Duration: finished December 2014
Project partner: Kay Helfricht
Based on records of runoff and climate and on the Austrian glacier inventories, the hydro-meteorological model OEZ 4.1. was used to analyse the water balance of 87 glacierized basins in the Alps of Alto Adige and North. A special focus was on the runoff contribution by glacier melt.
Results show a systematic change of basin precipitation and of glacier mass balance from the central to the exterior parts of the Alps. The possible future runoff has been modelled with scenarios of temperature and precipitation for the period 2040-2060. The study emphasizes the changes in glacier mass balance and the seasonal shift of glacier runoff. Within the next decades, the runoff is expected to increase caused by an increase in glacier melt. With a subsequent reduction in glacier area, runoff from glacierized will decrease in at least 30 years with respect to present glacierization.
The results will be published such that they are easy to use for education and civil services.