Help shape climate change adaptations in Valle dei Laghi and the wider Trentino-Alto Adige region by providing your expertise via this IMPETUS survey.
Residents and experts working in the Valle dei Laghi and wider Trentino-Alto Adige region have the opportunity to contribute to a major project that is testing and creating solutions to help the valley adapt to the impacts of climate change.
The GEO Mountains General Inventory is a free online resource that seeks to provide comprehensive metadata related to open datasets and data portals that may be useful in the context of mountainous applications.
Discovering potentially useful mountain datasets and other resources is often a time-consuming and frustrating task that requires speculative web searches or trawling through the vast array of data portals that have proliferated. Alternatively, institutional or legacy knowledge may have to be relied upon. These difficulties take researchers, practitioners, and policy-makers away from their core tasks, and mean that the most suitable and/or latest datasets for a given application may not be consistently used.
Over the past few weeks, GEO Mountains has hosted the inaugural meetings of each of its 11 Task Groups. Collectively, the Task Groups span the full breadth of the GEO Mountains Implementation Plan – from helping contribute to our inventories and supporting nascent systematic mountain monitoring initiatives to developing training and capacity development resources (including “Knowledge Packages”) that seek to deliver the latest science into policy circles effectively.
Attendance across the series of meetings was solid, but what really stood out was the exceptional degree of engagement with the challenges at hand exhibited by the participants. We are truly fortunate to be able to count such individuals and the institutions that support them amongst our network! Following each meeting, a video recording and brief written summary were circulated all volunteers, including those who were unable to attend on this occasion.
The team from the University of Aberdeen’s School of Geosciences used satellite imaging to study the movements of two avalanche events, in 2016 and 2021, that happened in the same Himalayan valley. The most severe of these, which struck a high-mountain township in India’s Chamoli district on February 7 last year, caused a flash flood that killed more than 200 people and destroyed key infrastructure.
This request for proposals invites concept papers to explore innovative approaches and thinking to help relevant organizations speed their transition to climate-resilient, sustainable economic growth through improved policy and practice. The anticipated outcome of the grant activities is to stimulate the innovative use of geospatial tools and information to translate science into decision support systems and practice that addresses the development challenges posed by climate stresses and their impact in the HKH region.
Deadline 25 March 2022
The Group on Earth Observations’ Global Network for Information and Observations in Mountain Environments (GEO Mountains) has had a busy and productive year.
Our Members/Participants have collaborated effectively with the staff of the GEO Mountains Secretariat to undertake a rich programme of inventory development, fundamental research, and communication and dissemination activities.
GEO Week 2021 was held 22-26 November, and highlighted the many activities of the GEO work programme that address this year's major milestones linked to global policy agendas, such as the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
On Thursday 25 November, GEO Week 2021 focused on the use of Earth observations data to bridge the digital divide. As a part of this, GEO members presented examples of projects and initiatives being undertaken worldwide in order to facilitate full and open access to Earth observation data, thereby promoting policy development and supporting informed decision-making. Among the initiatives participating was GEO Mountains, represented by James Thornton, GEO Mountains Scientific Project Officer, and Carolina Adler, Executive Director of the Mountain Research Initiative and GEO Mountains Co-Lead.
Taking place as part of the COP26 Geneva Cryosphere Hub on 3 November, the focus of this session was on the potential offered by Earth Observation (EO) technology to observe, monitor, and assess the Earth’s Cryosphere.
The event kicked off with GEO Mountains Scientific Project Officer Dr. James Thornton presenting the work GEO Mountains is undertaking to enhance the discoverability and accessibility of existing mountain data and information – both in situ and remotely sensed – across global mountain regions. He also introduced the concept of Essential Mountain Climate Variables (EMCVs) to support the monitoring and understanding of key climate change-related mountain processes.
The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP26, is the 26th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It will take place in Glasgow, Scotland, from 31 October to 12 November 2021, under the presidency of the United Kingdom.
While the Blue Zone at the Scottish Event Campus (SEC) will host the official negotiations and side events restricted to country delegates and admitted observers, a Green Zone has been set up at the Glasgow Science Centre, which will be open to the public via a ticketing system.
The EU-wide IMPETUS project aims to turn climate commitments into tangible, urgent actions to protect communities and the planet. As a project partner, GEO Mountains is working alongside Eurac Research on the 'Mountainous' test region.
The impacts of climate change are being felt here and now. From floods in Germany to wildfires in Greece and Turkey; water shortages in Northern Europe and even heatwaves in Siberia. Intensifying weather events threaten our way of life, with severe impacts on people’s health, livelihoods, and assets.
