**Chapter 9 167**

Variations of Lys Glacier (Monte Rosa Massif, Italy) from the Little Ice Age to the Present from Historical and Remote Sensing Datasets *by Fugazza Davide, Senese Antonella, Azzoni Roberto Sergio, D'Agata Carlo, Cat Berro Daniele, Mercalli Luca, Ventura Fabiano, Smiraglia Claudio and Diolaiuti Guglielmina Adele*

Preface

Glaciers and polar regions provide important clues to understanding the past and present status of the Earth system, as well as to predict future forms of our planet.

In particular, Antarctica, composed of an ice-covered continent in its center and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, has been gradually investigated during the last half century by all kinds of scientific branches; bioscience, physical sciences, geosciences, oceanography, environmental studies, together with technological components. Antarctica is now affected by remarkable changes in its temperature and sea-ice extent, mass loss of ice-sheets, variations in marine and terrestrial ecosystems including human activities. Since the most exciting initiative in the polar regions was the International Polar Year (IPY) in 2007-2008, conducted as the 50th anniversary of the International Geophysical Year (IGY 1957-1958). The initiative greatly enhanced the exchange of ideas across nations and scientific disciplines to unveil the status and changes of planet Earth. This kind of inter-disciplinary exchange helps us understand and address grand challenges such as rapid environmental change and its impact on society. In these regards, this book partially aims to compile the achievements of involved projects by the IPY and post era, especially focusing on surface environmental variations associated with climate change.

On the other hand, mountain glaciers are primary sources of freshwater for the population and they sustain the local economies in terms of water supply for agriculture, energy production, and tourism activities. They are suffering due to global warming at a large extent and many low-altitude glaciers are expected to disappear within the next decades. The rapid reduction of the glaciated areas threatens to enhance potential draughts and to modify the distribution, frequency, and magnitude of glacier-related hazards. Moreover, glacial ecosystems and biodiversity might be strongly damaged. For these reasons, the glacier environment has to be carefully studied and monitored, in order to evaluate their possible recent evolution and to implement strategies of resilience, adaptation, and mitigation.

This book covers topics on recent developments of all kinds of scientific research involving glaciers and Antarctica, in the context of currently on-going processes in

> **Masaki Kanao** Associate Professor,

> > Tokyo, Japan

Turin, Italy

National Institute of Polar Research,

National Research Council,

**Danilo Godone and Niccolò Dematteis**

Research Institute for Geo-Hydrogeological Protection,

the extreme environment in polar regions.
