Charting the uncharted

Emiliano Tolusso

Charting the uncharted

Making space for climate change science in Alpine protected areas

Protected areas are among the most common and successful instruments for conserving the environmental features of different regions. However, climate change is leading the scientific community to a turning point in designing conservation plans and practices: protected areas cannot held climate change on the edge of their borders, but need adaptation pathways to the new climatic conditions. Building on the literature inherited by the field of the geography of science, the research experiments an array of computational and qualitative methodologies to reconstruct the landscape of science making in protected areas. The final goal is to shed light on the geography of scientific information that shapes the Alps, one of the most crucial conservation regions in Europe, in the face of the looming changes that global warming entails.


Pages: 202

ISBN: 9788835114161

Edizione:1a edizione 2020

Publisher code: 11111.4

Info about Open Access books

Protected areas are among the most common and successful instruments for conserving the environmental features of different regions. Basing their effectiveness on the paradigm of spatial segregation, or their capacity to block out of their borders undesired environmental pressures, they carved their space into the fabric of lands and territories worldwide.
However, climate change is leading the scientific community to a turning point in designing conservation plans and practices: no matter how tall the fences are, how deep the helms, and how strict the laws, protected areas cannot held climate change on the edge of their borders, but need adaptation pathways to the new climatic conditions. Adapting to climate change is, first and foremost, a science-driven endeavour, that should embrace the best scientific information available. Interestingly, the genesis, mobilisation, and circulation of science all display spatial variability, as space plays a role in creating scientific knowledge that is notably unrecognized. Building on the literature inherited by the field of the geography of science, the research experiments an array of computational and qualitative methodologies to reconstruct the landscape of science making in protected areas. The final goal is to shed light on the geography of scientific information that shapes the Alps, one of the most crucial conservation regions in Europe, in the face of the looming changes that global warming entails.
Emiliano Tolusso is a Ph.D. in environmental geography. He carries research activities between the academia and the public administrations, focusing on the governance of the natural environment. His main interests embrace climate change and conservation studies.

Introduction
(Honor the Promise; The geography of climate science in protected areas. From a world-wide perspective to the Alpine range; Geography and climate change across the academic space: from the Brit-wave to the Italian case; The Epistemological Monster; Pre-methodological Remarks: the legacy of the IPCC and working on the limits of the research framework)
From Terra Incognita to a Scientific Region
(Of Dragons and Laboratories. A brief history of scientific interest in the Alpine Region; Climate Change in the Alps and Scientific Research; How is the Alpine climate changing?; Climate and the Alpine biomes; The effects of the climate on the abiotic substratum; Alpine Climate change under the lens of social sciences)
Epistemic geographies of climatic changes in protected areas
(Trapped in space: protected areas in a climate that is changing; Climate change in the protected areas: a geography of scientific interest; The greatest of all threats. Analyses of scientific cultural discourse on climate change in the American protected areas; Conservation policies and catalysts of scientific interest)
Putting (climate change) science in its place
(Climate change and Protected Areas from Europe to the Alps; Scientific research in Alpine Protected Areas; Mapping climate change studies in Alpine Protected Areas; Study 1: Provincial science, cosmopolitan science. A thematic analysis of the dataset; Study 2: reconstructing the geography of the Alpine records; Venues of science, circulation of research, and scientific cultures)
The making of a scientific subregion: constructing climate change science, conserving nature in Swiss protected areas
(Protected areas and scientific research in Switzerland; The epistemic community and the structure of experts interviews; Unpacking the cluster: the Swiss National Park as a scientific hub for climate change monitoring; The boundaries of climate change research; The role of International scientific monitoring programs in the future of climate change research; Of melting ice, migrating species and scientific relevance; Synthesis of the data)
Conclusions
(Overview of the main results; Further lines of research; Some concluding remarks on the geography of science and the conceptual and methodological instruments employed)
References.

Serie: Nuove Geografie. Strumenti di lavoro - Open Access

Subjects: Architecture, Design, Art, Urban and Regional Studies

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