(MENAFN- Swissinfo) Protecting Swiss glaciers with white tarpaulins reduces ice and snow melt by around 60%, a new study shows. But this method cannot be applied on a large scale for reasons of cost.
This content was published on April 2, 2021 - 16:50 April 2, 2021 - 16:50 swissinfo.ch/gw
Just 0.02% of the country's total glacier area is currently covered in geotextiles, a technique first introduced in the Swiss Alps in 2004 to address fast-melting glaciers under rising temperatures. Since then up to 350,000m3 of glacier ice has been temporarily preserved each year thanks to these tarpaulins, said researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL).
Their study, conducted together with the federal technology institute ETH Zurich and the University of Fribourg, revealed that, over the past decade, the average cost of one cubic metre of artificially preserved glacier ice ranged between CHF0.60 and CHF7.90 ($8.40) per year. This, the researchers said, makes tarpaulins an unaffordable solution for shrinking glaciers.
They calculated it would cost CHF1 billion a year to cover all Swiss glaciers – a measure that would merely slow down but not stop the melting of glaciers in the long term.
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