Abstract ID: 3.13116 | Accepted as Talk | Talk | TBA | TBA

Climate change is altering the Austrian Alps, including changing snow- and rainfall, which affects river discharge and has implications for water supply, hydropower, agriculture, tourism, and industry. The heterogeneity of mountains asks for high resolution methods to monitor and accurately predict changes in the water cycle in the Alps. In addition, recent studies have shown improvements in hydrological modelling of river discharge by adding soil moisture and snow cover data on top of precipitation and temperature to constrain the model. Both monitoring of water cycle components and hydrological modelling require reliable data at high resolution easily available to users with quality indicators. Recently, the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) has created the Climate Change Adaptation Digital Twin (ClimateDT), which will provide past, present, and future predictions on land surface variables at 5 km spatial resolution from 1990 to 2050 with different scenarios. Furthermore, the Copernicus Sentinel satellites provide high resolution observations providing information of the current state of the land surface, including soil moisture and snow from Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-3, respectively. Remote sensing of snow cover extent and soil moisture in mountainous areas is challenging due to shadowing effects and the many processes occurring simultaneously depending on location and height. We will present the first steps in creating a Digital Twin for Austria to monitor the water cycle in the Alps with first results of the ClimateDT products and Sentinel-based snow cover extent and soil moisture. ClimateDT soil moisture and snow depth are evaluated with the Sentinel based products. Furthermore, temperature, precipitation and soil moisture are validated with in situ observations from meteorological stations. The accuracy assessment will provide insights in the quality of the ClimateDT model for monitoring the water cycle. The work is carried out within the FFG funded Digital Twin Austria Alpine Hydrology and Future Hazards project with the goal to use the ClimateDT, along with Copernicus satellite-based data of snow extent and soil moisture, for hydrologic modelling of river discharge and to assess current and future water-related risks in the Austrian Alps.