CNIC: US-Italy Research Project Development on Alpine Mountain Drainage Basin Response to Climatic Warming

Colorado State University, Fort Collins CO

Investigators

Abstract

Non-technical Abstract This US-Italy research effort will catalyze a new collaboration to develop methods to identify how different river basins in the eastern Italian Alps respond to climate change. U.S. PI Sara Rathburn will work with three U.S. students and partners from the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano and the University of Milano-Bicocca to develop a project to study basins in the Adige River Valley selected for the valley's physical characteristics and the channel network that influences movement of water and sediment. The glaciers in the Italian Alps appear to be particularly prone to climate change due to their size and geographic location. Therefore, the team intends to use preliminary observations of drainage basin response to deglaciation to develop a quantitative index that can help identify particularly sensitive or resilient basins which may require different management under hazardous conditions. Changes to the amount of water and sediment delivered to mountain rivers influences the shape of river channels, and whether or not water is delivered efficiently and with minimal or abundant sediment to downstream communities. Given the importance of such glaciated headwater streams, this work may have implications for controlling the timing and amount of water available for agricultural, municipal, and hydropower needs. Findings may offer a useful comparison for similar basins in the U.S. Using historical documents of channel change that date to the Little Ice Age, over the last 250 years, and current field data on water and sediment discharge, the sensitivity index will then be tested for use in future projections. U.S. and Italian university students will participate in cooperative field research and should gain valuable early career experience with the practical implications of global climate change on water supply. Technical Abstract The US-Itaian collaboration is to establish methods to characterize response domains for drainage basins undergoing deglaciation in the Italian Alps to develop landscape sensitivity indices of past, present, and future changes in flow and sediment dynamics. Sensitivity indices will be based on valley geometry/channel morphologic changes and modern processes. Quantitative indices of drainage basin response to climate change are not widely available in current literature. The lack of quantitative indices limits the ability to identify particularly sensitive or resilient basins that require different management under changing climate. Research findings should advance our knowledge of how valley geometry and channel planform record changes in water and sediment discharge over the last 250 years, and quantitative measurements of current fluvial processes will be used as input to the conceptual model, with a final comparison based on projected climatic warming. Climate change poses myriad environmental and socieo-economic challenges, and research addressing landscape response has large and tangible benefits for communities weighing different hazard mitigation, adaption and resource protection options. U.S. and Italian students will collaborate on all phases of the research and gain exposure to complex, real-world environmental issues. Exposing students to collaborative research highlights the benefits of international teamwork in scientific inquiry and innovation to address future challenges of landscape change.