Regional Mountain Conference

The Alpine region faces numerous challenges due to climate change, including extreme weather events leading to complex and intersectoral impacts, which often surpass the adaptive capacity of current risk management systems. The administratively, ecologically and socio-culturally heterogeneous Alpine region, with its multiple exposed elements and societal vulnerabilities, hinders the application of standardized solutions. In this context, the integration of scientific knowledge and local expertise can make a significant contribution in developing tailored, action-oriented risk mitigation options.

The Interreg Alpine Space Project X-RISK-CC addressed the growing challenges of climate-related risks in the Alpine region by bridging science, practice and policy in an integrated way.

In this presentation, we aim to provide insights into how the project’s framework and its strong science-policy-practice nexus shaped the project’s outputs, outcomes and impacts. We will address the benefits of co-designing the project with practitioners and describe how the community-based approach, involving participatory sessions in seven pilot areas, in combination with top-down policy gap analyses led to the development of tailored actions for improving local risk management in the context of climate change and to the elaboration of transnational action proposals.

Drawing on practical experiences from X-RISK-CC pilot areas in South Tyrol (Italy), we will reflect on the reciprocal relationship between these two strands, with a particular focus on the interplay between practice and science. We will present specific experiences from the various phases and areas of focus of stakeholder involvement, discuss the elaboration of the action plans and examine how these plans can contribute to improving administrative actions and instruments, as well as supporting climate adaptation planning in risk management. Finally, we will shed light on the broader impacts of stakeholder engagement in risk management.