Monitoring Mountains in a Changing World: New Horizons for the Global Network for Observations and Information on Mountain Environments (GEO-GNOME)

• Main Authors: Carolina Adler, Elisa Palazzi, Aino Kulonen, Jörg Balsiger, Guido Colangeli, Douglas Cripe, Nathan Forsythe, Grace Goss-Durant, Yaniss Guigoz, Jürg Krauer, Davnah Payne, Nicholas Pepin, Manuel Peralvo, José Romero, Roger Sayre, Maria Shahgedanova, Rolf Weingartner, Marc Zebisch
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: International Mountain Society 2018-08-01
• Series: Mountain Research and Development
• Subjects: Mountain Research Initiative (MRI)
• Online Access: http://www.bioone.org/doi/full/10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-8-00065.1

Mountains are globally distributed environments that provide significant societal benefits, a function that is increasingly compromised by climatic change, environmental stress, political and socioeconomic transformations, and unsustainable use of natural resources. Gaps in our understanding of these processes and their interactions limit our capacity to inform decisions, where both generalities of mountain regions (eg climate processes) and specificities (eg context-specific manifestations of climate risks) matter. The Global Network for Observations and Information on Mountain Environments (GEO-GNOME), a Group on Earth Observations initiative, aims to fill these gaps through accessible Earth Observation (EO) as well as in-situ data and information on global change drivers, conditions, and trends. A workshop convened by the Mountain Research Initiative (MRI) revised GEO-GNOME's work plan, galvanizing a network that promotes relevant monitoring of global change in mountains and is responsive to the integrated knowledge needs of policy, research, and management.