Climatic impacts of historical wetland drainage in Switzerland |
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| Authors: | N Schneider W Eugster |
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| Institution: | (1) Institute of Geography, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland;(2) Institute of Plant Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zentrum LFW C55.2, CH-8092 Zurich, Switzerland |
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| Abstract: | The effects of historical land-use and land-cover changes on the climate of the Swiss Plateau in the different seasons were
investigated. In the 19th century, a civil engineering project was initiated to reshape the lake and river system on the Swiss
Plateau in order to ban the frequent flooding during extreme weather events. The landscape modifications consisted primarily
of a conversion of wetlands with extended peat soils into a highly productive agricultural landscape. Historical maps (1800–1850)
served as a basis for the reconstruction of the past land use. The “Lokal-Modell” of the Consortium for Small-Scale Modelling
was used to conduct eight one-month long high-resolution simulations (1.5 × 1.5 km2) with present and past landscape conditions. The modified soil and surface properties led to distinctly altered energy and
moisture exchanges at the surface and as a consequence affected the local and regional climate. The climatic changes show
different characteristics and magnitudes in the cold (October – March) as compared to the warm season (April – September).
The landscape modifications led to an average daytime cooling between −0.12 °C (January) and −0.61 °C (April) and a night-time
warming of 0.19 °C−0.34 °C. The differences in the mean monthly temperatures show a warming of 0.1 °C−0.2 °C in the cold season
and a cooling of similar magnitude in most of the study area in the warm season. The modification of the radiation budget
and the surface energy balance distinctly affected the convective activity in the study area in the warm season, but had only
a weak effect on convectivity in the cold season. The cloud coverage in the warm season is therefore distinctly reduced compared
to the past. |
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| Keywords: | Land-use change Surface energy budget Albedo effect High-resolution regional climate modeling |
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