Snow droughts, defined as periods with below-normal Snow Water Equivalent, have recently received substantial attention as an emerging hazard in a warming world, but their impacts are still poorly understood. Here, we shed light on these impacts across the socio-ecohydrologic spectrum, by leveraging heterogeneous data sources from 38 catchments in Italy: 13 years of snow and runoff data, remote-sensing and in-situ measurements of Gross Primary Production, an inventory of emergency water restrictions obtained via a web-scraping tool and direct consultation of national to local regulations, and a survey among 113 mountain huts. We found that the majority of snow droughts in our sample were warm-dry (53 %), that is, the combination of higher-than-usual temperatures and low precipitation, followed by warm-wet snow droughts (22 %). These events resulted in the snow season being shortened by as much as one month across all elevations, more melt-out events compared to non-snow-drought years, approximately −50 % summer runoff, and a decline in runoff ratio. Notably, growing-season Gross Primary Production of vegetation after a snow drought was up to 10 % higher than after a non-snow-drought winter, particularly above 1500 m, which ground-based data suggest was due to an earlier meltout of snow leading to an earlier-than-usual greening date. By focusing on the recent 2022 and 2023 snow droughts, we also found that water-supply restrictions were issued at all elevations, but particularly across foothills rather than floodplain regions. Meanwhile, about 70 % of hut managers at elevations above 2000 m reported water-supply impacts, with 28 % of them even reporting earlier closing dates. Overall, snow droughts emerge as a deeply multi-sectorial and multi-elevation risk, interconnecting the cryosphere with hydrology, ecology, and society.
- Impacts of Mediterranean snow droughts on mountain socio-ecohydrology
- F Avanzi - CIMA Research FoundationStefano Terzi - Eurac ResearchMariapina Castelli - Eurac ResearchF Munerol - CIMA Research FoundationM Andreaggi - CIMA Research FoundationM GalvagnoAndrea Galletti - Eurac ResearchT Maurer - CIMA Research FoundationC Massari - Research Institute for Geo-Hydrological ProtectionG Carlson - University of California, BerkeleyM Girotto - University of California, BerkeleyGiacomo Bertoldi - Eurac ResearchE Cremonese - CIMA Research FoundationS Gabellani - CIMA Research FoundationUM di Cella - CIMA Research FoundationM Altamura - CIMA Research FoundationL Rossi - CIMA Research FoundationL Ferraris - CIMA Research Foundation
- Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, Vol.30(17), pp.5769-5790
- 1027-5606
- 1607-7938
- 30
- Copernicus Publications
- (EURAC)32028138
991007445167201241 - Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
- Institute for Alpine Environment
Center for Climate Change and Transformation
Institute for Earth Observation - English
- Journal article
- none
- Scientific
- Scientific
- Avanzi F, Terzi S, Castelli M, Munerol F, Andreaggi M, Galvagno M, Galletti A, Maurer T, Massari C, Carlson G, Girotto M, Bertoldi G, Cremonese E, Gabellani S, di Cella UM, Altamura M, Rossi L, Ferraris L