Profiles of the Alps

In the course of climate change, the Alpine region is in an accelerated metamorphosis. The former notion of the physically and ideally stable Alps is constantly dissolving and changing into an image that reveals the fragility of the mountains in an impressive way. At the same time, the macro-region of the Alps, which includes the adjacent metropolitan areas, is becoming increasingly important as a resource area for the residents. Renewable energies, fresh water, biological resources, protection against natural hazards,¹ the prospect of summer resorts or the new landscapes with a potential of 683 natural lakes² that will be created in the coming decades as a result of glacier retreat arouse numerous desires. The conflicts of interest and use that already exist today are not only likely to increase in the course of this development, but will also be articulated in a more acute form in the future.

However, the available foundations of a higher-level planning perspective, such as the Swiss spatial concept, which divides the Alps into three action areas, or the «Städtebauliche Portrait der Schweiz» (urban portrait of Switzerland), which suggests reading the country as an urbanized territory, only provide rudimentary descriptions of the Alpine region. They are characterized by the idea of a heterotopic division of space. What urbanity cannot encompass is pushed back into the wilderness as «fallow». The disadvantage of this dual system is that it is very unclear. Between the urban centres on the one hand and the «wilderness» on the other hand, there are still vast spaces in between.³ This results in the paradoxical situation that specific projects are negotiated on a case-by-case basis with a dichotomous idea, without taking into account the different interests of use and protection, taking into account large-scale dependencies.

Against this background, we advocate an overarching perspective based on carefully orchestrated landscape profiles. A profile names the characteristic features and phenomena of a specific landscape, places them in relation and weighs them. This way, a kind of «substrate» for a possible development is brought to the surface, always viewed in the context of an overall configuration. The prioritization of specific uses (e.g. tourism, erosion, energy production) must be given special attention, with hybrid constellations (e.g. energy production and tourism) being examined explicitly. The profile not only describes what is, but above all outlines what can be. The profile is thus to be understood as the vanishing point of the energies tied to a specific location, where the use, form, and perception of the space form an indissoluble unity – contrary to what the classic zoning plan does.

In the Alpine region, «the other» is omnipresent in the neighborhood, and the coexistence is shaped by the topography. Our considerations are based on the knowledge that the pronounced small-scale nature, as it is expressed in valleys, for example, is a characteristic feature of the Alps. This not only means the natural conditions, but also the socio-economic conditions. Here the decisive characteristics such as language, denomination, poverty, or prosperity as well as rural and urban locations mix. The cluster of such a mixture has an identity-forming effect on communities. The accelerated generation of difference is therefore the declared goal, because difference has a stabilizing effect – diversity instead of unity.⁴

Bibliography

¹ Paul Messerli, Vom Alpenbild zur Alpenpolitik von Werner Bätzing, in: Tobias Chilla (Hrsg.), Leben in den Alpen. Verstädterung, Entsiedlung und neue Aufwertungen, Bern, 2014, S. 259-269.

² Tim Steffen, Matthias Huss, Rebekka Estermann, Elias Hodel, Daniel Farinotti, Volume, evolution, and sedimentation of future glacier lakes in Switzerland over the 21st century, in: Earth Surface Dynamics, 10, 2022, S. 723-741.

^{3, 4} Markus Ritter, Alpendynamik sehen – beim Spazierengehen, in: Thomas Kissling (Hrsg.), Fest, flüssig, biotisch. Alpine Landschaften im Wandel, Zürich, 2021, S. 18-33.