This article applies Causal Layered Analysis (CLA) to four Italian Alpine contexts to examine how narratives and metaphors can shape territorial development. We combined long-term ethnography (approximately 128 days of participant observation) with analysis of documents and media (2010–2025) relating to the four territories and interpreted the results through the four levels of CLA: litanies, systems, worldviews, and myths/metaphors. Two dominant metaphors, “mountain-as-playground” (exogenous) and “mountain-as-heritage” (endogenous), seem to underpin the discourses about tourism and local development. We identify signals of a third metaphor, the “open-hybrid-village”, where multiple forms of belonging and contribution (resident collective ownerships, returnees, extended stay visitors) sustain the local economy and stewardship. The approach is interpretative, and the transferability of results is limited by the selection of cases and the availability of data; however, triangulation and distinct levels support the internal consistency and replicability of the method in other contexts. We conclude that making imaginaries explicit can broaden the variety of thinkable futures and the space of options before investments become dependent on the path taken. We suggest integrating CLA into participatory foresight to enrich and share forward-looking visions on which to negotiate long-term landscape planning and thresholds for tourism carrying capacity.

This study presents the results of a survey on flood risk awareness conducted in the Italian Alps, examining the impacts of a major weather event on public perception and trust. It develops a systems-thinking framework to analyse dynamic feedback loops influencing flood risk management support over time. The survey data collection overlapped with a severe storm event in Central Europe, the storm “Adrian” (also known as “Vaia”). This provided a unique pre- and post-event perspective. Results highlight the critical role of individual knowledge, trust in authorities, and social group dynamics in shaping risk perception processes. The study shows how major weather events can change perceptions, sense of safety, and institutional trust within local communities, and more interestingly, these changes can vary spatially. The findings are summarised using a systems-thinking framework, which helps to identify possible feedback loops between flood risk management interventions and long-term public support. The study emphasizes the importance of forward-looking, systems-thinking approaches in the design, monitoring, and evaluation of flood risk management plans. These approaches allow one to account for often-overlooked dynamics, such as spatially varying feedback loops and counter-intuitive effects, ultimately improving the long-term effectiveness of flood risk management.

This article analyzes the experiments for hail suppression by means of exploding rockets in Italy, where a remarkable national program of active defense was undertaken in the period 1950–70. The history of the trials of this technique is reconstructed in view of highlighting the methodological flaws of the entire experimental approach. A supplementary source of information is offered by about 1,600 “storm postcards”: reports sent back by farmers after single weather events. An archive of these postcards, recently collected, digitized, and analyzed for the Trentino region (northern Italy), offers an interesting glimpse into the scientific and pseudoscientific approaches to a difficult to predict and volatile phenomenon, both for farmers and for appointed experts.

This study focuses on the potential of Systems Thinking-assisted serious games to facilitate learning at multiple levels. These levels refer both to the actors (primarily the designers and the players, but also the facilitators and the educators) involved throughout the main stages of a serious game lifecycle and the typology of learning that is facilitated (i.e., single or double-loop learning). From a methodological point of view, this study presents and discusses an action research-based case study aimed at developing a Systems Thinking-assisted board game in the field of urban sustainability. Systems Thinking (in terms of methods, principles, and tools) is employed in all the phases of the design and use of the serious game and is key in fostering learning, both for the players and the game designers. Overall, this paper not only provides novel insights into the field of serious games but also leads to the proposal of a core set of methodological suggestions based on Systems Thinking principles and methods that can assist academics and practitioners in creating and using board games for educational purposes.

This study investigates the long-term effects of demographic trends and admission rules on common properties in the Province of Trento, Italy, which we refer to as historical commons. Historical commons have evolved into socio-ecological systems over the centuries, meaning that communities governed collectively natural resources and lands essential for community survival. Communities and the admission rules that determine their composition are an important constituting element of historical commons because they have developed local ecological knowledge and practices of sustainable use of natural resources. Our study hypothesizes that commons continuity is endangered because of the declining trend of the size of communities being influenced by demographic trends coupled with admission rules. Grounding our research in systems dynamics, we use empirical data including demographic projections and existing admission rules to simulate their effect on the site of the community using the Province of Trento, Italy, as our study region. To achieve that, three types of historical commons are identified: open, semi-open, and closed, each with different admission criteria based on inheritance and/or residency. Results indicate that inheritance-based admission rules can significantly reduce the number of commoners over time, potentially endangering the continuity of these self-governance institutions. The study discusses the results in light of the literature on historical commons’ continuity to evaluate different policies affecting the size of the community grounding on different mental models. The study concludes that a simulation approach can promote an anticipatory approach to the co-design of policies to ensure inclusive continuity of historical commons.

This paper presents findings from a longitudinal perception survey in the Italian Central Alps (N=1980) and introduces a conceptual model examining public support for flood risk management. The survey period coincided with a significant weather event in Central Europe, Storm “Adrian” (also known as “Vaia”), providing a unique pre- and post-event perspective. Results highlight the critical role of individual knowledge, trust in authorities, and social group dynamics in shaping risk perception processes. The study reveals how major weather events can alter perceptions, sense of security and institutional trust within local communities, and more interestingly, these changes can vary spatially. The findings are summarised using a systems thinking framework, which identifies different possible feedback loops between flood risk management interventions and long-term public support. The study underscores the importance of forward-looking, systems thinking approaches in designing, monitoring, and evaluating flood risk management plans to address often-overlooked dynamics, such as spatially diverse feedback loops and counter-intuitive effects, ultimately enhancing their medium- and long-term effectiveness.

La comunicazione del rischio ha un ruolo cruciale nella fase di preparazione e gestione degli eventi calamitosi come anche nella costruzione della fiducia tra cittadini e istituzioni. Le calamità naturali possono innescare processi di abbandono dei territori o indebolire ulteriormente comunità già fragili. La preparazione e la capacità di ripresa e adattamento delle comunità di fronte ad eventi come frane, alluvioni, o terremoti dipendono da una serie variabili, quali: percezione diffusa dei rischi, reciprocità e fiducia tra cittadini e tra cittadini e istituzioni, risorse disponibili (umane e materiali), preparazione e applicazione collettiva di comportamenti funzionali. L’obiettivo della ricerca qui presentata, parte del progetto MITIGO, è stato di raccogliere elementi utili a definire modelli di comunicazione e di auto-protezione in grado di aumentare la resilienza di comunità. Per raccogliere elementi riguardo questi processi è stato definito un questionario, somministrato in quattro piccoli comuni della Basilicata. Il questionario ha permesso non solo di trovare alcune risposte alle domande di ricerca ma anche di porne di nuove; ad esempio, ha permesso di identificare alcuni aspetti cruciali, quali: la variabilità del numero di abitanti effettivamente nel proprio comune tra giorni festivi e giorni lavorativi e tra diverse fasce orarie, il diverso livello di fiducia nella amministrazione comunale e nelle istituzioni in generale, il diverso grado di conoscenza dei rischi e dei comportamenti da attuare in caso di emergenza. Anche la reciprocità tra abitanti si è rivelata diversa. Le comunità di territori fragili hanno differenze ricorrenti; queste differenze se riconosciute possono guidare più efficaci programmi di comunicazione del rischio e di supporto alla resilienza di comunità. Dopo una panoramica sulle teorie e sui modelli di comunicazione del rischio si presentano alcuni suggerimenti utili a impostare progetti di comunicazione del rischio specifici per le comunità esplorate e per analoghe aree interne della Basilicata e per le aree montane in generale.

Although the importance of lakes for providing cultural ecosystem services (CES) is widely recognized, the integration of associated values and benefits in decision making is still underdeveloped. Therefore, this study aimed at collecting and analyzing people's perceptions related to various CES of mountain lakes using an online questionnaire. We thereby distinguished societal values in terms of CES from individual experiences that contribute to subjective well-being and elicited perceived pressures reducing the quality of nature-based experiences. Based on 526 responses, our results indicate that bequest, symbolic, aesthetic, and spiritual values are perceived as most important, while representation and entertainment were less important. Accordingly, experiences such as connection to nature, relaxation, and freedom had the highest values. In terms of pressures, crowdedness was mentioned most often, followed by noisiness and garbage. These pressures mostly affected experiences such as connection to nature, freedom, relaxation, peace, and memories, with negative effects also on CES, mainly on aesthetic value, sense of place, existence value, and symbolic value. In general, the perceptions were highly consistent across different socio-cultural groups. Nevertheless, some differences emerged between groups with different cultural backgrounds with respect to CES and pressures, while differences in experiences were mostly related to gender. Our findings advance the understanding of CES related to mountain lakes and provide useful insights for research as well as decision and policy making, emphasizing the high intrinsic value expressed by the respondents as well as the variety of CES and experiences associated with mountain lakes. Moreover, the identified pressures provide a valuable basis for consideration in tourism management, the protection of natural resources, and sustainable development because they advance our understanding of how infrastructure development and socioeconomic changes may aggravate impacts on societal values and individual experiences.

The increasing uncertainties of all contemporary communities require future literacy, and strengthening the participatory dimension of foresight practice is part of the solution. The “Montagna 4.0 FutureAlps'” project involved high school students, teachers, businesses and stakeholders of Valtellina, Northern Italy, in local laboratories of participatory foresight through a co-design approach. This article briefly reports the project framework and the visioning exercises undertaken to build meaningful images of the future (2040). Such images should be able to question and broaden the current development visions of the Alpine Valley and inspire a collective design of its development trajectories by raising the community’s awareness of current and future changes. The activities took place over six workshops with three meetings each from September to December 2020, involving students (“@Scuola”), local stakeholders (“community lab”) and the general public and experts (“Open talk”). Each workshop focused on a specific topic, such as the mountain of tomorrow, sustainable innovation, social innovation and sustainable communities, protection, production and promotion, sustainable mobility and events for Alpine tourism. The outputs consisted of uncertainty scenarios, postcards from different futures and indications to make development strategies future-proof, which are all elaborated on in this article.

The high visual quality of lakes bolsters aesthetic and recreational experiences, but little is known about the specific visual preferences related to mountain lakes. This study therefore aimed at assessing people’s preferences on visual characteristics of mountain lakes using an online questionnaire. Adopting a qualitative approach, we first identified major recognised characteristics of mountain lakes, i.e., respondents indicated that mountain lakes are typically small-sized lakes with clear, cold and blue water and are embedded in a natural mountain landscape. Then, we used different picture sets related to water clarity, water colour, presence of algae, lake shore and surrounding land cover to quantify preferences. Our results indicated a clear preference for blue, clear water and the absence of algae as well as large rocks at the lake shore and forest around the lake. In particular, preferences related to visual water characteristics were highly homogeneous across socio-cultural groups and confirmed previous findings. To illustrate the applicability of our findings, we integrated our results with spatial and limnological data to quantify aesthetic values for four selected study lakes in the European Alps. Finally, we discuss our findings in the context of increasing demand for nature-based experiences and the implications for decision-making.

Lakes provide many opportunities for outdoor recreation and tourism, but growing visitor numbers and global changes increase negative effects on recreational values and environmental impacts requiring targeted management strategies. Since there is a lack of information about visitors and their preferences related to natural mountain lakes, this study aimed at assessing people's preferences with a focus on recreational activities, accessibility, and touristic facilities. We collected 526 responses through an online survey and identified recreational visitor groups using cluster analysis. Our results indicate that mountain lakes are mostly valued for passive recreation such as nature observation and relaxation, while recreational activities such as boating or having a barbecue were less often associated with a visit to mountain lakes. Respondents mostly valued hiking/walking trails along the lakeshore as well as direct access to the lake, while they indicated less often the importance of playgrounds and water sports facilities. We identified two major visitor groups: (1) nature-oriented visitors, preferring pristine and remote mountain lakes, and (2) leisure-oriented visitors, favouring mountain lakes that were easily accessible and developed for tourism. Accordingly, the latter group valued most recreational activities at lakes such as reading/listening to music or having a picnic higher. Although there is potential for conflicts between these two visitor groups, the presence of lakes with different level of accessibility may defuse such conflicts. Our findings provide valuable insights for developing targeted management strategies based on the preferences of different visitor groups. Management implications: Mountain lakes are associated with high recreational values. Maintaining marked hiking trails is essential to provide access, but the construction of tourist facilities needs to be cautiously evaluated, as this can cause a change in the type of visitors with possible negative consequences. The results of the survey also indicate diverging preferences between two major visitor types. Improved and easily accessible tourist facilities at mountain lakes support more recreational uses and may attract leisure-oriented visitors. In contrast, recreational values of nature-oriented visitors could be maintained by preserving the naturalness of remote lakes and not improving accessibility.

The current chapter introduces the reader to the Systems Thinking approach used to foster the understanding of urban dynamics and the awareness about the associated complexities, recognizing the need of thinking in systems about the urban sustainability. Such approach was based on an illustrative System Dynamics simulation model, specifically developed for this study, and intended to allow the students to perform simplified experiments in an Interactive Learning Environment (ILE). In detail, the simulation model offers the possibility of identifying and testing hypothetical scenarios relating to possible strategies for pursuing sustainable urban development, to be balanced between different needs of transport, construction, services and environmental quality.This chapter provides for a brief introduction to System Dynamics (SD), the quantitative dimension of Systems Thinking, by presenting the key principles and describing the essential tools, mentioning the previous SD literature on (Urban) Sustainability. Then, the SD model, hereafter named SUSTAIN Model, is presented in detail. The last part of the chapter offers some insights on scenario analysis supported by the SUSTAIN Model, and about the key learning points that might be identified while interacting with it. External links to the original sources are also provided.

La capacità adattativa ai cambiamenti climatici implica la capacità di modificare sistemi ecologici, sociali o economici per ridurre i potenziali danni o aumentare i benefici. Il contributo mostra una procedura sperimentale che, in accordo con le linee guida della Strategia Nazionale di Adattamento ai Cambiamenti Climatici, integra aspetti di governance anticipativa e supporta la definizione di priorità per possibili misure di adattamento locale. L'approccio, scalabile e adattabile, è testato sui comuni della Provincia Autonoma di Trento e consiste delle seguenti fasi: identificazione delle incertezze climatiche locali, dei settori sensibili e delle possibili misure di adattamento, valutazione della rilevanza e capacità locali di realizzarle, identificazione delle priorità di supporto.

Efforts in preserving natural and seminatural ecosystems and associated ecosystem services are affected by scarce financial resources. Payments for ecosystem services (PES) are increasingly recognised for creating additional funding, as in protected areas, and outdoor recreation is one important ecosystem service that is promising for successfully implementing PES. Therefore, this study aimed to develop and evaluate potentials for PES schemes related to recreational services in Natura 2000 sites. For 10 sites in different Italian regions, the study first assessed the ecosystem service outdoor recreation and analysed managerial and economic aspects of Natura 2000 sites. Then, various options for PES schemes were defined in a participatory process. Furthermore, we developed a dynamic model for evaluating the effects of PES on ecosystems and related recreational ES. Whereas the provision of recreational opportunities was mostly at a high level, the potential demand varied greatly among the sites, depending on the spatial distribution of potential beneficiaries. Moreover, we found great differences in visitation rates and consequently the actual recreational value. The PES schemes included small payments (€1) via mobile phone by visitors, contributions from regional government and tourism businesses, and visitor fees or tourist taxes among others. This study highlights how economic agreements, such as PES schemes, may support funding of Natura 2000 sites for biodiversity conservation by valorising the benefits of recreational ecosystem services; however, further research is needed to evaluate the effectiveness of PES in the long term.

Agricultural areas provide non-commodity outputs besides food and fiber that can contribute to sustainability. Balancing the interest of farmers and the benefits for the society is a key challenge. Assessing the potential benefits for biodiversity and understanding spatial and temporal trade-offs among multiple ecosystem services (ES) from agricultural areas remain a key challenge, especially in mountainous landscapes. We develop an approach to assess the trade-offs and synergies between ES and biodiversity associated with agricultural areas, focusing on mountain landscapes. We first model the distribution of ES and biodiversity in seven study areas in northern Italy, aiming at providing guidance on the relationship between the intensity of use of agricultural land and the provision of ES. We then performed a thematic aggregation of the indicators and correlation analysis followed to gain a better understanding of the spatial and temporal ES trade-offs. Finally, we discuss how the results can provide support to planning and policy-making in different sectors, with a focus on rural development and nature conservation planning.

Mountain landscapes provide a variety of cultural ecosystem services (CES), but recent developments such as land-use and climate changes, population growth or urbanization seem to lead more frequently to conflicts among users or restrict the use of natural resources. An enhanced understanding of such conflicts and limitations may improve decision-making and management of mountain landscapes and maintain high levels of CES supply. However, conceptual and empirical research on identifying and evaluating conflicts and limitations of use in qualitative, quantitative and spatial terms as well as interdependencies in socio-ecological systems (SES) is still rare, and suitable methods are underdeveloped. Therefore, this paper elaborates the outcomes of an expert workshop and presents eleven case studies related to different CES and various contexts to conceptualise conflicts and limitations of CES use in mountain regions, complemented by assessment approaches to facilitate their identification and management. Using a multidimensional framework, we find that conflicts were mostly related to socio-economic changes and an increasing recreational use, whereas limitations of use greatly depended on accessibility and legal issues. Our findings contribute to the advancement of research on CES and are particularly useful for landscape management and decision-making to develop sustainable solutions and maintain CES in mountain landscapes.

Ecosystem services (ES) depend on coupled ecological and socioeconomic processes. We propose participatory modelling as a tool for sharing and co-creating knowledge about processes supporting (or eroding) local ES. The proposal consists of an open library of introductory ES dynamic models to be tailored for each case study. Such a library is illustrated by two ES examples and five models, published in an open-access web-platform. The results can contribute to the improvement of both analysis and deliberation, helping managers to design better policies and stakeholders to better formulate expectations.

Sustainability and sustainable development have been recognized as the major challenges of the 21s 1 century and to achieve this objective there is the need to think of education not as the traditional, analytic way of transferring knowledge, but as an experience that is centred on the student. Its purpose is to assist them in acquiring the necessary skills to constantly assess the environment, operate and adapt to it through a continuous and iterative process of revision from their frame of reference and finally equip them with the necessary material/tools that will help them comprehend and tackle complexity. The objective of the current paper is to present an effort in the context of an E+ project on Higher Education to use serious games as a means to teach sustainability. To achieve the objective a board game will be designed and developed that will utilize the principles of Systems Thinking for the game mechanisms and design. A systems thinking perspective implies the existence of interconnected elements to fulfill a function or a purpose over time. Those elements can be of physical or information composition. Modelling the system under study in this way allows policy-makers to make decisions based on scientific analysis of future scenarios and provide them with a supporting tool that could be used in synergy while planning and defining policies to get economic and socio-environmental benefits. Causal Loop Diagrams (CLD) are qualitative representations of the system under study and illustrate in a clear manner the causal relations among the various elements. Furthermore, they can illustrate the feedback loops and nonlinearities that may be present in the system and give rise to dynamic behavior. The SUSTAIN CLD is composed by different variables, that represent areas of interest in a general modern urban system. The model, in fact, considers general aspects as GDP and population, as well as environment, transport, urban planning and waste and water management. As the CLD will be the basis for the future development of the game, the core of the model is represented by the most important parameter for deciding who will win the game, i.e. the Attractiveness of city. This variable is the synthesis of multiple variables that belong to many aspects of urban system, defining the "wellbeing" of the population who lives in it. The most important effect due to variations in Attractiveness of city is a variation of the number of people who lives in the city; this generates many impacts on different urban levels, triggering as many feedback loops. In fact, the majority of feedback loops we identified passes through the "Population" variable. It's kind of natural that this happens as, in the end, urban systems exist because of its inhabitants, indeed. The most important feedback loops were identified and then divided in three main groups. The first group is composed by loops belonging to the "core" of the model, that is the relation between population, GDP and Industries and Services. The second group is composed by loops which belong to the "environmental" part of the model. The last loop describes how traffic congestion has effect on usage of public transport and, in turns, effects on pollution. The next steps of the research include the development of a quantitative model and the translation of the model's variable to mechanisms and elements of a board game.

SUSTAIN is an ERASMUS+ project with an innovative perspective on urban sustainability. Its target is to promote the importance of sustainability on the everyday problems of the cities among the students of higher education, which are the policy makers of tomorrow and the ones that will shape the future. In order to achieve its goals, the research team will develop a course that will be based on an interactive game with an analytical style of education. This game will allow students to learn about transportation sustainability and societal metabolism through playing. In addition, the research team will develop small and illustrative simulation models, which will make the definitions more concrete and allow students to experiment in a consequence-free environment. It is a quite innovative and hybrid perspective way of learning, in the sense that it will combine game-based learning with a cognitive and analytical style of education.