Student4Student Summerschool

Mountain areas are not only spaces for nature, but also for people. The European Alps are the most extensively development mountain areas in the world, where its people rely on the supply of ecosystem services for safety, livelihood, and basic materials (i.e. timber, clean water, fertile soil). Under climate change, we expect the supply of ecosystem services to change and the adaptation of the human systems in response will dictate the resilience of the social-ecological system. However, with many stakeholder groups acting and managing within a single space, responses and decision-making can be highly complex. The high concentration of ecosystem service use can lead to conflict between groups.
Under drought conditions, which are expected to increase in frequency and intensity in the future, systems experience low supply but constant demand for fresh water. To understand how a situation like this could play out, we will take on the roles of different stakeholder groups and advocate for their wants and needs.

Fictional scenario context: The Ӧztal valley has experienced a prolonged period of elevated temperatures and lack of rainfall. The Ӧztal typically has low levels of rainfall, however the drought period has now lasted for 3 months and it is now August, the hottest month of the year and temperatures are regularly exceeding 30 degrees. The previous two years also brought summer drought conditions and low winter precipitation. The Austrian Government is offering a relief fund to alleviate the social-ecological impacts of this extreme drought event. However, this funding is limited, and the government are looking to generate the maximum positive impact with their money.

Task:
Representing your chosen stakeholder group, in teams you will prepare a 10-minute pitch (plus 5 minutes of questions) for why you should receive the funding and what you would do this money, using specific examples of real world case studies.