Climate Change, Impacts and adaptation strategies in the Alpine Space
General aims
The main objective of the project INTERREG III B – Alpine Space named “Climate Change, Impacts and adaptation strategies in the Alpine Space – ClimChAlp” was to develop transnational strategies for the prevention of the climate change risk in the Alps and adaptation. The project contributed to the sustainable development of the Alps in the fields of territorial planning and natural hazards, and in their socio-economic aspects. The project scientific activities were organized in four thematic areas:
- a comparison, assessment and enhancement of present monitoring techniques;
- prediction and assessment of potential impacts of climate change on spatial development and key economic sectors (e.g. tourism, mobility, agriculture, forestry, settlements, industries);
- an in-depth analysis of current management tools and practices of the Alpine countries dealing with natural hazards;
- a recapitulating synthesis of the results attained in order to get a better understanding of the current and future impacts of climate change to the Alps.
CMCC Role
The CMCC has stipulated with the Italian Ministry of the Environment and Territory (MATTM), in its position of official partner of ClimChAlp, an agreement from December 2006 till the end of the project, for the development of the MATTM technical and scientific activities.
The CMCC, trough MATTM, has participated to all the WP of the project with its CIP and IAFENT division, coordinating both WP4 and WP5.
Expected results
- The CMCC study on climate change impact and sensitivity scenarios for the functions of the alpine ecosystems are presented in chapter 3 of the final WP5 report “Climate change assesment report”. Chapter 4 of the same report presents the results of the literature review on Climate Change in the Alpine space, highlighting the research gaps.
- The CMCC study on the economical impacts of Climate Change for the Italian Alps is presented in Chapter 6 and 9 of the final WP7 report “Impacts of Climate Change on Spatial Development and Economy – Synthesis & Model Region Studies”.
- The final results of the whole project are presented as a Policy Brief entitled: “Climate Change, Impacts and Adaptation Strategies in the Alpine Space”.
- All the detailed scientific reports of each work-packages are available on the project web site.
Activity
Within WP5 “Climate Change and Resulting Natural Hazards”, the CMCC particularly worked on the:
- construction of climate change impact and sensitivity scenarios for the functions of the alpine ecosystems as primary productivity, hydrological balance, biodiversity, soil fertility, greenhouse gas balance. Scenarios of future land-use change in the alpine environment in relation to European Community policies were also prepared, and a case study for the area of Tesino was developed.
- evaluation of the literature on passed and current climate change issues in the Alpine space, and preparation of data sets on observations and models on climate scenarios.
Within WP 7 “Impacts of Climate Change on Spatial Development and Economy”, the CMCC has produced an:
- analysis on agriculture and turism which presents an updated survey of the existing literature on these issues, enriched with comparisons with similar situations in different countries and adaptation concerns, and develops, in the case of tourism flows, a specific simulation exercise based on a downscaling procedure at the Italian level and on the results provided by a world tourism model.
Partners
- StMUGV - Bavarian State Ministry of the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Protection
- AFI - Alpenforschungsinstitut GmbH
- BMLFUW - Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management
- UBA - National Office for the Environment
- Regional Office of Carinthia for the protection of the water economy
- Regional Office of Niederösterreich for Water economy and Territorial development
- Regional Office of Tyrol for Water Economy
- ONERC - Ministry for Ecology and sustainable development
- Regional Office of Rhone Alp for Environment and Energy
- Claude Bernard University of Lyon 1
- BfG - Federal Office for Water
- StMWIVT - Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs, Infrastructures, Transport and Technology
- LfU - Bavarian Office for the Environment
- MATTM - Ministero dell'Ambiente e della tutela del territorio e del mare
- Regione Autonoma Friuli Venezia Giulia - Direzione Centrale Relazioni internazionali e comunitarie
- Regione Autonoma Valle d'Aosta - Assessorato Territorio Ambiente e Opere pubbliche, Direzione Ambiente
- Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano - Süd Tirol - Dipart. 30
- ARPA - Agenzia Regionale per la Protezione Ambientale del Piemonte, Centro regionale per la Ricerca Geologica e territoriale
- AWNL - Ministry of Environmental Affaire, Land Use Planning, Agriculture and Forestry
- UIRS - Urban Planning Institute of the Republic of Slovenia GeoZS - Geological Survey
- BAFU - Federal Office for Environment
- SLF - Swiss Federal Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research - Davos