Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Due to the spatially varying character of effects of climate change, all
adaptation activities, no matter if they have anticipatory, autonomous or
planned character, have to be especially designed to respond to climate
change impacts by meeting the demands of sustainability goals on the local
or regional level. In this sense, it must be a primary goal to develop solutions,
which enable to retain the present quality of life nearly unchanged,
respectively to further develop living conditions in areas with current
defi cits in development. Again, good and bad risks have to be distinguished
in order to be able to defi ne respective needs and development goals, which
meet the normative standards of sustainability.
Need for Action
The costs of heavy and urgent action to avoid or reduce serious impacts of
climate change are considerably less than the damages by the consequences
of temperature and precipitation alteration. Although still in discussion,
there is a human infl uence on climate change, however even with strong
actions to mitigate greenhouse gas emission adaptation must be a crucial
part of development strategy. Therefore policy requires an urgent and
international action, pricing for damages from greenhouse gases, supporting
innovative technologies, combating soil erosion and deforestation, minder
energy consumption and improve insulation of buildings, and to secure
water supply, agriculture, energy production and tourism.
Conclusion
Climate change and globalization meet complex man-environment
systems in mountain regions. Glacier and permafrost retreat, water
scarcity, soil erosion and land-use change, as well as loss of biodiversity
are consequences of climate change on the regional scale of the mountain
area. Climate change thus impacts on ecosystem services, not just for
the societies in the mountains but also for the inhabitants of the adjacent
lowlands. Globalization processes also exert an ever faster impact on
ecosystems. Even more dramatic is their effect on the cultural landscape,
on agriculture, population structure, mobility, as well as the urbanization
and marginalization of peripheral mountain regions. Societies are affected
in socio-economic, political and institutional terms and require decision
making at the regional and local level. Both subsystems interact in the
sphere of land use and land management (Fig. 3.6).
Since Global Change affects man-environment systems with greatly
varying intensity and speed in different mountain regions, comprehensive
long-term observation and monitoring programmes are necessary to
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