PhD: Investigate the response of proglacial fluvial systems to glacier retreat using GPU-accelerated numerical simulations

University of Glasgow

Glasgow, UK 🇬🇧

Project institution: University of Glasgow

Project supervisor(s): Dr Amanda Owen (University of Glasgow), Dr Jingtao Lai (University of Glasgow), Prof Richard Williams (University of Glasgow) and Prof Todd Ehlers (University of Glasgow)

Overview and Background

Recent climate change has driven glacier retreat worldwide, releasing increasing volumes of sediments and meltwater into proglacial environments (Zhang et al., 2022). Combined with an increase in extreme weather events, this has triggered rapid geomorphic changes in proglacial fluvial systems (Heckmann et al. 2016). These changes pose significant risks to downstream areas, threatening infrastructure, food security, and ecological stability. Despite their importance, our understanding of 1) how proglacial rivers respond to increased meltwater and sediment influx from retreating glaciers and 2) how glacier-river system collectively responds to long-term climate trends and short-term weather extremes remains limited.

This PhD project seeks to address these knowledge gaps through advanced GPU-based numerical simulations. By developing and coupling models for sediment dynamics and glacier evolution, the research will explore the interplay between glaciers and proglacial rivers under varying climatic and environmental conditions. The student will focus on developing and validating the numerical model, designing and conducting simulations to understand key interactions and mechanisms, and applying the model in selected field locations to provide predictions.

Methodology and Objectives

This project aims to use GPU-based numerical simulations to investigate the responses of proglacial fluvial systems to both long-term climate changes and short-term weather variations. The work will involve developing new, efficient code for simulating sediment dynamics in rivers on GPU devices and/or coupling existing sediment dynamics models with a GPU-based glacial landscape evolution model. The simulations will be validated against field observations and integrated with environmental datasets to provide robust predictions of how proglacial river systems may evolve under future climate scenarios.

Teaser Project 1: Investigate sediment dynamics and geomorphic changes in proglacial fluvial system

As glaciers continue to retreat due to climate change, their downstream river systems experience dynamic and complex adjustments in sediment transport, channel morphology, and erosional/depositional patterns. The first teaser project aims to simulate and understand the rapid geomorphic changes in proglacial fluvial systems driven by variations in upstream meltwater and sediment fluxes.

The student will build upon existing sediment dynamics models such as SPACE (Shobe et al., 2017) and Eros (Davy et al., 2017) to create a GPU-based high-resolution 2D model tailored for proglacial rivers. This model will explicitly simulate sediment entrainment, transport, and deposition processes, allowing for detailed exploration of fluvial responses to varying upstream inputs. Advanced computational techniques, including parallel processing, will be employed to ensure efficiency and scalability.

Using this model the student will design and conduct scenario-based simulations to explore geomorphic changes in proglacial rivers under different conditions of meltwater and sediment input. A sensitivity analysis will then be performed to identify key parameters, such as slope gradients, channel geometry, and sediment grain size distribution, that influence sediment dynamics and channel evolution. Finally, the model will be calibrated and validated against field or experimental data to ensure accuracy and robustness, providing a foundation for broader application to various proglacial systems.

Teaser Project 2: Investigate the coupled evolution of glacier-river system driven by climate change and weather extremes

Recent climate change and increased weather extremes significantly impact both glacier dynamics and proglacial fluvial systems. By coupling glacier and sediment dynamics models, the second teaser project seeks to understand the coevolution of retreating glaciers and proglacial river systems under these influences, providing insights into their interconnected responses to climatic and extreme weather events.

The student will couple a GPU-accelerated glacier model (IGM; Jouvet and Cordonnier 2023) with a fluvial sediment dynamics model, such as SPACE or Eros. This integrated model will be able to simulate the response of the coupled glacier-river system to climate and weather variations.

The student will design and conduct a group of simulations covering a range of climate scenarios and investigate how climate-driven glacier retreat impacts proglacial river processes. The student will analyse the simulations to explore various scenarios of meltwater and sediment flux release under different climatic conditions, identifying distinct geomorphic responses of proglacial rivers and determining whether glacier retreat results in sedimentation, erosion, or a combination of both. Finally, the model outputs will be validated against field observations or experimental data, and sensitivity analyses will be conducted to identify the primary controls on river responses, providing robust insights into the coevolution of glaciers and proglacial river systems.

References and Further Reading

  1. Davy, P., Croissant, T., & Lague, D. (2017). A precipiton method to calculate river hydrodynamics, with applications to flood prediction, landscape evolution models, and braiding instabilities. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface122(8), 1491–1512 (click here)
  2. Heckmann, T., McColl, S., & Morche, D. (2016). Retreating ice: research in pro-glacial areas matters. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms41(2), 271–276 (click here)
  3. Jouvet, G., & Cordonnier, G. (2023). Ice-flow model emulator based on physics-informed deep learning. Journal of Glaciology, 1–15 (click here)
  4. Shobe, C. M., Tucker, G. E., & Barnhart, K. R. (2017). The SPACE 1.0 model: a Landlab component for 2-D calculation of sediment transport, bedrock erosion, and landscape evolution. Geoscientific Model Development10(12), 4577–4604 (click here)
  5. Zhang, T., Li, D., East, A. E., Walling, D. E., Lane, S., Overeem, I., et al. (2022). Warming-driven erosion and sediment transport in cold regions. Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, 1–20 (click here)

POSITION TYPE

ORGANIZATION TYPE

EXPERIENCE-LEVEL

DEGREE REQUIRED

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