Tokyo (SCCIJ) – Switzerland is giving climate change a public higher priority with a new research center in Davos. For good reasons: Warming levels in the Alpine regions are twice as high as the global average, leading to flooding, debris flows, landslides, and extended droughts in summer.
Calculating natural hazards and simulating extreme events: Already an essential research topic with practical relevance (Photo: WSL / R. Feiner)
40 new jobs
With this in mind, the Federal Research Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape (WSL) teamed up with the government of the Canton of Grisons to find ways of giving additional weight to the issues of climate change and natural hazards.
The WSL already has a base in Davos through a large subsidiary, the Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research (SLF), which employees 140 people. The canton government and the WSL resolved to set up a leading international research center in Davos with the creation of up to 40 new jobs, and ETH Zurich is coming on board, too.
The new centers will enhance the transfer of knowledge and technology for both the regional economy and the cantonal government, coupled with the specific objective of ensuring that Grisons and other mountainous regions remain attractive, livable and safe places for people to reside.
New professorships
“If we are to deal with natural hazards effectively, we need to develop new knowledge and innovative solutions. This is the only way that people will be able to live and do business in mountainous regions in the long term,” said the Head of SLF, Jürg Schweizer.
The proposed center will cover six research areas and will entail the creation of two new professorships, which will be jointly funded by WSL and ETH Zurich. “Our internationally recognized environmental and climate research means that we have a strong network to support the two proposed joint professorships with WSL. At the same time, we will be able to expand our knowledge of the effects of climate change in the mountainous regions that are so important to Switzerland,” commented ETH Zurich President Joël Mesot.
One of the professorships is to focus on research into alpine mass movements and permafrost, while the second will concentrate on the impact of climate change on mountainous regions. The center’s other research areas will include early-warning mechanisms, mountain ecology, and protective forests, as well as risk communication and resilience – in other words, the ability to cope with natural hazards and reduce vulnerability.
Funding secured
The base funding for the first 12 years until 2032 amounts to around CHF 6 million a year, of which the Canton of Grisons will contribute CHF 2 million, WSL CHF 3 million, and ETH Zurich CHF 1 million. This capital will cover regular activities, while third-party funding will finance any expansion plans from 2023 onwards.
The research center will be formally founded this year and will begin operating as part of WSL on 1 January 2021. Hence, SLF’s Davos premises will house the new research center. Work on an extension will get underway this summer.
“WSL has a strong presence in the region and has been studying mountain-related topics like avalanches and rockfalls for many years. It has won recognition among the users of its research findings, which is key for the transfer of knowledge,” said the Director of WSL, Konrad Steffen.
Text: SCCIJ with material of ETH Zurich
