Eurac Research at VAO Symposium 2025

Last week, our Head of Center, Marc Zebisch, together with colleagues Alice Crespi, Piero Campalani, and Alexandre Dunant, participated in the 2025 VAO Symposium, held in Kaprun (Salzburg). This year’s event invited keynote speakers from broader academic and governmental contexts. Presentations covered a wide spectrum, from regional climate scenarios and water-related impacts, to cryospheric dynamics and landslides.

Eurac Research actively contributed to the symposium through three presentations, two of which were linked to the Interreg Alpine Space project X-RISK-CC:

• The X-RISK-CC WebGIS of Alpine-wide Climate Extremes

  Presented by Dr. Piero Campalani

  This presentation introduced an interactive WebGIS platform that enables the visualization of 20 climate indices—including heatwaves, droughts, and compound events—across the Alpine Space. It provides both observed and projected data (EURO-CORDEX) at the NUTS3 level and supports climate-informed decision making through detailed documentation and local analyses.

• Combining Climate, Hazard and Impact Analyses to Explore Future Local Risk Scenarios in the Alpine Region

  Presented by Dr. Alice Crespi

  Alice presented the integrative risk scenario approach developed within X-RISK-CC. Using impact chains and stakeholder-informed narrative analysis, the project develops localized storylines that help decision makers assess future climate risks and stress-test resilience strategies.

• Challenges of Scoring Landslide Susceptibility Models

  Presented by Dr. Alexandre Dunant

  Alexandre addressed a methodological gap in landslide susceptibility modelling, focusing on the challenges of scoring models trained on unbalanced datasets typical for Alpine environments. He emphasized the importance of tailored metrics and techniques such as synthetic data augmentation to better support protection agencies.

It was a pleasure to connect with colleagues from across the Alpine region and contribute to advancing the dialogue on mountain risk management and climate resilience.

More about the event here, while the abstract booklet can be found here.