Special Issue "Sustainable Development in Mountain Areas"

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Sustainability and Applications".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 August 2021.

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Annamaria Giorgi
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Università degli Studi di Milano
Interests: Environment Science; Mountain Area
Dr. Luca Giupponi
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
University of Milan, Italy
Interests: Environment Science; Plant; Mountain Area

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Mountain areas represent a natural, historical-cultural, and economic heritage of which the appropriate management is fundamental in order to promote the sustainable development of these territories and of the whole planet. This topic is an urgent challenge due to the rapid and unsettling anthropic and climatic events happening in the last several decades.

This Special Issue entitled “Sustainable Development in Mountain Areas” has the aim of gathering relevant studies about the use and valorization of mountain resources in order to foster the sustainable development of these areas, both in developed and developing countries. The relevance of the studies must go beyond academia and give practical recommendations to facilitate the sustainable development of mountain areas and the setting up of new and green development models. 

We welcome papers that are related to any of the following topics:

  • The study of biotic and abiotic resources for their sustainable management and/or conservation;
  • Policies and good practices for land use and management;
  • Valorization of anthroposphere, including agroecosystems, infrastructures, cultural and historical heritage, and their use and valorization (i.e., through tourism);
  • Resilience of mountain communities and risk management;
  • Innovative solutions for mountain areas development, tackling the challenges of climatic change.

This Special Issue aims to provide an innovative, socially engaged, reliable source of scientific information for both researchers and stakeholders in general, as well as policymakers and land-managers, strengthening the network within the mountain community.

The Issue is open to a broad range of disciplines and will consider a broad range of contributions (original articles, reviews, opinions, and perspectives).

Prof. Dr. Annamaria Giorgi
Dr. Luca Giupponi
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • sustainable development 
  • environmental sustainability 
  • mountain resources 
  • mountain areas resilience 
  • land management 
  • nature conservation 
  • climate change 
  • best practices

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

Article
Definition of an Operative Methodology for the Management of Rockfalls along with the Road Network
Sustainability 2021, 13(14), 7669; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13147669 - 09 Jul 2021
Viewed by 524
Abstract
Rockfalls are widespread events in mountain areas worldwide. The management of this process can be done using different approaches. In this paper, we want to analyze the procedure that can be adopted to manage a rockfall event considering the safety of infrastructure and [...] Read more.
Rockfalls are widespread events in mountain areas worldwide. The management of this process can be done using different approaches. In this paper, we want to analyze the procedure that can be adopted to manage a rockfall event considering the safety of infrastructure and settlements. Focusing on an Alpine region highly affected by rockfalls like the Aosta Valley Region (north-western Italy), we implemented a dedicated procedure for the road network emergency management. This procedure can be activated immediately after a rockfall, and it aims to identify the effect of the collapse, define the danger zone, plan the recovery project and propose temporary solutions for correct residual risk management until the end of the remedial works. In natural hazards, the lack of codified methods can create critical conditions and increase the responsibility of the single operators, who have to effectively manage a critical situation in a limited amount of time without a well-defined procedure. For this reason, the proposed method aims to be a first example of how a correct codification can be used for more sustainable management of this widespread phenomenon. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Development in Mountain Areas)
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Article
Comparing Wild and Cultivated Arnica montana L. from the Italian Alps to Explore the Possibility of Sustainable Production Using Local Seeds
Sustainability 2021, 13(6), 3382; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13063382 - 18 Mar 2021
Viewed by 550
Abstract
Arnica montana L. is an alpine herbaceous plant typical of nutrient-poor grasslands. It is a popular medicinal plant for the treatment of bruises, cuts and pain, and it is also an endangered alpine species. For this reason, the sustainable production of inflorescences instead [...] Read more.
Arnica montana L. is an alpine herbaceous plant typical of nutrient-poor grasslands. It is a popular medicinal plant for the treatment of bruises, cuts and pain, and it is also an endangered alpine species. For this reason, the sustainable production of inflorescences instead of the spontaneous collection of plant material, coupled with the use of local ecotypes, should be incentivized. Inflorescences of a wild accession of arnica were compared versus an accession cultivated in Valsaviore (Italian Alps) in terms of seed germination performance and phytochemical characterization by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS) techniques. The germination percentage was high (>75%) for both cultivated and wild seeds. The NMR spectra of arnica extracts were very similar and confirmed the presence of sesquiterpene compounds, esters of helenaline and dehydroelenaline. A significant high percentage of acetic acid methyl ester (38 μg/g) and the 2-methyl methyl ester of propanoic acid (31 μg/g) were found in cultivated arnica and were probably associated with fermentation processes linked to the traditional method of air drying on a trellis. The possibility of growing A. montana and a controlled local first transformation are important to incentivize local, good quality and sustainable production. The growing of seedlings “in loco” could be of great interest both for farmers and for natural conservation purposes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Development in Mountain Areas)
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Article
Consumers’ Attitudes for Sustainable Mountain Cheese
Sustainability 2021, 13(4), 1743; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13041743 - 05 Feb 2021
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 981
Abstract
The shift towards more sustainable consumptions and habits have had tangible impacts on food markets, which have accepted this challenge by offering a variety of certification systems to pull consumers aside. However, food purchasing choices are also guided by ethical, environmental and cultural [...] Read more.
The shift towards more sustainable consumptions and habits have had tangible impacts on food markets, which have accepted this challenge by offering a variety of certification systems to pull consumers aside. However, food purchasing choices are also guided by ethical, environmental and cultural motivations, functioning as drivers of food acquiring. This study aimed at assessing the influence of consumers’ attitudes in purchasing an Alpine cheese labelled with a food sustainability logo, as the mountain product brand, following a two-step approach. We estimated the consumers’ preferences for some sustainable labels by using Choice Experiments (CE), followed by a Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) approach to assess the influence of three attitudinal scales on the consumers’ behavior. The main results show the influence of green consumers’ values on the mountain product brand choice, and a strong relationship between green consumers’ and animal well-being values. In the conclusions, some policy indications are provided. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Development in Mountain Areas)
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