‘Snow Compass’ models help Swiss resorts navigate climate change

"Winter tourism is not disappearing, it is changing," Berno Stoffel, director of the Swiss Cable Car Association, told reporters on Monday. Keystone-SDA

Swiss tourism officials have unveiled "Snow Compass" models that aim to help mountain resorts assess the impact of climate change and adapt by 2050.

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The tools and data are intended to help winter sports resorts, mountain railways, hotels and other stakeholders better plan their future in the face of warmer temperatures.

The models, introduced a month ago as part of the “Snow Compass” project, have been received “very positively” by the destinations, Berno Stoffel, director of the Swiss Cable Car Association, told the AWP news agency on Monday.

Major construction projects are underway in many parts of the Swiss Alps. “For these service providers, the models we provide are also a confirmation and help them to obtain the necessary authorisations more easily and based on data,” he said.

Less snow and more uncertainty

“Winter tourism is not disappearing, it is changing,” Stoffel told reporters on Monday. Ski resorts, especially those at lower altitudes, will have to cope with less snowy winters and greater uncertainty.

Depending on the situation, the higher temperatures can already become a problem for destinations at an altitude of 1.500 metres above sea level – and the trend is rising.

To document the problem of snow reliability on a factual basis and to support tourism providers in making investment decisions, the Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research (SLF), with data from the Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology (MeteoSwiss) and the support of the federal institute of technology ETH Zurich, developed models that attempt to show the developments in snow reliability and snowmaking possibilities in 23 mountain regions in Switzerland.

Translated from German by DeepL/sb

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