RSA4 Report on the State of the Alps: Sustainable Tourism
A working group sustainable tourism was implemented by the Alpine Conference in 2012 with the aim to compile a report about sustainable tourism in the Alps. Prof. Bausch was nominated by the federal German ministry of environment as national expert. He contributed by several sections of the final publication to the report. His specific input was the typology, the SWOT analysis and the proposal for the indicative list of measures. Main topics of the report are:
– Definitions: the sustainability of tourism
– Sustainable tourism policies
– International policies for sustainable tourism development
– European Union policies for sustainable tourism development and other initiatives at EU level
– Legal framework, institutions and policies of the eight Alpine Countries
– The Alpine Convention Tourism Protocol on sustainable tourism
– The current responses of the Alpine Convention for sustainable tourism
– The situation of tourism in the Alpine area
– The Challenges of Alpine tourism regarding driving forces
– An initial typology: main types of Alpine tourism
– Strengths and weaknesses of main Alpine tourism types
– Driving forces leading to changes and adaptation needs of Alpine tourism
– Upcoming opportunities and threats linked to main Alpine tourism types
– Challenges to boost sustainable tourism in the Alps
– Tools for the sustainable development of Alpine Tourism
– Build cooperation projects and implementation
Nomination by:
German Federal Ministry of Environment, Nature Protection and Nuclear Safety
Duration:
December 2012 – February 2014
DEMOCHANGE – Pilot Region Garmisch-Partenkirchen
The region of Garmisch-Partenkirchen participated as a model region in the project DEMOCHANGE. This project was leaded by the Munich University of Applied Sciences and focussed on the impacts of demographic change to Alpine regions. The pilot region Garmisch-Partenkirchen suffers heavily because of a lack of young people taking a job in the service sector, especially tourism and health care. The Alpenforschungsinstitut analyses the situation in detail, developed key activities to attract the region to young people. It coordinated the meetings of regional stakeholders, reported to the international project management and implemented some pilot actions in coordination with regional stakeholders. For further Information on the project DEMOCHANGE visit www.demochange.org. A final publication was published by Springer.
Funding:
European Regional Development Funds (ERDF)
Program:
Alpine Space Program – European Territorial Cooperation
Employer:
Landkreis Garmisch-Partenkirchen
Duration:
Juni 2010 – November 2012
AdaptAlp Work Package 6 – Prevention and Risk Management
Besides supporting AdaptAlp during the project preparation and application phase and besides holding the role of the transnational Project Management, the Alpine Research Institute has been mandated by the Bavarian State Ministy for the Environment and Public Health (StMUG) to organize, carry out and document three workshops within Work Package 6 with experts from the whole alpine space. The three workshops deal with strategies concerning the handling of torrential hazards like floods or debris flows in due consideration of climate change.
The first workshop, taking place at the Bavarian State Ministry for the Environment and Public Health on November 5th and 6th 2009, will be an expert hearing, focusing on instruments of an integral risk management – the so called Risk Management Circle – consisting of the elements reconstruction, prevention, preparation and warning systems. In the second workshop, scheduled for spring 2010, the participating experts will exchange their experiences and solutions towards an integrated risk management shall be discussed based on a case study. In the third workshop, scheduled for summer 2010, “Risk Plan”, an IT-based tool for the assessment and prevention of natural hazards, shall be tested on a municipality.
Besides organizing and carrying out the three workshops, the Alpine Research Institute is in charge of documenting the workshops’ results and will publish three conference scripts in German as well as in English.
Here you can find further information on the project AdaptAlp.
AdaptAlp Work Package 6 – Prevention and Risk Management
Funding:;
European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)
Program:
European Territorial Cooperation 2007-2013 (ETC) – Alpine Space Program
Employer:
Bavarian State Ministry for the Environment and Public Health
Duration:
2007 – 2011
AdaptAlp – Adaptation to Climate Change in the Alpine Space
The transnational partnership has been suported by the Alpine Research Institute already within the project preparation- and application phase. Successful, as the approval in June 2008 shows. AdaptAlp was one of 12 approved projects out of 136 project proposals. In a first step of the application phase the Alpine Research Institute elaborated the so called Expression of Interest (EoI) on behalf of the Bavarian Stateministry of the Environment and Public Health. After a positive feedback of the Alpine Space Program Authorities the second step was the development and compilation of the real Application Form.
For the project runtime of 36 months the transnational partnership is supported by the Alpine Research Institute as transnational project management, which can be devided in four responsibilities:
– Coordination
– Administration
– Information and Communication
– Financial Controlling
For content related details on the project AdaptAlp, please go here.
European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)
Program:
European Territorial Cooperation 2007-2013 (ETC) – Alpine Space Program
Employer:
Bavarian Stateministry of the Environment and Public Health
Duration:
2007 – 2011
CLISP – Climate Change Adaptation by Spatial Planning in the Alpine Space
TheAlpine Research Institute has intensively supported the Federal Environment Agency in Vienna as well as the CLISP partnership in terms of preparing the project in both steps application procedure:
– Elaboration of the so-called Expression of Interest (EoI) for CLISP.
– Elaboration of the Appliction Form (AF)
The intense cooperation between the Alpine Research Institute, UBA and all other partners has been very successful: CLISP has not only been approved by the programme authorities, it has even been ranked as number 1 of all submitted projects. Of major importance for this success were the institute’s long-time experience in INTERREG programmes, especially in the INTERREG III B Alpine Space Programme, but also its broad engagement in the 1st Call of the new programme (e.g. AFI as official project partner in the ClimAlpTour project, external expert assigned by the Bavarian State Ministry of Environment, Public Health and Consumer Protection for the AdaptAlp project – both projects approved).
Furthermore, the transnational partnership of CLISP will be supported by the Alpine Research Institute as transnational project management for the project runtime of 36 months. This includes beneith the coordinating and administrative issues also the support in information and publicity activities and also the financial controlling.
For information about the projects‘ activities, outputs and results please go to the project’s website.
Funding:
European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)
Program:
Europeant Territorial Cooperation 2007-2013 (ETC) – Alpine Space Program
Employer:
Federal Environment Agency Austria (UBA)
Duration:
2007 – 20011
Network of municipalities: Alliance in the Alps
In close collaboration with CIPRA International and regional organizations the Alpine Research Institute initiated and developed the network of municipalities „Alliance in the Alps“. This network is aiming at implementing the Alpine Convention and sustainable development on local level, especially by cooperation, information and knowledge exchange between the involved municipalities.
In the meantime, the „Alliance in the Alps“ has grown from 27 pilot members to over 270 municipalities and regions in the seven Alpine countries. The German Alpine space alone counts 51 members, which spread from the Bodensee lake to the Berchtesgadener Land.
The Alpine Research Institute is responsible for supporting the German network municipalities and acts as interface to the international network level. In this frame, AFI coordinated the German activities in the international project DYNALP 2 (2006-2009, funded by the Swiss MAVA foundation for nature). The follow-up project dynAlp-climate is in Germany also supported by the Alpine Research Institute.
ALPSHEALTHCOMP – Strenghtening the Competitiveness of the Alps as a sustainable Health and Wellness Competence Destination
– defining, developing and managing a alpine quality standard of health and wellness services;
– strengthening the regional and transnational cooperation of players;
– developing and adapting offers to the market trends;
– making use of the typical alpine resources in a sustainable way;
– informing and consulting the publicity about the competences and services;
– introducing a job fair and standardized education and training in the field of health services.After the successfull project application the Alpine Research Institute supports the Lead Partner of the project (Autonomous Region of Bolzano) also as transnational project management in content related, technical and administrative issues.Funding:
European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)
Program:
INTERREG IIIB Alpine Space Program
Employer:
Autonomous Province of Bolzano
Duration:
2004 – 2008
ALPINET GHEEP – Alpine network for sheep and goat promotion for a sustainable territory development
The Alpine Research Institute supported Bavarian project partner „Werdenfelser Land Schafwollprodukte GbR (WLW)“ as national project management.
The project developed co-ordinated activities for the promotion and the strengthening of the sheep and goat sector in the Alpine area, in order to preserve its involvement in the sustainable development of the mountain communities. The project aimed to develop integrated transnational strategies and instruments for the promotion of the sector.
The expected long-term impact of the project has been: the amelioration of the social-economic conditions of the Alpine pastoral systems, an increase of competitiveness of the alpine sheep and goat products, the maintenance of cultural landscape and environment and the preservation of cultural heritage and natural resources.
Funding:
Europeand Regional Development Fund (ERDF)
Program:
INTERREG IIIB – Alpine Space Program
Employer:
Werdenfelser Land Schafwollprodukte GbR (WLW)
Duration:
2005 – 2008
ClimChAlp – Climate Change, Impacts and Adaptation Strategies in the Alpine Space
The aim of the project was to find ways for the communities in the Alpine Space to cope successfully with the impacts of climate change whilst ensuring sustainable development in the area.
The Alpine Research Institute and the transnational project partnership worked closely together, already during the application phase. So, the two steps of the project application – Expression of Interest (EoI) and Application Form (AF) – have been implemented successfully and the project has been finally approved.
Monitoring, Financial Controlling, Administration and Coordination of the project have been carried out also by the Alpine Research Institute for the whole project runtime, in the frame of its part as transnational project management.
Here you can find detailed information about contents, outputs and results.
Funding:
European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)
Program:
INTERREG IIIB Alpine Space Program
Employer:
Bavarian Stateministry of the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Protection
Duration:
2005 – 2008
ClimChAlp WP9 – Synthesis
Beneith the activities as transnational project management (WP2), management of WP7 and the implementation of a model region study in WP7, the Alpine Research Institute has been also assigned by the Bavarian State Ministry of the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Protection to elaborate a common strategic paper as well as an extended scientific final report and to organize and moderate the international final conference.
Funding:
European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)
Program:
INTERREG IIIB Alpine Space Program
Employer:
Bavarian State Ministry of the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Protection
Duration:
2007 – 2008
ALPCITY – Local endogenous development and urban generation of small alpine towns
AlpCity focuses on local development and urban regeneration of small alpine towns. Many small alpine and mountain towns/villages have undergone processes of socio-economic decline, have inadequate public/private services, quality of life and built environment, a (mainly aged) population with limited access to culture and decision-making/participation. These are unsustainable islands of disparity in a generally affluent part of Europe, whose existence impinges the creation of a polycentric urban system and a sustainable urban-rural relationship, often in fragile natural environments at the heart of the Alps. AlpCity aims at promoting common understanding, cultural/political change, through a large trans-national partnership and different groups of activities, namely: networking and exchange to create common knowledge and strategies, collection of local best practices, innovative project-cases by single local authorities, dissemination/communication, guidelines/future scenarios.
The Alpine Research Institute supports the Bavarian project partner Grainau as external expert within the transnational working groups, that means implementation of presentations and analysis in the field of tourism.
Funding:
European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)
Program:
INTERREG IIIB Alpine Space Program
Employer:
Community Grainau
Duration:
2004 – 2007
River Basin Agenda Alpine Space
The risk potential in river basins has risen sharply throughout Europe due to the enormous pressures of utilization in the narrow valleys. In order to improve safety for the valley populations, increased, sustained inter-regional and transnational commitment is required. The Alpine River Basin Agenda thereby makes innovative contributions in 10 selected river basins: – from working focused on the riverbed to planning and working in the whole river basin; – from end of pipe measures in the riverbed to the reduction of damage potential in the risk zones; – from sectoral planning to integrated River Basin Management; – new forms of cooperation: flood protection – spatial development; – new dynamic planning methodology (first implementation phases during planning); – integrated planning: involve stakeholders at an early stage; – new communication strategies to promote the bottom up approach to reach more acceptance. The River Basin Agenda aims to transfer innovative methods experimented on a small scale to larger areas.
The Alpine Research Institute does the transnational project management for this project. That means administrative, content related and technical monitoring and controlling.
Funding:
European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)
Program:
INTERREG III B Alpine Space Program
Employer:
Bavarian Stateministry of the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Protection
Duration:
2003 – 2006
DYNALP – Valorisation of natural und cultural heritage for marketing and tourism in the Alpine Space – dynamic rural alpine space
DYNALP serves the implementation of the Alpine Convention. 52 communities from the entire Alpine Space form an operational network to provide a dynamic stimulus for the rural Alpine Space. The project structure builds on an extension of the Alliance in the Alps, which so far did not have a specifically implementation-oriented character.
Objectives:
1. Implementation of projects for the protocols “tourism”, “environmental protection and landscape management”, “mountain farming”, “sustainable development and regional planning”.
2. Visualising possibilities and developing positions with regards to European regional policies
3. Increasing competence for sustainable development in small municipalities and regions.
The Alpine Research Institute is implementing the content related and administrative project management (national) on behalf of the community Oberstaufen.
Funding:
European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)
Program:
INTERREG IIIB Alpine Space Program
Employer:
Community of Oberstaufen
Duration:
2003 – 2006
FloodScan
In close collaboration with the Bavarian State Office for Water Management the Alpine Reasearch Institute prepared this demonstration project in the frame of the european support program LIFE. The application form was ranked in the entire Alpine Space as one of the top ten by the European Commission.
The project FloodScan aims to improve and to simplify two-dimensional flood simulation for the identification of flood plains and for the elaboration of flood hazard maps.
Main tasks of the project are:
– Improvement of preparation and thinning of digital terrain models resulting from laser scanning;
– Implementation of an efficient technique for the classification of land cover;
– Elaboration of hydraulic two-dimensional models for the identification of flood plains and creation of flood hazard maps
– Improvement of the information for the affected population about flood risks for example internet information system. To ensure transferability of the project results, the works will be executed in different river basins and at different types of rivers.
Funding:
European Commission
Program:
LIFE
Employer:
Bavarian State Office for Water Management
Duration:
2005
Alpine Space Prospective Study
Within this project the Alpine Research Institute elaborated a transnational project survey for the preparation of the INTERREG IV Alpine Space Program and identified strategic projects for the current program.
Employer:
INTERREG IIIB Alpine Space Program – Administrative Authority, Salzburg
Duration:
2004 – 2005
Opportunities for transnational and cross-border cooperation in the Caucasus – Transferability of the Alpine Convention to the Caucasus
The Alpine Convention is a shining example to be followed in different world’s mountain regions. But the transferability of this great model case requires an independant procedure from model regions and comparable modules at the same time. Thus, structural conditions of the Caucasus and possibilities for a comparable process have been analyzed. The final report of the joint project with the Russion Acadamy of Science is available in German, English and Russian.
Employer:
Russian Academy of Science
Duration:
1999 – 2002
Program document INTERREG IIIB Alpine Space
The Alpine Space is one of eleven transnational cooperation territories within the frame of INTERREG IIIB. The Alpine Research Institute is elaborating the German part of the program document as well as the complement on behalf of the German partners. In the meanwhile the program has been confirmed and signed by Commissioner Barnier. Further information about the program is available here.
Program:
INTERREG III B Alpine Space Program
Employer:
Bavarian Stateministry of the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Protection; German Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Housing
Duration:
1999 – 2001