Abstract
Mountainous regions are globally important, in part because they support large populations and are biodiverse. They are also characterized by enhanced vulnerability to anthropogenic pressures and sensitivity to climate change. This importance necessitates the development of a global reference network of long-term environmental and socioeconomic monitoring—mountain observatories. At present, monitoring is limited and unevenly distributed across mountain regions globally. Existing thematic networks do not fully support the generation of multidisciplinary knowledge required to inform decisions, enact drivers of sustainable development, and safeguard against losses. In this paper, the Mountain Observatories Working Group, established by the Mountain Research Initiative (MRI) Science Leadership Council, identifies geographical and thematic gaps as well as recent advances in monitoring of relevant biophysical and socioeconomic variables in the mountains. We propose principles and ways of connecting existing initiatives, supporting emerging areas, and developing new mountain observatory networks regionally and, eventually, globally. Particularly in the data-poor regions, we aspire to build a community of researchers and practitioners in collaboration with the Global Network on Observations and Information in Mountain Environments, Group on Earth Observations (GEO) Mountains, a GEO Work Programme Initiative.
Highlights
Mountains are among the world’s most impressive landscapes and are vital to humanity
Depending on the criteria that are used for defining mountains, they occupy between 12% and 30% of the land surface (Kapos et al 2000; Meybeck et al 2001; Sayre et al 2018)
The second task is to continue the development of metrics and indicators to be monitored by mountain observatories to ensure consistency and comparability of data in collaboration with Group on Earth Observations (GEO) Mountains and Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) programs and thematic networks
Summary
Maria Shahgedanova1*, Carolina Adler, Aster Gebrekirstos, H. Mountainous regions are globally important, in part because they support large populations and are biodiverse. They are characterized by enhanced vulnerability to anthropogenic pressures and sensitivity to climate change. This importance necessitates the development of a global reference network of long-term environmental and socioeconomic monitoring— mountain observatories. We propose principles and ways of connecting existing initiatives, supporting emerging areas, and developing new mountain observatory networks regionally and, eventually, globally.
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