The Presena glacier in Italy is receiving special attention to protect it from global warming. A tarpaulin of around 100,000 hectares was installed to prevent it from melting too quickly.
Straddling Trentino Alto Adige and Lombardy, in the north of the country, the glacier has lost more than a third of its volume since 1993. In addition to global warming, the increasingly sunny summers cause the ice to retreat a little more each year . "This area is shrinking more and more, so we need to cover it as much as possible," says Davide Panizza, 34, boss of the Carosello-Tonale company, mandated by the region for the operation.
A project launched over ten years ago
The project started in 2008, with almost 30,000 m² of canvas deployed and placed on the snow. His team is installing 100,000 m² this year. "The canvas is a geotextile tarp that reflects light, now below a temperature below room temperature, and which therefore helps to preserve snow," he slips.
In this border valley between the regions of Trentino and Lombardy, at an altitude of more than 2,700 meters, workers unroll long strips of reverberating tarpaulin. They give this wrapped mountain side a giant gift. The strips must be sewn methodically to prevent them from slipping at the bottom of the slope or loosening under the effect of time. Each measures 70 m long by 5 m wide and costs 400 euros. It takes almost six weeks to install them in late spring, and as much in the fall to remove them.
This process is not unique in the world. "There are similar experiments on Austrian glaciers, but their surface is smaller" than at the Presena glacier, underlines Davide Panizza.