Mountains

Valle dei Laghi area, IT

Valle dei Laghi in the Italian Alps, known for its abundant water and small communities, relies on agriculture, tourism, and hydropower. However, it faces heightened climate change risks, with rising temperatures and more frequent extreme weather events.

Introduction

The Valle dei Laghi area is located in the Province of Trento in the Italian Alps. The area has an abundant water supply and a very fragmented population, with small villages and municipalities with less than 5000 inhabitants.

Agriculture and food / wine production, hydropower production, forestry for wood fuel, and slow tourism are the main economic activities. The Alps, and mountains in general, are recognised hotspots for climate change, with temperatures raising far beyond the average and more frequent extreme weather events.

Thanks to data and knowledge sharing and co-creation with local actors, local partners are supporting decision-making processes to strengthen the resilience of the territory and the community in the following fields:

sustainable and integrated management of regional water resource through a Decision Support System;

analysis of innovative insurance products for agriculture;

evaluation of the effects of the altitudinal shift of crops on vineyards;

activating the cultural heritage to enhance climate resilience;

applying Impact Chains approach to better understand and manage vulnerabilities and risks related to climate change.

Solutions

Adaptation Pathways

Impact chains (IC)

The conceptual model illustrated by the impact chain highlights that reduced snowfall, longer and more intense droughts, and higher air temperatures all converge to lower surface and groundwater resources, which in turn undermine the region’s overall water availability. This drop in supply simultaneously affects ecological flows—threatening freshwater habitats—and leads to decreased hydropower generation, reflecting a direct link between snowmelt patterns climate drivers and energy production. Agriculture suffers from water deficits for irrigation, leading to reduced yields and higher operational costs, while tourism faces water shortages during peak season. The Sarca hydroelectric system, including reservoirs such as Molveno and Santa Massenza, is in fact dependent on water levels. Despite data on withdrawals from the hydropower plants are not available, historical observations based on water level measurements suggest that, once water levels reach critical thresholds, turbine flow ceases, reducing energy production. If water availability decreases in the future, due to climate change, a reduction in energy production is expected, exacerbating economic losses. Other economic losses are expected for the agricultural sector that suffers from water deficits for irrigation, leading to reduced yields and higher operational costs.

The model underscores that vulnerabilities such as outdated water infrastructure, reliance on single sources and inefficient irrigation compound the stress on the system. The lack of specific regulations that envisage the possibility of re-using waste water for agricultural uses represents an additional issue to overcome water stress in the valley. Financial constraints are also important for the valley. In particular, the low coverage of insurance mechanisms that can refund farmers in case of crop damage due to extreme events represents a recognized element of scarce adaptive capacity.

The chain reveals that each stakeholder group—ranging from local communities relying on domestic supply, to tourism and industries, represented in the Exposure box of the model—faces heightened risks of competition and conflict when water becomes scarce, driving home the urgency of adaptation and risk management strategies.

Pathway Map

Innovation Packages: Driving Climate transformation

The IMPETUS Project was designed to accelerate Europe’s journey to climate-neutrality by 2050, moving beyond incremental fixes to deliver fundamental, transformative adaptation actions. The central idea is that successful climate adaptation requires both innovation and transformation, a systemic overhaul of how societies, ecosystems, and economies respond to climate risks.

Innovation Packages are the core output of the IMPETUS project. They synthesize and organize the results from our demonstration sites across Europe into a clear, actionable framework built on three essential components:

Resilience Knowledge Boosters (RKBs)
- What they are: Multidisciplinary communities, supported by a digital platform, aimed at enhancing regional climate resilience.
- How they work: They facilitate stakeholder engagement and co-creation, promoting knowledge exchange to develop effective adaptation strategies. RKBs integrate both human and technological dimensions, utilizing digital tools to inform decisions.
- Impact: Each RKB is developed for a specific case study, engaging local communities to explore and share knowledge on adaptation while showcasing concrete solutions and pathways to resilience.
Adaptation Pathways
- Long-term Roadmaps: These are stepwise roadmaps that provide a flexible, long-term vision for managing climate uncertainty.
- Managing Tipping Points: They are designed to identify when current adaptation measures will reach their limits (tipping points) and when stronger or new measures must be introduced to maintain resilience.
Portfolios of Solutions
- Tested Options: A curated collection of rigorously tested options (technological, nature-based, and governance-related) ready for adaptation, scaling, or replication across other regions.
- Integrated Measures: These portfolios integrate both structural measures (e.g., advanced water treatment, green infrastructure) and essential enabling conditions (e.g., finance mechanisms, governance reforms, digital tools, training).

IMPETUS aims for Transformational Adaptation—not just adjusting existing systems, but fundamentally rethinking and restructuring them. This involves:

Holistic Scope: Adopting systemic, cross-sectoral, and integrated approaches to change.
Deep Impact: Addressing governance structures, social behavior, and ecological resilience simultaneously.
Shifting Pathways: Restructuring systems toward sustainable pathways rather than reinforcing unsustainable ones.
Inclusivity: Embedding participation, equity, and strong local ownership in all solutions.
Future-Looking: Ensuring solutions are durable and effective in the face of long-term climate change.

IMPETUS runs demonstration sites in seven diverse European biogeographical regions, each facing distinct climate risks (from droughts and heat stress to floods and sea-level rise). By developing and testing Innovation Packages, the project achieves critical outcomes:

Builds a common, unified knowledge base for climate adaptation.
Facilitates mutual learning and knowledge transfer between regions.
Identifies key enabling factors such as finance, governance, and digitalization.
Accelerates the replication and upscaling of successful adaptation measures.

For the Valle dei Laghi region (Trento Province, Italy), a mountainous area experiencing a unique climate gradient where water scarcity is causing conflicts among agriculture, hydropower, and potable use, the Innovation Package delivered:

Digital tools: A multi-sector digital platform focusing on land and water use conflicts. It includes a Water Management Decision Support System (DSS) powered by a Digital Twin of the Sarca river basin, as well as sections on Tangible and Intangible Cultural Heritage for adaptation.
Adaptation Pathways for Water Scarcity: Three pathways were developed to enhance water usage efficiency: Urban & Agricultural Efficiency, Hydropower Reconfiguration, and a Comprehensive Water Integration Pathway. The latter, which combines all measures, is shown to yield the most substantial reduction in the Water Scarcity Index (ADAPT-WSI).
A Portfolio of Solutions: Solutions were assessed to address the WEFE (water-energy-food-ecosystems) nexus, including: the Water Management DSS itself (tested in the project), the use of Innovative Insurance Products for various sectors, and the Evaluation of the effects of the altitudinal shift of crops on vineyards to manage land-use conflict.

This approach offers a novel and multi-sector basis for strategic water planning, highly relevant to the Province of Trento’s ongoing climate adaptation strategy, but requiring strong governance to balance competing economic interests.

Mountains

Introduction

Solutions

Adaptation Pathways

Impact chains (IC)

Pathway Map

Innovation Packages: Driving Climate transformation

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