Alpine observation and information system
The Alpine observation and information system ABIS ( English System for the Observation and Information on the Alps SOIA ) is a scientific network for the improvement of the communication on the scientific focus topics concerning the Alps . The network supports the implementation of the goals of the Alpine Convention and its protocols and is coordinated by the Permanent Secretariat of the Alpine Convention.
tasks
ABIS is committed to the dissemination of scientific knowledge about the Alpine region. The network also supports the development of relevant measures and the implementation of the goals of the Alpine Convention and its protocols as well as the goals of scientific work within the framework of the Alpine Convention. The tasks of ABIS include the documentation of research results and the creation of an alpine-wide directory of data sources, the development of indicators and thematic work in subject areas such as transport, water, climate, natural hazards, etc. In addition, ABIS provides information primarily via the joint Internet portal and assessments and provides a comprehensive and uniform picture of the Alpine region. Another important activity of ABIS is the regular preparation of the alpine status report on the basis of indicators.
Alpine status report
The report on the state of the Alps provides periodic information on the ecological, economic and social development in the Alpine region. It offers people in politics and administration, media and science an information base about the state and future of the Alpine region. In addition, it provides important pointers for developing suitable strategies. In addition to the representatives of the Alpine states and the Permanent Secretariat of the Alpine Convention, numerous networks and institutions as well as scientists and experts work together across the Alps to prepare the report. They evaluate data, check and compare the information transmitted by the contracting parties and analyze trends in order to identify future challenges at an early stage.
- The first report on the condition of the Alps deals with the subject of traffic and mobility . It is available in all official languages of the Alpine Convention and also in English.
- The second report on the condition of the Alps deals with the issue of water . It is available in all official languages of the Alpine Convention and also in English.
Selection of relevant projects
The Permanent Secretariat of the Alpine Convention has an observer function in many projects that are co-financed by the EU Alpine Space Program. These projects deal with various topics of sustainable development in the Alpine region.
Completed Projects
- Alpcheck
The AlpCheck - Alpine Mobility Check project began in 2006 and ended in June 2008. The main objective of the project, compliance with European transport programs and guidelines, is to create a common information system to provide clear data on the actual traffic situation on the road network in the Alpine region and to try to solve the problems of homogeneity and harmonization of data that are currently being collected by a large number of stakeholders.
- ClimChAlp
The aim of the ClimChAlp project is to use well-founded information on the effects of climate change in the Alpine region to raise awareness and to offer political actors and public administration recommendations on how to deal with future challenges and thereby for sustainable development in the areas concerned can worry. On the basis of the project results, the international ClimChAlp consortium developed the following recommendations for actors from politics, administration and business.
- KnowForAlp
The main goal of KnowForAlp (Knowledge Network Forestry in the Alpine Space) is to establish a transnational network for the transfer of knowledge in forestry in the Alpine region. It is intended to institutionalize the mutual transfer of information and specialist knowledge between forest research institutes and practice. Four KnowForAlp partners have jointly set up the internet-based information platform waldwissen.net.
- Lexalp
The aim of LexALP is to harmonize the German, French, Italian and Slovenian legal terminology used in the Alpine Convention in the core areas of spatial development and sustainable development. At the same time, all those involved in cross-border communication should be offered a wider range of online language resources. This is to guarantee the clarity and consistency of the use of terminology in four languages in the case of supranational Alpine issues.
- MONITRAF
MONITRAF records and examines the effects of inner-Alpine and trans-Alpine road traffic along the four transit corridors Brenner Pass , Fréjus , Gotthard Pass and Mont-Blanc . The aim of the project is to develop joint measures to reduce the negative effects of road traffic and improve the quality of life in the Alpine region. At the same time, the measures developed on one traffic axis should not lead to a greater burden on another traffic axis.
- PUSEMOR
The PUSEMOR project aims to develop sustainable strategies and innovative solutions to improve the supply of public services in sparsely populated mountain regions. This is also linked to the endeavor to upgrade these regions both as an economic area and as a living space.
Current projects
- ACCESS
ACCESS is a project with the aim of improving accessibility and development, which are essential for the functioning of remote alpine settlements. It stimulates organizational innovation in sparsely populated rural areas and emphasizes the importance of accessibility to services of general interest. It also promotes new forms of organization of general services, the use of ICT (information and communication technologies (including the Internet)) and demand-oriented mobility systems.
- AlpCheck2
The AlpCheck2 project (information system on mobility in the Alps) aims to create a transport route model that encompasses the entire Alpine region and that supports public decision-makers by offering them free online access to various types of data in the transport sector: current traffic data, simulations of future scenarios , Environmental data of various emissions, proposed solutions and the introduction of innovative technologies. The aim is to improve the quality of life and to promote competitiveness within the Alpine regions by using innovative instruments for transport management and planning.
- Alp Water Scarce
Alp-Water-Scarce is a project to develop strategies for water management and to develop an early warning system to prevent water scarcity in the Alps.
- CLISP
CLISP focuses on the problem of spatial planning in connection with climate change. The aim is to enable adaptations to changed climatic conditions by providing climate-safe solutions for spatial planning. “CLISP” is convinced that spatial planning plays a key role for future sustainable developments, especially in times of climate change.
- CO 2 NeuTrAlp
The CO 2 NeuTrAlp project is intended to show that today environmentally friendly mobility is feasible thanks to renewable energies. 15 partners from five Alpine countries will test this hypothesis and examine the problem “how mobility could enter the solar age”.
- Econnect
The “ECONNECT” project aims to strengthen ecological ties in the Alpine region. The Alpine Convention is directly involved in this project together with scientific institutions and local implementation partners. All project partners work together to demonstrate the importance of ecological connections in the Alps and to develop innovative instruments for the harmonized implementation of an ecological network.
- iMonitraf!
iMONITRAF! (Monitoring of road traffic related effects in the Alpine Space and common measures) The aim of this project is to develop a broad political network of Alpine regions as well as common strategies for transalpine traffic. The project has been running since October 2009 and aims at innovative measures for a more sustainable regional development by reducing the negative effects of road traffic across the Alps.
- MANFRED
The ecological conditions for the alpine forests change under the influence of climate change. This can have unknown effects on the protective function of forests, but also on their ecological, economic or social functions. “MANFRED” is a project that tries to build a bridge between research and practical forest management in order to enable a more adaptable management of the natural forest heritage.
- SHARE
This project supports the development of sustainable hydropower production in ecosystems of alpine rivers. As the most important renewable resource for generating electrical energy in the Alpine region, hydropower has certain advantages for the overall CO 2 balance, but at the same time it has serious effects on the environment. In a transnational partnership, the intention is to develop, test and promote a decision-making system in order to bring together the needs of river ecosystems and hydropower on an impartial basis . This is a major challenge for mountain areas aiming to strike a balance between end-user needs and environmental protection.
- SILMAS
SILMAS is a program that supports sustainable instruments for managing lakes in the Alpine region. The following topics are covered: water management, governance, climate change and education / institutional learning. Natural and artificial lakes are among the most important characteristics of the Alpine region and are part of the European heritage that must be preserved and protected. As part of this program, examples of good practice will be exchanged, experiences shared and new methods tested so that the 15 partners from 5 countries (Slovenia, Italy, Austria, Germany and France) are provided with efficient tools.
Research networks
Since the Alpine Convention is not a research center, but merely supports and promotes Alpine research, the content of the Alpine research area must be filled by research institutes and research projects from the various countries and on an international level. ABIS can support the networking of such institutes and projects in order to stimulate discussion and interdisciplinary work on Alpine-related research topics. The International Scientific Committee for Alpine Research (ISCAR), which is an authorized observer of the Alpine Convention, has drawn up a research agenda on the relevant topics and goals of the Alpine Convention. ISCAR partner companies are:
- Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences
- Austrian Academy of Sciences
- Bavarian Academy of Sciences
- Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts
- Duck Italiano della Montagna
- University and Research Pole Grenoble
Indicators
The "Environmental Targets and Indicators" working group of the Alpine Convention has developed a common Alpine-wide system of indicators as a basis for long-term monitoring and sustainable development in the Alps, for checking successful implementation and identifying possible gaps, and for identifying risks and trends in the Alpine region . The indicators are linked to the goals of the Alpine Convention and its protocols. The working group "Environmental Targets and Indicators" is supposed to document changes in the Alpine environment.
Databases
The database of the Alpine Convention contains information on indicators, maps, good examples of implementation, data and metadata. The database of the DIAMONT project is also available. The database of the LexALP project is a terminological database in the four languages of the Alpine Convention with definitions and contexts, which is intended to establish a reference to national, European and international legal sources.
- LexALP Term Bank
- LexALP corpus
- Bibliographic Database
- Term tools
Web links
Footnotes and individual references
- ↑ Alpine observation and information system (ABIS - SOIA) ( Memento from February 6, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ the first Alpine status report ( Memento of 10 July 2009 at the Internet Archive )
- ↑ What is Alpcheck ( Memento from November 16, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ ClimChAlp
- ↑ www.waldwissen.net
- ↑ Results of the KnowForAlp project ( Memento of November 14, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) ( English )
- ↑ LexALP
- ↑ MONITRAF ( Memento from April 14, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Final report of the project PUSEMOR. Retrieved June 26, 2020 .
- ↑ ACCESS. Retrieved June 26, 2020 .
- ↑ Welcome to AlpCheck2 ( Memento from April 26, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Alp Water Scarce ( Memento from November 28, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ CLISP Project ( Memento from November 14, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ CO 2 NeuTrAlp ( Memento from May 26, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Econnect
- ↑ iMonitraf!
- ↑ MANFRED ( Memento from April 7, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ SHARE Balancing river ecosystems and hydropower requirements ( Memento from May 23, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ SILMAS
- ↑ International Scientific Committee for Alpine Research (ISCAR) ( Memento from September 14, 2004 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Universities and research institutes in the Alpine region ( Memento from July 10, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Swiss Academies of Sciences and Humanities
- ^ Austrian Academy of Sciences
- ^ Bavarian Academy of Sciences
- ^ Slovenska akademija znanosti in umetnosti
- ^ Italian Institute on Mountain ( Memento of January 6, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ University and Research Pole Grenoble ( Memento of October 12, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Overview of the indicator fact sheets
- ^ Final report of the working group "Environmental Objectives and Indicators" (3rd mandate phase, October 2004). (No longer available online.) Formerly in the original ; accessed on June 26, 2020 . ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )
- ↑ Database of the Alpine Convention ( Memento from August 10, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ database of the project DIAMONT - Data Infrastructure in the Alps: Mountain Orientated Network Technology
- ↑ LexALP Term Bank ( Memento of 18 October 2007 at the Internet Archive )
- ↑ LexALP corpus. (No longer available online.) Formerly in the original ; accessed on June 26, 2020 . ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )
- ^ Bibliographic Database. (No longer available online.) Formerly in the original ; accessed on June 26, 2020 . ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )
- ↑ Term Tools. (No longer available online.) Formerly in the original ; accessed on June 26, 2020 . ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )