WATERWISE

Mountain headwaters are a key component of Alpine water resources providing natural- and socio-ecosystem services. Climate change, with the degradation of the cryosphere (glaciers, permafrost, snow), and human pressure are increasingly impacting mountain headwaters availability and quality  in Alpine systems. These alterations challenge Alpine communities and impact ecosystem services. The design of effective adaptation plans and management strategies remains a challenge for policy makers and  stakeholders of Alpine territories, due to data gaps, difficulties to develop hydrological models enabling testing management scenarios and insufficient knowledge transfer from science to policy and from policy to science. Thus, the WATERWISE project aims to provide solutions for communities and protected area managers to assess the vulnerability of headwater catchments and design sustainable management and adaptation strategies. 

The consortium partners include Université de Neuchâtel (Switzerland), Fondazione Edmund Mach (Italy), Réserves Naturelles de France (France), TETRAKTYS (France), Universität Passau (Germany), Hochschule Karlsruhe (Germany), Alpinarium Galtür Dokumentation GmbH (Austria), Geološki zavod Slovenije (Slovenia), EVTZ Geopark Karawanken m.b.H. (Austria), Legambiente Piemonte e Valle d’Aosta (Italy), Agenzia Regionale Protezione Ambiente Lombardia (Italy) and Centre de recherche sur l’environnement alpin (Switzerland). The team from the University of Passau is responsible for co-leading work package 2.

The project is funded within the EU Interreg Alpine Space program and addresses the priority of a climate resilient and green Alpine region, specifically to promote climate change adaptation, disaster risk prevention and resilience by taking into account ecosystem based approaches.