Wilfried Haeberli
Em. Professor
University of Zurich
Switzerland

Biography
Wilfried Haeberli is professor emeritus at the Geography Department, University of Zurich, Switzerland. From 1989 to 1995, he led the Glaciology Section at the Laboratory of Hydraulics, Hydrology and Glaciology of ETH Zurich and from 1986 to 2010 he directed the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS) of IACS/ICSU, UNEP, UNESCO, and WMO. As a member of the Terrestrial Observation Panel for Climate (TOP-C) from 1996 to 2009 he was responsible for the integration of snow and ice components into the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS). He participated with various functions in the preparation of the last four IPCC assessment reports.

Abstract
Long-term Glacier Monitoring and Geospatial Information

Based on the model of the Swiss glacier monitoring network established in 1893, internationally coordinated glacier monitoring formally started in 1894 and has built up since then one of the longest global environmental observation series. Switzerland had the task to lead this activity during most of the time and still today hosts the World Glacier Monitoring Service under the umbrella of UN and ICSU organizations. Topographic and geospatial information thereby played a key role, documenting long-term glacier volume changes and enabling the calibration of glacier mass balance measurements in the field. During the past few decades, space-born remote sensing and digital terrain information revolutionized the field. Area, thickness and volume changes of glaciers worldwide can now be determined with high accuracy and over time periods of decades to even a few years. A complete inventory of outlines for all glaciers has been established for the Fifth Assessment Report of IPCC. In combination with DEMs for the corresponding regions, distributed model calculations are now possible over large areas. Recent examples are volume estimates for all glaciers worldwide, calculations of glacier-bed topographies for still existing glaciers over entire mountain ranges or simulations of glacier vanishing rates for realistic scenarios of climate change. For the Swiss Alps, a digital terrain model “without glaciers” is now available as a planning tool with respect to a landscape of rocks, debris and lakes, which is likely to develop from the still existing glacier landscape within this century but then to last for many generations to come.