Snow emergency in Italy: Legambiente has published its Nevediversa ...
13 March 2023
This winter, the effects of the climate crisis, low rainfall and rising temperatures were strongly felt in the mountains. Snowfall was low, a fact which also had a negative impact on winter tourism and the ski season. To compensate for the lack of natural snow, Italy has turned to artificial snow-making, a practice that is unsustainable and quite costly in economic terms.
The data in the new Legambiente report "Nevediversa 2023. Winter tourism in the era of climate crisis" presented a few days ago in Turin is clear. Italy, according to the latest available estimates, is one of the Alpine countries most dependent on artificial snow, with 90% of its slopes artificially covered with snow. Austria (70%), Switzerland (50%), France (39%) and Germany (25%) follow. The number of water reservoirs in the mountains located near Italian ski resorts and mainly used for artificial snow-making is worrying: using satellite images, for the first time Legambiente has mapped these reservoirs, counting as many as 142 of them, with a total surface area of approximately 1,037,377 square metres. Trentino Alto Adige leads with a record 59 reservoirs, followed by Lombardy with 17 and Piedmont with 16. In central Italy, Abruzzo has the most, four.
According to Legambiente, artificial snow-making is not a sustainable and adaptive practice, as it involves substantial consumption of water, energy and soil in highly valuable areas. In particular, the association made the following estimate: considering that 90% of the slopes in Italy are equipped with artificial snow-making systems, the annual water consumption could already be as much as 96,840,000 m³, corresponding to the annual water consumption of a city with about one million inhabitants. In addition, artificial snow-making requires increasing investments in new technologies and enormous expenditure for the public administration. Furthermore, the cost of artificial snow-making is also rising, from around 2 euros per cubic metre in 2021-2022, to 3-7 euros per cubic metre in the 2022-2023 season. For these reasons, Legambiente once again stresses the urgency of rethinking a new model of environmentally sustainable winter mountain tourism, starting with a diversification of activities.
