Glaciares de Argentina: Resultados Preliminares del Inventario Nacional de Glaciares

Glaciers are strategic water reserves in solid state and are crucial components of the hydrological cycle in mountain regions. Despite their importance, there was no precise information on the number, location and size of glaciers in Argentina. In 2010, the National Law 26639 on “Minimum Standards for the Preservation of Glaciersand the Periglacial Environment” was promulgated. Its main objectives are the protection of glaciers, which are considered strategic reserves of water resources, and the development of the National Glacier Inventory to identify glaciers and periglacial geoforms, recording and collecting all the necessary information for their proper protection, control and monitoring. The inventory and monitoring of the condition of glaciers is carried out by the Argentine Institute for Snow, Ice and EnvironmentalSciences (IANIGLA-CONICET) in collaboration with the Argentine Ministry of the Environment and Sustainable Development. The inventory is organized in three levels of different complexity and spatial extension. This paper summarizes the preliminary results of level one, which consists in the identification, mapping and characterizationof glaciers (clean ice glaciers, debris-covered glaciers, snowfields and rock glaciers) through satellite images. The satellite-based mapping is validated through field campaigns in selected areas. Of the 70 basins and subbasins delimited for the inventory, 64 have been studied. As of February 2017, the number of glacial and periglacialgeoforms inventoried amounts to 15,482, covering a total area of 5743 km2.