Impacts of a changing climate on mountain water availability, allocation, and use: results from the EU/FP7 “ACQWA” Project
Event details
| Date | 09.12.2014 |
| Hour | 16:15 › 17:15 |
| Speaker | Dr Martin Beniston, C3i (Climatic Change and Climate Impacts Research), Institute for Environmental Sciences, University of Geneva |
| Location | |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
Abstract:
Future shifts in temperature and precipitation patterns, and changes in the behavior of snow and ice in many mountain regions will change the quantity, seasonality, and possibly also the quality of water originating in mountains and uplands. As a result, changing water availability will affect both upland and populated lowland areas. Economic sectors such as agriculture, tourism or hydropower may enter into rivalries if water is no longer available in sufficient quantities or at the right time of the year. The challenge is thus to estimate as accurately as possible future changes in order to prepare the way for appropriate adaptation strategies and improved water governance.
The ACQWA project aimed to assess the vulnerability of water resources in mountain regions such as the European Alps, the Central Chilean Andes, and the mountains of Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan) where declining snow and ice are likely to strongly affect hydrological regimes in a warmer climate. Based on RCM (Regional Climate Model) simulations, a suite of cryosphere, biosphere and economic models were then used to quantify the environmental, economic and social impacts of changing water resources in order to assess how robust current water governance strategies are and what adaptations may be needed to alleviate the most negative impacts of climate change on water resources and water use.
The results of RCMs used in ACQWA show that climate will affect both the natural environment and a number of economic activities. Alpine glaciers may lose between 50 and 90% of their current volume and the average snowline will rise by 150 m for each degree of warming. Hydrological systems will respond in quantity and seasonality to changing precipitation patterns and to the timing of snow-melt in the Alps, with a greater risk of flooding during the spring and droughts in summer and fall. The direct and indirect impacts of a warming climate will affect key economic sectors such as tourism, hydropower, agriculture and the insurance industry that will be confronted to more frequent natural disasters.
The results from the ACQWA project suggest that there is a need for a more integrated and comprehensive approach to water use and management. In particular, beyond the conventional water basin management perspective, there is a need to consider other socio-economic factors and the manner in which water policies interact with, or are affected by, other policies at the local, national, and supra-national levels.
Short biography:
Martin Beniston has studied atmospheric and climate physics in England (BSc and MSc), France (PhD) and at ETH-Zurich (Habilitation degree). He has worked in research Institutions in Australia, Canada, Germany and Switzerland, including ETH-Zurich. He was from 1992-1997 a vice-chair of one of the climate-impacts working groups of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize). He was full professor and head of the Department of Geosciences at the University of Fribourg from 1996-2006. He is currently at the University of Geneva, where he is Director of the Institute for Environmental Sciences (ISE) and co-ordinator of a major European project on climate and water (www.acqwa.ch). He has close to 170 publications in the international literature, and is editor or associate editor of several journals and book series with international publishers. In 2000, he was elected to the Academia Europea.
Future shifts in temperature and precipitation patterns, and changes in the behavior of snow and ice in many mountain regions will change the quantity, seasonality, and possibly also the quality of water originating in mountains and uplands. As a result, changing water availability will affect both upland and populated lowland areas. Economic sectors such as agriculture, tourism or hydropower may enter into rivalries if water is no longer available in sufficient quantities or at the right time of the year. The challenge is thus to estimate as accurately as possible future changes in order to prepare the way for appropriate adaptation strategies and improved water governance.
The ACQWA project aimed to assess the vulnerability of water resources in mountain regions such as the European Alps, the Central Chilean Andes, and the mountains of Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan) where declining snow and ice are likely to strongly affect hydrological regimes in a warmer climate. Based on RCM (Regional Climate Model) simulations, a suite of cryosphere, biosphere and economic models were then used to quantify the environmental, economic and social impacts of changing water resources in order to assess how robust current water governance strategies are and what adaptations may be needed to alleviate the most negative impacts of climate change on water resources and water use.
The results of RCMs used in ACQWA show that climate will affect both the natural environment and a number of economic activities. Alpine glaciers may lose between 50 and 90% of their current volume and the average snowline will rise by 150 m for each degree of warming. Hydrological systems will respond in quantity and seasonality to changing precipitation patterns and to the timing of snow-melt in the Alps, with a greater risk of flooding during the spring and droughts in summer and fall. The direct and indirect impacts of a warming climate will affect key economic sectors such as tourism, hydropower, agriculture and the insurance industry that will be confronted to more frequent natural disasters.
The results from the ACQWA project suggest that there is a need for a more integrated and comprehensive approach to water use and management. In particular, beyond the conventional water basin management perspective, there is a need to consider other socio-economic factors and the manner in which water policies interact with, or are affected by, other policies at the local, national, and supra-national levels.
Short biography:
Martin Beniston has studied atmospheric and climate physics in England (BSc and MSc), France (PhD) and at ETH-Zurich (Habilitation degree). He has worked in research Institutions in Australia, Canada, Germany and Switzerland, including ETH-Zurich. He was from 1992-1997 a vice-chair of one of the climate-impacts working groups of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize). He was full professor and head of the Department of Geosciences at the University of Fribourg from 1996-2006. He is currently at the University of Geneva, where he is Director of the Institute for Environmental Sciences (ISE) and co-ordinator of a major European project on climate and water (www.acqwa.ch). He has close to 170 publications in the international literature, and is editor or associate editor of several journals and book series with international publishers. In 2000, he was elected to the Academia Europea.
Practical information
- General public
- Free
- This event is internal
Organizer
- EESS - IIE
Contact
- Prof. Samuel Arey, EESS coordinator