Science integration and a participatory scenario process. An inter- and transdisciplinary study from the Alps

Highly engineered Alpine watersheds and forests face growing risks, requiring shifts in management and research. We use science integration and a participatory scenario process to integrate disciplines and co-create knowledge with stakeholders. We thus develop pathways for rethinking future management, aiming for higher resilience of Alpine ecosystems and delivering greater societal value than current systems.Given highly engineered Alpine ecosystems with monocultures and channelized streams, this project proposes radical changes to enable increased ecosystem resilience and societal wellbeing. We propose to rethink 1. management by including ecological and socio-economic aspects and 2. research by integrating natural, engineering, and social sciences. In this inter- and transdisciplinary project, we develop qualitative scenarios as storylines for future Alpine watershed and forest management. These scenarios serve as parameters for, on the one hand, the biophysical modelling of ecological quality (biodiversity, ecosystem function, ecological integrity) in Swiss case study regions. On the other, we assess residents’ preferences for the scenarios in relation to Nature’s Contributions to People and aspects of justice. We thus use science integration and a participatory scenario process to enable integration across disciplines as well as co-create knowledge with stakeholders throughout the research process. While this approach facilitates working across disciplinary boundaries and includes stakeholders from the onset, it also comes with challenges: finding a common language across disciplines and engaging meaningfully with stakeholders takes time and simultaneously does not cater to the traditional metrics in academia.