Abstract
Snow is an excellent water reservoir, naturally storing large quantities of water at time scales from a few days to several months. In summer-dry countries, like Armenia, runoff due to snow melt from mountain regions is highly important for a sustained water supply (irrigation, hydropower). Snow fields on Mount Aragats, Armenia’s highest peak, often persist until July, providing vital amounts of melt water. Artificially managing these wind-driven snow accumulations as a natural water reservoir might have considerable potential. In the context of the Swiss-Armenian joint venture, Freezwater, snow fields are covered with geotextiles in order to delay snow melt long enough to provide additional melt water in the dry season of the year. In this study, we analyze the hydrological effectiveness of the artificial management of the natural snow cover on Mount Aragats based on various field measurements acquired over a three-year period and numerical modeling. Over the winter season, partly more than five meter-thick snow deposits are formed supported by snow redistribution by strong wind. Repeated mappings of snow fields indicate that snow cover patterns remain highly consistent over time. Measurements of ablation below manually applied geotextiles show a considerable reduction of melt rates by more than 50%. Simulations with an energy-balance model and a distributed temperature-index model allow assessing the hydrological effect of artificial snow management for different initial snow depths and elevations and suggest that coverage is needed at a large scale in order to generate a significant impact on discharge.
Highlights
Ongoing climate change strongly affects the water resources of countries depending on snow and glacier melt [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9])
Beyond the determination of the effectiveness of geotextiles, this study addresses the hydrological potential of the techniques of artificial snow management on Mount Aragats, Armenia
This study focuses on sub-permanent snow fields appearing each year on Armenia’s highest mountain, Mount Aragats (4089 m a.s.l.) (Figure 1), located at a distance of about 50 km from the capital, Yerevan
Summary
Ongoing climate change strongly affects the water resources of countries depending on snow and glacier melt [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]). There are no more permanent snow fields in Armenia, Davoyan [13] reports on some small glaciers in the crater of the volcano, Mount Aragats. This indicates that the regional firn line is at around 4000 m a.s.l. (above sea level), which agrees with the observation that sub-permanent snow fields persist until late summer at the flanks of Mount Aragats. These snow deposits sticking to sharp edges in topography can reach a considerable thickness and are formed by steadily strong winds (e.g., [14])
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