Making snow on the
slopes of a ski resort.
Photo: UNEP/Still Pictures
Alpine ski resorts
Winter tourism is a significant part of the economy of Alpine coun-
Ratio of resorts with
not reliable
tries and the most important source of income in many regions.
natural snow
In Austria, winter tourism revenue makes up 4.5 per cent of GNP
reliability (%)
reliable
and half of the total income from tourism. Much of winter tour-
ism is based around the ski industry, which is dependent on reli-
100
able snow conditions. Although snow fall is expected to increase
at high elevations, it is winter temperatures that largely determine 75
the depth of snow that accumulates on the mountains. The Alps
are currently warming at roughly three times the global average.
50
Climate models project an increase in winter temperatures of
about 1° to 3° C from 1990 conditions by 2050, with greater warm-
25
ing at higher elevations. An analysis of snow cover in the Alps con-
cluded that each increase of 1° C corresponds to a 150 m move up
the mountain of the line marking the lower limit of adequate snow
0
Current 1°C warmer 2°C warmer 4°C warmer
for ski resorts. This means that each degree of warming will result
Conditions
in a further decline of snow conditions to the point that more and
more current ski operations will not be viable (Figure 4.13).
Figure 4.13: Per cent of existing ski areas in the Alps with natural
snow-reliability under current conditions and warmer conditions,
Adaptation measures include more artificial snow making and
based on an analysis of 666 medium to large ski areas in France,
expanding and building ski areas at higher elevations and on
Austria, Switzerland, Italy and Germany. Natural snow-reliability
north-facing slopes. As the climate warms and the snow cover
means on average a season of 100 days with at least 30 cm of
declines, many low-elevation ski resorts will not be able to adapt
snow on upper ski run.
and will be forced to switch to other types of tourism or close. Source: Based on Agrawala 2007
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56 GLOBAL OUTLOOK FOR ICE AND SNOW