Mauro Werder

Ph.D. 2009 ETH Zurich, Switzerland; MPhys 2002 University of Edinburgh, UK

Research Interests

My research interest is glaciology. The plan for my post-doctoral fellowship at SFU with Gwenn Flowers is to code 1D and 2D numerical models of the glacial drainage system incorporating both distributed and channelized water flow. The difficulty in devising such models is that the different components react on vastly different spatial and temporal scales. Once completed, I want to apply this model to Alpine glacier and ice sheets to simulate: glacial lake outburst floods, the seasonal and daily evolution of the drainage system and ice sheet scale hydrology.

During my PhD I investigated the glacial lake outburst floods on Gornergletscher, Switzerland, using dye tracer and other hydrological experiments. The experimental findings were interpreted using numerical models of the glacial drainage system. A side project was the hazard assessment of a newly formed glacial lake on Unterer Grindelwaldgletscher, Switzerland, which threatens the communities down-valley.