First Advisor

Daniel M. Johnson

Date of Publication

6-11-1997

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (M.S.) in Geography

Department

Geography

Language

English

Subjects

Glaciers -- Washington (State) -- Mount Rainier -- Databases, Geographic information systems, Glaciology

DOI

10.15760/etd.7221

Physical Description

1 online resource (2, x, 139 p.)

Abstract

This thesis explores the application of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to glaciology through the construction of a GIS database of glaciers on Mount Rainier, Washington (the Database). The volume and areal extent of these glaciers, and the temporal change to each, are calculated as a demonstration of GIS analytical capabilities. Data for Carbon, Cowlitz, Emmons, Nisqually, Tahoma, and Winthrop glaciers for the years 1913 and 1971 are derived from historic topographic maps. The Database includes two and three-dimensional representations of glacier geometry, such as glacier extent and topography, as well as surface features, such as debris cover. A test of four interpolation techniques reveals splining as the most accurate in the creation of three-dimensional glacier surfaces from digitized contour lines. Attribute data includes glacier morphology and metadata detailing the data quality of each glacier representation. These glaciers lost approximately 13% of their planimetric area and 17% of their volume between 1913 and 1971. Southern facing glaciers experienced significant terminus retreat while northern facing glaciers did not. GIS provides the computational framework and analytical tools with which diverse sources of glacier data with varying accuracies, resolutions, and projections can be compared and analyzed. However, error found within the original source data, or generated through data manipulation techniques, must be accounted for to foster analyses of known integrity. Recommendations for future development include the integration of remote sensing data; the creation of a customized user interface to facilitate query and display; and the development of spatial analysis techniques specific to glacier analysis.

Rights

In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

Comments

If you are the rightful copyright holder of this dissertation or thesis and wish to have it removed from the Open Access Collection, please submit a request to pdxscholar@pdx.edu and include clear identification of the work, preferably with URL

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/30705

Download

Included in

Geography Commons

Share

COinS