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A Qualitative Assessment of Contemporary Glacier Loss in the
Cordillera Blanca, Peru, Using Repeat Photography
Una Evaluación Cualitativa de la Pérdida Actual de Glaciares en la Cordillera Blanca,
Perú, Usando la Fotografía Repetitiva
Alton C. Byers 1
Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR), University of Colorado at Boulder
1
Resumen Introduction
Fotografías repetidas de los glaciares de la Cordillera
Blanca, tomadas por las expediciones de escalada y
cartografía de 1932, 1936 y 1939 del Deutscher und
Österreichischer Alpenverein (DuÖAV o Asociación
Alpina Alemana y Austriaca), ilustran el importante
retroceso del hielo glaciar y el crecimiento de los lagos
glaciares que ha ocurrido durante los últimos 80 años. A
medida que las tecnologías de modelado predictivo y de
teledetección se vuelven cada vez más sofisticadas, se
sugiere que la fotografía repetida puede complementar
estos métodos proporcionando una gama de herramientas
históricas, educativas y de participación comunitaria para
uso en el campo. También se sugiere que la fotografía
repetida probablemente seguirá siendo un valioso método
de investigación en las décadas venideras a medida que
aumenta la base de datos fotográficos oblicuos y a medida
que las nuevas generaciones de científicos físicos y sociales
lleguen al campo en busca de una mayor comprensión del
mundo de alta montaña. Palabras clave: Fotografía repetida, retroceso glaciar,
formación de lagos glaciares Repeat photography involves the replication of an
older photograph, ideally from the exact location and same
circumstances as the original, to gain a deeper understanding
of changes in the physical and cultural landscape that have
occurred in the interim (Byers, 1999, 2000; Klett, 2011).
Most commonly used for landscape change assessments
(e.g., Webb, 1996; Bahre, 1991; Grafe and Horsted,
2002; Gurung, 2004; Kull, 2005), repeat photography has
been increasingly used to illustrate a number of the more
dramatic impacts of contemporary climate change in high
mountain environments, e.g., glacial recession and ablation,
the formation of new glacial lakes and meltwater ponds,
and upward retreat of hanging glacial ice (e.g., Byers,
2008, 2010a, 2010b; Hastenrath, 2008; Jiduc, 2016). The
following essay provides nine unique historic and repeat
photo pairs of glaciers in the Cordillera Blanca that offer
an oblique perspective of glacier change since the early
1930s, and argues that repeat photography can continue to
complement the power of more recent technologies, such
as remote sensing analyses of change, by providing a range
of complementary educational, community consultation,
and interpretive tools.
Abstract Background
Repeat photographs of Cordillera Blanca glaciers, taken
by the 1932, 1936, and 1939 climbing and cartographic
expeditions of the Deutscher und Österreichischer
Alpenverein (DuÖAV or German and Austrian Alpine
Association), illustrate the significant retreat of glacial ice
and the growth of glacial lakes that has occurred during the
past 80 years. As predictive modeling and remote sensing
technologies become more sophisticated with each passing
year, it is suggested that repeat photography can nevertheless
complement these methods by providing a range of field-
based historic, educational, and community involvement
tools. It is also suggested that repeat photography will most
likely remain a valuable research method in the decades to
come as the oblique photographic database increases, and
as new generations of physical and social scientists take to
the field in pursuit of enhanced understandings of the high
mountain world. In 1997 and 1998, I completed a series of investigations
focused on contemporary landscape change in the
Cordillera Blanca of Peru using repeat photography and
ground truth sampling. I used the photogrammetric images
of Austrian climber/cartographer Erwin Schneider, and
hand-held Leica images of Hans Kinzl, taken during the
1932, 1936, and 1939 climbing/cartographic expeditions
of the Deutscher und Österreichischer Alpenverein
(DuÖAV, or German and Austrian Alpine Associations) to
the Cordilleras Blanca and Huayhuash (Figure 1) (Kinzl
and Schneider, 1950; Byers, 1999; Hoerlin, 2011; Carey et
al., 2016). As climate change had yet to enter the popular
vernacular and development agenda, and as a continuation
of my landscape change work in the Mt. Everest region of
Nepal (Byers, 1987, 2005), these studies had as their focus
the documentation of change in the physical and cultural
landscape of the Cordillera Blanca, i.e., changes in forest
cover, pastures, villages, and urban areas. Yet, a recent re-
examination of many of these same photographs, plus the
discovery of new DuÖAV photographs of the Cordillera
Keywords: Repeat photography, glacial retreat, glacial
lake formation
Revista de Glaciares y Ecosistemas de Montaña 2 (2017): 31-40
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