Slow Water

Mountainous countries like Switzerland are overproportionally affected by climate change, with temperature rise and increasing weather extremes such as heat waves, droughts, and torrential rainfalls already being more pronounced than elsewhere. Under these circumstances, water supply is becoming a major challenge for agriculture, be it for crop production or animal husbandry. In addition, water in mountain communities becomes increasingly scarce during summer months. This is where the Swiss Federal Office of Agriculture FOAG-funded "Slow Water" project comes in: In 3 hydrologically and geographically distinct pilot regions of Switzerland, farm-specific, catchment-related water retention strategies are developed together with municipalities and farmers in a co-creative process, and their impacts on increased water availability and decreased streamflow extremes assessed. The Slow Water project consortium consists of the Hydrogeology and the Global and Regional Land-Use Change groups of University of Basel, the regional authorities of the Cantons of Basel-Landschaft and Luzern, municipalities, farming associations and the private sector.