The transnational Waterwise project aims to improve knowledge of how climate and land-use changes affect the vulnerability of Alpine headwater catchments and to co-design adaptive strategies for sustainable future water management.
Retreating glaciers, changing snow cover, more frequent extreme weather events: signs of climate change are all over the Alps, says Markus Noack, Professor of hydraulic engineering and water resources management at Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences and a member of the European Waterwise project.
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The project, led by the University of Neuchâtel and the Edmund Mach Foundation, aims, among other things, to develop a "toolbox" for assessing the vulnerability of these territories. "We combine existing data with statistical analysis to derive representative indicators for climate, hydrology, but also biodiversity and socio-economics," Professor Noack explains.
The project's core is to open dialogue between scientists and local stakeholders for co-design of resilient water management strategies. One fundamental tool is modelling:. Researchers cross-reference hydrological and socio-economic models with different future climate scenarios, known as RCPs (Representative Concentration Pathways), to project water balances and understand whether there’s enough water available to meet demand.
The aim is not to predict a single future, but several: wetter seasons, drier ones, or moderate change. In the Alps, annual averages sometimes mask what matters most - summers are growing hotter, while winters see more liquid precipitation rather than snow. One consequence is already visible in the data: the number of low-flow days — periods of reduced river discharge — has risen sharply over the past several decades, Professor Noack explains.
Waterwise's ambition does not stop at science. The results feed a web-based platform, designed to be understood and used not only by scientists but also by authorities, managers and other stakeholders. The goal is to allow each territory to assess its own vulnerability and build its own adaptation strategies. "Our role as scientists is to provide the data to inform the decision. But the decision, in the end, always belongs to the local decision makers," the researcher stresses.
The transnational dimension is a cornerstone of the project. Tested at sixteen t sites across six Alpine countries, Waterwise responds to the recognition that water challenges do not stop at administrative borders. And, the solutions should not stop there either.
According to an international study published in Nature in February 2025, the Alps and the Pyrenees have lost around 40% of their glacier volume in less than a quarter of a century, making them the regions of the world with the greatest relative loss of ice.
With a total budget of €2.69 million, the Waterwise project is co-funded with €1.61 million from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). It brings together 12 partners from France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia.