Environmental Data Acquisition, Elaboration and Integration: Preliminary Application to a Vulnerable Mountain Landscape and Village (Novalesa, NW Italy)

Abstract

Climate conditions play a crucial role in the survival of mountain communities, whose survival already critically depends on socioeconomic factors. In the case of montane areas that are prone to natural hazards, such as alpine slope failure and debris flows, climatic factors exert a major influence that should be considered when creating appropriate sustainable scenarios. In fact, it has been shown that climate change alters the availability of ecosystem services (ES), thus increasing the risks of declining soil fertility and reduced water availability, as well as the loss of grassland, potential shifts in regulatory services (e.g., protection from natural hazards), and cultural services. This study offers a preliminary discussion on a case study of a region in the Italian Alps that is experiencing increased extreme precipitation and erosion, and where an isolated and historically resilient community directly depends on a natural resource economy. Preliminary results show that economic factors have influenced past population trends of the Novalesa community in the Piemonte Region in northwest Italy. However, the increasing number of rock fall and debris flow events, which are triggered by meteo-climatic factors, may further influence the livelihood and wellbeing of this community, and of other similar communities around the world. Therefore, environmental monitoring and data analysis will be important means of detecting trends in landscape and climate change and choosing appropriate planning options. Such analysis, in turn, would ensure the survival of about 10% of the global population, and would also represent a possibility for future economic development in critical areas prone to poverty conditions. Keywords: Environmental data elaboration, Climate change, Mountain community, Italy, Resilience, Socioecological system, Hydrogeological risk