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  4. Climate change impacts on highly glacierized catchments in the Swiss Alps
 
conference paper not in proceedings

Climate change impacts on highly glacierized catchments in the Swiss Alps

Schaefli, Bettina
•
Hingray, Benoît
•
Musy, André
2005
VIIth IAHS Scientific Assembly

High mountainous water resource systems are particularly sensitive to climate change impacts. The hydrological regime of such environments is strongly influenced by water accumulation in form of snow and ice and the corresponding melt processes. A modification of the prevalent climate and especially of the temperature can therefore considerably affect the hydrological regime and induce important impacts on the related water resources system. The present study analyses potential climate change impacts on the hydrological regime of a highly glacierized catchment in the Swiss Alps through an integrated simulation tool including namely a hydrological and a glacier evolution model and a model for the production of local climate change scenarios. The modelling of the hydrological behaviour of high mountainous systems is still a difficult task, especially because of the well-known data scarcity in high altitudes. In the present study, the uncertainties induced by each of the models are analysed and quantified through appropriate statistical methods. The obtained results show a statistically significant shift from the current so-called a-glacier regime (maximum monthly discharge in July and August) to a so-called nival type (maximum monthly discharge in June). The induced modification of the hydrological regime has a direct impact on the water use, on flood risks and on related ecological systems. For the presented case study catchment, these impacts are illustrated based on the main water use (hydropower production) and related risks for downstream inhabited areas.

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Type
conference paper not in proceedings
Author(s)
Schaefli, Bettina
Hingray, Benoît
Musy, André
Date Issued

2005

Editorial or Peer reviewed

NON-REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
HYDRAM  
Event nameEvent placeEvent date
VIIth IAHS Scientific Assembly

Foz do Iguaçu

03 – 09 April 2005

Available on Infoscience
October 17, 2005
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/217850
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