Glacier Geoengineering to Address Sea-Level Rise: a Geotechnical Approach
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com ScienceDirect Advances in Climate Change Research 11 (2020) 401e414 www.keaipublishing.com/en/journals/accr/ Glacier geoengineering to address sea-level rise: A geotechnical approach Andrew LOCKLEYa, Michael WOLOVICKb, Bowie KEEFERc, Rupert GLADSTONEd, Li-Yun ZHAOb,e, John C. MOOREb,d,* a University College London (Bartlett School), London, WC1H 0QB, UK b College of Global Change and Earth System Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, PR China c 120 Manastee Road, Galiano Island, British Columbia, BC V0N 1P0, Canada d Arctic Centre, University of Lapland, Rovaniemi, 96101, Finland e Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory, Zhuhai, 519082, China Received 15 January 2020; revised 3 August 2020; accepted 27 November 2020 Available online 5 December 2020 Abstract It is remarkable that the high-end sea level rise threat over the next few hundred years comes almost entirely from only a handful of ice streams and large glaciers. These occupy a few percent of ice sheets’ coastline. Accordingly, spatially limited interventions at source may provide globally-equitable mitigation from rising seas. Ice streams control draining of ice sheets; glacier retreat or acceleration serves to greatly increase potential sea level rise. While various climatic geoengineering approaches have been considered, serious consideration of geotechnical approaches has been limited e particularly regarding glaciers. This study summarises novel and extant geotechnical techniques for glacier restraint, identifying candidates for further research. These include draining or freezing the bed; altering surface albedo; creating obstacles: retaining snow; stiffening shear margins with ice; blocking warm sea water entry; thickening ice shelves (increasing buttressing, and strengthening fractured shelves against disintegration); as well as using regional climate engineering or local cloud seeding to cool the glacier or add snow.
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