Mountain Resilience

In times of climate change and disruptive social and economic change, the resilience of mountain social-ecological systems requires both the flexibility to respond to changes (adaptive capacity) as well as the ability to prepare for changes (innovative capacity). This Working Group aims to collect existing knowledge and build new capacity in mountain resilience, working toward a dynamic assessment of the evolving state of mountain social-ecological system resilience to interconnected environmental changes. 

Key Working Group Details

This Working Group was created in October 2019 and is in its first phase (2020-2021). 

 Working Group Co-Leads

  • Tobias Luthe, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, Switzerland; The Oslo School of Architecture and Design, Norway; MonViso Institute, Italy | Visit Webpage
  • Romano Wyss, Wyss Conseil scientifique and external lecturer at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, Switzerland | Visit Webpage

Members

  • Eduardo Erazo Acosta, Universidad de Nariño, Colombia
  • Carolina Adler, Mountain Research Initiative, Switzerland
  • Martha E. Apple, University of Montana, USA
  • Marianna Elmi, Alpine Convention, Austria 
  • Haley Fitzpatrick, Oslo School of Architecture and Design, Norway
  • Jamila Haider, Stockholm Resilience Center, Sweden
  • Angelo Imperiale, University of Groningen, The Netherlands
  • Carlotta Manzoni, ROELMI HPC, Circular Economy Club, UNIMONT, Italy
  • Valérie Paumier, Résilience Montagne, France
  • Lydia Pedoth, EURAC, Italy
  • Eva Posch, University of Innsbruck, Austria
  • Olimjon Saidamamatov, Urgench State University, Uzbekistan
  • Stefan Schneiderbauer, EURAC, Italy
  • Thomas Thaler, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Austria
  • Frank Vanclay, University of Groningen, The Netherlands

Outputs and Achievements to Date

Planned Activities

As part of an ETH Zurich DRRS MOOC series, and building on the adaptive waves and granularities of waves concepts, a “community science” data project idea has emerged. The idea is to let future MOOC participants collect data on resilience-related topics from all corners of the world. The Working Group plans to open the floor to discuss a data collection matrix that could eventually build an exciting database and a more extensive global overview, potentially leading to good research material for publication. Stay tuned for more soon!

Activities and Outputs for 2021-2022 

Related Projects

MRI News

Updates From the MRI Working Groups (24 February 2021)
Despite the challenges of 2020, and 2021 so far, the five MRI Working Groups have exciting updates to report! Read more here.

Upcoming Event: Design Thinking and Joint Paper Writing Workshop in the Italian Piedmont
As a follow-up step to the Innsbruck IMC workshops, this working group organizes a gathering to jointly prototype the “systemic innovation seeds” as the envisioned flexible toolset of the Mountain Resilience Report to come. As well, the group will work on the IPCC AR6 review paper. Workshop postponed from April 2020, new dates will be confirmed soon. Venue: MonViso Institute in the community of Ostana, Po Valley, near Turin. Read more here.

Mountain Resilience Working Group: Developing Adaptive and Innovative Capacities (4 February 2020)

This new working group, led by Tobias Luthe (ETHZ / Monviso Institute, Switzerland) and co-lead by Romano Wyss, will collect existing knowledge and build new capacity in mountain resilience, working toward a dynamic assessment of the evolving state of mountain social-ecological system resilience to interconnected environmental changes. Read more here.

Towards a Mountain Resilience Report: Regenerating Mountain Systems Through Systemic Innovation (28 October 2019)

Bringing together leading scholars from academia and practice, this MRI-funded post-IMC synthesis workshop took place on 13 September 2019 and laid the foundations for the design and development of a resilience report for mountain regions. The specific resilience angle of this workshop was on understanding and incubating innovative capacities to create and implement effective, real-world solutions and build regenerative mountain systems. Read more here.

How to Join

As community-led activities, these Working Groups are open to anyone from the MRI network to participate and contribute to the Working Group’s work plan. Early career researchers (typically up to 5 years after attaining a postgraduate degree), women, and researchers and practitioners from developing countries and less represented mountain regions are particularly encouraged to join and participate. Please contact the Working Group leads to seek information to join:

  • Tobias Luthe, ETHZ / AHO / MonViso Institute, Switzerland (co-lead)
  • Romano Wyss, EPFL / Wyss Conseil Scientifique, Switzerland (co-lead)