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Der erste Tagungsband zum Handbuch zur Geschichte der Ökonomie des Alpenraums in präindustrieller Zeit schließt die Lücke einer raumübergreifenden Synopse der alpenländischen Wirtschaftsgeschichte. Renommierte Wissenschaftler untersuchen in drei Bänden den Raum und seine Menschen, den Alltag der Alpenbewohner sowie den Handel, Migration und Kommunikation.

Der erste Tagungsband zum Handbuch zur Geschichte der Ökonomie des Alpenraums in präindustrieller Zeit schließt die Lücke einer raumübergreifenden Synopse der alpenländischen Wirtschaftsgeschichte.

Flooding is a pervasive natural hazard—costly in both human and economic terms—and climate change will probably exacerbate risks around the world. Mountainous areas, such as the densely populated European Alps, are of particular concern as topography and atmospheric conditions can result in large and sudden floods. In addition, the Alps are experiencing a high warming rate, which is probably leading to more heavy rainfall events. Here, we compile palaeoflood records to test the still uncertain impact these climatic trends might have on flood frequency and magnitude in the European Alps. We demonstrate that a warming of 0.5–1.2 °C, whether naturally or anthropogenically forced, led to a 25–50% decrease in the frequency of large (≥10 yr return period) floods. This decreasing trend is not conclusive in records covering less than 200 years but persistent in those ranging from 200 to 9,000 years. By contrast, extreme (>100 yr) floods may increase with a similar degree of warming in certain small alpine catchments impacted by local intensification of extreme rainfall. Our results show how long, continuous palaeoflood records can be used to disentangle complex climate–flooding relationships and assist in improving risk assessment and management at a regional scale. Moderate flooding in the European Alps declined during past warmer periods, whereas extreme floods both increased and decreased, according to an analysis of palaeoflood records.

The mid-17th century is characterized by a cluster of explosive volcanic eruptions in the 1630s and 1640s, climatic conditions culminating in the Maunder Minimum, and political instability and famine in regions of western and northern Europe as well as China and Japan. This contribution investigates the sources of the eruptions of the 1630s and 1640s and their possible impact on contemporary climate using ice core, tree-ring, and historical evidence but will also look into the socio-political context in which they occurred and the human responses they may have triggered. Three distinct sulfur peaks are found in the Greenland ice core record in 1637, 1641–1642, and 1646. In Antarctica, only one unambiguous sulfate spike is recorded, peaking in 1642. The resulting bipolar sulfur peak in 1641–1642 can likely be ascribed to the eruption of Mount Parker (6∘ N, Philippines) on 26 December 1640, but sulfate emitted from Komaga-take (42∘ N, Japan) volcano on 31 July 1641 has potentially also contributed to the sulfate concentrations observed in Greenland at this time. The smaller peaks in 1637 and 1646 can be potentially attributed to the eruptions of Hekla (63∘ N, Iceland) and Shiveluch (56∘ N, Russia), respectively. To date, however, none of the candidate volcanoes for the mid-17th century sulfate peaks have been confirmed with tephra preserved in ice cores. Tree-ring and written sources point to cold conditions in the late 1630s and early 1640s in various parts of Europe and to poor harvests. Yet the early 17th century was also characterized by widespread warfare across Europe – and in particular the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) – rendering any attribution of socio-economic crisis to volcanism challenging. In China and Japan, historical sources point to extreme droughts and famines starting in 1638 (China) and 1640 (Japan), thereby preceding the eruptions of Komaga-take (31 July 1640) and Mount Parker (4 January 1641). The case of the eruption cluster between 1637 and 1646 and the climatic and societal conditions recorded in its aftermath thus offer a textbook example of difficulties in (i) unambiguously distinguishing volcanically induced cooling, wetting, or drying from natural climate variability and (ii) attributing political instability, harvest failure, and famines solely to volcanic climatic impacts. This example shows that while the impacts of past volcanism must always be studied within the contemporary socio-economic contexts, it is also time to move past reductive framings and sometimes reactionary oppositional stances in which climate (and environment more broadly) either is or is not deemed an important contributor to major historical events.

Winter tourism is an important economic factor in the European Alps, which could be exposed to severely changing meteorological conditions due to climate change in the future. The extent to which meteorology influences winter tourism figures has so far been analyzed mainly based on monthly or seasonal data and in relation to skier numbers. Therefore, we record for the first time daily visitor numbers at five Bavarian winter tourism destinations based on 1518 webcam images using object detection and link them to meteorological and time-related variables. Our results show that parameters such as temperature, cloud cover or sunshine duration, precipitation, snow depth, wind speed, and relative humidity play a role especially at locations that include other forms of winter tourism in addition to skiing. In the ski resorts studied, on the other hand, skiing is mostly independent of current weather conditions, which can be attributed mainly to artificial snowmaking. Moreover, at the webcam sites studied, weekends and vacation periods had an equal or even stronger influence on daily visitor numbers than the current weather conditions. The extent to which weather impacts the (future) visitor numbers of a winter tourism destination must therefore be investigated individually and with the inclusion of non-meteorological variables influencing human behavior.

The aim of this study was to investigate the interest of forestry workers, who operate in the Western Italian Alps, in training courses on entrepreneurial issues. The proposed courses would address the “management skills” suggested in the FAO “Guide to good practice in contract labour in forestry”. These skills are essential in increasing the competitiveness of companies operating in the timber sector and especially for small forestry enterprises that are more susceptible to market fluctuations. The opinions of 367 forestry workers were collected via a survey. Their answers show a high level of interest in technical topics, such as workplace safety and work organization, but less interest in management topics, such as accounting or taxation. We also investigated their preferences concerning educational techniques, and the results show a strong preference for traditional methods, such as face-to-face classes, compared to e-learning. We attempted to identify the elements that influenced the respondents’ attitudes towards entrepreneurial training using an ordinal logistic regression. The results indicate that the most interested respondents are young forestry workers or entrepreneurs with previous experience in training courses. In short, the findings show that the introduction of management training courses could be attractive for a large number of forestry workers. These results have particular relevance in the Western Italian Alps where 40% of surface is covered by forests and 3000 loggers work in the area.

This paper presents a multiproxy high-resolution study of the past 2600 years for Seebergsee, a small Swiss lake with varved sediments at the present tree-line ecotone. The laminae were identified as varves by a numerical analysis of diatom counts in the thin-sections. The hypothesis of two diatom blooms per year was corroborated by the 210Pb and 137Cs chronology. A period of intensive pasturing during the ‘Little Ice Age’ between ad 1346 and ad 1595 is suggested by coprophilous fungal spores, as well as by pollen indicators of grazing, by the diatom-inferred total phosphorus, by geochemistry and by documentary data. The subsequent re-oligotrophication of the lake took about 88 years, as determined by the timelag between the decline of coprophile fungal spores and the restoration of pre-eutrophic nutrient conditions. According to previous studies of latewood densities from the same region, cold summers around ad 1600 limited the pasturing at this altitude. This demonstrated the socio-economic impact of a single climatic event. However, the variance partitioning between the effects of land use and climate, which was applied for the whole core, revealed that climate independent of land use and time explained only 1.32% of the diatom data, while land use independent of climate and time explained 15.7%. Clearly land use in‘ uenced the lake, but land use was not always driven by climate. Other factors beside climate, such as politics or the introduction of fertilizers in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries also in‘ uenced the development of Alpine pasturing.

The analyses of archaeobotanical assemblages recovered in recent excavations in the northern French Alps permit a better understanding of the way people managed plant resources in a mountain context during the Middle Neolithic (4500—3500 cal B.C.). The aim of this paper is to shed new light on the question of crop cultivation as well as wood gathering and management from the results of the new archaeobotanical investigations at \"Le Chenet des Pierres\" in Bozel (Savoie, France; 1,000 m. a.s.l.). The study reveals the presence of cereals like einkorn (Triticum monococcum), emmer (T. dicoccum), naked wheat (T. aestivum/durum/turgidum) and barley (Hordeum vulgare/distichon). In addition wild fruits and nuts, probably gathered, such as hazelnuts (Corylus avellana), wild apples (Malus sylvestris), arolla pine kernels (Pinus cembra), sloes (Prunus spinosa) and raspberries (Rubus idaeus) were recorded. The anthracological analysis shows that the occupants exploited mostly a mixed oak forest, and the available woodland from the alluvial forest to the mountain areas. With the archaeobotanical study of \"Le Chenet des Pierres\" we also want to raise the question of crop cultivation in a mountain context. Although present data show that cultivation at higher altitudes is common, it is still difficult to demonstrate the inhabitants cultivated plants near their settlement during the Neolithic.

The history of forestry in the Romanche river valley, south-east of Grenoble, France, is reconstructed for the past ca. 3000 years on the basis of detailed pollen analysis and AMS 14C dating. Three deforestation phases are recorded during the last two millennia, each phase showing different features and also contrasting woodland succession in the post-clearance period. The first major deforestation is recorded at the Roman time when Abies alba (fir) was selectively exploited, presumably for use by peoples living downstream of the site. Apart from the deforestation, there appears to have been little human activity in the vicinity of the site at this time. After the clearance fir gradually, and more or less fully, recovered. The second deforestation phase occurred in ca. the 5th and 6th century A.D. when there is also substantial evidence for local farming. At this time, both fir and beech (Fagus sylvatica) were non-selectively exploited and probably used locally. Beach subsequently recovers but there is no further regeneration of fir. The third deforestation phase in ca. the 12th century A.D. is similar to the preceding phase but this time beech does not recover. With the decline in human activity, secondary forest that included spruce (Picea) and pine (Pinus), developed. Forest dynamics were controlled by local human activity and also the economic relationships between the local area and the wider region and especially the region downstream from the site.