MOUNTAIN WATERS - 3rd International Congress- 22-24 September

Water  resource  conservation  is  crucial  for  the  future  of  mountain  regions.  Given  the  services  water provides, it is of central concern for spatial planning and the development of mountain areas: meeting basic  human  needs,  economic  and  tourism  development,  environmental  conservation,  energy,  or management  of  natural  hazards…  In  order  to  face  the  impacts  of  climate  change  and  increased demand on water resources, new, modern methods of water governance and water management in mountains need to be developed.

Mountains are in particular concerned by the climate change, the average temperature has increased from 1,5 ° to 2°C during the last century. The major part of European rivers originate in mountains. The whole system will suffer from the consequences of the climate change, floods in winter, droughts in summer.

 AEM,  ANEM and the Alpine Convention will discuss the perspectives on  the  role  of  mountain  regions  in  the  face  of  climate  change.  In  the context where urgent climate action is needed, water, is a determining factor. Can the Alps be considered as a pilot area for water governance? In fact, the European Union would look favourably on any action to improve the coherence of its sectoral policies across the Alpine arc.  In  this  sense,  the  scope  of  the  AEM is  to  improve  the  Water  Platform  of  the  Alpine Convention,  gathering  different  opinions  and  viewpoints  from  the  Alpine  Space  project SHARE co-ordinated by the ARPA Valle d’Aosta.