Abstract ID: 3.13494 | Accepted as Talk | Talk | TBA | TBA

The Alps need agency, independent of profit-driven growth, to achieve development that meets present needs without jeopardising future generations. Moving beyond an anthropocentric worldview involves actively listening to and empowering more-than-humans. Various extraction processes – water exploitation, ski tourism, mineral extraction, and agriculture – treat land as a passive container, ignoring “nature’s” role in urbanisation, exacerbating environmental risks and socio-ecological vulnerabilities, especially in fragile territories like the Alps. This highlights the pressing need for new readings and representations of the Alps metamorphosis that expose evolving conditions and inspire actions for justice, revolutionary care, and respons-ability.

We propose a Thick Mapping approach to address the triple planetary crisis in Alpine territories. Rooted in digital humanities and geospatial turn, thick mapping fosters public participation and collective knowledge production, mitigates injustices, and co-produces spaces. It reveals latent relationships in landscapes and cities, viewing maps as constructors of reality. Inspired by Haraway’s notion of ‘staying with the trouble,’ this study examines how mapping biophysical and sociocultural layers reveals hidden potentials and underrepresented human and more-than-human voices. This approach enables the development of place-based scenarios facilitating dialogues between decision-makers, citizens, and planners, promoting sustainable strategies. Thickness in mapping reflects care and respons-ability expressed through radical listening, inclusive relationship-building, knowledge exchange, and the co-production of new imaginaries.

We share preliminary findings in three contexts: (1) learning environments with master’s students on the Austrian urban landscape (2024–2025), (2) a European open-source brownfield mapping (2024–2026), and (3) a thick mapping study of extractive areas in the Alps (2025). These explorations focus on vulnerable urban landscapes, leveraging thick mapping to investigate transitioning territories and inspire critical, alternative planning approaches.

In conclusion, this contribution discusses and reflects on the agency of thick mapping in Alpine research design processes, counterbalancing socio-ecological injustices. By synthesising different disciplines in critical maps, we seek to broaden our approach and reveal new scenarios and perspectives for the future of Alpine regions.