Located in the central Alps, the Eurac is provided with ideal conditions to conduct applied research in a mountainous region and to research questions regarding the interface between civilzation and environment, such as:

• How can sustainable development be quantified?
  
• What are the conditions under which sustainable development can occur in a mountain area?
  
• How do cultural differences affect the sustainable development of a region?
  
• How do land use changes affect the landscape?
  

The central aim of our research is to detect the ecological, economical and social factors, affecting the development of a montainous region and compare those "driving forces" within the different alpine regions. Furthermore, we investigate the ecological consequences of land use changes, such as risk potentials, biodiversity, hydrogen and carbon balance etc.

To meet the requirements of this research our work is: 

• Problem-oriented
  and accounting for the needs of the mountain regions
• International
  regarding partnerships and collaborations, as well as research subjects and project areas
• Interdisciplinary
  by means of a motivated team of biologists, landscape ecologists, landscape planners, geo-ecologists, and economists of agriculture
• Innovative
  regarding the research methods: remote sensing, GIS, multivariate statistics, modeling etc.
• Oriented towards a regional application
  thanks to well established relationships with the local administrations and a wide acceptance among the local population
  

The results of our research are published regularly in international scientific journals and presented at different conferences. Synthesis reports of the major international research projects are published as monographs by different scientific publishing houses.