Interview to Roberto Ranzi, Chair of the IAHR Technical Committee on Climate Change – On the occasion of the World Water Day on Glacier Preservation
World Water Day 2025 highlights the urgent need to preserve the glaciers as part of the World Meteorological Organization’s (WMO) campaign to protect these vital freshwater resources. Glaciers play a fundamental role in regulating water resources, supporting ecosystems, and mitigating climate extremes. However, their accelerated melting due to climate change presents a severe challenge to global water security and sea level rise.
As part of IAHR’s commitment to addressing climate challenges, we spoke with Prof. Roberto Ranzi, Chair of the IAHR Technical Committee on Climate Change Adaptation, to explore the key challenges in glacier preservation and the role of engineering in mitigating ice loss.
From your perspective, what is the greatest challenge we face today in glacier preservation?
Continental glaciers are fundamental to control water availability and the monthly runoff distribution, as wll as the microclimate and tourism in mountain areas. The future of sea level rise depends on the dynamics of the Greenland Ice Sheet and the Antarctic Ice Sheet. I believe a key issue in glacier preservation is the control of ice darkening induced by both ice algal biomasses and carbon particle depositions. The Greenland Ice Sheet is darkening, which accelerates its surface melt (Halbach et al., 2023) as a result of global warming. According to Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) data, Greenland lost mass at an average rate of 278 ± 11 Gt yr−1 between 2002 and 2016, contributing to a sea level rise of 7.9 mm per decade. The duration of surface melting in Greenland increased up to 4.5 days per decade from 1979 to 2019 (Tedesco et al., 2021), and this indicates that we are facing the challenge of an increased rate of sea level rise, over 3 mm yr-1 in the last decades.
How can engineering contribute to protecting glaciers and adapting to accelerated ice loss?
Engineering can contribute to protecting glaciers indirectly by reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases in different sectors, starting from the efficiency in energy generation, the use of renewable hydro-energies (hydropower plants, energy from sea waves, currents and tides), the transformation of agriculture, and the food chain (see Hydrolink, 03, 2024). Also, the reduction of the emission of aerosols and carbon particles in the atmosphere, which contributes to ice darkening, is a possible indirect contribution to the reduction of ice melt.
Are there any recent innovations or technologies that could make a difference in glacier preservation?
Some glaciers' surfaces were protected with geotextile fabric covers with some success and benefit for the tourist sector. Also, artificial snow-making technologies can have a localised positive effect on glacier conservation. However, the impact of these technologies is limited.
If you could share one key message on World Water Day about the importance of glaciers, what would it be?
We have only one planet: glaciers are one of its beauties with environmental and cultural value, and we must invest efforts for their preservation.
Related Articles
Halbach L, Chevrollier L-A, Cook JM, Stevens IT, Hansen M, Anesio AM, Benning LG, Tranter M (2022). Dark ice in a warming world: advances and challenges in the study of Greenland Ice Sheet’s biological darkening. Annals of Glaciology 63(87-89), 95–100.
Colosio, P., Tedesco, M., Ranzi, R., and Fettweis, X.: Surface melting over the Greenland ice sheet derived from enhanced resolution passive microwave brightness temperatures (1979–2019), The Cryosphere, 15, 2623–2646, 2021.
Net zero and water, Hydrolink, 03, IAHR, 2024.
Related Events
In the upcoming 41st IAHR World Congress, held from 22-27 June 2025 at the Singapore EXPO, a High Level Panel on Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation will be present. Find more in the programme.
The IAHR Poland Young Professionals Network is organising a free webinar around the 2025 WWD - on 21 March at 1 pm CET - on Mountains and Glaciers: Water Towers, which will include a summary of the United Nations World Water Development Report by Dr. Anna Maria Łoboda and a keynote on "Water Resources in the Era of Melting Glaciers" by Dr. Ekaterina Rets.