Stakeholder Meeting at Cortina d'Ampezzo (14.04.2026)

Permafrost knowledge. Infrastructure resilience.

Our Interreg project FROST.INI (2025–2027) has a clear objective: strengthening resilience to the impacts and risks of permafrost degradation in the Austrian–Italian Alps. A key step towards this goal is the close integration of stakeholders — those who ultimately have to make decisions on the ground.

On April 14^th - one day after a full-day internal project meeting - a comprehensive stakeholder meeting was organized in Cortina d’Ampezzo, bringing together experts and practitioners from tourism, infrastructure, business, and science. Following last year’s meeting in Kaprun, this marks the second major stakeholder exchange within the project.

The discussions focused on methodological approaches — from in situ monitoring and geophysical surveys to digital modelling — and how these tools can support more informed, forward-looking decisions (see program below). Building on this, initial project outcomes were presented, including new permafrost boreholes at Großglockner as well as upgrades to key monitoring infrastructure at Grawand and Kitzsteinhorn.

An especially forward-looking topic was the active preservation of permafrost using cooling systems — as already implemented at Tofana within the “Rescue Permafrost” initiative. Approaches like this may become increasingly relevant at high-alpine infrastructure sites in the future.

One thing is clear: Understanding permafrost is no longer a purely scientific task — it is becoming a prerequisite for safe and sustainable infrastructure in mountain regions.

Many thanks to Chiara Crippa (EURAC) and Antonio Bratus (OGS) for organizing a perfect stakeholer meeting.

Stakeholder Meeting Programm

11:00 – Welcome address & introduction of FROST.INI (Antonio Bratus, OGS)

11:20-13:00 – Methods and techniques for permafrost monitoring: advantages and limitations, comparative overview of methods, best-practice guidelines:

• Rescue Permafrost (Mario Vascellari, Tofana SRL)
• DInSAR – (Mattia Callegari, Eurac Research)
• In-situ monitoring in alpine permafrost (Ingo Hartmeyer, GEORESEARCH)
• Geophysical methods (Antonio Bratus, OGS)
• Digital twins (Volkmar Mair, Autonome Provinz Bozen)
• Comparison of different measurement methods and best practices (Francesca Bearzot, OGS)

13:00-14:00 – Panorama lunch and poster session

14:00-16:00 – Plenary discussion