MountResilience

Some of the most visible signals of climat change come from mountain areas such as the rapid melting of glaciers, along with the extinction of plant species, extreme weather events, shifting rainfall, floods, decreasing water quality, decreasing availability of water resources, and stronger heat waves, placing mountains in the frontlines of climat change. Owing to the high impact on natural hazards, water and snow resources, fauna and vegetation, mountain regions concentrate vulnerabilities on key community systems, such as agriculture, biodiversity, energy, mobility, tourism, and water. Changes in these territories also have a strong effect on the lower, mid-hills, and floodplain ecosystems, negatively impacting the supply of water, agricultural productivity, tourist, and health sectors. Mountain systems feature a complicated terrain that drastically alters over relatively short distances, having a variety of climatic influences at various elevations. This globally critical reliance on the goods and services provided by mountains implies an urgent need for climate-related interventions, including effective climate change adaptation  measures and new innovative solutions that can help prepare for and
adjust to the irreversible effects of climat change, while at the same time leveraging any opportunities that may arise from the climate alteration. It is of note that although European mountain regions vary greatly in terms of size and socioeconomic development, they face common challenges and share common needs (e.g similar climate risks, depopulation, poor digital connectivity, difficult access to basic services, remoteness from urban centers), currently being exacerbated also by the lasting effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. These commonalities call for systemic adaptation solutions that can easily be shared and transferable across the regions while allowing for customization to region-specific characteristics (socio-economic, geographic, environmental, climatic,...).

The objective of MountResilience is to support European regions and communities located in mountainous areas in increasing their climate change adaptation capacity and their transition to a climate-resilient society by developing, testing and scaling up multi-level,multidimensional and re-applicable innovative climate change adaptation solutions in their regional and local settings.

MountResilience will carry out 6 pilots in 6 different countries, which will be replicated in 4 European countries, including Catalonia.