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Alp-Water-Scarce Water Management Strategies against Water Scarcity in the Alps

  • AS priority area: Competitiveness and Attractiveness
  • Lead partner: Université de Savoie, Institut de la Montagne

Project summary

The Alps, with their seemingly vast water resources, are of immeasurable importance for the economic and cultural development of the Alpine Arc and beyond. In the past, water scarcity problems have only affected small, distinct areas for short periods of time; however, the impact of climate change necessitates adaptation to a higher frequency of such phenomena. In this sense, the aim of Alp-Water-Scarce was to provide tools to mitigate the risk of water scarcity, and also to propose instruments for long-term water resources management that support the decision-making process in times of crisis. The active involvement of all key players concerned with water shortages (e.g., drinking water suppliers, hydropower companies, agriculture associations, the tourism industry, and the general population) was critical to the project’s success. In a series of guidelines published by the project, water resources managers were informed about the challenges of monitoring and modeling Alpine catchments, about national and European legal frameworks for water governance, and about the ecological aspects of resource management. The estimation of current and future water demand and the implementation of future climate and anthropogenic scenarios led to the establishment of early warning systems to address water scarcity. These systems were designed for local and regional needs, but the theoretical concept can easily be transferred to other regions of the Alps or to other mountainous areas.

Hypotheses

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Project results

Result CategoryLanguage(s)Target groupRemark
Handbook “Water Management in a Changing Environment”Report EN Decision makers, Civil servants / administration The handbook offers an overview of the main outputs of the project. In the first sections, a definition of ‘water scarcity’ and different stakeholder perspectives on the term are presented. An overview of water scarcity problems in different sectors and the legal aspects of water governance at different levels are then provided. In the last section, recommendations to address water scarcity are proposed. This “Case-Study-Based Recommendations for Water Managers and Policy Makers” is the critical and largest section of the handbook.
Recommandations for Water Resources Managers and Policy-makersRecommendations (policy)EN, DE, FR, IT, SIDecision makers, Civil servants / administrationEasy-to-read summary of the projects' recommendations for Water Managers and Policy-makers
A short Guideline on "Monitoring and Modelling of Mountain Water Resources" GuidelinesENCivil servants / administrationTechnical guidelines divided into three parts. The first part considers monitoring issues that arise in quantifying the meteorological, hydroecological and anthropogenic components of the water cycle. The second part deals with numerical hydrological modelling issues. The third part explains how monitoring and modelling efforts should be combined together.
Climatic scenarios guidelinesGuidelinesENScientistsThis methodological and technical guideline proposes a common methodology to calculate future climatic scenarios for Pilot Sites within the Alp-Water-Scarce project.
Summary of a stakeholders survey on the perception of water scarcity policy oriented summaryEN, DE, FR, IT, SIDecision makers, Civil servants / administrationIn order to collect information on the perception of water scarcity a stakeholder questionnaire has been developed and translated into 5 different languages (EN, FR, DE, IT, SI). The analysis of 91 questionnaires collected by the Alp-Water-Scarce consortium identified the complexity of problems resulting from water scarcity at different levels.
Report on "Generalisation of drought effects on ecosystem goods and services over the Alps"ReportENScientistsThe report concentrates on some of the most relevant ecosystem goods and services regarding agriculture, forestry, water resources and tourism. A list of ecosystem goods and services is presented, and the probability of future droughts in the Alps is shortly discussed. For each group of services, a review of worldwide trends is given, followed by a discussion of drought effects in Europe and especially in the Alps. Finally, an overview of adaptation options is given.

Comments

Several outputs of the project announced in the project achievements summary are unavailable.

wiki/alp-water-scarce.1398090666.txt.gz · Last modified: 2014/04/21 16:31 by dominikcs