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Project

Estimating the future contribution of continental ice to sea-level rise (Ice2sea)

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Description:

Ice2sea is a scientific programme that was developed in response to the Fourth Assessment Report (AR4, 2007) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which identified a major uncertainty in the understanding of the contributions of glaciers and ice sheets to future sea-level change.

Funded by the European Union, ice2sea has focussed the efforts of researchers in 24 institutes from across Europe and around the world - in a coordinated programme of fieldwork, satellite observations, and computer simulations. The cooperation achieved by ice2sea between key institutes and scientific disciplines has advanced the understanding of present and future sea-level change to a degree that would not otherwise have been possible. Ice2sea has made fundamental progress in measuring ongoing changes in ice sheets and glaciers, and in understanding the processes responsible for rapid ice-loss, and both global and regional sea-level rise. Combining expertise across a wide range of scientific disciplines has enabled ice2sea to develop projections of continental ice-loss using computer models that are based exclusively on representations of the physics at work in glaciers and ice sheets. Several important processes, that were previously not included due to insufficient understanding, have been incorporated in these models. These advances achieved by ice2sea directly address issues that were of concern to the IPCC AR4.

Ice2sea projections have been presented to the IPCC, to contribute to the development of best estimates of future sea-level rise published by Working Group I in the Fifth Assessment Report in autumn 2013 (AR5, 2013). Increased understanding and more rigorous projections have provided policy-makers with a more complete and more certain basis for addressing future change. This can be used in the design of coastal defences, in adaptation projects more generally, and in flood-risk management strategies. This will therefore help to protect the future of investment in coastal regions, and allow management of risk for coastal populations.

Project information

Lead

British Antarctic SurveyCambridge — (UK)David G. Vaughan (dgv@bas.ac.uk)

Partners

1 (Coord.) British Antarctic Survey (UK); 2 Alfred-Wegener-Institute für Polar und Meeresforschung (DE); CSC – Tieteellinen Laskenta Oy (FI); Danish Meteorological Institute (DK); DTU-Space, Danmarks Tekniske Universitet (DK); Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (DK); Institute of Earth Sciences, University of Iceland (IS); Universiteit Utrecht (NL); Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR); Met Office Hadley Centre (UK); University of Oslo (NO); Université Libre de Bruxelles (BE); Universita’ degli Studi di Urbino (IT); University of Bristol (UK); The University of Leeds (UK); Vrije Universiteit Brussel (BE); University of Copenhagen, Niels Bohr Institute (DK); University of Liège (Department of Geography) (BE); University of Zurich (Department of Geography) (CH); University of Silesia (PL); Centro de Estudios Científicos (Chile); Ente per le Nuove tecnologie, l’Energia e l’Ambiente (IT); Norwegian Polar Institute NPI (NO); Instytut Geofizyki Polskiej Akademii Nauk (PL).

Source of funding

FP 7

Reference information

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Published in Climate-ADAPT Jun 07 2016   -   Last Modified in Climate-ADAPT Mar 05 2024

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