Articles | Volume 10, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-10-805-2018
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-10-805-2018
20 Apr 2018
 | 20 Apr 2018

Historical glacier outlines from digitized topographic maps of the Swiss Alps

Daphné Freudiger, David Mennekes, Jan Seibert, and Markus Weiler

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Cited articles

Bauder, A., Funk, M., and Huss, M.: Ice-volume changes of selected glaciers in the Swiss Alps since the end of the 19th century, Ann. Glaciol., 46, 145–149, 2007.
Bauder, A., Fischer, M., Funk, M., Gabbi, J., Hoelzle, M., Huss, M., Kappenberger, G., and Steinegger, U.: The Swiss Glaciers 2013/14 and 2014/15, Glaciological Report No. 135/136, Zurich, ISSN 1424-2222, 2017.
Caminada, P.: Pioniere der Alpentopographie: Die Geschichte der Schweizer Kartenkunst, VS-Verlag, Zurich, 2003.
Clark, C. D., Evans, D. J. A., Khatwa, A., Bradwell, T., Jordan, C. J., Marsh, S. H., Mitchell, W. A., and Bateman, M. D.: Map and GIS database of glacial landforms and features related to the last British Ice Sheet, Boreas, 33, 359–375, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1502-3885.2004.tb01246.x, 2004.
Collins, D. N.: Climatic warming, glacier recession and runoff from Alpine basins after the Little Ice Age maximum, Ann. Glaciol., 48, 119–124, https://doi.org/10.3189/172756408784700761, 2008.
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To understand glacier changes in the Swiss Alps at the large scale, long-term datasets are needed. To fill the gap between the existing glacier inventories of the Swiss Alps between 1850 and 1973, we digitized glacier outlines from topographic historical maps of Switzerland for the time periods ca. 1900 and ca. 1935. We found that > 88 % of the digitized glacier area was plausible compared to four inventories. The presented dataset is therefore valuable information for long-term glacier studies.
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