High Resolution Maps of Climatological Parameters for Analyzing the Impacts of Climatic Changes on Swiss Forests

Abstract

Assessing the impacts of climatic changes on forests requires the analysis of actual climatology within the forested area. In mountainous areas, climatological indices vary markedly with the micro-relief, i.e., with altitude, slope, and aspect. Consequently, when modelling potential shifts of altitudinal belts in mountainous areas due to climatic changes, maps with a high spatial resolution of the underlying climatological indices are fundamental. Here we present a set of maps of climatological indices with a spatial resolution of 25 by 25 m. The presented dataset consists of maps of the following parameters: average daily temperature high and low in January, April, July, and October as well as of the year; seasonal and annual thermal continentality; first and last freezing day; frost-free vegetation period; relative air humidity; solar radiation; and foehn conditions. The parameters represented in the maps have been selected in a knowledge engineering approach. The maps show the climatology of the periods 1961−1990 and 1981−2010. The data can be used for statistical analyses of forest climatology, for developing tree distribution models, and for assessing the impacts of climatic changes on Swiss forests.

Keywords

• forest climatology
• Switzerland
• temperature
• relative air humidity
• thermal continentality
• foehn winds
• expert elicitation
• knowledge engineering