Impacts and Risks of Global Change - Impact of Global Changes on Mountains: Responses and Adaptation - page 37

Figure 3.2. Surface elevation change of Hintereisferner for the glaciological year 2002/2003,
derived from multi-temporal airborne laser scanner data. Blue indicates positive elevation
changes (>0.3 m), white a 'stable' surface and yellow to red colours indicate negative elevation
changes. For the respective period, the overall elevation change of Hintereisferner was -3.7
m, elaboration by the authors.
Color image of this figure appears in the color plate section at the end of the topic.
While high latitude or polar permafrost is a signifi cant driver of
global warming due to increasing greenhouse gas emission, i.e., carbon-
dioxide and methane that are released as consequence of its thawing, high
altitude mountain permafrost is a sensitive indicator for climate change.
Furthermore, its thaw bears considerable potential for natural hazards.
After dramatic mass movement events in the Swiss Alps in summer 1987,
Haeberli et al. (1990) were fi rst in connecting climate change and thawing
permafrost.
Since mountain permafrost controls both the stability and hydrologic
behaviour of rock and debris slopes, its thaw and the related loss of stability
bears a signifi cant potential to cause natural hazards by facilitating mass
movement and initiating slope instability processes (Stötter 1994, Stötter et
al. 2012). Permafrost-related hazards include: (i) permafrost creep and the
transport of material into debris fl ow zones, (ii) thaw settlement and frost
heave, (iii) debris fl ow from permafrost due to increased depth of active