Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
To date, winter heat waves have not been observed to have a major impact on
river levels, partly because the glaciers and water capturing points in the Valais are
at high enough altitudes, that temperatures remain negative. Additionally, rivers in
the Alps are at their lowest levels during the winter months, therefore any increase
of melt would have been adequately absorbed by relatively dry waterways to avoid
sudden flooding. Stakeholders also referenced noticeable changes in invasive and
damaging species such as the Colorado Beetle, which is now recorded at higher
altitudes, affecting different crops such as potatoes. Additionally, melting perma-
frost has also led to increasing problems of landslides and rock falls where previ-
ously there had been none. However, permafrost is not a climate impact that will be
explored further in this chapter.
9.1.2
Converging Threats: Non-climatic Drivers
In addition to the specific impacts from climate related stresses as detailed above,
there are a number management related challenges that were identified through the
coding exercise as converging threats within the basin. Most of these issues have
already been addressed in Chaps.
1
and
4
and were presented through the broad gov-
ernance context in relation to indicators of good governance and IWRM (Chap.
5
)
.
The issues highlighted in this section (and in the following Chilean section) relate
mainly to specific geographical, demographic and infrastructural issues that interact
with the climate driven issues and so in some respects are difficult to separate from the
climatic drivers of adaptation responses (see Sect.
6.2.1
for a definition of response).
Perhaps the biggest management challenge for the mountain municipalities is the
issue of periodic rivalries. Peak period demand, when water flows are at their low-
est, are precisely when water demand is at its highest. For example, in Zermatt and
Les Bagnes, 90% of demand is during winter and notably at specific points during
winter. This requires a commune with a population of 3,000-6,000 to be able to
cover water supply for an intermittent population of 30,000 over the course of a few
weeks during the winter season (December-April), when the springs are at their
lower. This has caused some local water managers to suggest that the communes
will in the future need to rely more heavily on exploiting groundwater sources
(Zermatt is currently fully dependant on spring water), if demand keeps rising, and
their ability to recharge the springs during summer diminishes. A related impact of
tourism peaks is the steady rise of electricity demand, which has risen by 3% per
year for the previous 5 years, the majority in winter (EWZ
2010
) .
Despite the strong principles of decentralisation that defines the Swiss governance
framework, concentrations of power have gradually been shifting from lower to
higher levels of government as well as across private and public sector responsibility.
Certain services that used to be the responsibility of private actors at the commune
level have now been transferred to the public realm either at the commune or cantonal
level, most notably after the 2000 flooding events. For example, reconstruction and
repair of damages from extreme weather events is no longer managed privately as
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