Water in the snowpack and in glaciers represents an important component of the hydrological cycle in many regions of the world and is crucial to sustaining life during dry seasons. Predicted impacts of climate change in catchments with snow and/or glacier cover (i.e., shifts from snowfall to rainfall, modified total precipitation amounts, earlier snowmelt, and shrinking glacier cover) will affect water resources availability for environmental and anthropogenic uses at multiple scales, with implications for energy production, agriculture, drinking water provision, as well as for water water management and ecosystems.
Runoff generation in catchments that feature snow or ice profoundly differs from purely rainfed catchments. Yet, our knowledge of snow/ice accumulation and melt, meltwater flowpaths, meltwater contribution to runoff, and the evolution of these catchments' hydrological regime in a changing climate, remain highly uncertain. This is due to both limited availability and inherently high spatial variability of hydrological and meteorological data.

This session welcomes contributions on the following topics (but is not limited to these):
- Experimental research on the physical processes determining snow and ice melt runoff and their potential implementation in hydrological models;
- Development of novel strategies for snow and ice melt runoff modelling in diverse and/or changing climatic and land-cover conditions, including glacier retreat
- Evaluation of remote-sensing or in-situ snow products and application for snow and glacier melt runoff calibration, data assimilation, streamflow forecasting or quantification of the physical properties of snow and ice
- Studies exploring glacier and snow meltwater through stable water isotopes, including experimental investigations and development of isotope-enabled snow and hydrological models
- Studies addressing the impact of climate change and/or extreme events, e.g., droughts, on the water cycle of snow and glacier affected catchments
- Studies targeting snowpack, snowmelt, glacier, ice melt or runoff time series reconstruction or reanalysis over long periods to fill data gaps