The RESPOnD-Project is moving forward, and the first results are available!
During the third partner meeting held from 21 to 23 October in Südburgenland, Austria, projects partners came together to discuss the latest developments of the project. Among the main points of discussion was the completion of the first phase of stakeholder involvement aimed at characterizing mountain viticulture in the alpine space. With this step completed, partners can now start shortlisting Ecosystem-based Adaptation strategies (EbA) to be tested throughout in the respective pilot regions.
Progress from the first Living Lab workshop
The first round of Living Lab workshops (mentioned in our previous post) has been successfully completed in the seven project pilot regions. This enabled characterizing them based on:
- Structural attributes (e.g., presence of vineyards on steep-slopes, importance of autochthonous varieties)
- Ecosystem services (e.g., aesthetics, heritage values)
- Climate change impacts (e.g., extreme events, late frosts, disease pressure).
To support this process, the consortium has developed and published a dedicated guide: the “Handbook for the co-creation and production of knowledge in alpine wine orchards”. This document provides practical instructions and tips on how to organize the work in the individual pilot regions, ensuring a harmonised approach across the RESPOnD living labs..
Based on these first results, we will now prepare a set of region-specific characterization documents, showcasing the diversity of viticultural regions present across the alpine space and highlighting the respective opportunities and challenges. Meanwhile, the project has developed a first set of bioclimatic and geomorphological indicators to enable an in-depth analysis of each pilot region. These indicators will soon be complemented by indicators for ecosystem services.
Catalogue of EbAs for Mountain Viticulture
Another achievement is the creation and publication of a catalogue of more than 25 different EbAs and transition pathways relevant for mountain viticulture. This collection, developed through an extensive literature review, gives a comprehensive overview of existing and emerging approaches usable to adapt and increase resilience of wine orchards across the alpine space to climate change.
The description of each ecosystem-based approach includes information about:
- Overview and rationale
- Key ecosystem services involved
- Potential challenges
We now have an overview of a great variety of EbA strategies used in mountain viticulture. As we move into the next phase of the project, a second round of living lab workshops, already underway in some of the pilot regions, will help to shortlist potential approaches tailored to each specific region and its characteristic climate change impacts. These will then be tested in the next growing season.