engleski

Changes in snow parameters in Croatian highland

The main resources for tourism development in many countries, as well as in Croatia, are landscape characteristics and climate that attract tourists to particular destination (Weber et al., 2002). It is therefore obvious that significant changes of one of those two factors could significantly impact tourism destination attractiveness. Many tourism destinations, especially those with tourism as the main economic activity, are concerned with climate changes today, whose implications are last few decades visible almost all around the world. According to projections, those changes will continue and their final consequences on human life are not fully known yet. It is in particular relevant to those destinations that could experience significant climate changes, especially during winter season, such as land area of north hemisphere (Buerki, Elsasser, Abegg, 2003). Therefore the information and knowledge on climate changes should be, and in some cases already is, incorporated into strategic, especially long-term development plans of certain areas. Croatian tourism is the most developed along the Croatian Adriatic coast and on the islands. The coastal area has experienced significantly positive impact of tourism industry on the local economy. At the same time, lot of other resources suitable for tourism development in Croatia are still not recognized nor valorized according to their possibilities. That is the case with Croatia’ s highland area that, although not higher than 1900 m (only 85 square kilometers of Croatian land is above 1500 m) is suitable for tourists’ stay, both during summer season when high temperatures in other parts of Croatia are not pleasant for many people, and during other periods of the year, especially during winter season. Snow conditions along the part of Croatian highland, including thickness of snow cover as well as its duration, are sufficient and they enable the development of winter tourism, oriented mainly on snow related activities such as cross-country skiing or snow mobiling rather than on downhill skiing only. Some experts estimate that the length of winter tourism season in Croatian mountains is much shorter today than it could possibly be due to the shortage of infrastructure and facilities. According to those estimates, total capacity of fifteen mountain resorts is around 38000 visitors daily (the accommodation facilities’ capacity of those resorts is about 2500 beds today) and the length of winter and summer season is estimated on 100 and 200 days, respectively. Further, it is estimate that only about 10 per cent of all ski trips purchased in Croatia are realized within country. Among all domestic ski trips the majority are one-day trips enabled by relatively good accessibility of those ski resorts as well as by the fact that those resorts are close to urban areas. However, those ski resorts are relatively small, both considering their capacity and equipment, especially in comparison to alpine ski resorts. The literature shows that such destinations – small resorts at lower altitudes are in particular sensitive on negative changes in winter conditions (Breiling, Charamza ; 1994, 1999). The increase of average daily temperature and, at the same time, the decrease in precipitation in winter mountain destinations could decrease the economic effects from tourism and, at the same time, increase the adaptation costs and necessary investments in winter tourism supply. The development plan of winter and mountain tourism in Croatia, that is currently working on, should take into account estimates and forecasts on climate changes on Croatian mountains and their possible impact on winter tourism development. The climatological base for tourism estimates are snow regime characteristics with special emphasis on time analysis (fluctuations and trends) in different meteorological parameters related to snow (air temperature, total precipitation and air pressure) as well as snow parameters (snow cover frequency, duration and magnitude) themselves. The results presented in this paper refer to the northern part of Velebit Mountain (western Dinaric Alps), which is one of the potential ski resorts considered in the mentioned development plan. The Velebit Mountain is spreading 150 km along the eastern Adriatic coast of Croatia (Fig. 1). Its altitude ranges from the sea level on the costal side up to about 1800 m and it descends towards hinterland to the highland plateau of Lika at the altitude of about 600 m. This mountain is the main weather and climate modifyer along the coastline and the continental hinterland. The climate differences that appear over the broader region are already pronounced over the variously located slopes of Velebit itself. The main weather types bringing precipitation mainly in the form of snow during winter months are cyclones in the Adriatic with the prevailing winds from SW quadrant over Velebit.

tourism, snow parameters, clima, Croatia

nije evidentirano