Abstracts - Posters

Impacts of and Adaptation to Climate Change for the Ski Industry in Southern Québec

Christopher Bryant¹, B. Singh, D. Granjon, I PLcheux, M. Savoie and N. Davey and P. André
¹University of Montreal
bryan94@attglobal.net

GHG climate change is expected to have significant impacts on a number of economic sectors across Canada. The tourism and recreation sectors would seem to be very vulnerable to such climate changes. This paper examines the potential impacts, including adaptation possibilities, of GHG climate change on the ski industry for three selected regions, namely Montreal, Charlevoix and the Eastern Townships in Southern Québec. Climate change scenarios from two coupled atmosphere-ocean general circulation models (the Canadian (CGCM1) and British (HadCM3) models) that are downscaled (SDSM) are used to estimate biophysical impacts for three time slices (1961-1990; 2010-2039; 2040-2069). Based on current literature and input from a workshop with stakeholders a number of climate parameters and indices, including beginning, end and length of ski season, loss of skiable days due to inclement weather conditions (extreme cold, rain), snowfall and weather conditions for snow-making are calculated for the current and future periods. Concurrently a sample of ski operators were confronted with scenarios of climate change to explore their perceptions regarding the importance of climate change and potential adaptation measures envisaged. Measures of the economic impacts of climate change and variability for this industry are presented and discussed.

2005-04-06