Overcoming social barriers in managing vulnerability of alpine tourism to environmental change

Tourism as the world’s biggest service industry is threatened by global environmental change. Alpine tourism with its economic backbone of alpine skiing has been responding to direct ecological threats of climate change. Adaptation focused on maintaining a status quo of alpine (ski) tourism, resulting in technical adaptation such as snow making and expansion of lifts and slopes to higher elevations. Such business-as-usual strategies feed back negatively to environmental change and proofed to be not sustainable, neither ecologically nor economically. More sustainable kinds of vulnerability management include behavioral ways of adaptation, such as diversification strategies, and mitigation efforts. Both have been neglected by the supply side of tourism stakeholders because of the fear of high investments into alternative products and services that would not meet customer demand. A vulnerability analysis in thirty tourism destinations in the four main alpine countries after an analogue winter for future (climate) change proofed that vulnerability is more complex than currently understood. Climate change is one major threat, but socio-economic developments have been neglected and underestimated in their potential consequences. Vulnerability factors are not mainly climate change, the geographical situation of the destination or snow making capacity, but socio-economic changes and the inadequacy of policies adressing these. Further social causes such as a lack of participation on supply side, personal social barriers, weaknesses in destination governance models and a lack of interaction and partnering with the demand side increase vulnerability of alpine tourism to environmental change. Given these findings, an alternative, qualitative growth model is proposed and outlined which would not only decrease negative feedbacks on social-ecological systems, but given a matching demand it could create a business opportunity and act as a push-and- pull factor, thus addressing social supply side barriers to change business- as-usual strategies

Rural local governance in post-colonial Zimbabwe : a case study of Zimnyama ward in Bulilimamangwe district

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 112-125)

Resilience to climate change in a cross-scale tourism governance context: a combined quantitative-qualitative network analysis

Social systems in mountain regions are exposed to a number of disturbances, such as climate change. Calls for conceptual and practical approaches on how to address climate change have been taken up in the literature. The resilience concept as a comprehensive theory-driven approach to address climate change has only recently increased in importance. Limited research has been undertaken concerning tourism and resilience from a network governance point of view. We analyze tourism supply chain networks with regard to resilience to climate change at the municipal governance scale of three Alpine villages. We compare these with a planned destination management organization (DMO) as a governance entity of the same three municipalities on the regional scale. Network measures are analyzed via a quantitative social network analysis (SNA) focusing on resilience from a tourism governance point of view. Results indicate higher resilience of the regional DMO because of a more flexible and diverse governance structure, more centralized steering of fast collective action, and improved innovative capacity, because of higher modularity and better core- periphery integration. Interpretations of quantitative results have been qualitatively validated by interviews and a workshop. We conclude that adaptation of tourism-dependent municipalities to gradual climate change should be dealt with at a regional governance scale and adaptation to sudden changes at a municipal scale. Overall, DMO building at a regional scale may enhance the resilience of tourism destinations, if the municipalities are well integrated

The Impact of Self-Set Educational Goals on Increasing Academic Performance in a Middle School Environment

This action research project aimed to determine whether self-set educational goals increase academic performance in a middle school environment. Students participated in a five-week study which included eleven students in grades 7-8. The researchers conducted this study in February and March of 2021. The students who consented to participate were from two schools: a public middle school in North Dakota and a public charter school in Minnesota. Due to COVID-19, both classrooms were fluctuating between distance, hybrid, and fully-in person models. The intervention used in this study was a SMART goal guide. Data sources included weekly student self-assessments, focus group discussions, and field notes. Based on this study’s findings, having students set SMART goals increased their academic performance and attitudes towards schoolwork. In the future, educators could conduct further research regarding the impact of using SMART goals long-term

Fun with higher-loop Feynman diagrams

We review recent progress that we have achieved in evaluating the class of fully massive vacuum integrals at five loops. After discussing topics that arise in classification, evaluation and algorithmic codification of this specific set of Feynman integrals, we present some selected new results for their expansions around 4 - 2ε dimensions

Network governance and regional resilience to climate change: empirical evidence from mountain tourism communities in the Swiss Gotthard region

Mountain regions and peripheral communities, which often depend on few economic sectors, are among the most exposed and sensitive to climate change. Governance of such socio-economic-ecological networks plays a strong role in determining their resilience. Social processes of governance, such as collaboration between communities, can be systematically assessed through the existence and strength of connections between actors and their embeddedness in the broader socio-economic network by social network analysis (SNA). This paper examines how network governance of the tourism industry-dependent Swiss Gotthard region relates to resilience to climate change by SNA. The paper argues that economic diversification and a network structure supporting stability, flexibility, and innovation increase regional resilience to climate change. The Gotthard network has a high diversification capability due to high cohesion and close collaboration, limited innovative capacity by the existence of only two subgroups, and considerable flexibility through the centralized structure. Main weaknesses are a low density, uneven distribution of power, and a lack of integration of some supply chain sectors into the overall networ

On top quark mass effects to gg → ZH at NLO

We compute next-to-leading order QCD corrections to the process gg → ZH. In the effective-theory approach we confirm the results in the literature. We consider top quark mass corrections via an asymptotic expansion and show that there is a good convergence below the top quark threshold which describes approximately a quarter of the total cross section. Our corrections are implemented in the publicly available C++ program ggzh

Mountain Water Management through Systemic Design: The Monviso Institute real-world laboratory

This research deals with the sustainable management of water resources in rural areas, through the study and design of integrated water systems in a mountain environment. The work promotes a new model of sustainable use and treatment of water in a real context, created to be experimented by the public, by the research centre and born from the need for the development of new environmental activism, based on conscience and awareness. Thinking across scales of space and governance, a scalable and replicable system is outlined, based on cooperation between local actors, addressing current tensions while thinking of long-term effects. The trans-disciplinary approach joins systemic projects from different fields, brought together to model a single cooperating system. We outline the regenerative water management model at the campus of the MonViso Institute, a real-world laboratory advancing sustainability and regenerative design in the Italian Alps, as an illustrative case for the design of regenerative water systems. The delineation of the project came to life thanks to a careful initial research phase, which clarified the identity of the chosen site and the local culture. These were the foundations for the design project of water systems on campus, applying the development of natural technologies, creation of connections and circularity as of reusing water and nutrient flows. The interaction between the components highlights the desired dependence between one and the other, which generates the value of the whole system

Systemic Design Labs (SDL): Incubating systemic design skills through experiential didactics and nature-based creativity

What if we were better and faster in finding and implementing solutions supporting the transition towards a more sustainable society and planet? What if engineers and designers were habitually looking into nature’s design solutions when confronted with complex problems? What if transdisciplinary teams were designing from cradle-to-cradle, generating circular opportunities but no waste? What if our educational system were equipped to train systemic design thinking and doing for sustainability to everyone? Systemic Design Labs empower engineering and interdisciplinary Master students to become change agents for sustainability. Outdoor experiences, biomimicry, fabrication and transdisciplinary partnerships help to develop skills in sustainability, critical systems thinking, bio-inspired creativity, circular design and service understanding, embedding technical work within social-ecological systems. Engineering design education is facing growing responsibility for contributing to the global societal goal of sustainability in a world of increasing complexity. Students have to be empowered to proactively design products from a systemic perspective, where ecological life cycle design is integrated with traditional engineering design skillsets, also in relation to social factors and user needs. The Systemic Design Labs (SDL) initiative at ETH Zurich builds on established teaching in engineering design and introduces systemic design thinking and doing in an innovative format based on experiential didactics and outdoor creativity. We developed a new, integrated modular block course for MSc and PhD engineering students, where ecological design skills and service understanding are combined to better cope with the increasing complexity of current and future sustainability design challenges. We use bio-inspired design, fabrication with sustainable materials and product systems mapping as innovative but proven didactics to spur creativity, holistic and critical thinking within a sustainability context. We prototype an educational fabrication toolset for teaching systemic design and sustainability in schools, while engaging in transdisciplinary partnerships for societal impact and gaining realworld experience. The SDL is an initiative at ETH Zurich to develop, experiment and implement innovative educational offerings in sustainability and engineering design. Starting from engineering design, SDL integrates the natural sciences and the humanities, eventually reaching out with flexible learning modules to teaching creative, systemic design for sustainability to everyone. We showcase a set of new SD courses at ETH Zurich where we built skis, kiteboards, skateboards, educational snowshoe kits and knives in the academic years 2016-2018. The courses were setup to one part as more of a classic lecture and seminar-based courses on sustainability science and systemic design theory; the second part consisted of fabrication parts, experimenting with practical tools to design and prototype. Students showed and expressed high interest and engagement in and beyond the course, with multiple requests for further project opportunities. The SDL aims to integrate systemic thinking and doing for sustainability in current engineering design education and practice. SDL crosscuts traditional engineering disciplines to address critical human needs and foster inter-departmental cooperation. We achieve these aims in seven fundamental ways: First, we sensitize students for the potential to developing sustainable solutions for pressing societal problems. Second, we engage students in systems thinking by mapping an engineering design challenge within its greater societal and service context, working interdisciplinary. Third, we spur ecological design thinking and creativity by experiencing nature’s design solutions outdoors, practicing the art and science of bioinspired design. Fourth, we teach life cycle analysis and circular design by working with natural materials, expanding from the current engineering focus on high tech materials and metals. Fifth, we advocate critical thinking for sustainability by letting students design and fabricate an educational snowshoe building toolkit for schools, as an initial example, based on established systemic design principles. Sixth, we transfer the practically derived skills to a complex real-world application of a transdisciplinary (TD) partnership, and seventh, we maximise outreach by spreading the educational toolkits, by offering modular course concepts to partners, and by publishing course movie. During one of the new SDL courses and as a main output to increase outreach, students systemically designed and prototyped an educational toolkit. The educational toolkit has three main didactic functions and one general goal: First, students apply their acquired skills and material knowledge on something concrete; second, students prototype and fabricate with a functional and user purpose; third, students not only fabricate, but design the kit with the aim that others can use it to teach systemic design to their students – this requires a self-reflective process; and fourth, the toolkit significantly increases public outreach of the SDL since it is distributed to schools and the broader public. The guiding narrative behind the toolkit idea is that of a modular, multifunctional and systemic designed backpack, something practical that most people can connect with. The backpack is useful in daily life and for exploring the outdoors, it aims to take people out in nature as the best teacher in sustainability and systemic design. It can be equipped with a variety of practical tools and things for an exploration, such as snowshoes, a stove, hiking poles, a flask, a wind-powered phone charger, a hand or solar-powered torch, and similar tools. The SDL tools can all be carried in the backpack and are of help in outdoor activities yet designed with careful attention to environmental resources and impact. The backpack and each tool are designed according to systemic sustainability guidelines and thus of value as such. Even more so, for each tool there is an educational kit, so others can use the kit to practice systemic design while at the same equipping their backpack, preparing to explore the outdoors and getting inspired by nature’s creativity. The design of the backpack and its tools is interdisciplinary, having an industrial design component, a material and engineering part, include the consumer/user perspective, and trigger the connection with nature and natural sciences. It motivates people to go outdoors, while the design inspirations are drawn from nature