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A Mountain Research Initiative survey is looking for insights into the major challenges for mountain governance, and what is being done to foster sustainability in the world’s mountains. The survey closes 15 April 2019.
The MRI invites the mountain research community to provide valuable insights into governance in mountain environments by participating in a short online survey. Through this survey, we hope to gain a deeper understanding of the major challenges for governance, and what is being done to foster sustainability in the world’s mountains. We are particularly interested in insights from in-depth case studies that have paid attention to governance as part of the data collection process.
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An Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) study has showed that until now, scientists have been substantially underestimating how quickly gases are exchanged between mountain streams and the atmosphere. Based on research in the Swiss cantons of Vaud and Valais, an EPFL laboratory has shed new light on the role of mountain streams in emitting greenhouse gases.
An EPFL study has prompted scientists to rethink a standard approach used to calculate the velocity of gas exchange between mountain streams and the atmosphere. Research conducted in streams in Vaud and Valais indicate that equations used to predict gas exchange based on data from lowland streams undershoots the actual gas exchange velocity in mountain streams on average by a factor of 100.
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Biodiversity has been shown to increase the resilience of ecosystems to global change. But what fosters the resilience of social-ecological systems? MRI Principal Investigator Adrienne Grêt-Regamey is lead author of a new paper published in Nature Sustainability focusing on the importance of actors' diversity in relation to this question.
Mountains, despite their size and apparent strength, are fragile landscapes, shaped by interactions between humans and nature. However, socio-economic and climate changes are influencing the way these mountain social-ecological systems function, and the current climate debate shows how difficult it is to modify these drivers of change. So what can be done to make mountain landscapes more robust – and enable them to continue providing vital ecosystem services – in the face of global change? A new paper published in Nature Sustainability explores precisely this question.
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Experts nominated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) met in Russia 4-8 March 2019 to further develop the Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (SROCC). As a lead author of the High Mountains chapter, MRI Executive Director Carolina Adler was among their number.
The (SROCC) is one of three special reports that the IPCC, the leading body for assessing the science related to climate change, will be releasing over the next year. The report will contain a careful assessment of how the ocean and cryosphere – the areas of the planet in which water is found in its solid state as ice or snow – will be affected by climate change. It will assess what these changes might mean for people around the world and how these changes may challenge a sustainable and equitable future.
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The Hindu Kush Himalaya Assessment finds that even if carbon emissions are dramatically cut and global warming is limited to 1.5 degrees, over a third of glaciers in the Hindu Kush Himalaya region will have vanished by 2100. If emissions are not cut, this loss could increase to two-thirds – with serious consequences for the billions who rely on their water.
A comprehensive new study of the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region finds that even meeting the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees by the end of the century would lead to a 2.1 degree spike in temperatures in the Himalaya – resulting in the melting of one-third of the region’s glaciers. These glaciers are a critical water source to some 250 million mountain dwellers, and 1.65 billion others living in the river valleys below.
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A new book by Fiona Pia, architect and doctor of science EPFL, undertakes a focused analysis of various representative models of high-altitude towns and mobility systems in order to develop tools with which to design tailored densification strategies. ABSTRACT
Regional planning, especially in the Alps, is high on the current news agenda in Switzerland. The skiing boom has driven massive urbanisation in mountain areas, primarily in locations at altitudes of 1400m or higher. For several decades this process has occurred with little to no planning, resulting in large inhabited areas comprising sparsely aggregated single-family chalets. The low density of this development model producing an urban sprawl, inevitably dependent on car usage. Second homes, which are an important economic driver in the mountains, are the crux of the issue here, and are regarded as the main culprit responsible for this fragmented and profligate use of land.
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The International Association for Cryospheric Sciences is soliciting nominations for its Early Career Scientist Award. The deadline for nominations is 1 March 2019. The International Association for Cryospheric Sciences (IACS) Early Career Scientist (ECS) Award is a cash prize of €1000 that is awarded to two early career scientists who have published the best scientific papers on a cryospheric subject as assessed by an independent evaluation committee.
