December 16, 2024
The effects of climate change do not stop at national borders. They are evident in the headwaters of the Alps, where melting glaciers and changing precipitation patterns are threatening rivers and groundwater reservoirs. At the same time, water is essential for key Alpine economic sectors such as energy production, agriculture, industry and tourism. The “Waterwise” project, co-funded by the EU as part of the Interreg Alpine Space program, brings together Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences (HKA) and eleven other partners from seven Alpine countries - France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Austria and Slovenia - to develop cross-border solutions for the sustainable management of water resources in the Alpine region.
The management of Alpine water resources begins upstream - with melting glaciers and snow masses as well as changes in precipitation - and extends to the urban areas downstream, where water shortages, for example, can affect the socio-economic structures of the communities, many of which are located across national borders. One example is the Val d'Ursé valley in Switzerland, where the mountain waters feed the Adda and Po rivers, which play a central role in Northern Italy's economy and society. On a larger scale, glacier melting is linked to global warming. In the Zugspitze region in Germany, two of the last glaciers in Germany (Nördliche Schneeferner and Höllentalferner) lost between a third and a half of their ice mass between 2005 and 2018. France's third largest glacier, the Tré-la-Tête, also lost the equivalent of 6,000 Olympic swimming pools between 2014 and 2016, and the glacier melt in Austria's Jamtal valley is also steadily accelerating. There, the Galtür weather station has recorded an increase in the average temperature of around 2 C compared to the period between 1961-1990.
Glacier melting and declining snow cover are among the most visible effects of climate change and threaten both mountain springs and Alpine groundwater resources. Heatwaves, droughts and changes in precipitation patterns further exacerbate these problems. The disruption of these natural processes jeopardizes biodiversity - the Grande Sassière basin in France, for example, is home to 20 rare plant species that depend on watercourses and wetlands - and affects the quantity and quality of water available to Alpine communities for private and public use.
In Trentino-Alto Adige, the municipality of Ziano di Fiemme relies on the Sadole spring, which is fed by a rock glacier (formation of debris and interstitial ice) in the upper Val Sadole valley. Similarly important is Mount Petzen on the border between Austria and Slovenia, whose water resources not only supply the surrounding communities but are also used to generate hydroelectric power.
Given these challenges, it is clear that the management of water catchment areas must be integrated into strategic political decision-making processes. Water availability is a vital resource for key economic sectors in the Alps and Pre-Alps, ranging from energy production and agriculture to industry and tourism.
Waterwise aims to support the local management of protected areas and Alpine communities in the development of long-term strategies to strengthen the resilience of these regions in managing water resources and adapting to climate change. These topics, along with many others, were extensively discussed at the kick-off meeting of the international, interdisciplinary team in Poschiavo, Switzerland, in mid-November 2024.
“Projects like Waterwise are crucial because they address the urgent and global challenge of climate change through innovative and collaborative approaches and tools,” emphasizes Clément Roques, the scientific coordinator of the project and senior researcher at the Center for Hydrogeology and Geothermal Energy (CHYN) at the University of Neuchâtel. “To effectively tackle these challenges, transnational collaboration between stakeholders, policy makers and administrative authorities is essential. Waterwise exemplifies this collaborative approach by bringing together different expertise and perspectives to create a guide for sustainable water and land management,” adds Monica Tolotti, researcher in the Hydrobiology Group of the Edmund Mach Foundation and administrative lead partner of the project.
From the very first kick-off meeting, Waterwise focused on building networks and dialog with local institutions in order to create a solid foundation for future strategies. For this reason, representatives of local, national and international institutions also took part in the meeting, including Cassiano Luminati, Director of Polo Poschiavo, Alexis Trouchet from the Joint Secretariat of the Alpine Space and Silvia Jost and Alexis Kessler from the Swiss Federal Office for Spatial Development (ARE).
The aim of the project is to develop an innovative digital toolbox with a wide range of modeling and analysis tools, which will be designed in a series of workshops for different regional boundary conditions in the Alpine region. The transferable toolbox will be used to strengthen the resilience of Alpine regions, their water resources and biodiversity. Pilot regions for the development and testing of the toolbox include Contamines Montjoie and Grande Sassière (France), the Jamtal (Austria), Rèchy (Switzerland), Sadole (Italy), the Zugspitze area (Germany) and the transboundary aquifer of Berg Petzen (Austria/Slovenia). In addition, other areas will be included to test the applicability of the toolbox in different Alpine landscapes.
Together with the University of Passau, Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences is responsible for implementing the Waterwise project in the German research area around the Zugspitze and, together with the University of Neuchâtel, is leading the first work package, which is working on solutions for harmonized data compilation and developing methods to supplement the hydrological data situation. The main focus is on low-cost sensor systems and crowdsourcing approaches, which are to be made accessible through workshops and educational materials. "Especially in remote Alpine catchment areas, where standardized measuring points are scarce, data collection through low-cost sensors and crowdsourcing provides crucial methods for gathering valuable insights into the condition of water bodies and their future development," says Prof. Dr. Markus Noack from the Faculty of Architecture & Civil Engineering at HKA and head of the University's own Hydraulic Engineering Research Institute.
Waterwise is co-financed by the European Union through the Interreg - Alpine Space program and consists of 12 partners: University of Neuchâtel (scientific management, CH), Fondazione Edmund Mach (administrative management, IT), Réserves naturelles de France (FR), Legambiente Piemonte e Valle d'Aosta (IT), EGTC Geopark Karawanken (AT, SL), University of Passau (DE), Geološki Zavod Slovenije (SL), Tetraktys (FR), Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences (DE), Alpinarium Galtür Dokumentation GmbH (AT), Agenzia Regionale per la Protezione dell'Ambiente Lombardia (IT) and crealp: Research Center for the Alpine Environment (CH).
