The Mountain Component of the Copernicus Climate Change Services - Sectoral Information Service "European Tourism" : Towards Pan-European Analysis and Projections of Natural and Managed Snow Conditions

• Ski tourism plays a major role in European mountain areas such as the Alps, Pyrenees, Scandinavia, Turkey, Eastern European Mountains etc. Meteorological conditions govern the operating conditions of ski resorts, due to their reliance on natural snow fall and favorable conditions for snowmaking. However, there is currently a major lack of assessment of past and future operating conditions of ski resorts at the pan-European scale in the context of climate change. The presented work aims at filling this gap, as part of the ongoing development of « European Tourism » Sectoral Information Service (SIS) of the Copernicus Climate Change Services (C3S). C3S is run by the European Center for Medium-range Weather Forecast (ECMWF) on behalf of the European Commission. Such an endeavor requires combining state-of-the-art meteorological reanalysis with regional climate projections, followed by the application of a snowpack model accounting for grooming and snowmaking. Emphasis will be placed on the workflow making it possible to analyze the data with various levels of aggregation (from daily data to annual scale indicators, to their statistical moments accounting for multiple climate scenarios and lead times), in order to address the needs of various stakeholders, at the European, national, regional and local scales. The data will be made available freely through the Copernicus Data Store in various ways (download of raw data, download or graphics based on post-processed information accounting for user specific needs). It is expected that the data and the tools developed within this project will not only make it possible to analyze the climate sensitivity of ski tourism in Europe as a topical yet academic research question, but would also help third-parties in developing climate services specifically targeting the ski tourism industry in Europe. This contribution introduces the scientific background and general strategy for generating the products, and delivers preliminary information relevant to this upcoming operational service, planned to open to users from 2019 onwards.

Ämnesord

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Geovetenskap och miljövetenskap -- Klimatforskning (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Earth and Related Environmental Sciences -- Climate Research (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

ski resorts

climate

snow management

climate service

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)