Floris Jan Blok (p)

Andrea Omizzolo

Note: results not available at the time of abstract submission.

The way in which climate change impacts land and property values has drawn considerable attention of economists over the recent years as the impacts of climate change are starting to be felt. Agricultural land and residential property at risk of flooding have received most attention. Estimates vary widely depending on the method used and, in the case of flooding risk, significant discounts are found to exists only following a recent flooding event and/or after inclusion of variables related to the awareness or attitude of buyers towards climate change.

This paper looks at the case of reduced snowfall and the skiing industry in the Swiss Alps, an industry and a region that is uniquely dependent on the right climatic conditions for its economic survival. I hypothesize that skiers and house-buyers will switch from lower-lying, less snow-secure resorts to high-altitude resorts with more reliable snowfall. I further expect buyers of residential property to react earlier to the effect of climate change than buyers of ski passes as the former are assumed to use a far longer investment horizon.

I use a panel of 24 Swiss ski resorts from 1985 to the present day. I estimate a number of hedonic models that use climatic variables (snow cover and temperature) as the independent variables of interest and prices for ski passes (the rent paid on the ski resort itself) and real estate values of nearby properties as dependent variables.

This research contributes to the existing literature in a number of ways. Firstly, it is the first paper examining climate (snowfall) and house prices in the European Alps. Secondly, this paper measures the effect of actual climate change (previous research usually relied on measuring the effect of some climate-related variable on land/house prices and then modelling the effect of a change in the variable as a result of future climate change). Thirdly, this paper looks at the forward-lookingness of the market; at what point in time does the market start to take climate change into account (if at all).

Andrea Omizzolo (p), Filippo Favilli, Peter Laner

Veronika Tóth

With their rich biodiversity and vital ecosystems, mountains play a key role for the well-being of people worldwide and for the protection of biodiversity on a global scale. However, these precious environments are strongly exposed to climate change, pollution and land use changes that threaten their flora and fauna as well as local mountain communities. Effective tools and mechanisms are needed to protect mountain biodiversity.
The Mediterranean Mountains covers about 1.7 million km2. Part of them, the Alps and Dinaric mountains are physically connected, but need to deepen their relations strengthen transnational and sectoral cooperation enabling long term protection of biodiversity in view of current and future climatic changes. In particular, the rich biodiversity in the Alps and Dinaric mountains are threatened by fragmentation and habitat loss. Additionally, current political and economic circumstances in the Balkan Peninsula are leading to transboundary barriers causing challenges for humans and for the general landscape connectivity of the area.
Ecological connectivity (EC) enables processes like gene flow, migration and dispersal of living organisms thus counteracting negative effects of habitat fragmentation and climate change. A generalized approach, methodology, and investigation based on GIS technologies on the state of ecological connectivity at the Alpine/Dinaric conjunction and of the Dinaric mountains at macro-regional level is still missing. Furthermore, transboundary linkages between Natura2000 sites and protected areas where ecological connectivity need to explored and consolidated.
Authors will present and discuss the results of a recent European project, the Central Europe DINALPCONNECT project, that addressed this issue from the perspective of trying to find and to improve spatial models of ecological connectivity in these areas.
In the project, at the macro-regional level, spatial data have been collected to analyse current EC and identify EC hot-spots (corridors or stepping stones) and barriers. These include spatial analysis, implementation of measures to reduce the negative impacts of grey infrastructure, social conflicts related to ecological connectivity, and the role of protected areas. Combining analytical results with expert knowledge exchanged during an international scientific conference and other local technical meetings, spatial models improvements of ecological connectivity have been tested. Success examples and problems encountered in the pilot application of the models in specific project case studies will also be highlighted.