Modelling glacier hydrology in West Greenland

Abstract

There is great interest in the possibility of using runoff in West Greenland for the generation of hydroelectric power. However, there is still very little information about hydrological conditions in the country. For example, measurements of runoff and glacier mass balance were only started at a few sites in the late 1970s by the GTO and GGU, respectively. This means that the choice of any particular basin for possibie exploitation must be made initially in the absence of direct field data. However, a solution to the problem is to develop a runoff model which can be applied to ungauged basins, i.e. a model which does not require field calibration. Such a model should give, as a minimum, estimates of the long-term mean runoff and the likely year-to-year variability. These estimates can be used to calculate hydropower potential and reservoir size at the feasibility or preliminary design stage of any proposed project. Naturally, if it is decided that a particular project is feasible, field measurements will then be started on-site for as many years as possibie so that the final design of the project can be based upon a series of real data.