Snowmaking Development Trajectories in French Alpine Ski Resorts: The Influence of Local Specificities and Regional Support Policies

Berard-Chenu, Lucas; François, Hugues; George, Emmanuelle; Morin, Samuel

doi:10.4000/rga.10465

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…French ski resorts are equipped to a great extent with such equipment. At the scale of the entire ski resort, 40.2 % of the surface area of ski pistes is equipped with snowmaking, which is higher than the average value for French ski resorts (Berard-Chenu et al, 2022b).…”

Section: Case Study: the La Plagne Ski Resortmentioning

confidence: 77%

Simulated hydrological effects of grooming and snowmaking in a ski resort on the local water balance

Morin,

François,

Réveillet

et al. 2023

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. The presence of a ski resort modifies the snow cover at the local scale, due to snow management practices on ski pistes, especially grooming and snowmaking. Snow management exerts 2-fold effects on the local hydrological cycle, through (i) abstraction and transfer of water used for snowmaking, and (ii) changes in water runoff due to added snow mass through snowmaking and/or delayed melting of the snowpack due to snow grooming. This induces a local pressure on water resources, which has seldom been addressed in scientific studies hitherto. Here we introduce a method to compute the hydrological effects of snow management on ski pistes and we apply and illustrate its results for the case study of the La Plagne ski resort in the Northern French Alps. The approach mainly relies on snow cover modelling using the Crocus snow cover driven by SAFRAN reanalysis and climate projections. Model results are evaluated against in-situ hydrological observations and show that the modelling approach, although very simplified for many hydrological processes, provides relevant information and insights in terms of the influence of snow-related processes on water resources. Our study shows a visible impact of grooming, virtually eliminating snowmelt in winter, thus delaying the onset of snowmelt. This results is a lower snowmelt flux during the wintertime, low flow period, on the order of −10 % to −20 %, compensated by higher amounts when snow melts. While about 10 % of the water used for snowmaking is estimated to be lost by evaporation through the ice formation process from the liquid water droplets, we find that, in the case studied, the annual scale alteration of water resources is limited and estimated to be on the order of 1 % to 2 %. This is due to the fact that the amount of water used for snowmaking on ski pistes represents a fraction of 10 % to 20 % of total annual precipitation, that ski pistes cover typically 10 % of the surface area of catchments within which ski resorts are located, and that snowmaking equipment covers, in the case of La Plagne, 40 % of the surface area of ski pistes. Therefore, in this case, snowmaking mainly leads to a moderate shift in snow cover formation and snowmelt processes and plays, for example, a smaller role than the influence of future climate change on mountain hydrology. This study provides an initial overview of the influence of grooming and snowmaking on river flows in a mountain catchment, which can inform future studies on water management and climate change adaptation in areas with ski tourism facilities. This study does not discuss long-term sustainability challenges of ski tourism and other aspects of the local environmental impacts (landscape, biodiversity) of snow management, such as the construction and use of mountain water reservoirs and other earthworks in ski resorts.

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Section: Case Study: the La Plagne Ski Resortmentioning

confidence: 77%

Simulated hydrological effects of grooming and snowmaking in a ski resort on the local water balance

Morin,

François,

Réveillet

et al. 2023

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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“…The main snowmaking technology used in La Plagne are lances, so that simulations used for this study consist of natural snow simulations, groomed snow simulations and snow simulations taking grooming and lance snowmaking into account. At the scale of the entire ski resort, 40.2% of the surface area of ski pistes is equipped with snowmaking, which is higher than the average value for French ski resorts (Berard-Chenu et al, 2022b). The surface area of ski pistes corresponds to 9.7% of the surface area of the gravitational envelope, so that, ultimately, the gravitational envelope is covered at 3.9% by ski pistes equipped with snowmaking.…”

Section: Pilot Ski Resort Characteristicmentioning

confidence: 87%

Quantifying the hydrological disturbances induced by snow grooming and snowmaking in ski resorts: a case study in the French Alps

Morin

François

Réveillet

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Abstract. The presence of a ski resort modifies the snow cover at the local scale, due to snow management practices on ski slopes, especially grooming and snowmaking, which affect the quantity and physical behavior of the snowpack. Snow management exerts two-fold disturbances to the local hydrological cycle, through (i) uptake of water used for snowmaking, either directly after uptake or following temporary storage and (ii) changes in water runoff due to added snow mass through snowmaking and/or delayed melting of the snowpack due to snow grooming. This induces a local pressure on water resources that can be substantial in places and fuels controversies regarding the environmental impact of ski resorts. However, no scientific study to date has quantified the quantitative and qualitative disruption of the local hydrological cycle downstream, concerning both the modification of the local seasonality of the flows (e.g. low water periods) and possible modifications of the volume of water returned. Here we describe results from a case study quantifying the various components of the water budget of a small catchment (several km2), partly covered by a ski resort, in the Northern French Alps. Snow cover simulations, including the timing and amount of snowmelt, were performed using the Crocus snow cover model driven by the SAFRAN reanalysis and future climate scenarios, with and without accounting for grooming and snowmaking. Our study demonstrates a visible impact of snow grooming, through the quasi-suppression of winter snowmelt, leading to delayed snowmelt onset. Snowmaking leads to additional snowmelt amount, of the order of a few percent at the scale of the catchment, scaling with the fraction of the catchment covered by ski pistes, and the fraction of the ski pistes equipped with snowmaking. Under the situation of the case studied, there is no substantial further water loss due to snowmaking after the snow production itself, which induces about 10 % of evaporative loss of water used for snowmaking, related to the snow production process. Snowmaking mainly leads to a moderate shift in snow cover formation and snowmelt processes, to a smaller degree than the influence of future climate change on mountain hydrology. This study provides quantitative estimates of the impact of grooming and snowmaking on the hydrological regime of mountain catchments interesected by ski resorts, which can inform further studies addressing water management and climate change adaptation in mountain regions harbouring ski tourism infrastructure.

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“…[and] that investment no longer improves profitability even in the worst snow season" (Cognard et al, 2023:12). Especially when considering the ambivalence of snowmaking as an insurance policy against advancing climate change on the one hand and as a business and ecological problem on the other (especially with regard to the high consumption of water and energy; see Knowles et al, 2023), the finding of Berard-Chenu et al (2022a) that political influence also plays a major role when it comes to the acquisition of snowmaking -with regard to both permits and loan awardscomes as no surprise.…”

Section: Non-lsap Outcomementioning

confidence: 99%

Die another day: explanations based on qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) for the survival and non-survival of isolated ski lifts in Switzerland

Schlegel,

Schuck

2024

Geogr. Helv.

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Abstract. In the form of an explorative empirical study, this paper deals with the reasons for the survival and demise of isolated Swiss ski lifts. For the first time, all isolated lifts documented in Switzerland have been recorded and coded according to a total of six conditions. Using a set-theoretical research method in the form of qualitative comparative analysis (QCA), the study aims to identify the necessary conditions and configurations of sufficient conditions explaining (non-)survival. It transpires that closed isolated lifts tend to be outdated and have no technical snowmaking facilities. Moreover, it has become evident that the simultaneous occurrence of the lack of lift facility replacement, lack of technical snowmaking and high ski area competition has caused the closure of most isolated lifts. Low natural snow depth and low elevation difference, conversely, have not had a measurable impact. The causes for the survival of isolated lifts, by contrast, are extremely heterogeneous.

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Snowmaking Development Trajectories in French Alpine Ski Resorts: The Influence of Local Specificities and Regional Support Policies

Cited by 4 publications

References 26 publications

Simulated hydrological effects of grooming and snowmaking in a ski resort on the local water balance

Simulated hydrological effects of grooming and snowmaking in a ski resort on the local water balance

Quantifying the hydrological disturbances induced by snow grooming and snowmaking in ski resorts: a case study in the French Alps

Die another day: explanations based on qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) for the survival and non-survival of isolated ski lifts in Switzerland

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