A novel approach for bridging the gap between climate change scenarios and avalanche hazard indication mapping

The influence of climate change on snow avalanches, particularly for the end of this century, remains uncertain, underscoring the need for further research. To assess the possible consequences of potential changes in snow accumulation and temperature and their impact on avalanche hazard, we introduce a comprehensive multi-step framework. It includes the analysis of climate change scenarios as well as the modeling of future snow covers and the simulation of avalanches in a case study region in central Switzerland.

Using a downscaling and a quantile mapping approach, we considered the high emission RCP8.5 from the CH2018 Swiss climate change scenarios and simulated a potential snow cover of more than 100 future winters with the snow cover model SNOWPACK. Changing snow accumulation and snow cover temperature was taken into account for two future time frames. The changed parameters were used in the RAMMS::EXTENDED avalanche simulation software on large scale.

The results indicate that changes in snow accumulation and temperature have a considerable impact on the run-out of avalanches. The results strongly depend on the climate model, without a clear overall trend in snow accumulation across the selected model chains. Snow accumulation and layer temperature can increase or decrease. However, for snow cover temperature, an increase in the mean snow temperature, especially towards the end of the century, can be expected. In future scenarios with reduced snow accumulation and rising temperatures, avalanche simulations show a decrease in the affected area.

The workflow from climate scenario analysis to avalanche hazard modeling serves as an initial method for estimating future avalanche extents in the context of climate change on a large scale and can be useful for achieving future protection and adaptation goals.