Lecture by Thomas Kissling at the CIPRA 2025 conference

27.2.2025, 9:20 am

Thomas Kissling will give a lecture at the CIPRA 2025 annual conference in Salzburg on the topic "Tension in the Alps: How Spatial Planning Can Address Emerging Land-Use Conflicts". Under the title "Rethinking the Alps", he examines the transformation of the alpine landscape due to glacier retreat, permafrost decline and evolving land-use demands.

Space in the Alps is limited and increasingly subject to intensive use, including for energy production. How can alpine spatial planning mediate between competing demands, regulate land use and facilitate exchange between experts from relevant disciplines? These and other questions will be explored at the CIPRA 2025 annual conference.

CIPRA Annual Conferene 2025

Pictures: On the Sanetsch Pass, if the landscape is maintained and the power lines are laid underground, an attractive area for agriculture and tourism could emerge by around 2080 (visualisation above). Climate change will cause the vegetation line to rise, creating a corridor along which plants and animals can migrate and which is important for biodiversity. © Studio Günther Vogt, Department of Architecture, ETH Zurich