Glacier changes in the Austrian Alps during the last three decades, derived from the new Austrian glacier inventory

Abstract

Beginning in 1996, aerial photographs were taken for a new Austrian glacier inventory, resulting in digital elevation models (DEMs) and digital orthoimages. An earlier inventory of the Austrian glaciers containing the original aerial photographs and glacier maps and a manual evaluation of various glacier parameters as of 1969 has been re-evaluated at the present state of the art. The two inventories provide the basis for the comparison of glacier reactions over a period of 29 years. In general a reduction of glacier area is observed for almost all Austrian glaciers between 1969 and 1998. The overall reduction in ice-covered area is 17%. The glacier volume change calculated from the DEMs amounts to about 5 km³. This is almost 22% of the ice volume in Austria in 1969, estimated from a volume–area relation. Changes of individual glaciers, however, show a wide variability, depending on their size and physiographic setting.