Skisim - A Tool to Assess the Impact of Climate Change on Ski Season Length and Snowmaking

A semi-distributed ski season simulation model (“SkiSim”) was developed to analyze potential impacts of climate change on ski season length and snowmaking requirements. The validation process at three ski areas in different climatic regions and altitudes in the province of Tyrol/Austria showed a very good performance of the model with a maximum difference of one day comparing reported and modeled ski season length. Future climate change scenarios were produced for the 2020s, 2030s, 2050s and 2080s with a low (B1) and a high emission scenario (A1B) based on data of the regional climate model REMO. Changes in ski season length, which are very likely to make a profitable operation impossible, are projected for the 2050s to the 2080s depending on the altitude of a ski area and the emission scenario. Until the end of the century the required snow volumes are projected to increase by up to 123% with current snowmaking technology, and by up to 242% assuming a temperatureindependent snowmaking technology.