Weather-Based Disasters and Farming Communities in the Western Alps, 1650-1850

Because of the scale at which the key socio-cultural variables involved in climate-society interactions operate, analysis of such interactions benefits from a regional approach. Like all mountain regions, the western Alps possess a complex mosaic of topographically varied climates, or "topoclimates," that can generate an array of damaging weather-based disasters, which impact residents at different scales. Cultural practices employed by Alpine farming communities in the latter period of the Little Ice Age (1650-1850) increased their vulnerability to such events, and their long-term stability relied on successful mitigation and coping strategies

Agriculture · Archaeology · Environmental resource management · Geography · Cryospheric studies and observations · Environmental Science · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research · Tree-ring climate responses