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Dans les Alpes, les impacts du réchauffement climatique sont déjà bien visibles et dépassent les frontières, nécessitant une adaptation des territoires. Dans la région tranfrontalière du Mont-Blanc, le projet « AdaPT Mont-Blanc » a réuni les collectivités et les acteurs du territoire pendant trois ans sur l'adaptation de la planification territoriale aux changements climatiques. Cet article présente l'expérience du bureau d'étude ACTeon dans l'accompagnement et la mise en œuvre de la démarche participative du projet, en mettant l'accent sur les enseignements et la plus value de la démarche pour définir une stratégie locale d'adaptation aux changements attendus.

Fonte des glaciers, éboulements... les impacts du changement climatique sont déjà bien visibles dans les Alpes, où la température moyenne augmente deux fois plus vite qu'ailleurs en France. Face à ces impacts, qui s’accentueront, et d’autres qui apparaîtront, les territoires de montagne vont devoir trouver des outils pour élaborer une stratégie locale d'adaptation. Cet article présente la démarche d'accompagnement mise en œuvre par des scientifiques d'INRAE et le bureau d'étude ACTeon sur le territoire du Haut-Chablais pour mobiliser les acteurs autour de la réalisation d'un diagnostic de vulnérabilité et les aider à prioriser les actions dans une dynamique d'adaptation au changement climatique.

L’économie des sports d’hiver est régulièrement décrite comme étant particulièrement vulnérable face au changement climatique, et répond à ce défi via plusieurs stratégies mises en place localement. Ainsi, mobilisant des travaux sur les stations françaises, notamment des Alpes, cet article met en lumière les deux grands types de logiques de réponses aux impacts du changement climatique, d’un côté, la fiabilisation de l’exploitation du domaine skiable en termes de conditions d’enneigement et d’autre part, la diversification touristique de ces mêmes stations. Les chercheurs y dressent un état des lieux des travaux et recherches menées sur ces thématiques, à l’échelle française et internationale.

Ressources en eau, production d’hydroélectricité, forêts de montagne, élevage d’altitude, risques naturels, tourisme hivernal… sont autant de secteurs d’activité et/ou d’enjeux impactés par le changement climatique dans les territoires de montage. Ces thématiques ont été abordées dans le cadre du projet AdaMont, en associant synthèse des connaissances, ateliers participatifs et recueil de récits d’adaptation. Des fiches thématiques ont été produites et diffusées pour restituer de façon accessible ces récits d’adaptation. Cet article en présente une compilation.

In the context of adapting to global changes, the diversification of the tourist offer seems to be a solution for the mid-mountain areas, which are structured around and dependent on ski tourism. However, it remains unclear how tourism diversification occurs, what forms it can take and what it produces at a territorial scale. In this study, we apply a theory of regional diversification to the case of tourism in order to examine tourism diversification paths. We base our analysis on qualitative data collected on two French study areas: the intercommunities of the massif du Sancy and of the Haut-Chablais. Our results show a pattern in tourism diversification paths, following three steps that can lead to the abandonment of the perimeter of the ski resort. However, among the different types of tourism diversification trajectories, only a saltation form of tourism diversification can lead to the establishment of a larger and more diversified tourism system. Our findings also show that several types of tourism diversification paths can coexist at a territorial scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many mountainous regions in Europe, including their tourism sectors, show a high degree of economic specialization. The ski tourism industry forms part of the long-standing economic success of the French Alps. Over the past 20 years, snowmaking has become a key feature of ski tourism, but future climate change will decrease its effectiveness as an adaptation solution to natural snow cover reduction. However, the ski tourism industry does not seem to be intent on stopping its investment in snowmaking, which raises the question of its dependence on this technology. In this study, we employ the path development framework to examine how snowmaking development has oriented decision-making to ensure the future of the French ski tourism industry. We analysed 38 in-depth semi-directive interviews and key financial figures from the French alpine ski tourism industry. Our results show that technical progress and specific investments in snowmaking have deeply transformed the management of ski resorts. Our finding is that snowmaking spurred ski lift operators to pursue specialization in the ski tourism industry. However, because of its ambivalent effects on the ski tourism industry, we view snowmaking development both as path extension and as path contraction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evolution of stakeholder networks along tourism diversification trajectories in mid-mountain areas: new forms of collaboration? In a context of adaptation to global changes, mid-mountain territories structured around winter sports tourism are evolving towards more diversified tourism schemes. This process of diversification of the tourism offer can be observed in the long term and alters the trajectories of these territories by enlarging the panel of actors involved in the tourism offer and, therefore, by playing on their forms of organization. Consequently, the networks of actors are bound to evolve and we hypothesize that this renewal leads to more collaborations. The article proposes an evolutionary approach to networks and systems of relationships between stakeholders in diversification. This approach is formalized through the development of multi-actor diagrams and stakeholders ' maps in two study areas, the Sancy massif, in the Massif central, and the Haut-Chablais, in the Alps. It is thus possible to affirm that diversification strengthens collaboration by making it necessary to identify key actors, to affirm common visions and objectives, to include the diversity of actors established in the territories, and to articulate spatial relationships, in contexts of a variable dependence on an organization around winter sports tourism. The analysis carried out in the field allows us to conclude that the Sancy massif, which is following a more advanced process of diversification, is experimenting with more complete collaborations, compared to the Haut-Chablais territory, where an organization of actors around winter sports persists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Snow reliability is a key climatic impact driver for the ski tourism industry, although there are only a few studies addressing past changes in snow reliability in ski resorts accounting for snow management practices (grooming and snowmaking, in particular). This study provides an assessment of past changes in natural and managed snow cover reliability from 1961 to 2019 in the French Alps. In particular, we used snowmaking investment figures to infer the evolution of snowmaking coverage at the ski resort scale for 16 ski resorts in the French Alps, which we used together with a detailed snow cover modelling system driven by a local atmospheric reanalysis. We find different benefits of snow management to reduce the variability and long-term decrease in snow cover reliability because of the heterogeneity of the snowmaking deployment trajectories across ski resorts. The frequency of challenging conditions for ski resort operation over the 1991–2019 period increased in November and February to April compared to the 30-year reference period 1961–1990. In general, snowmaking had a positive impact on snow reliability, especially in December to January. While for the highest-elevation ski resorts, snowmaking improved snow reliability for the core of the winter season, it did not counterbalance the decreasing trend in snow cover reliability for lower-elevation ski resorts and in the spring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is increasingly regarded as a threat for winter tourism due to the combined effect of decreasing natural snow amounts and decreasing suitable periods for snowmaking. The present work investigated the snow reliability of 175 ski resorts in France (Alps and Pyrenees), Spain and Andorra under past and future conditions using state-of-the-art snowpack modelling and climate projections using Representative Concentration Pathways RCP2.6, RCP4.5 and RCP8.5. The natural snow reliability (i.e. without snowmaking) elevation showed a significant spatial variability in the reference period (1986–2005) and was shown to be highly impacted by the ongoing climate change. The reliability elevation using snowmaking is projected to rise by 200 to 300 m in the Alps and by 400 to 600 m in the Pyrenees in the near future (2030–2050) compared to the reference period for all climate scenarios. While 99 % of ski lift infrastructures exhibit adequate snow reliability in the reference period when using snowmaking, a significant fraction (14 % to 25 %) may be considered in a critical situation in the near future. Beyond the mid-century, climate projections highly depend on the scenario with either steady conditions compared to the near future (RCP2.6) or continuous decrease in snow reliability (RCP8.5). Under RCP8.5, our projections show that there would no longer be any snow-reliable ski resorts based on natural snow conditions in the French Alps and Pyrenees (France, Spain and Andorra) at the end of the century (2080–2100). For this time period and this scenario, only 24 resorts are projected to remain reliable with snowmaking, all being located in the Alps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]