Commodifying snow, taming the waters. Socio-ecological niche construction in an Alpine village
نویسندگان
چکیده
White belts of snow clad mountains all over the world each winter. Even if there is no snow, the tourism industry is able to produce the white finery at the push of the button, thereby consuming large amounts of water. Studying Damüls, a well-known ski resort in Austria's westernmost province Vorarlberg, we can show that the development of a service sector within agro-pastoral landscapes was connected with novel water uses and massive interventions into Alpine landscapes. Human niche construction theory offers a unique avenue for studying the development of Alpine communities, but also highlights side effects accompanying the change from agrarian to tourism livelihoods. One aim of this paper is to broaden the scope of human niche construction theory. Inceptive, counteractive and relocational niche construction activities were coupled to the differentiation of actor groups. To incorporate social dynamics, indispensable for studies in environmental history, we propose the concept of socio-ecological niche construction. The paper investigates how villagers balanced resource limitations typical for an agrarian society with the differentiation of sub-niches, mediating selective forces on the population. When the valleys were industrialized, Damüls was almost given up as a permanent settlement. Then, tourists entered the stage, by and by turning the wheel of local development into a different direction. A tourism niche based on natural snow evolved from the 1930s onwards. While the socio-ecological niches of agriculture and tourism coexisted in the interwar years, this changed when ski lifts were built, embedded into a debt-based economy that made the tourism niche vulnerable to snow availability. Snow-dependency became a powerful selective force. It was mediated by the ski lift companies through a range of niche construction activities that turned water into an important resource of snowmaking systems.
منابع مشابه
Study of the snowmelt effects on surface and ground water in the Bahar basin using remote sensing data
According to recent Studies, about 60 percent of surface waters and 57 Percent ground waters are located in snowy zones in Iran. In most areas of northern hemisphere and alpine environment areas, snow melt lead to the maximum instantaneous flow rate and is an important part of annual discharge. The present study investigated the effect of snowmelt on the surface waters and ground waters in B...
متن کاملHeart Rate Variability in an Elite Female Alpine Skier: a Case Study
Objectives. The purpose of this study was to assess the heart rate variability (HRV) during off-snow and on-snow training in an elite female alpine ski racer. Methods. Using a case study design, a single elite female alpine ski racer (25 years old; 175.6 cm; 69.9 kg) was recruited from the Canadian Alpine Ski Team. Training load was obtained using the sessional rating of perceived exertion met...
متن کاملEcological Niche Modeling of Mountain Vipers from the Raddei Clade in Iran, Caucasus and Eastern Turkey
Mountain vipers of the genus Montivipera, generally, and the species of the Raddei clade, specifically, are interesting examples of species neo-endemism in Iran, Anatolia, and the Caucasus. Given the critical conservation status of these species, it is necessary to identify their suitable habitats for prioritizing conservation measures. We modeled ecological niche of each species based on four ...
متن کاملMineral nitrogen transformations in and under seasonal snow in a high-elevation catchment in the Rocky Mountains, United States
In an effort to understand sources of nitrate (NO•-) in surface waters of highelevation catchments, nitrogen (N) transformations in and under seasonal snow were investigated from 1993 to 1995 on Niwot Ridge, an alpine ecosystem at 3,500 rn located in the Colorado Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. Ammonium (NH•-) and NO•labeled with •5N applied as nonconservative tracers to the snow showed no ...
متن کاملتأثیر شیب رویشگاه در تغییر شکل گیاه گون گزی ( Astracantha adscendens )
Astracantha adscendens is an endemic species in Iran growing on alpine and above alpine timberline habitats on the Zagross Mountain Range. These habitats are characterized by steep slopes, heavy snowfalls and long ice formation periods. The present study was carried out in Chelgerd, Bakhtiari, and Fereidan, Isfahan. Slopes, elevation above sea-level, and magnetic north azimuth were measured. Th...
متن کاملذخیره در منابع من
با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید
عنوان ژورنال:
دوره 7 شماره
صفحات -
تاریخ انتشار 2015