Aug. 19 (Bloomberg) -- The Swiss parliament approved a preliminary measure to redraw its border with Italy near the Matterhorn as melting glaciers caused by warmer temperatures marginally shifted a frontier fixed more than a century ago.


A two-nation commission agreed that a new border will be formed by ridges in the border region outside Zermatt as melting snow and ice and drainage are dividing the shifting terrain, the Swiss foreign ministry said today on its Web site.


Switzerland and Italy’s borders were first set in 1861 when Italy was still a monarchy. Posts marking the frontier are planted at points in the glaciers in Alps, where ice sheets are disappearing amid global warming at some of the fastest rates in the world. Their meltdown is making identifying the dividing line between Italy and Switzerland more difficult.


The Alps have suffered more than other regions with half of the region’s glacial terrain having vanished since the 1850s, according to the World Glacier Monitoring Service in Zurich. Almost 90 percent of Alpine glaciers are now smaller than 1 square kilometer (0.4 square mile).



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