Abstract
Indicators are widely used in climate variability and climate change assessments to simplify the tracking of complex processes and phenomena in the state of the environment. Apart from the climatic criteria, the snow indicators in ski tourism have been increasingly extended with elements that relate to the technical, operational, and commercial aspects of ski tourism. These non-natural influencing factors have gained in importance in comparison with the natural environmental conditions but are more difficult to comprehend in time and space, resulting in limited explanatory power of the related indicators when applied for larger/longer scale assessments. We review the existing indicator approaches to derive quantitative measures for the snow conditions in ski areas, to formulate the criteria that the indicators should fulfill, and to provide a list of indicators with their technical specifications which can be used in snow condition assessments for ski tourism. For the use of these indicators, a three-step procedure consisting of definition, application, and interpretation is suggested. We also provide recommendations for the design of indicator-based assessments of climate change effects on ski tourism. Thereby, we highlight the importance of extensive stakeholder involvement to allow for real-world relevance of the achieved results.
Highlights
The snow cover is characterized by a significant year-to-year variability which affects all relevant snow variables such as snow water equivalent (SWE), snow depth, and spatial and temporal snow coverage (Beniston et al 2018)
We provide an overview of what types of indicators have been developed and applied, we introduce a conceptual approach for the use of snow indicators and suggest a set of “de-loaded” indicators to be used for an unambiguous interpretation of the regional patterns of weather and climate variability effects
We suggest to distinguish between small-scale and large-scale assessments
Summary
The snow cover is characterized by a significant year-to-year variability which affects all relevant snow variables such as snow water equivalent (SWE), snow depth, and spatial and temporal snow coverage (Beniston et al 2018). Many indicators developed into “hybrids” (Heink and Kowarik 2010), combining meteorological/ climatic (depending on the temporal horizon of their application, not further distinguished from hereon) with technical, operational, and financial aspects of ski tourism They became “overloaded” with regard to the meanings that have been attributed to these indicators—meanings that go way beyond of what can be stated with indicators based on physical (e.g., snow) conditions only. This, basically, applies to all indicators relying on pre-defined thresholds (be it a required ski season length or a given altitudinal line of snow reliability) and standardized snowmaking rules. Economic success is dependent on sufficient snow at the right time (e.g., key periods), good weekend-weather, and many other non-climate-related factors (e.g., Elsasser and Bürki 2002) This has been known for long, but still, the 100-day rule is utilized as a proxy for the profitability, viability, and even sustainability of ski areas. Use of indicators is a transdisciplinary process and requires appropriate formats to ensure proper communication and cooperation between the groups participating in the process, e.g., stakeholder
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