Private

FS 3.231

Holistic Resilience

Details

Full Title
FS 3.231: Holistic Resilience of Mountain Systems
Scheduled
TBA
Location
TBA
Convener
Tobias Luthe
Co-Conveners
Romano Wyss, Sylwia Orczykowska,
Assigned to Synthesis Workshop
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Thematic Focus
Ecosystems, Hazards, Multi-scale Modeling, Policy, Socio-Ecology
Keywords
adaptive resilience, transformative resilience, inner resilience, social-ecological, synergistic

Description

Resilience is a holistic concept with high explanatory and functional value for enacting various system types, such as mountain systems. Despite its rich history and wide contemporary usage, resilience is often reduced to its adaptation component, the ability of infrastructure, forests or settlements to react to and recover from shocks, such as extreme events. The innovative and transformative capacities are underrepresented resilience features. Mountain social-ecological systems (SES), where non-human nature, human nature, and built infrastructure co-exist, are complex systems with emergent, non-linear properties where a holistic resilience lens helps to navigate, enact and partly steer such systems toward desirable futures. How can we understand resilience as a holistic concept, as an assessment tool, as a navigation help that supports us in dealing with uncertainty, in reframing the complexity inherent in mountain SES? In our (academic) cultures we tend to “analyze that system there”, without including a self-reflexive perspective on us as being part of “those systems”. We humans are part of nature, being living systems, and inner resilience needs to be part of a holistic understanding and application of resilience as well to better navigate toward desirable mountain futures. This focus session provides space to present, discuss and synthesize research, design and practice of resilience work from various angles – adaptive, transformative, inner – that incorporate a holistic approach to resilience.

Submitted Abstracts

ID: 3.9630

The correlation between causes and burning in agricultural area in Thai highland

Ratana Keawsen

Abstract/Description

One of the major problems in the Thai highland is burning in both agricultural and forest areas, which causes of PM2.5. In the case of burning in agricultural areas in 2024, the Highland Research and Development Institute (Public Organization); HRDI has studied the relationship between burn scar in 10 communities (villages) in Mae Chaem District, Chiang Mai Province, the North of Thailand. Linear regression analysis indicated that burned areas were positively correlated with four factors were examined: steeper slopes, production of upland rice and low land rice, age of the household head and family size. Sustained community engagement and awareness initiatives are essential for mitigating burning activities. Economically feasible sustainable farming alternatives require strong market demand and dependable water supplies. We should establish community-oriented pilot projects to promote wider adoption and replication. Additionally, providing timely guidance on regulated burning practices and necessary permits during appropriate seasons can help reduce PM2.5 levels. The findings highlight the significance of a participatory approach that combines scientific data with community knowledge to effectively tackle PM 2.5 challenges in Mae Chaem and other affected regions.

ID: 3.13489

The explanatory and exploratory potential of resilience for mountain systems

Tobias Luthe

Abstract/Description

Mountain communities act as early-warning “antennas” for environmental, social, and economic change, as they experience shifts—such as climate variability, demographic transitions, and resource pressures—earlier and more intensely than many other regions. Their heightened sensitivity not only highlights vulnerabilities but also provides unique opportunities to explore transformative resilience strategies that extend beyond the traditional focus on adaptation. By framing mountain areas as “living systems labs,” we can investigate how innovative practices, policies, and self-reflexive processes can steer these complex social-ecological systems (SES) toward more desirable futures. Drawing on case studies from alpine regions, we illustrate how local communities navigate acute climate extremes, respond to evolving land-use demands, and adapt to shifting socio-economic conditions. While adaptive measures—such as enhancing infrastructure and emergency planning—are crucial, our approach emphasizes transformative and inner dimensions of resilience. Transformative resilience involves reimagining development pathways, restructuring resource governance, and embracing new livelihood opportunities, while inner resilience addresses the self-reflexive and emotional capacities of individuals and groups to cope with and shape change. A key element of our research is the alpine-urban relational sphere, where upstream-downstream interdependencies foster joint opportunities for experimentation and knowledge co-creation. Collaborations among mountain inhabitants, urban stakeholders, policymakers, and researchers enable innovative responses to shared challenges, such as changing water availability, tourism pressures, and socio-economic shifts. We examine how partnerships across geographical and disciplinary boundaries can generate fresh insights and accelerate transformative action. By integrating adaptive, transformative, and inner resilience, we highlight how mountain communities, researchers, and practitioners can jointly address the complexity and uncertainty characteristic of these environments. Ultimately, our presentation underscores the potential for mountain regions not only to signal imminent global changes but also to serve as pioneering sites for fostering a comprehensive vision of resilience—one that balances immediate recovery with long-term transformation and personal as well as collective well-being.

ID: 3.13860

The resilient farmer, or spacetime entanglement

Jamila Haider
Präa-Sepp, JR

Abstract/Description

We are a sustainability researcher and a mountain farmer, Präa Sepp, who have come together through a project on farming resilience in Alpine areas in Austria. We developed a surprising friendship given our divergent worldviews on climate change and nature conservation (for example), and decided to write a book about our experience of navigating these differences in generative ways. In the presentation we focus on a chapter of our upcoming book “Mountain Spacetime” which focuses on our shift from representational to performative research. Key capacities of Sepp’s farming resilience can be represented as: creativity in the face of crisis, the importance of freedom and autonomy to maintain response-ability in the face of uncertainty, and the principles of sufficiency and circularity underlying farming practices. While these practices are singular, set in their specific context, they are also generalizable to some extent. Indeed, it is tempting to impart insights of farming resilience that could scale out to other farmers, or up to influence policy. But in our work together, Sepp and I would like to challenge what it means to enact, and to embody, meaningful change. Within ourselves, with each other, and the world of which we are. Through our research together I have seen how Sepp creates space to continuously deal with surprise and uncertainty. It’s not what he does, but how he does it. It’s how he becomes. It’s about thinking differently, doing differently, being differently. That opening ourselves up to other beings, humans and non-humans, heightens our feelings, enabling a perception of the world as it truly is: as entangled movement. We’re all capable of this way of being, but it requires openness to the new, and courage to let go. This is how Sepp farms. It’s how he becomes. We draw on work from feminist new materialist scholars to extend the notion of resilience as represented capacities, into the realm of entangled co-becoming, where researcher and farmer become part of the world, the processes, they seek to understand and influence.

ID: 3.14120

Using the adaptive waves model to explore plural understandings of resilience across mountain communities

Tobias Luthe
Fitzpatrick, Haley

Abstract/Description

Mountain regions face increasingly complex challenges, including urban-to-rural migration influenced by COVID-19, extreme climate effects, and economic vulnerabilities. Despite clear warning signs in alpine landscapes, systemic transformation is often hindered by a reluctance to engage with uncertainty and complexity. Pluralism—the ability to integrate diverse ways of knowing and being across cultures, disciplines, and worldviews—is increasingly recognized as essential for navigating such complexity. Building on recent doctoral research in systemic design (Fitzpatrick, 2025), this study explores how plural understandings of resilience in mountain communities can inform pathways toward regenerative futures. Building on the adaptive waves model (Luthe & Wyss, 2025), diverse understandings of resilience are explored through situated and emergent place-based transdisciplinary processes across three international mountain communities: Ostana (Italy), Hemsedal (Norway), and Mammoth Lakes (California). Using a research-through-design approach that integrates science, design, and embodied practices, we examined how the adaptive waves model can be applied beyond its conceptual framing to lived experiences. Plural methods included visual mapping, interactive booklets, outdoor mind-body movement exercises, inner resilience practices, theater performances, and role-play. Additionally, we developed “micro-waves” to illustrate the varied scales of resilience phases within mountain communities, revealing differences across individuals and community subgroups (Figure 1). The findings underscore the importance of facilitating awareness of how worldviews and cultural perspectives shape resilience. This work contributes to advancing methodological pluralism in resilience research, advocating for approaches that embrace diverse epistemologies and lived experiences. We suggest that future research could refine participatory and experiential methodologies to explore resilience across different cultural and ecological contexts. Furthermore, integrating these insights into policy and community decision-making could support more locally relevant, culturally responsive resilience strategies, fostering transformative pathways for mountain communities.

ID: 3.14121

Alpine Resilience Multisensory Lab

Sylwia Orczykowska
Luthe, Tobias

Abstract/Description

In this transdisciplinary embodied-artistic lab format, we explore the interplay between social-ecological resilience and inner resilience, focusing on microseasonal variability, adaptive daily rhythms, and urban-alpine transitions. By fostering a multisensory and artistic approach, we offer a space where participants examine environmental, cognitive, and physiological resilience in shifting between diverse mountain scapes – landscapes, micro seasons, and micro day patterns.

The Alpine Resilience Multisensory Lab will explore how the mountain socio-cultural ecological scape, an “environmental antenna,” shapes perceptual, cognitive, and behavioral flexibility, nurturing adaptive intelligence to address global complexities and catalyse social-cultural adaptation to environmental shifts.

Exploring urban-alpine lifestyle transitions will guide participants in optimizing cognitive performance, emotional regulation, and well-being as they move between environments. They will delve into the sensory and cognitive contrasts between urban and alpine environments, gaining valuable insights into designing tools for greater adaptability and resilience.

Ultimately, the ab advances resilience research and develops actionable frameworks for adaptive, resilient (mountain) living. Through an immersive, research-driven approach, the lab will guide individuals toward a more perceptually attuned and environmentally harmonious future.

ID: 3.14628

From Risk to Vision: Participatory Foresight for climate resilience in South Tyrol

Lydia Pedoth
Scolozzi, Rocco; Maino, Federica; Pörnbacher, Michael; Carnelli, Fabio

Abstract/Description

Climate change in the Alps poses urgent challenges, yet the development of adaptation strategies is often dominated by expert-driven risk assessments. While these assessments are crucial, they often consider the social and economic implications of climate scenarios without integrating the perspectives, knowledge, needs and aspirations of local communities. In addition to preparing and protecting societies from the impacts of climate change, adaptation planning can actively shape the futures of entire communities and territories. We believe that such efforts should be collaborative and collective, promoting a vision of climate resilience that is co-created and widely shared among all societal actors.
This contribution presents findings from a Future Lab workshop, which was conducted as part of a project for the elaboration of the climate adaptation strategy for South Tyrol. A large variety of participants – including NGOs, civil society representatives, associations as well as actors from the private sector and public administration – jointly envisioned a climate-resilient future and identified concrete steps to achieve them by applying the backcasting method. Starting with assessments of major climate risks, this participatory approach bridged the gap between expert-based risk assessments and forward-looking community-based adaptation strategies.
The Future Lab workshop not only facilitated collaborative social learning and fostered negotiation processes, but also demonstrated how a storytelling approach and positive framing can increase political and social acceptance of swift and far-reaching adaptation actions. By proactively integrating climate risks into long-term planning and decision making, this case study shows how participatory foresight methods can transform adaptation from a reactive process into an opportunity for empowerment, visioning and co-creation of desirable futures with and despite climate change.

FS 3.230: Global change in high mountain environments: impacts on upstream water resources and downstream implications

FS 3.232: Highland–lowland connections and interactions

#IMC: September 14 - 18 2025

FS 3.231

Holistic Resilience

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Co-Conveners

Assigned to Synthesis Workshop

Thematic Focus

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Description

Submitted Abstracts

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