Glacial lake outburst flood, permafrost degradation and climate change impacts on Alpine areas: these topics will be central to the discussion project Waterwise and Legambiente Alpi’s Glaciers’ Caravan campaign will lead in Tignes from Tuesday 18 till Thursday 20th of August.
Raising temperatures, fewer rain precipatitions and snow cover melting is threatening water resources, ecosystems and socioeconomical activities depending on them. Project Waterwise and the Glaciers’ Caravan share concern about these natural processes speeding up due to the climate crisis, and both are working hard on finding solutions on both a local and a transnational level.
In 2025 Waterwise signed the European Manifesto for a Governance of Glaciers and Connected Resources and later joined the campaign for an event in Garmisch.
This year our project and Legambiente Alpi’s campaign will meet again in Tignes, beneath the Grande Sassière Natural Reserve, where Waterwise runs one of its pilot areas. Here two Smart Rocks have been installed in two water streams coming down directly from the glacier, gathering quantitative data such as water temperature, torbidity, electroconductivity and flow speed. The Natural Reserve is also where the town aqueduct starts, and artificial lakes have been created to produce energy using hydropower.
This and more will be explored and expained on Wednesday 19th, when a guided hike will show visitors the uniqueness of this biodiversity hotspot and the importance of preserving it as it is not just for the ecosystem, but for the community survival as well. The hike will start at 2 pm (here is the meeting point) and will be led by Emma Denise, from the Vanoise National Park, and Solène Pignard, from the Reserves Naturalles de France, Waterwise project partner.
The following day, at 10 pm in the Conference Hall in 238 Boucle du Rosset (Tignes), a press conference will present data collected by the campaign during their studies and excursion to the Grande Motte Glacier (on the 18th of August). The press conference is open to the local media, local stakeholders and tourists.
The final program is here:
Project Waterwise has already established a strong relation with the local community as part of it actions. The final goal of the project is to co-design long-term, sustainable water management strategies that are being imagined and discusses in a series of 3 workshops, 2 of which happened already, where the local stakeholders have been called to participate in this process. We as project Waterwise believe that informed decisions can only come from knowledge and shared, participative process engaging all interested parties, and collaborations with other bodies like the Glaciers’ Caravan are a treasured opportunity to widen a community’s ability to imagine their future.