Student4Student Summerschool

Mountain regions, which not only harbor a high and unique biodiversity, but provide invaluable goods and services to millions of people, are experiencing a rise in temperature that exceeds the global average. This ongoing anthropogenic climate change has a direct impact on precipitation regimes and water storing capacities. Prolonged periods of water scarcity and droughts are becoming more frequent, thus being a subject of major concern. As such, multiple consequences and conflicts of socioeconomic, ecological and cultural relevance are to be expected, such as shifting species distributions and increasing wildfire risk or compromising agricultural production and challenging tourism and industry. This focus group therefore chooses an interdisciplinary approach to discuss ecological as well as societal aspects of droughts, opening the floor for sessions dealing with concrete ecological impacts on species and societal conflicts over the use of water. Moreover, governance approaches for sustainable solutions on a regional level are being explored.