Glacio-Fluvial Sediment Transfer: An Alpine Perspective

Glaciated alpine areas form fascinating environments in which to study environmental processes. Glaciers can be found at virtually any latitude on the globe where the mountains are high enough and the moisture supply large enough to promote permanent ice cover. These alpine areas with permanent snow and ice cover are of enormous importance in local, regional and continental water resources. They are also indicators of climatic processes and change with different glaciers responding at different rates and lags to adjustments in climate. Moreover, it is in these mountain zones that areas of permanent snow and ice impinge most closely upon man, acting as a source of water for agricultural and domestic use and for power generation but also providing a range of environmental hazards which require prediction and control or alleviation. Glacio-Fluvial Sediment Transfer provides a structured assessment of the processes of supply, transport and deposition of sediment in alpine glacial drainage basins. It considers the significance of these processes against a background of the periglacial, glacial and proglacial zones of such basins. Glacial and proglacial zones are strongly emphasised and the role of hydrological processes as a link between the glacial and proglacial zones of a basin forms a major theme. The interface between the purely hydrological (whether emphasising snow, ice or meltwater) consideration of alpine drainage basins and the sedimentological consideration of such basins and their deposits is covered.