While the Beijing 2022 Olympics are over, construction and artificial snow use in Zhangjiakou’s alpine and sliding competitions could cause long-term impacts on the area’s ecosystems.
TechnoAlpin provided dozens of snow-making machines to cover the competition areas before the world’s best winter athletes took to the slopes. Artificial snow was almost the only thing that the Games used.It is harder and more denseIts natural counterpart.
All of the Games’ ski and snowboarding events, including ski jumping and cross-country, are being held at the Games.StagedVenues in Zhangjiakou (a mountainous region about 110 miles northwest from Beijing) Alpine skiing, Bobsled and Luge competitions are being heldHeldYanqing is a mountainous region located approximately 45 miles from Beijing.
Beijing Organizing Committee of the 2022 Olympic Games and Paralympic Winter Games outlined how they plan to preserve topsoil, preserve vegetation, and minimize disruptions to animal habitats.Beijing Pre-Games Sustainability report. Experts in soil and hydrology have expressed concern that the preservation and restoration efforts proposed will not be sufficient to protect soil, plants, and animals.
It would take many hundreds of years for it to get back to its natural state. This is according Carmen de Jong (a hydrology professor at University of Strasbourg) who spoke out about the impacts of larger construction projects such as ski runs on the environment. Either the impacts will not be reversed or they will be very significant.
Despite numerous requests, a spokesperson for the Beijing Organizing Committee couldn’t be reached for comment.
Water Supply Strain
The venues chosen for the Olympic competitions are not in the natural snow-rich areas. According to the The, December through February are the driest months in Beijing and the surrounding areas. There has been very little precipitation since January. World Meteorological Agency.
Beijing is the first winter Olympics to exclusively use man-made, artificial snow.
The areas don’t have enough water to make the artificial snow required for the Games. This led to the Chinese Olympic organizers to create the Games.Take water from reservoirsTens of miles worth of pipes were used. Beijing diverted water to the Guishi river from the Balhebao Reservoir.State-run newspaper.
The artificial snow required for the Games may have strained local water supplies. However, Beijing officials and the state media claim that they have made arrangements to replenish water.They insist on the contrary. The most recentDataBeijing has 36,000 gallons of freshwater per resident, while Zhangjiakou has 83,000 gallons. A country is considered water-scarce if it provides less than 260,000 gallons per person.
However, artificial snow production has a wider impact than Beijing’s water supply.
Impact on soil, plants
According to de Jong, artificial snow can lead to soil insulation changes and can raise soil temperatures. These effects are compounded by snow grooming, which smoothens the snow’s surface.
The combination of this very dense, hard artificial snow and the snow grooms compressing and working them is that there’s generally a lack of oxygen between the soil and the snow and then the soil itself also becomes very much compressed and impermeable, de Jong said.
The Beijing Organizing Committee stated in its sustainability report that the construction staff of the Olympic venues removed and stored plant seed-rich topsoil from ecological restoration projects in Yanqing. Although the committee stated that restoration to the natural state was successful, it did not define what success meant.
Reduced soil transmission fluids’ ability can hinder water infiltration and lead to increased surface water runoff, leading to erosion.
De Jong said that there are likely to be many problems with erosion. The trees and vegetation were removed, and the ski runs now run vertically up to the slopes. This means they concentrate the water and the sediments that will lead to erosion. It is very difficult to stop erosion once it has begun.
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The soil changes can have ripple effects on plant life.
The snowmaking business in and of itself disturbs the vegetation in a pretty substantial way, according to Noah Molotch, an associate professor of geography at the University of Colorado Boulder, who specializes in snow hydrology and surface water.
Molotch stated that artificial snow can affect the soil’s temperature and distribution. This in turn affects soil productivity. This is partly because of the water availability. However, these cycles also influence nutrient availability since soil temperatures and water have an impact on nutrient availability.
He stated that landscape distribution can be affected by changes in water, energy, and nutrients. The region could also be affected by changes to the soil caused by snow, which could affect the plants’ growth periods.
Csilla HUDEC, a Lancaster Environment Center senior research associate, stated that snow duration can increase by up to two weeks when there is too much snow cover. This would reduce the vegetative period of plants. It favors late species and reduces the number of early flowering plants. It also shortens the time for seed propagation.
According to the Beijing 2022 Olympics the Yanqing area will offer year-round tourism, with the possibility of winter sports, after the Olympic Games.Website. The Zhangjiakou area, which includes an existing ski resort, will continue to operate as a sports training facility.
Global temperatures are rising and artificial snow production is putting more pressure on local water supplies. This is because climate change changes the patterns of precipitation.
The continuation and commercial use transforms the natural areas that were created for the Games to what Molotch refers as a more managed environment, where there is significant human intervention in the landscape and the animals and plants that live or grow in it.
Molotch said that while it may not sound like something that is ecologically destructive, it does have a profound ecological effect by making snow and placing snow in the environment.
