Towards a comprehensive rock glacier inventory in the Swiss Alps

Rock glaciers are debris landforms typical of high mountain environments. They can be identified in the landscape by their steep frontal and lateral margins, as well as their lobed surface and the frequent occurrence of ridges and furrows (RGIK, 2023). Their morphology is related to the downslope creeping movement. Over the recent years, the scientific community has highlighted the importance of studying these landforms to improve our understanding of the impacts of climate change on high mountain regions. 

The RoDynAlps research project, funded by the Swiss National Foundation and led by the Universities of Fribourg, Lausanne, Zurich and the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research, aims to better understand the dynamics of rock glaciers in the Swiss Alps. One of the main objectives of the project is to assess the current state of the rock glaciers in the Swiss Alps, in the continuity of an initiative launched by Delaloye et al. (2019), with the result being a comprehensive inventory of rock glaciers in the Swiss Alps, including kinematic characterization. To this aim, we are applying a standard methodology developed by a consortium of experts (RGIK, 2023).  

This poster presents preliminary results obtained in the Valais Alps.  More than 1300 rock glaciers were identified, based on aerial ortho-images and on the new 0.5 m SwissSURFACE3D Lidar DEM analyses. In a next step, kinematic data will be computed from a wide range of interferograms derived from Sentinel 1 images 2020–2022. Then, statistical and spatial analysis will be performed in order to improve our knowledge on the factor governing the spatial distribution and the kinematics of the rock glaciers in the investigated region.  

REFERENCES  

Delaloye R., Barboux C., Gärtner-Roer I., Lambiel C., Pellet, C., Phillips, M. and Scapozza, C. (2019). Toward the first national rock glacier inventory in the Swiss Alps (SwissRG2020). Abstract, 17th Swiss Geoscience Meeting, Fribourg 2019 

RGIK 2023. Guidelines for inventorying rock glaciers: baseline and practical concepts (version 1.0). IPA Action Group Rock glacier inventories and kinematics, 26 pp.