Race for Faster Content Search Experiences

The Cloud Media Hub is powered by revolutionary multimodal AI indexing technology. Photographers and Videographers can automatically or manually upload shots of the trail runs to the Cloud Media Hub from anywhere. AI indexing then scans the media and detects athletes and sponsor logos. Utilizing AI, UTMB Group can instantly tag media with the names of athletes leveraging automatic facial recognition technology, optical character recognition (OCR) for sponsor logos, and speech-to-text transcription for video interviews. The result is infinitely more powerful search experiences.

AI indexing scans UTMB Group’s media and detects individual athletes and sponsor logos.

“Moments Lab’s Cloud Media Hub transforms our workflow, reducing our production times and improving collaboration,” adds Batté. “We can now find media assets in just a few seconds.”

Boosting Content Engagement With the Media Marketplace

The UTMB Group team manages the partner and sponsor collections folders in the Media Hub and the validation of content access via the Media Marketplace. Through the Media Marketplace, UTMB Group can efficiently manage access to photos and know when a particular partner has hit their quota. Sponsors and partners have the autonomy to log in to the Media Hub and access their designated collection.

UTMB Group sponsors and partners have autonomous access to designated media collections.

In addition, UTMB Group’s social media team uses the Media Hub to search for, select, and download images and video clips for use on its channels, including Instagram where it currently engages with more than 400,000 followers.

Batté explains, “The Media Marketplace enables us to easily publish relevant videos or photos on our channels and share content with partners and sponsors. They love how simple it is to view and download approved content.”

Increasing Workflow Efficiency, Sponsor Satisfaction, and ROI

Since deploying Moments Lab’s cloud and AI-based platform, UTMB Group has successfully stored, managed, and shared media content for its 2022 and 2023 races. The team uploaded close to 2,000 photos to the Cloud Media Hub from the 2023 UTMB Mont-Blanc event alone.

Adopting Moments Lab’s solution saves UTMB Group significant time while increasing their engagement with sponsors and partners. Prior to using Moments Lab, UTMB Group manually scanned about 1,000 photos per event to identify and tag sponsors. This process took the UTMB Group team eight hours at a minimum. Now, the same work is completed in about 15 minutes.

“A time saving of 97% on manual photo tagging is just incredible. We’re already seeing a huge return on investment from being able to store, manage, and share our race images much more efficiently. Enabling our partners and sponsors to independently download footage and shots from anywhere and rapidly activate their marketing and social media campaigns is a game-changer. Moments Lab’s solutions propel our business on a path toward future growth and collaboration,” says Batté.

In 2024, UTMB will oversee 42 incredible trail running events in Asia, Oceania, Europe, Africa and the Americas. Leveraging the Moments Lab solution, UTMB Group can share every captivating race moment with the world.

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