International Snow Science Workshop Proceedings - Montana State University Library

Item: Climate change impacts on the snow reliability of French Alps ski resorts

• • Title: Climate change impacts on the snow reliability of French Alps ski resorts

    Proceedings: International Snow Science Workshop Proceedings 2018, Innsbruck, Austria

    Authors:

    • Pierre Spandre  [ Université Grenoble Alpes, IRSTEA, UR LESSEM, Grenoble, France ]  [ Univ. Grenoble Alpes, Université de Toulouse, Météo-France, CNRS, CNRM, Centre d'Etudes de la Neige, Grenoble, France ]
    • Hugues François  [ Université Grenoble Alpes, IRSTEA, UR LESSEM, Grenoble, France ]
    • Deborah Verfaillie  [ Univ. Grenoble Alpes, Université de Toulouse, Météo-France, CNRS, CNRM, Centre d'Etudes de la Neige, Grenoble, France ]  [ Barcelona Supercomputing Center, Barcelona, Spain ]
    • Matthieu Lafaysse  [ Univ. Grenoble Alpes, Université de Toulouse, Météo-France, CNRS, CNRM, Centre d'Etudes de la Neige, Grenoble, France ]
    • Michel Déqué  [ Météo-France - CNRS, CNRM UMR 3589, Toulouse, France ]
    • Nicolas Eckert  [ Université Grenoble Alpes, IRSTEA, UR ETGR, Grenoble, France ]
    • Emmanuelle George  [ Université Grenoble Alpes, IRSTEA, UR LESSEM, Grenoble, France ]
    • Samuel Morin  [ Univ. Grenoble Alpes, Université de Toulouse, Météo-France, CNRS, CNRM, Centre d'Etudes de la Neige, Grenoble, France ]

    Date: 2018-10-07

    Abstract: The recent evolutions of snowmaking as a mitigation method to address the interannual variability and decrease of natural snow conditions in past decades hampers any relevant investigation of the impacts of climate change on ski resorts activity without accounting for this technology. We introduce here an original approach based on a physically based snowpack model forced by adjusted EURO-CORDEX data over the French Alps, crossed with spatial representations of ski areas, to provide detailed snow conditions at the scale of a single ski resort. Based on 129 French Alps ski resorts (totaling more than 90% capacity), snow reliability indicators were computed with this approach and proved significantly correlated with annual skier days and water requirements for snowmaking. Snowmaking appears as an efficient mitigation method for the near future (2030 - 2050), by means of a significant increase of water requirements due to both the projected increase of surface area equipped with snowmaking facilities and the increasing need for snowmaking due to decreasing natural snow conditions. At the end of the 21st century, the evolution of snow conditions highly depends on the climate scenario and despite increasing water requirements, snowmaking might not be efficient in mitigating the impacts of climate change on the snow reliability of French Alps ski resorts.

    Object ID: ISSW2018_O06.2.pdf

    Language of Article: English

    Presenter(s):

    Keywords: Ski resorts, Snow Reliability, Snowmaking, Climate Change.

    Page Number(s): 512-516

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