Abstract
Abstract. This paper examines impacts of climate change as outlined by the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCQ on the snow-reliability ofthe Australian ski fields. It is shown that with a «best case» climate scenario for the Australian Alps, all but one resort (Mt Baw Baw) would have at least 60 days of natural snowcover in 2030 and would therefore still be snow-reliable. With a «worst case» scenario in 2070 on the other hand, none of Australia's current ski resorts would be able to operate a profitable ski industry. Possible adaptation strategies of the ski industry to climate change are suggested. It is demonstrated that the more technical adaptation strategies such as snow-making, super-grooming, and snow-farming are well-developed in Australia, while clearly not enough has been done in both the development of non-snow related activities in winter and an enhanced all-season Visitation. This paper therefore argues that Australian ski resorts need to diversify more than they do today or they will ultimately close due to the negative effects of climate change.
Highlights
The theory that greenhouse gas increases could cause global warming has been recognised in the scientific world for about a Century
El of Galloway (1988); (2) an observed interannual climate data set for the Australian Alps which was interpolated to a grid of high spatial resolution; and (3) a best and worst case regional cli¬ mate change scenario based on global climate modeis
As a result of these inter¬ views it became clear that: Climate change due to enhanced greenhouse effect is of no consideration in current operating and planning the ski fields; and the ski industry perceives research dealing with im¬ pacts of climate change on the alpine region and the ensuing media coverage as a threat
Summary
It was, only in the 1980s that the scientific debate over future climate change due to an enhanced greenhouse effect became intensive. Cy of winters with little natural snow (Haylock et al 1994, Whetton et al 1996) Under this climate change, the alpine tourism industry would have to deal more often with shortened and more marginal ski seasons. It has been suggested that because of the already marginal snow conditions under current climate, even a small temperature increase would have serious impacts on the Australian winter tourism industry (Galloway 1988). The pereeption of representatives of the Austra¬ lian winter tourism industry concerning the possibility of changing climate is discusssed and possible re¬ sponse strategies ofthe ski industry to climate change are examined
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