The Project
The Vision
Monte Rosa massif is a beautiful and scientific valuable area, and climate change is affecting the nature of its ecosystems, both biotic and abiotic. Due to these changes, issues like as Sustainable Development, Resilience and Adaptation have been becoming of prime importance. Monte Rosa, and all N-W Alps, offers us a very rich historical, archaeological, and natural heritage that need an effective strategy to achieve global sustainability, to implement in its own territory developing strategies that apply a holistic concept of protection, education, and sustainability. Hence, it is important to preserve, enhance and celebrate the Geodiversity and the Geoheritage of this area included in Sesia Val Grande UNESCO Global Geopark, because is one of the most emblematic sites for analysing the changing relationship between man and nature and for understanding its role in the development of local cultures.
The Mission
Path of Sustainability is a PhD thesis into the PON Italian program. PON (Piano Organizzativo Nazionale) is a program for to promote PhD initiatives characterised by a strong industrial interest and the involvement of companies carrying out industrial activities aimed at the production of goods or services. This PhD Thesis is especially involved in green topic: It means that it is specific for abiotic ecosystems conservation, reduction of climate change impacts, and sustainable development promotion. The main challenge in the study area of the project is to assess the diversities for ultural Heritage enhancement and Geoheritage conservation of Monte Rosa and strengthen the resilience of territories by enhancing the best practices of adaptation. For this, the research project aims at proposing and mapping an Alpine Sustainability GeoTrail which investigate and show the Geoheritage and the best practise of adaption that local communities have been creating during the centuries in this mountain area, to learn how don't break this equilibrium in the next complicated years. This Geotrail will foster the Geoconservation and the Geoturism proposal, and it will be an action to better achieve the SdG2030, Especially the goal 15, for protecting, restoring and promoting the sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems.
The Phases
To achieve the goal of the PhD thesis, the project has different phases:
- Definition of the environmental context, the ecosystems present and their evolution over time at the scale of the massif. This phase is important to assess Geodiversity present in the study area, and evaluate it, also from an economical point of view. Assessing geodiversity is fundamental to indicate and discover the geosites present in the area, and to be aware on geoheritage in the territory and on its value. After that, it is important to transform the geodiversity assessment into the geosystem services evaluation, to understand the high value of benefits provided for society, and local communities. It's very important to map geosystem services, to provide to policy makers a concrete instrument to understand the importance of protect and conserve them, especially in a climate change period. During this phase is planned to cooperate with other geoparks and institutions to better define the methodologies. For at least six months the project's headquarters will be to Université Savoie Mont Blanc, Chambéry, France.
- Reconstruction of the relations between man and nature in history on a local scale. Study of the history, migrations, and settlements of the Walser, who have been crossing and inhabiting places in the Alpine chain since the 12th century. They have experienced changing climatic conditions during the centuries, and they managed to be resilient and to adapt to new conditions elaborating best practices of sustainable adaptation useful to preserve geodiversity and biodiversity. This phase is very important to understand the links between Cultural heritage and Geoheritage into the study area and into the Sesia Val Grande Geopark. This awareness allow to preserve and celebrate this important link involving local communities and enhance sustainable development. During this phase it is planned to spend at least three months in the field, to cooperate with walser communities, to foster the citizen science in the area and to real understand the local community's needs.
- Critical synthesis committed to the historical-cultural valorisation of the studied landscapes, whose potential is to be fully rehabilitated, in a renovative way and in coherence with sustainability and their significant history. Proposal of a sustainability path on Monte Rosa based on the geographical, historical, didactic, and touristic value of the sites where the heritage is preserved. In accordance with UNESCO standards, the sustainable management and conscious enjoyment of geodiversity and historical-environmental heritage will be supported by the proposal of targeted solutions for sustainable mobility.