Abstract
This paper presents the Juste-Neige system for predicting the snow height on the ski runs of a resort using an agent-based simulation software. The aim of Juste-Neige is to facilitate snow cover management in order to i) reduce the production cost of artificial snow and to improve the profit margin for the companies managing the ski resorts; and ii) to reduce the water and energy consumption, and thus to reduce the environmental impact, by producing only the snow needed for a good skiing experience. The software provides maps with the predicted snow heights for the predicted days. On these maps, the areas most exposed to snow erosion are highlighted. The software proceeds in three steps: i) interpolation of snow height measurements with a neural network; ii) local meteorological forecasts for every ski resort; iii) simulation of the impact caused by skiers using a multi-agent system. The software has been evaluated in the ski resort of Verbier in Switzerland and provides predictions that are useful for the management of the ski runs. This paper presents the software in general and the agent-based simulation in particular.