Impacts of Mediterranean snow droughts on mountain socio-ecohydrology

Abstract

Snow droughts, defined as periods with below-normal Snow Water Equivalent, have recently received substantial attention as an emerging hazard in a warming world, but their impacts are still poorly understood. Here, we shed light on these impacts across the socio-ecohydrologic spectrum, by leveraging heterogeneous data sources from 38 catchments in Italy: 13 years of snow and runoff data, remote-sensing and in-situ measurements of Gross Primary Production, an inventory of emergency water restrictions obtained via a web-scraping tool and direct consultation of national to local regulations, and a survey among 113 mountain huts. We found that the majority of snow droughts in our sample were warm-dry (53 %), that is, the combination of higher-than-usual temperatures and low precipitation, followed by warm-wet snow droughts (22 %). These events resulted in the snow season being shortened by as much as one month across all elevations, more melt-out events compared to non-snow-drought years, approximately −50 % summer runoff, and a decline in runoff ratio. Notably, growing-season Gross Primary Production of vegetation after a snow drought was up to 10 % higher than after a non-snow-drought winter, particularly above 1500 m, which ground-based data suggest was due to an earlier meltout of snow leading to an earlier-than-usual greening date. By focusing on the recent 2022 and 2023 snow droughts, we also found that water-supply restrictions were issued at all elevations, but particularly across foothills rather than floodplain regions. Meanwhile, about 70 % of hut managers at elevations above 2000 m reported water-supply impacts, with 28 % of them even reporting earlier closing dates. Overall, snow droughts emerge as a deeply multi-sectorial and multi-elevation risk, interconnecting the cryosphere with hydrology, ecology, and society.