Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
projects located in the Andes that would affect ice bodies, and consequently impact
local communities and their water supply, as rainfall diminishes and temperature
raises (IPCC
2007
).
This early warning system would become a very strong and important tool not
just for government agencies or scientists, but also water users of this system which
would allow them to have projections about water availability year to year, for
irrigation, hydro electrical generation, and agricultural decisions.
6.8 Conclusion
Most of the glaciology and cryosphere science in Latin America and Chile in
this context is made as “base” or “pure” science. However in this particular case,
this glacier inventory is an innovative privately funded research project, which
brings together private business, the Chilean government's responsibility for nat-
ural resources management and the scientific need for knowledge for cryospheric
understanding in the semi arid region of Chile. This knowledge will allow these
three stakeholder groups to interact and make decisions on the bases of scientifically
obtained data. Hopefully this will generate discussion regarding the responsible
management of natural resources and future development projects.
There are still some “gaps” in glacier inventory in Chile. Filling these gaps
becomes more urgent given current climate change debates and the desire for more
responsible natural resources management from Chilean State. In addition private
investors are now considering the environment as one of the main factors prior to
new investment projects related to natural resources and environment. This marks a
change in the State's role, from a “laissez faire” state in the early 1980s.
These gaps are proposed to be addressed in the next few years. For example the
national cryosphere baseline is proposed to be finished within a time horizon of 5,
10 and 20 years from the present (Barcaza
2009
).
A key factor in this context is how “dynamic” these new data sets will be. Remote
sensing data provide of large amounts of data, but process techniques and data rep-
resentation should associated with a common language between different research
institutes related to glaciological studies.
An important improvement in the knowledge about the current and future status
of Chilean glaciers is also related to the modeling of water resources availability
under different climate change scenarios. In this context Norte Chico region presents
an interesting situation. An estimation (Nicholson et al.
2009
) indicates that under
B2 climate change scenario probably there will be a lost of glacier surface area
close to 65-70%, and under a A2 scenario the estimation indicate a loss of glacier
area around 91-95%. GIS modeling will play a key role in the administration and
management of water resources under stress conditions that require an early warning
system.
It is expected that this kind of study will be useful not only for scientific purposes,
but will also represent information for regional synoptic approaches useful in the
social and economic decision-making context.
