MRI Working Groups have exciting updates to report in 2023!
The MRI Working Groups are community-led activities aligned with the MRI’s objectives. They provide platforms for discussion, exchange, and research. The Working Groups are open to the community, and welcome MRI network members to participate in their activities—especially early career researchers! Please contact the Working Group Leads listed below to get involved.
Elevation-Dependent Climate Change
Lead: Nick Pepin, University of Portsmouth, UK | Visit Webpage
The Elevation-Dependent Climate Change Working Group assesses if, where, to what extent, and why climate processes in mountains and other high-elevation regions of the world are changing more rapidly than those in lowlands.
Some years ago, the Working Group proposed the concept of a Uniform High-Elevation Observing Platform (UHOP). With support from GEO Mountains, work to make the concept a reality can truly begin! In this context, a UHOP workshop will take place in Bern, Switzerland, between Sunday 25 and Tuesday 27 June 2023 (following the 36th International Conference on Alpine Meteorology). The focus will be on climate variables.
Mountain Governance
Lead: Ahmed Shams, University of Oxford; Durham University, UK | Visit Webpage | SPR Webpage
The Mountain Governance Working Group addresses the critical need for better understanding and information regarding mountain governance challenges and opportunities.
The Working Group is in the process of revising its Mountain Governance Mission Statement, which includes a new list of topics of governance in mountain regions and sets the short/medium/long term objectives for its next phase. Stay tuned for more soon.
Mountain Observatories
Lead: MRI SLC member Maria Shahgedanova, University of Reading, UK | Visit Webpage
The Mountain Observatories Working Group aims to facilitate the development of a network of mountain super-sites where observations will be conducted at multi-thematic scale. These super-sites will also work as 'hubs' for regional monitoring.
In 2021, MRI’s Mountain Observatories Working Group published a paper introducing the concept of “Mountain Observatories”, which “identified geographical and thematic gaps, as well as recent advances in the monitoring of relevant biophysical and socioeconomic variables in the mountains" and “proposed principles and ways of connecting existing initiatives, supporting emerging areas, and developing new mountain observatory networks regionally and, eventually, globally.” This concept sets the scene and will become a reality as part of GEO Mountain’s Regional Workshop Series, outlining the necessary monitoring efforts and how they can be operationalized in these regions.
Mountain Resilience
Co-Leads: Tobias Luthe, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, Switzerland; The Oslo School of Architecture and Design, Norway; MonViso Institute, Italy | Visit Webpage
Romano Wyss, Wyss Conseil scientifique and external lecturer at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, Switzerland | Visit Webpage
The Mountain Resilience Working Group aims to collect existing knowledge and build new capacity in mountain resilience, working toward a dynamic assessment of the evolving state of mountain social-ecological system resilience to interconnected environmental changes.
As part of an ETH Zurich DRRS MOOC series, and building on the adaptive waves and granularities of waves concepts, a “community science” data project idea has emerged. The idea is to let future MOOC participants collect data on resilience-related topics from all corners of the world. The Working Group plans to open the floor to discuss a data collection matrix that could eventually build an exciting database and a more extensive global overview, potentially leading to good research material for publication.
Learn more about the MRI Working Groups
Cover image by Nitin Pariyar.
