Melting Certainties: Ecology and Tourism in the Alps

Majestic peaks, skiers carving fresh powder, colourful meadows in the summer - this is how many imagine the Alps. Yet reality increasingly includes flooded villages, swathes of artificial snow, and debris fields where glaciers once stood. The mountain landscape is warming, and with it, Alpine life is changing. Droughts are longer, rainfall more intense. Landslides, rockfalls and debris flows threaten huts, roads and ski lifts.

For the people of the Alps, this calls for a rethinking. For the plants, it means adapting. But is that even possible, and if so, how? These are the questions pursued by ECH researchers Valentina Ausserladscheider and Stefan Dullinger. The economic sociologist Ausserladscheider investigates how those who make a living in the mountains respond to the financial risks of climate change, while the ecologist Dullinger studies if and how Alpine plants can adapt.