The Sensitivity of Austrian Ski Areas to Climate Change

Abstract

Climate change is expected to have severe impacts on Austrian ski areas. This paper aims to address the limitations of existing studies by incorporating snowmaking in a sensitivity assessment with warming scenarios of up to 4°C conducted for 228 ski areas. A set of three indicators is used: the 100-day rule, a Christmas indicator and a season opening indicator. In the reference period 1961–90 the 100-day rule is fulfilled in 96% of the ski areas. A warming of 1°C, 2°C and 4°C would reduce this share to 81%, 57% and 18%, respectively. Ski operations over Christmas and New Year holidays, however, can be guaranteed only in 77% (reference period), 57% (+1°C), 33% (+2°C) and 9% (+4°C) of the ski areas. The most affected ski areas are located in Upper and Lower Austria and Styria. In a +2°C scenario, more than half of the ski areas would need to at least double the amount of technically produced snow. The model results demonstrate the importance of snowmaking as an adaptive tool to deal with climate variability and change, but also show the physical limits of current snowmaking technology.