Winter tourism: sharing water resources

The thesis, entitled “Snow production and water sustainability in mountain socio-ecological systems”, is part of the field of ecological economics, and lies at the intersection of several disciplines: economics, hydrology and ecology. It analyzes the economic interests of snow production and its hydrological and ecological consequences in the mountains.

In particular, we look at :

– Increased investment in snowmaking (to assess whether or not it helps to adapt mountain economies to climate change).
– Intensification of water storage capacities in high-altitude reservoirs (in order to assess whether or not they can limit withdrawals during the winter low-water period).
– The risk of water use conflicts with snow production, and with other users (human and non-human) of mountain water.

The approach uses several methods: quantitative (dynamic econometrics of panel data), qualitative (semi-structured interviews) and even mixed (analysis of socio-ecological systems).

The terrain is varied. Large datasets with observations from numerous resorts in the French Alps are studied, particularly those in Savoie. The thesis also focuses on more localized areas, notably Gresse-en-Vercors.