Scientific session:
Within the EGU General Assembly 2004 a special session on glacier and permafrost hazards was organized by GAPHAZ (Session CR17, convener and session chair: A. Kääb, co-conveners: B. Etzelmueller, J. Reynolds; Friday 30 April 2004, oral session: 11:00-13:00, poster session: 14:30-16.30). Seven speakers presented at the oral session: J. Reynolds (solicited) gave a comprehensive overview on glacier hazards and related risk assessment; C. Huggel proposed a methodology for assessment of glacial hazards; M. Chiarle presented consequences of the summer 2003 in the Italien Alps; A. Zischg reported about a study on permafrost degradation and related debris flow hazards; A. Kääb gave an update about the current hazard development at Macugnaga/Monte Rosa; C. Kneisel presented geophysical studies related to potential starting conditions of periglacial debris flows; J. Noetzli discussed the potential relation between summer 2003 rock falls and permafrost. About 80 persons joined the interesting and stimulating presentations. The corresponding poster session hosted six posters: M. Pelfini (2) about the collapse of an ice-cored moraine and an integrative study on debris flows; I. Roer about recent changes in rockglacier kinematics; W. Haeberli about combined glacier/permafrost hazards; J. Reynolds about hazards related to surging glaciers in Pakistan; S. Gruber about thermal variations within rock walls and corresponding slope instability. The posters initiated fruitful discussions and knowledge exchange. Further information and the abstracts can be found at www.copernicus.org (go to EGU).
Considering the fact, that the aforementioned CR17 session represented the first public GAPHAZ activity and, at the same time, the first session on glacier and permafrost hazards within the EGU Cryosphere section, the event can be viewed as full success and encouraged to plan further such meetings.
GAPHAZ technical meeting:
In addition to the scientific session, the first GAPHAZ technical meeting was held at EGU 2004, joined by 21 scientists. A protocol of the technical meeting can be found in the internal section of the GAPHAZ web-page. The most important outcomes can be summarized as follows:
- A special journal issue of Cold Regions Science and Technology is envisaged, composed of papers from the EGU 2004 CR17 session. A more complete GAPHAZ publication is planned for the end of the working group duration.
- GAPHAZ will work towards setting up a set of state-of-the-art principles for dealing with glacier and permafrost hazards in mountains. Furthermore, it is planned to compile a list of the most important scientific gaps related to glacier and permafrost hazards in mountains.
- A next major GAPHAZ session will be envisaged for AGU 2005; participation at other conferences is planned.
- GAPHAZ will try to incorporate in particular members from development countries in order to improve knowledge exchange.
- GAPHAZ will help to launch courses on glacier and permafrost hazards in the countries affected.
3 May 2004 - A. Kääb, chair GAPHAZ,