Q-GlaRe+
Q-GlaRe+ reconstructs the 3D surface elevation and ice thickness of palaeo- and extant glaciers from digitised flowlines, and facilitates calculation of Equilibrium Line Altitude (ELA).
Q-GlaRe+ is a QGIS plugin for reconstructing the 3D surface elevation and ice
thickness of palaeo- and extant glaciers and calculating their Equilibrium-Line Altitude
(ELA). It adds a Q-GlaRe+ provider to the Processing Toolbox with five tools for flowline
ice-thickness estimation, manual and shape-factor corrections, 3D surface interpolation,
and ELA calculation.
Main tools:
- 2D FL Ice Thickness: estimates ice thickness and surface elevation along digitised flowlines
- 2D modified FL Ice Thickness: adjusts individual flowline point values (e.g. basal shear stress)
- 2D shape-factor FL Ice Thickness: applies a valley shape-factor (F-factor) correction
- 3D Interpolation: interpolates the flowline estimates into a continuous glacier surface and ice-thickness raster.
- Q-ELA: calculates the ELA by the AABR, AAR, and AA methods.
External dependencies (must be installed before use): the 3D Interpolation tool requires
SAGA GIS and the Processing Saga NextGen Provider plugin, installed and configured
separately. numpy and pandas are included with standard QGIS / OSGeo4W installations. The
other tools run without SAGA.
How to cite: Burnham, B. S., M. Spagnolo, R. Pellitero, et al. 2026. "Q-GlaRe+: An Open-Source Framework for Palaeoglacier Reconstruction and Equilibrium-Line Altitude Calculation." Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 51, no. 9: e70406. https://doi.org/10.1002/esp.70406.
Full documentation and installation guide: https://github.com/bsburnham/Q-GlaRe