The development of the mountain regions has always been and still is influenced by agriculture. This is a specialized type of agriculture whose methods strongly differ from those practiced in the flatlands. It has intensely shaped the present mountain landscape; but in this age of globalization, it is facing great problems and is being questioned more than ever before.

A whole row of the department's projects, therefore, are concerned with development tendencies in national and international agrarian policies and their effects on mountain agriculture. During the last several decades the use of favorable areas was intensified, while culture of difficult areas was extensified or even abandoned. What ecological consequences does this trend have? How does land use change effect the development of the landscape? How fast, for example, could forests win back land? How is species diversity effected? Could biotopes be lost? Could new ones develop?

To answer these questions we make use of different methods: field investigations, analysis of (historical) aerial photos, computer modeling. This makes it possible to identify influence factors which drive land use changes, and to identify instruments with which development can be actively influenced.

Projects under this focal point

• NIGIS
  Impact of nitrate deriving from agriculture on Southtyrolean waterbodies
• Landscape structure analysis
  Comparative analysis of the different landscape developments and the causal factors responsible for them
• Water quality in tributaries and land use
  Influence of agriculture on the biological and chemical water quality in mountain streams
• Long-term development of the agricultural structures in South Tyrol
  Analysis of the structures, their changes and possible developments under different scenarios
• Ecologically motivated subventions for the alpine region
  Evaluation from the point of view of conserving the local, biotic, and landscape resources
• SUSTALP
  Evaluation of the instruments available to the European Union in respect to their effectiveness in shaping the agriculture of the Alps under ecologically sound aspects
• INTEGRALP
  Mountain meadows undergoing change
• ECOMONT
  Ecological consequences of land use change on European mountain ecosystems